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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...

Breaking bread: Eating Myself @BrxHouseTheatre


Food as a starter for conversation, making a new family, and finding a place is at the heart of Eating Myself, Pepa Duarte’s story of exploring what it is to be a woman from Peru, living in London, living with unrealistic body images. It’s having a short run at the Brixton House as part of the Housemates season, where artists take over the house throughout July.

In this short piece, which has previously been online, Pepa explains how she cooks on a stovetop a Peruvian dish with beans and potatoes and a lot of added extras that, when growing up, she was never supposed to eat. It reminds her of her grandmother and brings her back to her roots. As the show progresses, the dish's aromas waft through the audience bringing to life the words in a sensory experience. And one that might make you a little hungry. 


But it also is a story about diets and calorie counting. Pepa directly asks the audience if they think she is fat. It’s a direct question to the audience that sets the scene about body image. But she also uses her body to convey her battles with body image and her attempts at dieting, and the exhausting yet scientifically dubious process of calorie counting. She parades, hides under tables, and rolls on the floor in an endearing performance as she recounts her struggles and those of her relatives. 

In addition to a stovetop, various other kitchen utensils and foods hang in the background as part of some surreal religious experience. Perhaps, in this case, they are. 

And for those who found the aromas too irresistible throughout the show, you can take a bowl of the dish with them to the next show as well. 

Written and performed by Pepa Duarte, Eating Myself is at Brixton House as part of the Housemates season only until 15 July. 

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️


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