2014 Edinburgh Fringe

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When 84-year-old Hollywood diva Patti DuPont falls ill, her awkward daughter Linda is forced to perform the show in her place. The ensuing hour is what happens when you put the reputation of an icon in the hands of an idiot.

An Evening With Patti DuPont is a joyfully inventive one-woman character comedy show packed with blackly comic surprises, written and performed by Anna Emerson of The Boom Jennies (BBC Radio 4).

The show's premise is that Hollywood legend Patti DuPont (149 films, nine husbands, five facelifts) has booked a space at Edinburgh Fringe to present an intimate hour of chat, music and candid tales from 65 years in show business. On the night, however, the audience arrives to discover that Patti has suffered a cosmetic surgery mishap and instead sent her awkward, inept daughter, Linda, to perform in her place.

What follows is a tumultuous hour as Linda clumsily stumbles through Patti's show (her life story, an 'intimate' Q&A, an athletic rendition of her 'signature dance'), unwittingly trampling her mother's public image in the process. Patti is watching from her sickbed via a webcam throughout, interrupting the show with frequent aggressive phone calls as she tries in vain to remotely control the action.

As the show progresses, it becomes clear that Linda's courageous clowning is covering up a lifetime of abuse at the hands of her dictatorial mother. Eventually she cracks in spectacular fashion - with half-hilarious, half-excruciating results. Ultimately, however, Linda bounces back - determined to do the show her own way - and creates a moving, triumphant ending.

Press photos are available via www.pattidupont.com

An Evening With Patti DuPont is created by Anna Emerson. In 2013, Anna jointly won the BAFTA Rocliffe New Writing Forum and her work was selected for New York TV Festival's 'Future Stars of British Comedy' showcase.

As one third of critically-acclaimed sketch group The Boom Jennies, Anna has co-written and co-starred in two series of their BBC Radio 4 sitcom Mission Improbable and has featured on Radio 4's Sketchorama. She is also a frequent feature of cult podcast The John Dredge Nothing To Do With Anything Show.