When I enter the New Music Room at St John’s, I am greeted by a softly-spoken Rhiannon Shaw, but by the time I sit down I am receiving life advice from the fiercely Scottish Elsie McClutchey. Five minutes later, Helena D’Omlette is seducing me with tales of cottage cheese and cellophane. Rhiannon Shaw’s new comedy show Empty Nest is the joyous portfolio of a virtuoso character writer. A single figure on the stage for an imaginatively-exhausting hour, Shaw fills the space with energy and motion, reawakening characters already well known to regular attendees of the Footlights Smokers. 

Shaw explains “some of these characters have been around for a long time so really the writing stage began a long time ago, before I’d ever thought of doing a solo show”. But there are some characters in Empty Nest never before seen: the tender reworkings of a teenage life too insightful and at times too painfully awkward to not seem to have at least some root in memory. Indeed, Shaw describes Empty Nest as a sort of life story or a meditation thereon told through the many characters and imaginings that shaped her as a human and a comic. The work is overarchingly both distinctly personal and universal.

When I ask Shaw about the role of gender in the play, she smiles. The vignettes and characters she performs are about half male, half female. She explains that “some characters are more obviously gendered but some of them could be male or female”. In a culture where mainstream comedy is still extremely male-dominated and comedy panels all too often feature one token female comic, Shaw seems almost indifferent, brushing off categorisation or constraint, flitting between age, gender and nationality.

Nevertheless, Shaw enjoys toying with female characterisation enormously. “I think that women are very funny… there’s so much opportunity to poke fun at stereotypes about women and the way women are represented in society… there is just so much room to play,” she laughs. When she inhabits an overtly feminine character like Helena D’Omlette, it becomes gloriously funny satire of the femme fatale. Pacing the stage one moment, falling to her knees the next, Helena exclaims “I’ll give you the biggest erection you’ve ever had and then insult your mother during sex! I change from day to day, like the moon, which is funny because, unlike most women, I’m always on my period… Always.”

But the work is not without sombre moments. “There’s a gentleness to it but there are some parts which are quite dark,” explains Shaw. Assistant Director Tiffany Charnley describes Empty Nest as a “black comedy in parts”. She’s not wrong: Rhiannon Shaw explores coming of age and the loss of her father. The play is dedicated to her parents. Shaw summarises: “I couldn’t have done a more straightforward show where I just went from point A to point B because life isn’t like that, its ups and downs, its backwards and forwards… but it sort of has a logic to it.” It might be fair to say Shaw’s eclectic mix of personae leaves the audience with just this impression. Overall, the writing is original and heartfelt while the characters are outrageous, well-developed and, at times, belly-laugh funny.

Empty Nest is on at the Corpus Playroom on Monday 22nd January, 9.30pm