Date: 9 August 2026
Time: 5.30pm
Venue: Le Monde
Running time: 60 minutes
Rating: ★★★★ (4/5)
Reviewed by: Sarah Turnbull
English-born and Portugal-based, Rachael Milne has an easy confidence that instantly lowers shoulders. She’s warm, has a strong presence, and takes to the stage like she’s chatting to an old friend you can tell anything and everything, an old friend with filthy humour. Even in a pretty quiet room (barely a third full), it never felt awkward; the laughs landed like a much bigger crowd was in, and they kept coming.
Milne’s style is observational and unfiltered, rooting her set in midlife realities: dating disasters, body image, fat jabs and perimenopause. She says what we’re all thinking, especially about the “joys” of apps versus real life. Her crowd work is a standout, conversational rather than combative, never dragging anyone onstage or setting them up as the punchline. It’s the sort of gentle back-and-forth that puts a room at ease and makes you feel seen.
Milne’s dating material is biting and precise, more concerned with real-world perks than fairy-tale partners. She treats the show like a live dispatch from perimenopause, folding in stories of dating disasters, body image and a daily routine that feels like gaslighting her own body. An anecdote about an ex trying to cash in on an ancient home video becomes a swaggering celebration of her 21-year-old physique and a cheeky nod to going viral.
The namesake of her show comes from “Primark Men” for boyfriends who look good on the rack but fall apart on contact, then cheerfully admits her own body might be heading the same way. She rebrands the big dating apps with playground rude nicknames, rolls her eyes at emoji foreplay and gives Gen X a smutty badge of honour.
What elevates all this is timing. Milne’s rhythm with the crowd is immaculate, quick without being pushy, dirty without being cruel and consistently human. She blends big, barnstorming lines with the kind of asides that feel whispered to a mate at the back of the bus.
If the show’s official blurb promises sharp, funny and unfiltered comedy about ageing, identity and the gap between Instagram and reality, Milne delivers, and then some.
Warm, fearless and painfully relatable, she turns midlife chaos into a rollicking, gloriously filthy hour that feels like a long-overdue catch-up with your naughtiest friend.
Tickets:
https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/the-devil-wears-primark
A hilarious and wonderfully relatable take on women, dating and the joys of midlife. Lots of side splitting moments, the funniest show I’ve seen in years.