Performance: Ruby Wax in Stressed

Bruce Mason Centre

Review: Michele Hewitson


Ruby Wax on the couch. Now here's a potentially interesting exercise.

A one-time psychology student turned comedian whose career has been built on delving into the foibles of famous people, and who became along the way sort of famous herself, has a go at figuring out the meaning of life.

You might liken Stressed to being in a group therapy session with hundreds of people, but where only Ruby gets to do the talking.

She's got a lot to work through. From the house she grew up in where her mother was obsessed with dust molecules (she had a black sponge for formal wear) to her brilliant career. Fifteen years of television, she complains, and "I'm down to this: 'What is Pamela Anderson like?'"

But Wax is much more than an expert on those famous implants. She's an expert on men's obsession with the combination of large breasts and blond hair, which leads her to a re-evaluation of evolution beginning way back when "man was still an ape - and when wasn't he?"

Blonds evolved because brunette apes got trampled to death in the mating rush, so the savvy females put banana skins on their heads so that they might stand out from the crowd.

How far have we come? Now we can tell how well a woman has done in the marriage stakes by the firmness of her bum: the firmer the bum, the richer the husband.

Not that we're any happier. There are millions of therapists out there, "growing like herpes." Why, asks Wax, does the world need aromatherapists?

"If God thought we could make things better through smell, he'd have given us bigger nostrils."

Wax lives up her acerbic reputation with attacks on shop assistants, sick-looking health food addicts and catwalk models: "Why not just throw a foetus down the runway?"

If you're going to line up the easy targets, it pays to make sure you've got something new to hit them with - Wax doesn't.

Three shows thrown in together is how Wax has described Stressed. And it shows in its construction. There's an inner show in there somewhere struggling to get out, but at almost two hours Stressed needs a long session with a good script therapist.