Boys Club
Jacksons Lane
Reviewed – 12th July 2017
⭐️⭐️⭐️
“A cocktail of intelligent comedy and silliness”
Boy’s Club was a cocktail of intelligent comedy and silliness with a fruity twist of socio-politics that stirred this chaotic performance.
This play is about two unemployed actresses who pass for men in order to get work. Together, they host the male cabaret ‘Boys Club’ and deliver a testosterone-fuelled routine of dances and macho jokes… until a bloody accident forces them to rethink their options.
Boys Club tackled in an entertaining way the political and economic situation of female performers. Sharlit Deyzac and Leonor Lemée who both devised and performed in this show gave a pretty good performance. They have the beginnings of what could be a fantastic production. The elements to making this production even better are all there but it was a shame to see the few golden opportunities missed as this piece could have further penetrated the multi-faceted themes they began exploring.
Whilst I was often left laughing at the silly routines or the awkwardly bad pickup lines there were parts of the show that dragged (and not in a good way). The ideas and themes behind the choices made in this production I enjoyed. My mind was stimulated and for the best part of the show I always was able to watch and engage with the act.
Although, the messy nature of this piece was excusable; the lack of character development was not. The way this piece is worked there are three distinctive characters that the audience should have got to know: the male cabaret actors, the female cabaret actresses performing and then them out of role when they find they are being under paid.
As the latter female characters the lack of slickness in the performance again let down what the piece was discussing. These characters tell us how there aren’t enough female roles in the theatre but their level of performance wasn’t different as to when they were drag kinging. At parts I even began preferring them as drag kings.
As the characters all merged into one character it didn’t leave the impact these artists intended. These characters needed to be better defined and thus then they would be able to deconstruct the act of performing adding to the political point made within this piece.
Whilst Boy’s Club showed promise; it was overall a flaccid production.
Reviewed by Daniel Correia
