Dawn French's monologue is advertised as being neither standup comedy nor theatre
but somewhere in between; essentially
Thirty Million Minutes is a personal
memoir that, instead of publishing, French has chosen to perform. The thirty million
minutes of the title correspond roughly to her current age of 58, and the show is
loosely held together by a theme of her learning how to be the things life demands
of her: First a daughter and sister, then wife and mother, and later single again -
before eventually and unexpectedly becoming a wife and stepmother again. The
majority of her reminiscences come from childhood, growing up in an RAF family and
therefore often moving around, calling places as diverse as Cyprus and Plymouth
home. Discussion of her adult life also focuses on the personal and doesn't touch at
all on her comedy career, although there's a few audience-pleasing offhand
references to Jennifer Saunders, and photos of many of her comic contemporaries.
