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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

The Corsican Job: Sublime @Tristanbates

With Sublime, the premise of a new heist drama and a promise of it being a provocative play is hard to resist. Its short run at the Tristan Bates Theatre has ended but there were some things to admire about the piece by by Sarah Thomas.

The story is that the heistess, Sophie, is back in town. And she's got one week to pull off three jobs to pay back the Corsicans. It's assumed knowledge that you don't want to fuck with the Corsicans. But if you have been to Corsica you probably will understand that immediately.

She enlists her brother Sam to help her. But Sam is trying to lead a straight and boring life with his mousy new girlfriend Clara (Suzy Gill). But there is so much sexual chemistry between the two you begin to wonder what sort of siblings they are.


As Sophie and Sam, Adele Oni and Michael Fatogun  keep your interest aroused in this piece. Their sexy performances and provocative banter make for a sultry evening. It is only diminished by the endless subplots and twists, and a few superfluous characters.

The heists don't happen onstage so we're left to assume they're a piece of cake. Not much of the dialogue centres around the planning of them either. This  seems curious given the characters are supposed to be some great up and coming criminal masterminds.

Directed by Ben SantaMaria (who also had a role in script development), Sublime is is Thomas's first play and the short run will hopefully give the piece more focus. Somewhere amongst all the material there is a 90 minute play there that I would like to see...

⭐︎⭐︎⭐︎

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