MR MOORE’S BIZARRE SECRET SOCIETY

Bridewell Theatre

★★★½

“the show is thoroughly feel good”

A forgotten tearoom in Victorian England is a charming place to hide a children’s story. With shades of Dickens, Alice in Wonderland, and just a pinch of Great British Bake Off, Gloria Danili’s Mr Moore’s Bizarre Secret Society is ten out of ten.

1865 society pulls no punches in its treatment of the vulnerable and certainly not for miscreants. Young Leopold Liddell has been sent to live with his imperious Uncle Vernon, while the elderly Mr Moore is evicted and left homeless. The two lives collide in a disused tearoom. They bring it back to life, uncovering its secret past and forming a tribe of misfits and dreamers, drawing the attention of Queen Victoria herself.

The idea behind the play is a winner and the acting is very good. In such a low-budget production, there’s bound to be a lot of doubling. Derek Jeck is commanding as both Lewis Carroll and the villainous Vernon. Sarah Finch is excellent as Queen Victoria, Lord Melmotte and a pirate plus a few other roles. Frazer Blaxland and Elena Mackay are real troupers, playing a stream of constables, judges and street sellers between them. Sofia Inforzato has professional competence beyond her years, taking the child roles, from Alice Liddell to the match seller. The standout is Michael Bertenshaw as Mr Moore. He carries the evening. Henry Camp is a worthy foil as Leopold. Under Roman Stefanski’s direction the role changes are clear and good-natured.

The staging is minimal, and it works. The lighting (Aaron Dootson) does a great deal with very little, and the multimedia is excellent. The sound and video (Julian Butler) enhance the bare stage (Jane Linz Roberts). Victorian London appears around the actors without any need for scenery.

The problem is the first act, which needs severe editing. The set up goes on and on. The pace is flat. Lots of exposition gets in the way of momentum. There are eight meaty scenes before the interval, including Mr Moore’s home, a railway, the London streets, the Old Bailey and the London Library. Not to mention the tearoom. It’s a meander too far. Extraneous details could be swapped for more humour. The Dickens/Alice in Wonderland angle could be mined for more familiar nuggets. This would bring the audience along for the ride, instead of leaving us wondering what is the point.

As a family show, this matters. Modern audiences, especially children, are intolerant of a slow start.

The first act is just about worth sticking with. By the end, the show is thoroughly feel good. The second act, with its Grand Tea Tournament, shows how tight and charming the whole evening could be. A thorough edit would make the tearoom well worth the trip.

MR MOORE’S BIZARRE SECRET SOCIETY

Bridewell Theatre

Reviewed on 2nd October 2026

by Elizabeth Botsford

Photography by Henry Hu

MR MOORE’S BIZARRE SECRET SOCIETY

★★★

“A talented company with a worthwhile idea”

Flamenc-Oh!! starts strong. Carlos Chamorro’s choreography displays the performers’ wonderful talents. David Bastidas sings and struts as the patriarch, hat and cane at the ready. Raquel Ortega is commanding as the matriarch in a black dress. Their young adult children, Anabel Moreno, flaming in red, and Raúl Ortega hammer the floor with real authority. Luis Gallo is the long-haired guitarist, newly returned from travelling the world. His guitar playing is a marvel, fast and exact. The first stretch seems to be building a show with a pulse.

The premise is sound: the older generation of a flamenco family guards the old ways, their children wait to take the baton. Passing tradition to the next generation is the story flamenco has always told about itself, and it is rich enough to carry eighty minutes.

Sadly, it does not get the chance. Directors David Ottone and Juan Ramos let the evening slide into broad, pratfall slapstick, which is particularly incongruous when performed by such talented dancers.

What possibilities are ignored! A guitarist who has seen the world and come home is an open door to the story of how his travels changed the music. Riverdance made a virtue of exploring the influences Irish dance borrows from other cultures. Flamenco has far better material. Its North African inheritance runs through Andalusian music. The Latin American tail wags the dog, with rhythms crossing and recrossing the Atlantic, reshaping the form. Despite starting the show with the well-travelled guitarist, there was no mention of how the spread of Spanish culture carried flamenco round the world. The listings promise a ‘mash-up’ between flamenco and other music. But that isn’t delivered. Extracts of the usual crowd-pleasers, like Purple Rain, are inserted as diversions.

Even the cross-dressing subplot felt gratuitous, when it could have drawn on real flamenco history: Carmen Amaya dancing in trousers, or Manuel Liñán’s men in the bata de cola. Instead, it was played as yet another gag.

The staging is effective (set by Carlos Brayda, costumes by Tatiana de Sarabia, lighting by Juani González Vega). The lighting is used well in encouraging audience participation.

At the curtain call the cast urged the audience to its feet. Was this an invitation to dance? No. A stagehand appeared with a camera to video this manufactured standing ovation. Flamenco prizes duende, that sudden, spontaneous surge of feeling. Here we had the opposite.

A talented company with a worthwhile idea plays for laughs it doesn’t need. More dancing, less gimmickry, and this would be a fantastic show.

Tag Archives: ELIZABETH BOTSFORD

MR MOORE’S BIZARRE SECRET SOCIETY

★★★½

Bridewell Theatre

MR MOORE’S BIZARRE SECRET SOCIETY

Bridewell Theatre

★★★½

“the show is thoroughly feel good”