Edinburgh Festival 2013: Claudia O'Doherty, Pleasance Two, review In 2011, Claudia O'Doherty based her show on the topic of soil erosion. Last year's Foster's Comedy Awards-nominated show The Telescope was a prop-heavy one-woman play that disintegrated marvellously before our eyes. This year's offering, Pioneer, was therefore unlikely to be straight-off-the-peg, and so it proves. Why Pioneer? Because - as everything from her T-shirt to the ludicrous swathes of son-et-lumière repeatedly and obstructively insists - that electronics giant funded the show. For on the chopping-block here is the miserably modern phenomenon of the single-minded but talent-free lust for stardom. Playing a fictionalised version of herself, O'Doherty initially pretends to be pregnant, before a huge "F--- THAT" is beamed on to the stage - babies are for losers! - and she proceeds to whisk us through the eight chapters of her life that led up to her ultimate holy grail: the (supposed) Pioneer sponsorship to give her the necessary fillip towards fame. Monomania reigns supreme, as O'Doherty introduces the "wonderful" (in fact, woeful) characters she can play and the words "what a talented woman" waft dreamily across the screen. She also engages with hologram versions of her other possible selves who confirm how envious they are of her, with her gawky, ingénue manner often bracingly at odds with the material. "I'm a regular Roman Polanski," she declares with a smile as sweet as clover honey. Beneath all this lies, of course, a yawning black hole of desperate self-delusion, although there's a neat, extra spike to it all. As you watch this petite, buxom Australian girl who's making waves in the British entertainment industry undermine her stage character, you can't help wondering if there isn't a dollop of genuine hubris here, too. Which - for those willing to hitch a ride on its wilful eccentricities - makes this pacy and often very funny show all the more fascinating. Until Aug 26. Tickets: 0131 556 6550; pleasance.co.uk