Katie Norris: Mother Succubus review – gothic comic enters a wickedly funny new era

Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh Norris swaps her larger-than-life Farm Fatale persona for something more autobiographical in this easygoing musical comedy Katie Norris is on a familiar trajectory in standup, from debuting as a version of herself so heightened as to be caricature, to settling into a lower-key Katie she’s happy to be on stage.

And happy, too, is anyone who’s followed that journey from 2024’s fantastic Farm Fatale , which established her gothic, cat-batty spinster persona, to this new show – more straight-bat autobiographical standup, about Norris leaving behind the male gaze.

But let us not overstate the case: there’s nothing normie about Norris in her third outing, in which she appears, imposing as ever, with a crow perched on her arm.

In a show whose theme can best be described as loose-fitting, she’s here to address one reviewer’s description of her as “a man-eating succubus”.

Far from it, she retorts.

After 143 failed first dates, Norris is forswearing straight men and their favour, and entering a new era – where women join choirs, go wild swimming and fearlessly untangle roadkill from the undercarriage of their Ford Fiestas.

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