2015BADARMC_GDGrowing up as the daughter of the Irish dancing teacher is not easy for Marie Clerkin, it seems. For one thing, she’s got to constantly compete with other children for her mother’s attention and for another, there’s a lot of Irish dancing involved.

In this one-woman show, Clerkin dances her way through her life story. Right from her early beginnings, through dance shows, exams, first kisses, parties and sneaky drinking on the bus, right up to her struggle to finally make it in the Irish dancing world.

Clerkin has also always been followed by a degree of catastrophe, whether it’s winning an award as a small child but not being able to collect it because she’s lent her dress to someone else and is hiding behind the hall curtains in her vest and knickers, or the many booze-fueled hiccups she has later in life. Clerkin tells these stories and many more, always with a dry, self deprecating wit.

One of the really interesting strands in this show is Clerkin’s account of the conflict that comes with being part of the London Irish community. She describes a strange sense of not belonging or being accepted anywhere because to Londoners, she’s Irish – the name sticks out a mile – and therefore an outsider. However, back in Ireland, she’s English – her London accent and mannerisms stopping her fully belonging here, too.

Its a decent story, fairly well told. Clerkin has a easy and warm presence on stage and she is, of course, a talented Irish dancer. Many of her anecdotes are very funny,  although structurally the whole piece could hang together a little more smoothly. Not being able to say no to a drink might be something we can all identify with, but when it becomes a character’s fatal flaw it gets boring quite quickly. There’s only so much plot that can revolve around a really bad hangover (although I have to admit, the very last story is a corker).

Above all, however,  The Bad Arm: Confessions of a Dodgy Irish Dancer, is a warm and touching tribute to Clerkin’s mother, who she was always trying to live up too. Touchingly, the woman herself was at the performance I saw and – spoiler alert – she looked proud.

The Bad Arm: Confessions of a Dodgy Irish Dancer is playing at Gilded Balloon (Venue 14) from 15-16, 18-23, 25-31 August as part of the Edinburgh Fringe. For more information, visit the festival website.