by ⭐⭐⭐½
The third in a trilogy, this hour actually also serves as her origin story. So even if you hadn’t seen “Marj” or “O,” or even realized that the trilogy has been spelling out her first name, Marjolein Robertson’s newest hour is accessible to new audiences. Well, slightly accessible.
She opens with a similar conceit she employed in “O,” but with even more shocking undertones to those unprepared for it.
And as she does, she weaves her hour around a folk tale, although this set’s tale comes not from her native Shetland Islands, but rather from the Isle of Skye, concerning a girl lost in a misty mountain, led upward above the mists by magical stags. In real life, we learn how she went from a youthful prankster of a town planner in Shetland to an unemployed waitress in Amsterdam, how she wound up in improv classes, and why a nunnery may have led her into stand-up, pray tell. Her humor may stray toward darkness, although she does allow for a playful tangent wondering what it says about you based on whom you’d fall in love with from the Lord of the Rings books/films.
In the end, we learn the importance of folk tales and comedic storytelling in allowing her to process her past trauma. While their is virtue in her journey, it also means she winds up spending even more time with her fans focusing on trauma, or alone with her feelings. In the eerie silence, she hears her inner demons speaking to her in her own voice. We hear them, too. Robertson claims she’s OK with the silence now, though.
But what will she have to tell us next? I’m maybe looking forward to that even more.
Marjolein Robertson: Lein plays at Pleasance Queen Dome through Aug. 24, 2025.
