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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

You can’t stop the boats: Sorry We Didn’t Die At Sea @ParkTheatre


Sorry We Didn’t Die At Sea by Italian playwright Emanuele Aldrovandi and translated by Marco Young, has made a topical return to London at the Park Theatre after playing earlier this summer at the Seven Dials Playhouse. In a week when leaders and leaders in waiting were talking about illegal immigration, it seemed like a topical choice. It also has one hell of an evocative title.

The piece opens with Adriano Celantano’s Prisencolinensinainciusol, which sets the scene for what we are about to see. After all, a song about communication barriers seems perfect for a play about people trafficking and illegal immigration. One side doesn’t understand why they happen, and the other still comes regardless of the latest government announcement / slogan. 


However, the twist here is that the crossing is undertaken the other way. People are fleeing Europe instead of escaping war or poverty in Africa or the Middle East. It’s set sometime in the not-too-distant future. There is a crisis causing people to flee the reverse way. Europe is no longer inhabitable except for the extremely rich. And so we’re introduced to four characters. They have no names, only descriptions. Three characters pay the fourth to travel in a shipping container to an unknown destination. But as things go wrong, things take a darker and abstract tone.

The ensemble balances the darkness of the subject matter and the banality arising from seemingly lighter-hearted moments. As The Burly One (and smuggler), Felix Garcia Guyer addresses the audience with facts about shipping containers and Italian recipes. The staging is kept simple with a red curtain evoking the red container ship they are within. 

The overall impact is less realistic than Tess Berry Hart’s excellent CARGO at the Arcola in 2016. This piece explored similar themes about illegal immigration from a container ship. However, I suspect the point is more about getting the audience to try to understand the informal immigration trade. It isn’t a journey you can take with a wad of cash, a waterproof suitcase and a few folded shirts and expect to survive even if one of the characters tries to do that. 

There may not be a solution by the end (or a straightforward conclusion), but who can honestly believe anyone has one? Directed by Daniel Emery, Sorry We Didn’t Die At Sea is at Park Theatre until 30 September. 

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️


Production photos by Charles Flint

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