★★★★

“With absolute trust between the performers, this is a tight and brilliant ensemble performance”

Gunter, is a well-deserved transfer for Dirty Hare’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2023 production to the Royal Court’s Jerwood Theatre Upstairs.

It is exciting and innovative theatre, wonderfully performed by three actors, and one historian who also plays the modern sound track live on stage.

As the audience arrive, the horrifying news film footage of the traditional modern-day, all-male Shrovetide Football match plays out on a screen – the brutal medieval ball game still played today.

The show is set in 1604 and is based on the true story of a Berkshire parish. Brian Gunter (Hannah Jarrett-Scott), the richest man in the village, kills the two young Gregory boys during the traditional and violent Shrovetide Football match. Because of Gunter’s power he gets away with murder. But when Elizabeth Gregory (Julia Grogan), the strong grieving mother, questions both Gunter and the law, the bad man shows his manipulative strength.

Gunter’s innocent daughter, Anne (Norah Lopez Holden), is suddenly bewitched, and of course, the witch hunt immediately points to Elizabeth and her female friends. So ensues the many trials of both Elizabeth – and indeed Anne.

As the story unfolds through song and physical theatre, the three actors each play multiple roles telling the tale of poor Anne Gunter. With absolute trust between the performers, this is a tight and brilliant ensemble performance – as the actors, wearing pristine white modern day football kits and the white stage set, gradually become covered in blood, mud, honey and gore.

Gunter has its quirk, as the historian Lydia Higman narrates the more historical facts – facts that are also typed in bold and lit up on the back projector. Sadly, Higman is unable to fill in the missing gaps – crucially that history does not know what became of Anne Gunter after the trials. There are no historical facts. Higman, even with her light touch, doesn’t add any value to the play by being on stage – apart from her rather fine musicality.

The piece is directed with beautiful minutiae by Rachel Lemon, who co-created the piece alongside Lydia Higman and Julia Grogan. There is slight overkill with the opening song’s repetition of the words “the bad man”, which is repeated throughout the show. We get it.

Gunter pertains to be feminist theatre, giving a voice to the unheard women in history whose stories were never told. And it is depressing that this is the same sorry story today, about every woman who has a bad man in her life and her voice is still not heard…. Not a lot has changed – and that is Gunter’s point.

WELCOME HOME at the Soho Theatre

★★★★

“Hudson’s great success with “Welcome Home” is that it’s spectacular, silly and provocative”

Headlines in the media over the past few days about the Church of England and its debate over same sex marriage and relationships mean Willy Hudson’s brave and absorbing new solo show could hardly be more timely.

“Welcome Home” is from one perspective a mad rant about religion and an institution that has so frequently heaped shame on queer life, an attempt to heal (or escape from) a past of hurt.

But an autobiographical and uncomfortable show just mouthing off on the subject would become little more than a heavy soapbox speech or ill-informed Twitter comment.

And in fact when the energetic and often chaotic show is stripped down it is not ultimately as negative as you may be expecting. There’s a sense that if we actually bothered to listen to each other and attempt to understand rather than judge (a truth for all sides) then we may just be able to build a better present and future.

The springboard to the memoir is Hudson’s break-up with the boyfriend we were introduced to in “Bottom” and returning home to live with his parents, which leads to a plethora of thoughts about his upbringing, his local church and Robbie Williams.

Hudson’s great success with “Welcome Home” is that it’s spectacular, silly and provocative, using sci-fi, music, and humour to address break-up of relationships, break-up with the past, break-up with unyielding establishment – and putting yourself back together as a result.

“This is the making of me” he proclaims at the start and what results after 80 frantic minutes is a deeply personal tale of honesty and discovery on what for many will be a shared journey – even if the destination isn’t the same for all.

As both writer and performer Hudson could be in danger of becoming manically inward-looking as he seeks to demolish childhood nightmares and establishment edifices but director Zach James keeps him the right side of demonic.

If Hudson’s last show, “Bottom,” was revealing and buttock-clenching and performed more in a cabaret style, this is altogether more theatrically entertaining, determined and heart-wrenching. “Welcome Home” is certainly more a narrative of dark nightmare revenge than its predecessor’s pink fluffiness with a whiff of leather.

There’s as much here for the geeky as the cheeky: Doctor Who’s weeping angels stand like sentinels threatening to send the performer back in time if he fails to learn important lessons, while “Star Wars” references lead to an unexpected and heart-warming finale.

Anna Orton’s set and costume design add elements of nerdy kitsch and it’s clear that a lot of people have contributed to the success of this solo work. It is terrific to see the large company listed on the programme, a bunch of creatives given the chance to develop queer, neurodivergent and working class productions.

A review always runs the risk of becoming purely academic assessment so it must be stressed that Hudson aims to raise laughs as much as raising important questions. For all the moments of nervous seat-shuffling there are plenty of slices of mad comedy.

Hard-hitting with dashes of discomfort sitting alongside the comic, “Welcome Home” is likely to mirror the experiences of many who want to rage against a religious and all too often uncaring machine, but Hudson succeeds in giving his story and performance a heart and a hope.

GUNTER at the Royal Court

★★★★

“With absolute trust between the performers, this is a tight and brilliant ensemble performance”

GUNTER at the Royal Court

Reviewed on 6th April 2024

by Debbie Rich

Photography by Alex Brenner

Previously reviewed at this venue:

GUNTER

GUNTER

WELCOME HOME at the Soho Theatre

★★★★

“Hudson’s great success with “Welcome Home” is that it’s spectacular, silly and provocative”

Headlines in the media over the past few days about the Church of England and its debate over same sex marriage and relationships mean Willy Hudson’s brave and absorbing new solo show could hardly be more timely.

“Welcome Home” is from one perspective a mad rant about religion and an institution that has so frequently heaped shame on queer life, an attempt to heal (or escape from) a past of hurt.

But an autobiographical and uncomfortable show just mouthing off on the subject would become little more than a heavy soapbox speech or ill-informed Twitter comment.

The springboard to the memoir is Hudson’s break-up with the boyfriend we were introduced to in “Bottom” and returning home to live with his parents, which leads to a plethora of thoughts about his upbringing, his local church and Robbie Williams.

Hudson’s great success with “Welcome Home” is that it’s spectacular, silly and provocative, using sci-fi, music, and humour to address break-up of relationships, break-up with the past, break-up with unyielding establishment – and putting yourself back together as a result.

“This is the making of me” he proclaims at the start and what results after 80 frantic minutes is a deeply personal tale of honesty and discovery on what for many will be a shared journey – even if the destination isn’t the same for all.

As both writer and performer Hudson could be in danger of becoming manically inward-looking as he seeks to demolish childhood nightmares and establishment edifices but director Zach James keeps him the right side of demonic.

There’s as much here for the geeky as the cheeky: Doctor Who’s weeping angels stand like sentinels threatening to send the performer back in time if he fails to learn important lessons, while “Star Wars” references lead to an unexpected and heart-warming finale.

A review always runs the risk of becoming purely academic assessment so it must be stressed that Hudson aims to raise laughs as much as raising important questions. For all the moments of nervous seat-shuffling there are plenty of slices of mad comedy.

Hard-hitting with dashes of discomfort sitting alongside the comic, “Welcome Home” is likely to mirror the experiences of many who want to rage against a religious and all too often uncaring machine, but Hudson succeeds in giving his story and performance a heart and a hope.

Reviewed on 30th January 2023

by David Guest

Photography by Harry Elletson

Previously reviewed at this venue: