How would you like a ruthless cynic as an agony aunt? That’s the question thrown up by this touring show from Katherine Ryan, which pairs 45 minutes of caustic standup with a second 45 of counselling to the crowd. You might protest that that adds up to less than an hour of new material in Battleaxe, plus a second act that’s more improvised therapy session meets audience Q&A. But at least those three-quarters of an hour find Ryan on imperious form, dispensing tart put-downs of men in general and some men in particular.
This ice queen of comedy pose is one Ryan wears lightly now, after a few years where it sometimes felt restrictive and for show. Then came her 2022 show Missus, which diluted (or enriched) the persona to address the Canadian’s then-recent out-of-the-blue marriage. Battleaxe is a retrenchment after that more expansive offering, with Ryan back in her high-status comfort zone, eye-rolling at her children’s foibles, breaching PC protocols for LOLs, and wrinkling her nose at the weaker sex. “If dildos could bleed a radiator, men would be obsolete.” There’s a fine routine on the contrasting ways male and female bodies husband their reproductive material, and many a weary remark at the expense of ’im indoors. See this masterpiece of double-edgery: “I love my current husband so much so far.”
The Ryan we meet post-interval sits a little at odds to this act one badass, as she responds to problems volunteered by the crowd with even-handedness in place of cynical certainty. Fair enough: such is (in her own words) her duty of care, as she ministers to a man whose Lego habit his new wife refuses to tolerate, and a couple at odds about the appeal (or otherwise) of having a third child. But, in this touring show of two halves, the laughs in this crowdsourced comedy are milder than the short, sharp hit of concentrated Katherine that goes before.