Habits
★★☆☆☆ Rushed
Just the Tonic at The Caves (Venue 88): Thur 20 – Sun 30 Aug 2026
Review by Jenny Collins
Habits by Gooseneck Theatre Company is a clever but underbaked meta-comedy about a young woman, Rita, putting her OCD to the test: can she finish her show without peeing herself?
Despite its rough edges, there is something welcomely original about this a fourth-wall breaking, one woman show written by Scott Strom, directed by Leo Batutis and featuring a charming performance from Estefany Perez as Rita.
Estefany Perez in Habits. Pic: Gooseneck Theatre Company.
Rita lives with obsessive compulsive disorder. Her compulsions manifest in a variety of ways but mostly Rita is worried about having a public accident. Always sitting near the pub bathroom or making sure she’s definitely gone to the toilet before leaving, her life has been consumed by a fear of embarrassment. What better way to get over this compulsion than trapping herself in an Edinburgh Fringe show?
She has a big red button just in case she ever needs to turn the house lights back on and, as an extra measure, she has blackmailed the bouncer to make sure she can’t leave. A similar bond is formed with the audience. Don’t let her out.
Habits is clever in its meta-theatricality. There’s an organic flow to the performance that makes it hard to tell when Perez is improvising or when she is in full control. You don’t know where it’s going to go next. Will she pee herself, or won’t she? Will she triumph or will she give in?
repetitive
Unfortunately the answer becomes clear. Rita has to put the button far away from her so she stops pressing it and the structure becomes repetitive. It is obvious that the show will not go on.
The audience participation comes at the end, when she asks those in the crowd to make running water noises so she can piss herself faster. Unintentionally, the joke feels like it’s on her and Rita is (mostly) sympathetic throughout the show. So there is a notable reluctance to participate here.
Estefany Perez in Habits. Pic: Gooseneck Theatre Company.
Habits has an A-side and a B-side. There’s Rita’s dark fairytale as the A-side, where a trickster fox deceives a young girl into surrendering her flock of geese. Meanwhile the B-side is the fourth-wall break, with Rita turning the house lights back on and begging to be set free from her own story.
The B-side is more compelling than the A-side.
During the B-side, Habits deconstructs common misconceptions about OCD with vulnerable humour. With the exposed brick wall of the cellar space behind her, the hard-edged spotlight on at all times, and Rita’s darkly comic anecdotes, she looks like a stand-up comic who got lost on their way to the bathroom. Perez gets to be in her element here, using her comic timing to keep the story fresh.
misplaced
Meanwhile, the A-side fairytale feels misplaced. Is it functioning as an allegory for Rita’s condition or a parody of Fringe-typical storytelling? In the end it doesn’t commit to either, as the fairytale has no resolution. As a result, “Rita’s show” feels like a break from the main event, when it ought to be the other way around.
The lack of complete resolution for this side of the story is part of the point. But with the running time listed as an hour and the show winding up at forty minutes, it feels like something is missing.
There are strong ideas on display here with a unique comic style. If Gooseneck Theatre Company are passionate about Habits, then the concept is worth further development.
Running time: One hour (no interval).
Just the Tonic at The Caves (Just Out of the Box), 253 Cowgate EH1 1LG (Venue 88).
Thursday 20 – Sunday 30 August 2026.
Daily10.40pm.
Tickets and details: Book here at EdFringe.com.
Tickets direct from venue: Book here.
Instagram: @goosenecktheatreco
Estefany Perez in Habits. Pic: Gooseneck Theatre Company.
ENDS
