Review: Chunky Jewellery by Barrowland Ballet | Edinburgh Fringe 2025
- Lisa in the theatre
- Jul 31
- 3 min read
Updated: Aug 2
Scotland’s award-winning contemporary dance company Barrowland Ballet presents Chunky Jewellery by Natasha Gilmore and Jude Williams, in collaboration with Ben Duke of Lost Dog, at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2025.
Chunky Jewellery is part of the 2025 Made In Scotland Showcase and plays at the Assembly Rooms, Music Hall from Friday 1 August - Sunday 24 August at 1.30pm.
Barrowland Ballet: Chunky Jewellery ★★★★☆
review: 01 August 2025 | Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2025
Chunky Jewellery is lovely piece of original theatre from Glasgow company Barrowland Ballet. It combines storytelling with dance and song. It focuses on two friends (Jude Williams and Natasha Gilmore) as they navigate the ups and downs of midlife, death, marriage and motherhood, over the course of one particularly difficult year.
Early in the play, original song "Chunky" sets the tone for the funny yet candid stories that are to come. Chunky Jewellery, it transpires, is often given to, or worn by, ladies of a certain age to help balance out the hips. But what does it mean if you are gifted a piece of chunky jewellery as a birthday gift? Is this... (oh, the horror!) middle age?!
Artfully directed by Ben Duke, the play takes a bit of a meta approach as the friends wonder how best to tell their story in a theatre. They try out various scenes and evaluate whether they would work with a live audience.
Chunky Jewellery is playful but doesn't shy away from the complexities and messiness of real life. Honest and heartfelt, over the course of the next 75 minutes, the friends contemplate whether they should share 'this thing' with us, or whether 'that thing' would be too traumatic.
Natasha and Jude tell their stories via a series of vignettes, songs and dance, but the focus is always on women in the middle of their lives who are caring upward for their parents and downwards for their children; squeezed from all sides as they navigate the extremes of birth and death. It's a powerful, necessary production that dares to celebrate middle age and reminds us of the importance of good friendships and the power of laughter to get us through.
Pieces of recognisable music sit alongside beautiful original song, and the most wonderful, innovative use of everyday objects to mimic atmospheric sounds. The dialogue between the pair of friends is always authentic; they are believable, long-time pals and their individual personalities sparkle.
There are flashes of heartbreak in the play offset moments later by laugh-out-loud observations. As a women of a certain age myself, I found many of their anecdotes scarily relatable. The later part of the play does focus heavily on motherhood, and I think that would resonate best with mothers. However 'Chunky Jewellery' is a well presented, engaging and thought-provoking work with two joyous actors flying the flag for midlife chunkies everywhere. ★★★★☆
Chunky Jewellery, Edinburgh dates:
Chunky Jewellery is on Friday 1 August - Sunday 24 August at 1.30pm at Assembly Rooms, Music Hall
presented as part of the Made in Scotland Showcase, at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe
Supporters:
Chunky Jewellery is supported by Creative Scotland, Tramway and The Work Room, and will be presented at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe as part of the Made in Scotland Showcase.
Alongside Chunky Jewellery at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Barrowland Ballet will present new work Wee Man at Assembly @ Dance Base Tuesday 5 - Sunday 17 August at 7pm. Wee Man is a highly physical and dynamic dance-theatre performance by a cast of men and male teenagers, exploring the shifting, and unshifting, rules of masculinity across the different generations.
Barrowland Ballet’s Artistic Director Natasha Gilmore said:
‘I'm thrilled to have Chunky Jewellery returning after its sold-out success last year. It's deeply personal and incredibly moving, performing alongside Jude is a joy, and it speaks to the importance of having friends and laughter during the ups, downs and rollercoaster of life.'
Co-creator and Performer, Jude Williams said:
‘Our lives authored Chunky Jewellery. The work is intimate, entwined and autobiographical, with stories that overlap birth, grief and death. It explores the sustained thread of friendship, during achingly, wild and beautiful heartbreaking times.’
Co-creator and Director, Ben Duke said:
‘I’m delighted to have co-created and directed Chunky Jewellery. As a choreographer and director, my work mixes forms so to have the opportunity to collaborate with Barrowland Ballet, Natasha Gilmore, Jude Williams and the full creative team on a personal piece that combines song, dance and words was a joy.’
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