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Trigger warning: This show mentions mental health issues and miscarriage, which are also mentioned in this review. Please take care when reading.
Anna Thomas’ one-woman show, How To Drink Wine Like A Wanker, is not quite, like the title suggests, instruction on how to be an insufferable, pretentious drinker of wine.
Instead, it is a captivating tale of Thomas’ journey from riches to rags, from corporate hamster wheel to imposter wine connoisseur to eventual fully-fledged wine wanker. So grab your Wine Wanker Flight (an additional cost, but which I highly, highly recommend for a more complete experience), and settle in for storytime.
Starting with a Riesling, Thomas begins her account from the middle of her timeline, with the admission that she abandoned her high paying corporate job for one substantially less lucrative – conducting guided wine tours. Believing that Riesling came with an aftertaste of gasoline yet forced to act knowledgeable, her wine journey began.
Thomas proceeds to guide us on the wine tour of her life, from a pretentious operetta of a Fiano, to a hippy Roussanne, to the undervalued Grenache and so on and so forth. Each wine played an important role in her evolution.
The climax of the show occurs when Thomas reveals the true reason for her departure from her previous caree. With vulnerability, bravery and an inspiring amount of strength, she recounts the joy of finally getting pregnant and the horrific event that followed – her miscarriage. To add insult to injury, then came the unfortunate but all too real misogyny that Thomas was subjected to.
And finally, of course, we got to taste the Pinot Noir that was “her in a drink”, and the revelation that she had, indeed, finally levelled up to a fully-fledged wine wanker.
With wit, humour, authenticity and charm aplenty, Anna Thomas took me on a rollercoaster of emotions.
I laughed, I cringed, I wept and I celebrated with her.
By the end of the evening, I didn’t feel like I’d just watched a show. I felt like I’d shared a table with a friend, one who was brave enough to speak her truth, even if it was messy. How To Drink Wine Like A Wanker is a toast to survival, and to self-acceptance. And I’ll definitely drink to that.