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Bit parts: Garry Starr Performs Everything @swkplay

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Garry Starr Performs Everything is a bare-bones (and bare buttocks) tribute to the theatre. Theatre may be in trouble, and audiences are down, but Garry Starr aims to save the theatre and bring back to the masses every style of theatre possible. As long as each style involves wearing a transparent white leotard or a skimpy thong. And tassels. It's part comedy, part physical comedy and part perv at Gary's physical prowess. The sentiment "if you've got it, flaunt it" applies here. So here we are with a show that has been around for some years and is having its first proper London run at the Southwark Playhouse (Borough) through Christmas. The premise is that Garry Starr (played by Damien Warren-Smith) has left the Royal Shakespeare Company over artistic differences. He is now on a mission to save the theatre from misrepresentation and worthy interpretations by doing things such as a two-minute Hamlet, recreating scenes from a Pinter play using unsuspecting audience

Sex, Drugs and Downton: Guilt and Shame Addicted to Everything @sohotheatre

For a brief moment last week, Guilt and Shame took over the upstairs space at the Soho Theatre for some random therapy on addiction, drugs and masturbating penises through glory holes.  Alternating between the bizarre and the offensive, it made for a great night of comedy.

Arriving at the theatre everyone is instructed by Gabe to put on a name tag as everyone is about to take part (unwittingly or not) in an addicts anonymous group.

Then his best friend and eternal gay virgin Rob arrives dragging both themselves and the audience on filthy journey literally to hell and back. The journey includes acting out sex with a swan (pictured above), getting a member of the audience to confront his fear of penises in men's toilets and observations about gay men who have an unhealthy liking for Downton Abbey...


Guilt and Shame have been gathering a following after various shows, including a sell-out run in Edinburgh Fringe last year. It was clear on Friday night they had quite a following already with the audience anticipating their routine and writing on their name tags "sex addict" or "cum whore".

As G&S virgins, all I could do was just hold on for the ride and hope for the best...

The energy levels and the camaraderie between Gabriel Bisset-Smith and Robert Cawsey made the show something more than just a series of sketches and distinctive and funny enough to be a duo to keep an eye out for. And you probably will leave their show humming Scatman...

The run has finished for now but check their website for future dates... Or look up their work on Youtube...

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