REVIEW: Sofie Hagen, Banglord – Melbourne Comedy Festival


Sofie Hagen has anxiety, isn’t good with spontaneity, loves to make spreadsheets and is famous in Denmark for twelve seconds of dead air on the nightly news program when she was trying to defend stand-up comedy. Her mum still hasn’t forgiven her.

Banglord is ostensibly about Sofie’s celibacy and why she hasn’t had sex for nearly a decade, but it also touches on her bisexuality, her experience with a sex therapist, her fantasy of the ideal woman – and what happens when the perfect match drops into her lap on her timed-to-the-minute spreadsheeted trip to Italy.

This show is exquisitely crafted, but also feels like a catch-up chat with a friend. Sofie is happy that we’ve shown up but also wonders why we’ve chosen her. She’s one of your anxious friends – in a room full of anxious people who have dragged along their significant others.

She is a master of the stand-up craft, deftly weaving one story into another, never forgetting where she’s been and always focused on where she’s taking us.

Banglord is perfectly put together; the platonic ideal of what a stand-up comedy show can be. You get to know Sofie, but on reflection, you get to know yourself a little better, too.

- Keith Gow, Theatre First

Sofie Hagen is playing at the Greek Centre until April 20 

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