★★★★

“A ricocheting trip through cabaret, musical, farce, drama, concert, pantomime, horror and fairground ride”

If you’re familiar with Emma Rice’s way of working, whether with Knee High or her current Wise Children company, you will know what to expect when you wander into one of her shows. And you won’t be disappointed with her take on Charles Perrault’s seventeenth century French folktale, ‘Bluebeard’. Apart from slicing up the title into two separate words – ”Blue Beard” – she has also spliced the slim story line, weaving it into a chaotic parable of her own, and throwing in seemingly unconnected subplots and bizarre characters. The beauty of Rice’s productions, though, is how each unruly element of her anarchic approach eventually has a point. Why, for example, is the bellowing Mother Superior of her convent sporting an unconvincing fake, blue beard? Is it just a tacky pun on the title? You need to wait for the strikingly resonant finale to find your answer.

Although it sometimes seems to take a while to get there, it is well worth the journey. A ricocheting trip through cabaret, musical, farce, drama, concert, pantomime, horror and fairground ride. Sometimes it feels like they are making it up on the spot, but we know that they left the improvisation behind in the rehearsal room, and that this is a precise evocation of a dark world where magic and danger lie side by side.

Most of the first act steers clear of the original story, barely dipping its toes into Perrault’s tale. We are in the convent, inhabited by the sisters of the Three F’s (Fearful, Fucked and Furious). Katy Owen, as the Mother Superior, starts to tell a story of a widow (Treasure, played by a sultry Patrycja Kujawska) and her two daughters, Trouble (Stephanie Hockley) and Lucky (Robyn Sinclair). The two girls, coated in years of unconditional love and recently fatherless, are being pushed out into the world to find their way. They soon discover that their cosseted sense of freedom and security is juicy game in a predatory male world. Which is where we find the charismatically menacing Blue Beard (Tristan Sturrock), a claret-clad magician who promptly saws Lucky in half before putting her back together again as his wife. The sleight of hand, illusory dissection is a portent of the grim reality that Blue Beards previous wives are locked away, in bloodied pieces in a secret room of his mansion. It is probably worth pointing out here that a quick read of the original story is advisable before coming to the show.

When Lucky discovers the dead bodies of Blue Beard’s former wives, she is determined not to join their ranks. Cue her sister and mother (in the original it was her brothers, but as this is a modern tale of the power of sisterhood, it is important to get the gender right). Meanwhile, a lost boy (Adam Minsky) is wandering around searching for his older sister (Mirabelle Gremaud). A confusing subtext. At first. But when you grasp the significance, it is hauntingly chilling.

Throughout the show the music simmers underneath and bubbles to the surface in a series of gorgeous melodies. Rooted in folk, Stu Barker’s compositions slot neatly into the narrative and allow the cast to show off their vocal and musical skills; Gremaud who acrobatically switches instruments while lithely sliding into and out of the main action. Never less than stirring, the solos and harmonies float above the acoustic accompaniment of piano, harp, guitar and percussion. Luscious moments juxtaposed against a brutal and bloody backdrop.

The climax is quite harrowing, delivered with undeniable passion, but perhaps spelt out in letters that are too bold. Yet there is no ignoring the urgent truth that it addresses – that of male coercive behaviour and violence towards women. When Katy Owen strips herself out of her Mother Superior habits, a heartrending reveal is discovered. Owen’s stark passion can take your breath away. We realise the fierce undercurrent of grief and loss that has been hidden beneath a haphazard musical drama that is full of laughs. A bewitching combination.

TWO STRANGERS (CARRY A CAKE ACROSS NEW YORK) at the Criterion Theatre

★★★★★

“the whole show has the feel of a classic, like it has been around for ever, yet it still glows with a freshness and streetwise modernism”

The move from an off-West End theatre into the West End inevitable comes with risks and expectations. Even if it follows a sell-out run, such as enjoyed by Jim Barne and Kit Buchan’s “Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York)” last year at Kiln Theatre. But these two writers have successfully carried a show across London without dropping a crumb, keeping an already perfect concoction fully intact. For anyone who saw it in its smaller setting, the fear that it may have lost its heart and its intimacy in transit is immediately quashed. For anyone who hasn’t seen it before, it is a slice of the West End that is mouth-wateringly irresistible.

The two strangers in question are Dougal (Sam Tutty) and Robin (Dujonna Gift). Dougal is in New York for a whirlwind thirty-six hours, having flown in for the wedding of his father who abandoned him before he was born. Robin, the sister of the bride, has been given the thankless task of meeting him at the airport. Dougal is bubbling with puppy-dog elation, excited at the prospect of meeting his dad and of being in ‘The Big Apple’. He lives in a dreamworld; a world of hope that he has built from the many films he has watched. Robin exists in a land of cynicism, tethered to reality by the ghosts of past, present and future. They are chalk and cheese.

On the surface we are in Rom-com territory. But this unique musical makes us think again. It pays homage to the genre, but subverts it with affection and stunning inventiveness. Barne and Buchan – the writers of the book, music and lyrics – are childhood friends who have grown up together through music. And it shows. Amazingly they wrote it before either had been to New York, which is what probably gives it its magical quality, viewing the city like it’s a mythical land of ‘Oz’. Yet beneath the fairy-tale stardust is a character driven story that is funny, natural and heart-warming.

“Tutty can cast a laugh-out-loud one-liner and wrap it around a tear-jerking anecdote with worldly skill”

The show is chock-a-block with standout musical numbers. Yet still there is more than enough dialogue, giving the two actors plenty to chew on, and to showcase their formidable acting skills. Their range, which can rake up many emotions, matches their vocal versatility. From the opening, crowd-pleasing overture, ‘New York’, we get an instant picture of the two personalities. Sam Tutty’s Dougal is intensely irritating but insanely vulnerable and gorgeous. Tutty can cast a laugh-out-loud one-liner and wrap it around a tear-jerking anecdote with worldly skill. His brash, ingenuous shell is dangerously fragile. Dujonna Gift, as Robin, is the antithesis of the American Dream, hard yet vulnerable, and cannot seem to shake off her nightmares – the latest of which has arrived in the form of her prospective nephew-in-law. They initially clash, but the sparks that fly are hot enough to weld them together.

Through the songs they bond – at first reluctantly. ‘On the App’ is a sensational staccato number that showcases the clever lyrics that run through the show. Like many of the songs it is rhapsodic in nature, the distinct rhythms giving way to a smooth, flowing chorus. Act Two opener, ‘The Hangover Duet’ is similarly eclectic. ‘The Argument’, with its semi-spoken, urban rap, is delivered with precision timing by Gift and Tutty. The delivery and lyrical content of the songs are razor sharp, often cutting open heartrending and bitter reveals. ‘Under the Mistletoe’, a gorgeous parody of the seasonal hits that crowd the airwaves every year, rises above pastiche as it mocks its source material while moulding itself into an instant classic of its own. In fact, the whole show has the feel of a classic, like it has been around for ever, yet it still glows with a freshness and streetwise modernism. Throw in a sumptuous ballad – Tutty’s ‘Dad’ or ‘About to Go In’. Or Gift’s ‘This Year’ and ‘He Doesn’t Exist’ – and you have a score that lifts the heart and raises the audience to its feet.

Tim Jackson’s lively production sets the action on a revolve that circles Soutra Gilmour’s ingenious set of piles of greyed-out suitcases that open and close to reveal the various locations, props, and the surprises and secrets of our protagonists. And at the centre are Tutty and Gift, a pair whose chemistry fills the air with fizzing electricity. “Two Strangers” (as the title is lovingly shortened to) is part musical, part movie, part fairy-tale, part dream. But wholly unmissable.

Tag Archives: Jonathan Evans

BLUE BEARD

★★★★

Battersea Arts Centre

BLUE BEARD at the Battersea Arts Centre

★★★★

“A ricocheting trip through cabaret, musical, farce, drama, concert, pantomime, horror and fairground ride”

BLUE BEARD at the Battersea Arts Centre

Reviewed on 25th April 2024

by Jonathan Evans

Photography by Steve Tanner

Previously reviewed at this venue:

SOLSTICE | ★★★★ | December 2023

LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD | ★★½ | December 2022

TANZ | ★★★★ | November 2022

HOFESH SHECTER: CONTEMPORARY DANCE 2 | ★★★★★ | October 2022

BLUE BEARD

BLUE BEARD

Click here to see our Recommended Shows page

TWO STRANGERS (CARRY A CAKE ACROSS NEW YORK)

★★★★★

Criterion Theatre

TWO STRANGERS (CARRY A CAKE ACROSS NEW YORK) at the Criterion Theatre

★★★★★

“the whole show has the feel of a classic, like it has been around for ever, yet it still glows with a freshness and streetwise modernism”

“Tutty can cast a laugh-out-loud one-liner and wrap it around a tear-jerking anecdote with worldly skill”