FARM FATALE
Queen Elizabeth Hall
★★★
“if you’re up for a slightly trippy, truly unforgettable night of theatre, you’re in the right place”
Renowned French theatre maker Philippe Quesne’s ‘Farm Fatale’ crosses the Channel for a delightfully baffling UK debut. Blending performance art, social commentary and absurdist theatre, it’s nothing if not unique.
A band of scarecrows listens for birds long gone after the Anthropocene apocalypse. With nothing left to guard, the scarecrows find new meaning through music, activism and sacks of whimsy.
Created, designed and directed by Philippe Quesne of Vivarium Studio, ‘Farm Fatale’ drifts through a dreamlike world that poses more questions than it answers. With dramaturgy by Martin Valdés Stauber and Camille Louis, the scarecrows face a deeply existential question: who are we without purpose? Yet it’s handled with such humour, innocence and absurdity that the question feels anything but bleak. Narratively, the concept could use more bite – the ecological activism fades into a glowing egg subplot that’s harder to follow, and the apocalyptic logic strains when a neighbouring farmer suddenly has thousands of livestock. However, in tonight’s post show talk, Quesne likens it to a comic strip, and seen that way it clicks.
Quesne’s direction, supported by Jonny Bix Bongers and Dennis Metaxas, blends stillness and spectacle through sparse staging, suspended objects and a towering scaffold. The physical comedy is charming, full of knowingly exaggerated movements. The masks cleverly exaggerate the scarecrows’ grotesque features, though glimpses of human eyes and teeth beneath gives them a slightly unsettling ‘Silence of the Lambs’ edge. Quesne also sees the cast doubling as a band, serving whimsical live music including an entertaining mashup of ‘Dingle Dangle Scarecrow’ with a classic RnB beat – though the moment itself is one of the piece’s quirkier detours.
Quesne’s expansive white set, created with Nicole Marianna Wytyczak, evokes the moment cartoon characters run out of frame into nothingness – both surreal and quietly existential. Suspended objects add a playful deconstruction, while DIY props – including a pig piano – extend the show’s eccentric scarecrow logic. Nora Stocker’s costumes give each scarecrow a distinct personality, and Brigitte Frank’s masks heighten the surreality. Pit Schultheiss’ lighting shifts from stark white to kaleidoscopic colour, and Robert Göing and Anthony Hughes’ sound design layers pastoral textures across the canvas.
The ensemble of Léo Gobin, Sébastien Jacobs, Nuno Lucas, Anne Steffens and Gaëtan Vourc’h brings real joy and camaraderie to this band of scarecrows as they search for a new path. Their improv instincts and musicianship are sharp, and there’s some impressive singing too – though the masks occasionally make it tricky to tell who’s doing what. Even so, the ensemble’s spark and cohesion shine through.
‘Farm Fatale’ is more bonkers than barnyard – but if you’re up for a slightly trippy, truly unforgettable night of theatre, you’re in the right place.
FARM FATALE
Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank
Farm Fatale is part of the Southbank Centre’s 75th anniversary programme
Reviewed on 15th May 2026
by Hannah Bothelton
Photography by Martin Argyroglo
