Featured Post

Somewhere that's green: Potty the Plant at Wiltons Music Hall

Image
"I'm Potty the Plant," sings a potted plant in this odd little fringe concept of a show. It's hard not to get the tune out of your head, even if the show is brief. It's an earworm for a show that features a worm-like plant as a puppet. And given the show's brevity, running at only an hour, it's hard to get too annoyed by a lack of a coherent story, even if it still seems like the show could use a bit more development (which is underway). It has made its London debut at Wilton's Music Hall. The premise is that Potty, the plant, lives in the hospital office of Dr Acula (geddit?) and dreams of a life with the cleaning lady Miss Lacey (Lucy Appleton). But Dr Acula might be responsible for why all these children are disappearing while trying to romance Miss Lacey for her family's money that she doesn't have. Three nurses are on the case, trying to solve the mystery.  If the show settled on a convincing plot, location and set of characters, it could ...

Slappers and braggers: Fleabag at Soho Theatre

Phoebe Waller-Bridge's one woman show Fleabag is an entertaining smutty, funny and bittersweet tale. In Mydidae she was naked but here her character's soul is laid bare, as "Fleabag", a woman obsessed with sex. Everything leads to sex from a dripping stuffed crust pizza to a chance encounter with an ugly man on the tube. But amongst all the wild crazy hedonism emerges a real vulnerable person who is coming to the end of period of her life, even if she does not know it yet.

Sitting on a stool under a spotlight the piece opens with Fleabag taking an interview for an office job. It soon goes horribly wrong which then leads to her confessional-like monologue on her life. It is a life is full of asides about her ex-boyfriend, her family, casual sex and her friend, with who she ran a hamster-themed coffee shop with until her death.


It is a testament to the quality of the writing and the performance that the hour breezes by. At times Waller-Bridge delivers the piece like a stand up routine which could make her a female Jack Whitehall. But performance is finely balanced between slutty antics and intense vulnerability which gives the piece its dramatic fire. Towards the end of the piece Fleabag says in despair, "Either everyone feels like this a little bit and they're just not talking about it, or I'm completely fucking alone." Perhaps it is its brutal honesty and that everyone does feel like this a little bit like that which makes this piece deliver.

It is a piece that will have you talking about it long after you have seen it. Leaving the theatre with @Johnnyfoxlondon and @gioinlondon we couldn't help but start to think of Fleabag-minded people. Maybe there is a bit of Fleabag in all of us. For instance Fleabag taking pictures in a disabled toilet of her private parts reminded me of a colleague bragging about all the photos she used to take in disabled toilet at work for another guy. She also showed me the ones he took for her which meant a subsequent lunch between the three of us felt a little more awkward than necessary.

With all the recent discussions about sex-obsession and exposure to internet pornography, along with stories about women redefining pornography (I think that means making it acceptable either through mainstream movies or arty new novels), it couldn't feel more topical and relevant either. She may not be the first character to give an expletive ridden tirade, but it is a work of genius to make her feel so likable. Perhaps you're aware that you are still at the theatre and not at the psychiatrists which makes it seem okay.

Ultimately it is a piece that is deservedly getting plenty of attention. It has already won the Fringe First award in Edinburgh and been nominated for best solo performer in this year’s Stage Awards for Acting Excellence. It has also been optioned for a television show by Two Brothers Pictures, best known for making Full English for Channel 4.

But for now it is on Upstairs at the Soho Theatre for a limited run until 22 September at 7pm. Grab a ticket if they are still available... Until the next run and guest performances...

****

Photo credit: production photos from Edinburgh by Richard Davenport

Popular posts from this blog

Opera and full frontal nudity: Rigoletto

Image
David McVicar's oddly modern production of Rigoletto is back at the Royal Opera House . This modern and minimalist dark production has evolved over the years. It is better lit now but there is still an orgy and full frontal nudity within the first thirty minutes. This enables anyone not in the stalls an excellent view of a flaccid penis and a nicely shaved bush. But as time goes it seems more and more superfluous to the main focus of this tragedy of a court jester who seeks revenge. Here is hoping that the production continues to evolve... Conductor John Eliot Gardiner keeps the music well paced. Dimitri Platanias in the title role sounded great and received a rapturous applause for his interpretation of the role. You get a sense more of the doting father rather than the court jester or cursed man here. Vittorio Grigolo plays the Duke and sounds too lovely to be the cad the role calls for, but it is hard not to like when he is on stage anyway. And it is easier to understan...
Read more...

Fantasies: Afterglow @Swkplay

Image
Nowadays no self-respecting gay play can be staged without full frontal nudity of some kind. It feels like the default response for the modern gay play now that gay rights are no longer an issue .   Afterglow, currently playing at Southwark Playhouse , serves it up in spades. From the beginning, three men are in a bed, naked. There’s what appears to be a very brief exhalation of ecstasy, before the obligatory rush to the shower. But the gratuitous nudity and excellent performances can’t conceal this is a pretty conventional and predictable story about a fantasy couple.  The three men in the simultaneous orgasm at the start of the piece are Josh, Alex and Darius. Josh and Alex seem to live in a New York world where they can afford a rooftop apartment in Manhattan while holding jobs as a theatre director and a grad student in chemistry. As writer S. Asher Gelman based it on his own experiences, perhaps gay plays with full frontal nudity are the way to achieve financial ...
Read more...

Play ball: Damn Yankees @LandorTheatre

Image
Damn Yankees at the Landor Theatre is one hell of a fun, sexy show. A great cast of dancers and singers give this show about a man who sells his soul to get on his beloved baseball team (and give them a chance of winning) new legs and balls. It also helps to up the ante with the sexiness with some healthy doses of cleavage and legs (and that's just the men). The musical is a retelling of the Faust story set in the 1950s when the New York Yankees dominated the game.
Read more...