We coulda had it all…or so they told us. But though Elsa is a graduate, she’s also an aspiring actress in a city full of aspiring actresses and so she’s jobbing in a coffee shop, listening in on the exhausting pace of a world where art is being devalued in the face of picture-perfect Instagram feeds.
Isobel Rogers’ Elsa is a one-woman song and story affair, a paean to the joys of eavesdropping but also beautifully reflective on the state of the world, and Elsa’s own place in it. Snippets of personal dramas breeze in and out of the coffee shop doors and Rogers captures them perfectly with a scathingly funny sense of humour.
At just 50 minutes, Sara Joyce’s production doesn’t outstay its welcome and the decision to drop the guitar late on for a smattering of rap offers a useful variation of tone. For all that it celebrates being a nosy bitch, Elsa does have a lovely poignancy to it too that elevates it beyond the stereotypical millennial moan.
