Tag Archives: Blythe Brett

GISELLE: REMIX

★★★★★

Pleasance Theatre

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GISELLE: REMIX at the Pleasance Theatre

★★★★★

“a must-see – a piece of queer performance that is not to be missed”

Adolphe Adam’s romantic ballet Giselle tells the story of a young peasant girl who falls in love with the disguised duke, Albrecht. Driven mad by the revelation of his true identity, Giselle joins the deadly sisterhood of the Wilis, the ghosts of spurned women who seek revenge on their former lovers by dancing men to their deaths. GISELLE: REMIX – created by Jack Sears and Hannah Grennell and produced by Molly McGeachin at The Project People – reworks these universal themes of love and the loss of innocence through a queer perspective, reimagining Giselle (Sears) as a heartbroken queer individual who turns to the community’s sometimes overly sexual nightlife to satisfy their need for belonging.

Accompanied by a lively dance troupe (Harri Eiffert, Elle Fierce, Spike King and Marie Astrid Mence), Giselle explores her feelings of shame, assimilation and anger before eventually finding comfort in the camaraderie of the queer community, looking up to her elders and setting an example of queer joy and liberation for the next generation.

GISELLE: REMIX is a tour de force of lip sync, comedy, dance and cabaret. The choreography – a collaboration between Sears, Grennell and the troupe – is truly wonderful. The cast’s energy is incredible – the dancers writhe around the stage with outstanding finesse and Sears provides a powerful focal point. A particular highlight is a highly erotic dance to Anal Sex by Only Fire – the cast move seamlessly together, using their few bodies to successfully create the feeling of a packed, sweaty club. The production is accompanied by a brilliant soundtrack of queer icons and hyperpop bangers from Natalie Cole to the late SOPHIE.

The show features some wonderfully playful sound design (Rhys Cook AKA Oberon White) – most memorable being a hilarious mashup between sounds from male gay porn and famous declarations of love from television and film. The lighting (Lucy Adams) is masterfully atmospheric – it changes flawlessly between scenes and the mood on stage.

The set (Blythe Brett) is very plain – a round stage that has audience seated at its very edges for maximum engagement opportunities. There are no props and only rare appearances from a stool. Good use however is made of the stages various entrances and exits – the troupe regularly disappear and reappear from a staircase at the back of the stage as well as tumbling from the left, right and back for more dynamic entrances.

The costumes (Laura Rose Moran-Morris) are well conceived. The cast begin wearing soft pastels and tulle ballerina skirts before casting these off in favour of leather and fetish wear. Their movements also change significantly throughout the show – what was once smooth is now erratic; Giselle’s innocence from the opening scenes completely discarded. Sears puts on an especially amazing performance when dressed in a gimp suit, lip syncing aggressively to a rather frightening audio about various fetishes. Positioned on all fours, he bangs and grips the floor and fabric around him, violently ejecting a near-nonsensical stream of conscious.

My only criticism is that of the guest performer. Each show is to feature a guest performer – Kit Green, Jonny Woo, or Lavinia Co-op – depending on the date and the foremost present for press night. GISELLE: REMIX began with a lip sync from Green that was unfortunately wholly lacklustre.

Their choice of song was far too slow and though they injected some humour through breaking their lip sync and requesting the audience undress them, their asides were lost on anyone not in the very front row. Their performance was also quickly forgotten when the commanding stage presence of Sears and the captivating movement of the dance troupe took over. Green appeared again at the very end of the show – offering a comforting hand to Giselle-cum-Sears as they realised the power in standing united with your fellow marginalised people, but their particular presence added no real value. Hopefully, subsequent guests bring a matching vigour to the show.

GISELLE: REMIX is a must-see – a piece of queer performance that is not to be missed. It is exciting to think of what Sears, Grennell and The Project People may do next.

 


GISELLE: REMIX at the Pleasance Theatre

Reviewed on 12th April 2024

by Flora Doble

Photography by Ali Wright

 

 


 

Previously reviewed at this venue:

GWYNETH GOES SKIING | ★★★ | February 2024
CASTING THE RUNES | ★★★ | October 2023
DIANA: THE UNTOLD AND UNTRUE STORY | ★★★★ | November 2022
DIRTY CORSET | ★★½ | April 2022
SHE SEEKS OUT WOOL | ★★★★ | January 2022
DOG SHOW | ★★★★★ | December 2021
LIGHTS OUT | ★★★★ | October 2021
CATCHING COMETS | ★★★★ | September 2021
EXPRESS G&S | ★★★★ | June 2021
GINGER JOHNSON & PALS | ★★★★ | June 2021

GISELLE: REMIX

GISELLE: REMIX

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Project Dictator

★★½

New Diorama Theatre

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Project Dictator

Project Dictator

New Diorama Theatre

Reviewed – 6th April 2022

★★½

 

“Rhum + Clay have presented us with a rumination rather than a finished thought”

 

On first leaving the auditorium, I really have no idea what I just watched. And the journey home doesn’t lend much clarity to be honest. But for the sake of explaining it to you: In the first half, Spooner and Wells play-act a tyrannical take-over, and in the second, they themselves suffer under a tyrant. But this is a major over-clarification; the story itself feels a lot more bewildering.

In the first half, co-creators, directors and performers Julian Spooner and Matt Wells perform a play within the play which Wells’ character has written, in which he plays a good politician, i.e a boring one who talks about policy and does what he says he’ll do. But Spooner is dissatisfied, feeling the show should be more ‘fun’, so he forcibly takes over as an idiot tyrant, getting more and more tyrannical.

It feels very chaotic in a ‘The Play that Goes Wrong/One Man Two Guvnors’ kind of vibe, and I’m initially concerned that this slapstick-style broad comedy will last the whole 75 minutes. But that concern is overtaken by fear, as Spooner becomes more and more aggressive about audience participation, peaking as he demands everyone repeats after him, “This is a fun show” and so on. He then gets stroppy that not everyone is joining in, and demands that anyone sitting next to someone not joining in puts their hand up. In this way it’s very affecting: I’m suddenly genuinely fearful of my neighbour, and toy with joining in just so I’m not dragged to the front and shamed.

In the second half, the two appear in their underwear, and an overhead voice orders them to perform mime acts in full clown costume while having no communication between each other. The sudden and utter change in tone is initially very affecting: the genuinely beautifully choreographed mime acts combine with Khaled Kurbeh’s ominous soundtrack to create a very compelling and menacing mystery. Who is making the orders? What are they threatening if they’re disobeyed? But much like the excessive chaos in the first act, excessive mystery in the second grows tiring.

As one has come to expect from a Rhum + Clay production, the performances are high energy, high intensity and compelling in themselves. Kurbeh’s accompanying music, a synth-heavy soundscape with use of a small drum kit, is bizarre but fitting. And Blythe Brett’s design is perfectly restrained: Besides a small misbehaving LED sign and a trolly full of props, the only major stage design is a semi-shear curtain which descends after the first act and, with the help of a light shining through, shows a glimpse of the performers’ backstage relationship as well as the sudden changing of pace and atmosphere. It then becomes opaque when the light is shut off. It’s a very simple idea but brilliant. The Pierrot clown costumes in the second half are also a very clever decision: whilst being forced to dress as clowns should seem ridiculous if sinister, Pierrot’s white face paint and loose white clothes lend it an immediate pathos; Spooner and Wells seem tragically trapped.

The problem is not in the execution of the idea, but in the idea itself: it needs a plot. Rhum + Clay have presented us with a rumination rather than a finished thought.

 

Reviewed by Miriam Sallon

Photography by Cesare De Giglio

 


Project Dictator

New Diorama Theatre until 30th April

 

Recently reviewed at this venue:
Moulin Rouge! | ★★★ | Piccadilly Theatre | January 2022
She Seeks Out Wool | ★★★★ | Pleasance Theatre | January 2022
Two Billion Beats | ★★★½ | Orange Tree Theatre | February 2022
The Ballad of Maria Marten | ★★★½ | Wilton’s Music Hall | February 2022

 

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