WHEN CLOWNING, THERAPY,
AND TRAUMA COLLIDE

Rachel Troy’s fierce, genre-breaking solo triumph is
fully realized, ferociously smart, and genuinely exhilarating.

I receive thousands of invitations every year to see one-person shows—solo works popping up everywhere from major U.S. cities to international Fringe festivals, where artists travel circuit to circuit chasing audiences, awards, and momentum. With only one or two performances here and there, the sheer volume can be daunting. The harder question isn’t just what to see, but how to review work that often feels unfinished—ideas still being tested, shaped, or simply survived onstage. So why keep doing it? Because every once in a while, like panning for gold, you strike something rare that makes up for the many misses. Early in 2025, BABY already feels like one of those shows.

Rachel Troy’s 2024 Hollywood Fringe solo hit BABY, which I saw again at an encore performance this year, remains one of the most bracing, inventive pieces of solo theatre I’ve seen. Troy weaponizes high-level clowning, ferocious physical precision, and her real-world experience as a therapist to excavate the inner child with equal parts mischief and menace. What begins as absurd baby behavior gradually mutates into something far more incisive: a clear-eyed examination of attachment, dependency, and the ways we rehearse “need” long before we understand it.

The laughs come fast and often, but they’re never cheap. Troy understands exactly how to use humor as a Trojan horse, drawing the audience into complicity before revealing the deeper psychological mechanics at play. The discomfort arrives quietly—sometimes hilariously, sometimes uncomfortably—and that tension is where BABY does its most impressive work. This is clowning as excavation: messy, risky, and thrillingly alive in the room.

What truly sets the piece apart is the specificity of Troy’s transformations. Emotional states register as distinct characters without ever becoming schematic or self-conscious, and her connection with the audience (some of whom become involved with the show) feels immediate, generous, and strangely intimate, even when the material veers into the deranged. There’s an extraordinary balance here between control and abandon, intellect and instinct. The show — seemingly silly but cloaked in sophistication — is meticulously crafted while allowing room for spontaneity.

It’s no surprise that BABY went on to win Top of the Fringe and Best World Premiere. The work understands something elemental about adult intimacy: how lovers slip into parental roles, how romantic relationships become sites of regression, and how unresolved need finds expression whether we want it to or not. In a year already crowded with solo work, BABY stands out as something rarer—a fully realized piece that knows exactly what it’s doing, why it’s doing it, and how to leave an audience laughing, unsettled, and seen.

for more info, visit BABY