Camden People's Theatre Archives - Page 3 of 13

Sh!t Actually

Camden People’s Theatre

Reviewed – 5th December 2019

★★★★

“A bit mad, a bit radical, wholly enjoyable, Sh!t Actually is a welcome antidote to all of the sugary holiday fluff”

In 2003, Britain’s smash holiday hit Love Actually rocketed onto the list of the world’s favourite Christmas films, landing among big hitters such as The Muppet Christmas Carol, Home Alone, and How the Grinch Stole Christmas. As the most recent of these classic films, it’s surprising to watch how poorly the starry, treacle-sweet Love Actually has aged. In the last few years, the film has been called out repeatedly for the blatant sexism that defines almost every storyline: from Colin Firth’s character falling in love with his Portuguese maid who can’t talk to him, to Hugh Grant’s “chubby” but nevertheless sexy secretary, whose weight is a running gag. In the post-MeToo era, Love Actually has become problematic, if not downright cringe, viewing.

Sh!t Theatre, who’ve had recent success at Edinburgh and the Soho Theatre with their 2019 show Sh!t Theatre Drink Rum with Expats, are back this holiday season to roast the nation’s well-loved Christmas classic. If you’ve been to a Sh!t Theatre show before, you’ll know the pair of performance artists, Rebecca Biscuit and Louise Mothersole, combine a variety of theatrical elements in their distinct comedy style, including video, singing, dancing, silly costumes, and alcohol for the audience.

Biscuit and Mothersole are very funny in this scorching satire. In just fifty-five minutes, they recap the film, highlighting the creepy, the bad, and the worse in Love Actually’s love stories. How romantic is it, actually, when we discover the man who’s always rude to Keira Knightley’s character is secretly obsessed with her, and films her without her knowledge? Is it really romantic to chase a girl you’ve never spoken to through the airport? Although many of the points in the show, and even a fair few of the jokes, aren’t original – much of the content seems to draw quite heavily from a 2013 Jezebel article written by Lindy West – the framing of it as performance art is uniquely entertaining, and Biscuit and Mothersole add their own attacks.

From the number of ‘true love’ stories involving two people who’ve never talked to each other, to the relentless roll-neck jumpers, no element of Love Actually is left unscathed. Biscuit and Mothersole make excellent use of video, playing clips from the film with alternate subtitles, alternate music, and interspersed with external clips: Alan Rickman as Snape makes a particularly hilarious appearance. One warning, however: there are several clips of graphic porn, which may make Sh!t Actually one of the least family-friendly Christmas shows in London this year.

There’s also brief nudity during Biscuit and Mothersole’s costume changes. The nudity, as well as the nude bodysuits the two wear, is an apt feminist statement. In opposition to Love Actually, which objectifies, fetishises, and ridicules its female bodies, Biscuit and Mothersole make a visual argument for body positivity. In the background, scenes from the film play, while in the foreground we see real women’s bodies, displayed deliberately and autonomously in dissent. Biscuit and Mothersole rebel against the toxic ideology on the screen using their bodies and voices – loud singing, dancing, and energetic physical comedy – to protest the misogynist fantasy of quiet, highly-sexualised women Love Actually exemplifies.

A bit mad, a bit radical, wholly enjoyable, Sh!t Actually is a welcome antidote to all of the sugary holiday fluff, and the insidious sexism seeping through ‘heart-warming’ Christmas films. There should be no room in 2019 for a film that argues love means winning sexy women, with whom you’ve never had a real conversation, by grand ‘romantic’ (predatory) gestures. Isn’t it time to acknowledge that Love Actually is shit, actually?

Reviewed by Addison Waite

Photography by Jen Smethurst

Sh!t Actually

Camden People’s Theatre until 21st December

Last ten shows reviewed at this venue:

Hot Flushes – The Musical | ★★★ | June 2019

Ophelia Rewound | ★★★★ | August 2019

The Indecent Musings Of Miss Doncaster 2007 | ★★★½ | August 2019

A Haunted Existence | ★★★★ | October 2019

Trigger Warning | ★★★ | October 2019

I, Incel | ★★★ | November 2019

Click here to see our most recent reviews

★★★

“This is a night intended to inform, using clever playful techniques at times, about an unsettling subculture”

The audience file into the small Camden People’s Theatre a little nervously. A man stands at a lectern, smiling and smartly dressed, as classical music plays. Nothing could feel further from the dark world of the ‘involuntary celibate’ culture that has seen murderous consequences.

For those of us not quite sure what to expect of I, Incel, written and performed by Christopher Montague, the initial effect proves surprisingly accurate. The performance unfolds as a presentation, with slides and props to boot. It’s not quite as simple as it seems, though, with dark undertones referenced as the hour passes as Montague begins to step away from his lectern and seemingly his balanced, removed persona.

As all-too-long YouTube videos made by now notorious young men identifying as incels play behind him, our speaker seems to transform. He vapes as he gazes at a long leather jacket that hangs imposingly to one side of the stage. The lighting (cleverly deployed throughout by Lucy Adams) dips and Montague briefly becomes a silhouette… before returning briskly to his speaker’s podium and persona as the video ends.

I, Incel is presented as a work in development, and at times this shows. This notion of Montague slipping into, being drawn towards, the darkness of incel culture doesn’t quite hold, which is a shame as it suggests a greater darkness that would really help throw the shadows of the piece into relief. Montague himself, while a likeable performer, is perhaps part of the reason for the production feeling a little one-note; some lines are delivered with timing just a fraction off, robbing them of the dark humour or shock value they could have offered. And when he crosses the stage to interact moodily with the hanging jacket, it’s hard to feel too moved by his brooding; his demeanour otherwise just feels too, well, nice, despite his references to seeing how close he could have come to incel mindsets in his youth.

The after-show feedback form asks how much audience members knew about incels before coming to the show, and whether the content went too far or not far enough. This suggests an apt preoccupation with some areas that will benefit from more development. It’s a conundrum; so many of those electing to come to a show on this topic will, of course, probably have a decent level of understanding already, and with that in mind the material felt rather basic. But then of course Montague and his consultant producer, Hannah Elsy, will want to ensure that this can act as a primer for those new to this especially torrid corner of toxic masculinity. It’s a balance that still needs tweaking, and a tricky one at that.

Still, criticism of a performer for being too warm and content for being too accessible hardly feels fair. This is a night intended to inform, using clever playful techniques at times, about an unsettling subculture that has manifested in tragedy before and will, one fears, do so again. Any production designed to bring this into the sunlight is to be commended, especially one as thoughtful as I, Incel.

Reviewed by Abi Davies

Photography by Georgie Lanfranchi

Camden People’s Theatre

Reviewed – 5th December 2019

★★★★

“A bit mad, a bit radical, wholly enjoyable, Sh!t Actually is a welcome antidote to all of the sugary holiday fluff”

Reviewed by Addison Waite

Photography by Jen Smethurst

Sh!t Actually

Camden People’s Theatre until 21st December

Last ten shows reviewed at this venue:

Camden People’s Theatre

Reviewed – 1st November 2019

★★★

“This is a night intended to inform, using clever playful techniques at times, about an unsettling subculture”

The audience file into the small Camden People’s Theatre a little nervously. A man stands at a lectern, smiling and smartly dressed, as classical music plays. Nothing could feel further from the dark world of the ‘involuntary celibate’ culture that has seen murderous consequences.

Reviewed by Abi Davies

Photography by Georgie Lanfranchi

I, Incel

Camden People’s Theatre until 2nd November

Last ten shows reviewed at this venue: