Michelle Brasier: Average Bear review

Michelle Brasier’s show is a tale of two parts. First, we meet Average, a cuddly looking bear with a dread of hibernation. Then, we move on to Brasier’s personal story of living in the shadow of impending hereditary sickness. It’s a delightfully messy hour of confession, sorrow and strong comic delivery. But Brasier never quite succeeds in stitching her paired narratives into a cohesive whole.

The overall shape of this combo of comedy, song and revelation is bumpy. Average meets, greets and ushers us to our seats, before vanishing until the play’s final moments. Yet the promise of her reappearance adds a constant sense of questioning to the pace of Brasier’s drama. The bear, who is eager to make the most of her life rather than wasting it in slumber, acts as a clear metaphor for Brasier’s own carpe diem attitude. But for its inclusion to be worthwhile, this needs to be built upon further. “Do we really need the bear?” Brasier asks in the final scene. Honestly – no, not really.

It is a shame, as Brasier is a captivating and talented performer. She uses her stellar vocals to add humour to moments of grief and sadness. At 18, she moved to Melbourne to study musical theatre –  “because I am a dickhead”, she quips, straight-faced. But we’re lucky that she did: it is the songs that become the nucleus of this staging. From a melodic tribute to a “fingering shed” where Brasier had her first sexual experiences, to a tune about the mass gifting of lasagna that her family received when her father died, the show finds light and laughter in darkness.