Deep down we all just want to feel like we’ve got it all together. We want to find ourselves,
and when we do we want to find a ‘self’ that’s not a total asshole. Julia Rorke and Elysia
Hall’s Not Another F****d B**** in India is all about the intersection of Instagram, the ‘law of
attraction’ theory at the heart of The Secret, the Western appropriation of Eastern thought,
pingers, bindis, gluten, Contiki tours and mistaking enlightenment for abandoning your
responsibilities.
Rorke and Hall have a real symbiotic comedic partnership going on as they interpret
different characters all in search of belonging in a world that is all about being seen to be a
good person, rather than actually being a good person. The duo portrays the tensions
running through friendships based more on group chats than on group activities.
Sometimes those tensions are released pretty spectacularly (if you’re in the first
row, watch out for flying yoga mats), and it all culminates in a free-for-all explosion
of coke and carbs.
Rorke and Hall have differing yet complementary styles. Hall generally plays the more
sympathetic characters, sometimes touching on more actorly realism than you might
expect from a comedy show, whereas Rorke hits a more comically exaggerated level. She’s
annoying in all the right places and weirdly sympathetic at times such as when she plays
the sister in a musical duo who has an unhealthy appreciation for her brother. Both are no
strangers to performing their own solo shows and they work great as a team too.
As funny as the show is, it carries a real message about how the pressure to present
yourself as enlightened and ‘hashtaggable’ creates its own unique social anxiety. If it’s not
on Instagram, did it even happen? What’s the hidden message buried in perfectly-posed
and edited holiday snaps? There may not necessarily be any answers here but it sure is
cathartic to see the question so thoroughly and hilariously deconstructed. This is a really
fast-paced, incredibly funny show that is well and truly worth enlightening yourself with.
