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Life upon the wicked stage: Already Perfect at Kings Head Theatre

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Performing two shows a day on a Broadway run sounds exhausting enough. But when you’ve just had a not-so-great matinee and are having a crisis of confidence, I would assume the last thing you’d want is to confront your past. Yet that’s the situation in Already Perfect, writer-performer Levi Kreis’s slightly autobiographical journey of confronting the past and his younger self. With a series of toe-tapping and emotional songs in a sleek production, you’re invited to experience someone else’s therapy session. And with a show title called Already Perfect, you know what kind of session this is going to be. It makes for a show where nothing is left unsaid, even if it is unnecessary,  unbelievable or best left on a greeting card. It’s currently playing at the King’s Head Theatre .  The story begins in his dressing room after a matinee, with Kreis alone. The show didn’t go so well. Struggling after being dumped by a lover, pressure mounting on the evening show being filmed for poster...

Theatre: Buried Child

I saw Buried Child at the National Theatre in 2004 and thought it was hilarious. The version I saw on Friday at Upstairs at the Gatehouse turned out to be less so. It probably did not help making a mad dash from south London to be there and finding severe delays impacting my journey, but I have been to the Gatehouse enough times to not be too bothered by that, particularly when the performances are good.

This is a play that challenges the American dream, highlights the poverty of rural life in America and looks at the breakdown of family values. These topics have been in plenty of plays, but here they are presented in a brutally honest way that alternates between the real and surreal. You often need to read between the lines to understand what is going on.


In the second act there is a line about persistence, fortitude and determination which is what the family were about. Unfortunately these are also requirements in this production for the audience as the timing, pacing and delivery was way off. This made the characters unsympathetic and (even worse for a Friday night)... unfunny.

Still there was a lot to admire in this ambitious production. This included a great set design by Martin Thomas and lighting by Howard Hudson, which made it one of the better looking fringe productions I have seen in some time. There was so much corn and carrots on stage at one point I had an overwhelming urge for a vegetable side dish. A pity the pub downstairs is just a bog standard Wetherspoons as Highgate could do with a gastro-pub. It runs until 3 April.

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