"Look After Your Knees" by Natalie Bellingham.

Djanogly Theatre, Lakeside, Nottingham.

The title of the play is inspired by a song from the 90’s called "Sunscreen" by Baz Lurhman where one line of the lyrics say “Be kind to your knees, you’ll miss them when they’re gone”. I know the song well and being at that stage in my life where I've more years behind me than in front of me, the themes to this production piqued my interest.

In a blend of comedy, storytelling, music and movement, Natalie Bellingham, freelance theatre maker, performer and creative facilitator, takes you on a personal journey through the pain and beauty of growing older and facing change when you didn’t see it coming. Whilst being a personal journey, Natalie lost her Mum in 2020, there are many parts of this one hour performance which resonate with many of the audience members, I would imagine, as we all experience loss at some stage of our lives.

The show has several scenarios that you soon realise all become linked by the end via clever symbolism. You wonder why Natalie is telling an electric fan to breathe to the strains of Bread's song "Everything I Own", but slowly this scene as well as a scene about trying to get an imaginary whale, stranded on the beach, back into the water to save its' life all become linked and you realise exactly what Natalie is saying.

This playful comedy play first started to take form back in 2022, it explores loneliness, tenderness and connection and touches on Natalie’s personal experience of grief, loss and relationships. It’s about a person trying to unwrap the new version of themselves in a world they don’t recognise. Blend this in with personal letters from her journey up to the current period of her life, and this makes for a wonderfully hypnotic and emotive piece of theatre.

There are two sections within the piece where she asks a couple of audience members what they get from two sections of intense one to one interactions for  a few seconds. What I got out of this performance piece of theatre was an overwhelming feeling of relaxation, strangely enough, but why I think this was , was because of Natalie's voice; she has a really soothing voice when she talks and relates the stories. The more comedic sections are very original and very comical, the reason for this is that the comedy is simple as well as wonderfully observed.

A brilliantly simple example is when she talks about her mum and eating crisps; her mum tells her off for eating them too loud, so she licks the crispiness from the crisps and then starts to eat them so that they don't make as much noise, something that she has carried through her adult life. This may not sound that funny, but when told the way that Natalie delivers this story, complete with facial comedy, it turns out to be a very funny part of the show.

Born in South Africa, raised in Manchester, now living in Wakefield, Natalie brings a lovely clowning performance with an exacted physicality to the Lakeside stage with this show. 

Natalie also holds the title of being a "Giggle Doctor", visiting hospitals and spending time cheering up the kids in hospitals with music, comedy and dance on a one to one basis. That lovely style of comedy can also be seen in this production as it's almost as if she is talking to every audience member on a one to one basis.

"Look After Your Knees" is a one night only show at Lakeside, and at the end you realise the significance of the title of the show, and it's not necessarily all about your knees.

If you get the chance to catch this show at any time, make sure that you get a ticket because it's incredibly entertaining and very different to anything that you may have seen outside the Edinburgh Fringe.