★★★★★

“A true tour de force and a must-see show.”

Kate Berlant is an excellent comic. The eponymously titled KATE is the second of her one-woman shows to be directed by fellow comedian Bo Burnham and explores the events in her life that have brought her to the London stage. Semi-autobiographical with a good helping of the surreal, Berlant becomes KATE, a young actress (with a devastating secret) who simply cannot cry on camera. The show is deeply ironic. Platitudes and parody abound – Berlant’s material is as smart as it is silly.

KATE laughs openly at the self-importance of the acting world. Before even entering the auditorium, graphics of Berlant are plastered on the walls of the theatre’s stairs. Berlant herself even sits outside the theatre space holding a large sign that reads ‘IGNORE ME’ whilst front of house staff wear t-shirts and hats branded with her name.

The show begins with a five-minute slideshow of quotes from Oscar Wilde, Stanislavski and other theatre greats next to professional photos and videos of Berlant pouting and her iMDb page. These opening slides are amusingly in the same typeface and colour scheme as the Royal National Theatre.

For the following 70 minutes, the audience is treated to snapshots of Berlant’s exaggerated life. Her birth (where she was first captured on film), her difficult family life as half-Spanish, half-Jewish (“They don’t even have a word for that!”), and her move to find fame and fortune in New York City (cue Frank Sinatra). Throughout, Berlant considers who she really is – her love for acting fuelled by a desire to escape her own reality.

Berlant’s character craves the camera. Positioned stage left, certain scenes – such as an audition – are livestreamed up close and personal on a large projector screen. Our star leans into clownery here, her face contorting impressively, as she mocks the acting differences between theatre and the silver screen.

Berlant breaks character numerous times, and it is never quite clear what is scripted and what is not. She giggles at her questionable British accent, expresses frustration at the one-second delay between her camera and the screen, and reruns scenes when she thinks she could do better. The ego of the actor is constantly lampooned – the show is set up as a display for an important Disney+ executive – and descends into angry chaos when the incompetent stagehand Isaac reveals that he has not shown up.

There are some excellent moments of audience interaction. Berlant – playing a seedy bar dweller who has met her character at a bar – shines a torch on an audience member and engages in fantastic nonsensical banter. Knowing looks to the audience and direct addresses are also peppered throughout. Even as the show seemingly falls apart, you know you are in safe hands.

Few props or set pieces are utilised. The screen backdrop displays in simple lettering the location – Porch, Apartment, Nightclub – and Berlant does the rest. She often uses excellent (and hilarious) movement to set the scene or speaks with off-stage or imagined characters to flesh out the space. A particular highlight is a scene of her ‘Irish’ mother (in fact from Santa Monica and an accent she prescribes to explore motherly emotions) rifling through imaginary drawers while cooking and cleaning at great speed.

KATE is very, very funny. It is gripping, clever and brilliantly self-referential. A true tour de force and a must-see show.

ABOUT BILL at Theatre at the Tabard

★★★★★

“a deeply heartfelt piece of musical theatre”

Sixty years is quite a time span to slot into a little over sixty minutes. It is quite an epic endeavour, especially in the intimate confines of an eighty-seat venue, but the decades are pinpointed with a flawless and nostalgic precision in Kim Ismay’s one woman musical “About Bill”. More than just a backdrop, the passing years are the context in which Ismay takes us on a journey (or rather, several journeys) through the lives, recollections and revelations of ten very different but connected women. The show is as much, if not more, about them as it is about the title character – whom we never see. Bill Fitzgerald, the renowned (fictitious) jazz trumpeter, who blazed with a rock ‘n’ roll star’s headline grabbing self-destruction, scandals and love-affairs. Adored the world over for his music, these women who shared his life pull focus on the many other shades of love that this charismatic maverick inspired.

As the shockwaves of the 1929 Wall Street Crash reach our shores, pregnant showgirl Stella has more important things on her mind as she wishes for a girl rather than a boy. Fast forward ten years and we discover her wish was not granted. It was a boy – Bill – later abandoned by his mother to be raised by pious Auntie Dot. Already, the skill with which Ismay switches characters is firmly revealed. Each endearingly individual woman is meticulously real, convincing and natural; the range of emotions matching the diverse personalities. As the accents and costumes change, so are our hearts tugged in varying directions. Never before have we witnessed such a perfect balance of humour and pathos, of laughter and tears, vaudeville and poignancy. Bernie Gaughan’s script, written specifically with Ismay in mind is a perfect vehicle, but it resonates far deeper than that. Ismay undoubtedly owns the material, along with the late Matthew Strachan’s music and lyrics into which she breathes the very souls of those characters.

After Auntie Dot, we behold the sixteen-year-old Joyce, smitten by the ‘bad boy’ Bill, seeking answers in the agony aunt pages of the local rag. Next up is Gloria, the gin-swigging landlady, past her prime and seduced into lowering the rent. By the 1960s we meet Auntie Dot again. Bill is world famous now, and Dot fears for him. She fears he will go the way of his mother, the victim of a lonely death. There is Sally, Bill’s lovechild born of a tryst with the teenage Joyce. We encounter the aristocratic first wife, forever in therapy, and young enough to quit while the going’s good. As we tear through the seventies and eighties, we meet Mexican grifter Lopita, music journalist Karen and fellow addict Helen, until the final, heart-rending reappearance of Sally. Keith Strachan’s staging lets us know exactly where we are in time and space, but it is Ismay’s spellbinding performance that anchors us there, along with Matthew Strachan’s songs (accompanied by Paul Crew at the piano) that reflect the varying periods, as well as allowing Ismay to delve into the many depths of feelings that are brilliantly conveyed in the book and lyrics.

“About Bill” is a deeply heartfelt piece of musical theatre. The satire is evident, but the humanity is a sheen that dominates and resonates. Ismay’s versatility is frankly astounding. She makes use of an array of wigs and (self-made) costumes, but frankly she doesn’t really need them. Her talent and sensitivity does it all. Speaking and singing she is a delight. The show is a perfect mix of monologue and music. You’ll be enthralled. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry. You’ll want more.

KATE at the Soho Theatre

★★★★★

“A true tour de force and a must-see show.”

KATE at the Soho Theatre

Reviewed on 5th September 2023

by Flora Doble

Photography by Emilio Madrid

Previously reviewed at this venue:

Kate

Kate

ABOUT BILL at Theatre at the Tabard

★★★★★

“a deeply heartfelt piece of musical theatre”

ABOUT BILL at Theatre at the Tabard

Reviewed on 30th August 2023

by Jonathan Evans

Photography by Anthony Sajdler

Recent shows reviewed by Jonathan:

About Bill

About Bill

JOIN US