Goodbye Dandelion - Belly Dancer Underbelly Cowgate - Review

Darcy O’Shea is an octogenarian, who has lived a full and interesting life of ups and downs, career changes and love, both found and lost, whilst Maddie is in her thirties not quite sure where her life is headed as she tries to build a career as a writer and embrace that whole new year new me mentality. Their paths cross when Maddie joins Run Relate, where exercise meets elderly community support. But Darcy doesn’t want any help. Nevertheless, an odd but beautiful little friendship is formed over wine, painting and a cat who likes to be taken on walks. And it’s all going swimmingly, until Darcy reveals her secret wish.

Goodbye Dandelion is a small and quaint two hander, nestled in the coziness of Belly Dancer at Underbelly Cowgate, performed by siblings Maddie and Marcus Rice that explores themes of age gap friendship, love, decisions, family and both life and death. Storytelling is expertly combined with music, facts, true to life experiences and a soft yet brutal honesty that shies away from sugarcoating in a style that says it’s okay, we can talk about this here, for its important that we do.

Throughout this cleverly crafted piece we see Maddie explore and relive her experiences with Darcy from hearing her stories of love, painting and life to being accepted by her cat (a privilege in itself) and the end of it all, all handled with love and sensitivity.

The story is interjected with music from Marcus, tinkling away at the piano in moments of both touching sentiment and comedy giving Darcy her voice of strength, honesty and bristly knowing her own mind. At one point the audience are invited to sing along, creating a beautiful sense of togetherness and unity. The natural bond between brother and sister is used to full advantage here in moments of both teasing and love as we learn more about their time growing up together and their own experiences of life and death.

Ultimately, Goodbye Dandelion is an exploration of death but also a celebration of love. It is not something that screams seize the day, but instead a quiet soft little whisper that reminds you that yes death is normal, it’s inevitable, and it’s okay to talk about but also life is to enjoyed and that it’s okay to change your path, to do the things you’ve always wanted to, and not to settle when something doesn’t feel quite right just because it might seem the easier option at the time. And it’s incredibly touching.

Goodbye Dandelion runs daily (except for the 18th) at 16.10 at Belly Dancer Underbelly Cowgate.