RIDE THE CYCLONE

Southwark Playhouse Elephant

★★★★

“You come away feeling slightly giddy, but feeling good”

With the proliferation of new musicals roller coasting into theatreland, you’d think it hard to find an original subject to base one around. Currently, there seem to be two ways to go; either you can dredge up an old, safe favourite or else take the quirky route and think outside the box. Jacob Richmond and Brooke Maxwell are obviously advocates of the latter. Six teenagers who die in a freak accident on a fairground ride is an unlikely starting point. A hard sell perhaps? “Ride the Cyclone” first appeared on the Canadian fringe in 2009, before heading Off-Broadway, via Chicago, a few years later. It has taken nearly ten years for it to cross the pond for its European premiere in London but, like those long, concertina queues we used to find ourselves in for the latest fairground attraction, it has been worth the wait.

The musical begins with a mysterious and headless girl circling the stage, singing a short song, dreaming of life. Cut to the even more mysterious ‘The Amazing Karnak’ (Edward Wu), a mechanical fortune teller, watching from on high. He is able to predict the exact moment and method of a person’s death. Even his own – which is very imminent, despite him already being in the afterlife (we can overlook this minor quibble) preparing himself to introduce the perished teenagers. Karnak has a game for them. Each will be given the chance to tell their story, in song, to win the chance to return to life. What follows is a cycle of song and monologue that occasionally baffles but always delights with its mix of absurdist humour, candid insight, bizarre ideas, emotional honesty and musical virtuosity. Irreverently frivolous one moment, genuinely heartfelt the next. Admittedly it borders on the saccharine at times, but the writers’ sharp knife always cuts through it in time.

Wu’s Karnak holds the fort like a camp and deadpan Greek God. First up is Ocean, played with real zest by Baylie Carson. Satirically self-important, she still manages to get the others’ backs up, especially best friend Constance (Robyn Gilbertson). We have to wait a while for Constance’s song – ‘Jawbreaker/Sugar Cloud’ – during which Gilbertson truly shines, revealing a deeper character than one who lost her virginity ‘just to get it out of the way’. A highlight of the show is ‘Noel’s Lament’, a gorgeous cabaret pastiche performed by Damon Gould with expert dancing and a velvet voice as he dreams of being a French prostitute. The eclectic quality of the musical numbers is demonstrated when Bartek Kraszewski’s Mischa brilliantly launches into a gangsta rap number complete with a flourish of breakdancing, while Grace Galloway’s headless girl lends her gorgeous operatic soprano to ‘The Ballad of Jane Doe’; a stunning waltz number that induces goosebumps. Then there is Ricky, whose dream of becoming an intergalactic saviour of sexy cat women (don’t ask) is brought to life in song; stunningly performed by Jack Maverick.

Director Lizzi Gee amazingly manages to bring cohesion to this disparate and totally bizarre concoction of life stories. Her choreography is meticulous, adapting itself to each and every genre and musical style seamlessly. There are moments when the inter-song monologues outstay their welcome, but the overall ride still remains on the peaks rather than the troughs. Musical Director Ben McQuigg’s five-piece band mixes power with clarity, and embraces the variety of the repertoire with panache. Every cast member has the vocal, movement and acting skills to tackle the material, making this eccentric show appear to be the most natural and obvious idea for a musical imaginable.

It is a thrilling ride, one which has that sense of danger even though you want to laugh out loud, right up to its upbeat finale. You come away feeling slightly giddy, but feeling good. Against all better judgement you find yourself wanting to join the queue again for another go.

RIDE THE CYCLONE

Southwark Playhouse Elephant

Reviewed on 19th November 2025

by Jonathan Evans

Photography by Danny Kaan

Recently reviewed at Southwark Playhouse venues:

GWENDA’S GARAGE | ★★★ | November 2025

WYLD WOMAN: THE LEGEND OF SHY GIRL | ★★★★ | October 2025

HOT MESS | ★★★★★ | October 2025

LIFERS | ★★★ | October 2025

THE CHAOS THAT HAS BEEN AND WILL NO DOUBT RETURN | ★★★★★ | September 2025

THE ANIMATOR | ★★★ | August 2025

BRIXTON CALLING | ★★★★ | July 2025

THE WHITE CHIP | ★★★★ | July 2025

WHO IS CLAUDE CAHUN? | ★★ | June 2025

THIS IS MY FAMILY | ★★½ | May 2025

RIDE THE CYCLONE

★★★½

“touching and urgent”

Setting the stage with a deep abyss-like space looming behind a protest banner which stitches together protest messaging now richly associated with the 1980s LGBTQ+ rights movement, from the start, ‘Detention’ by Gary Clarke looks to be an urgent call to action which negotiates an eerily close then and now of queer liberation. What unravels is a dance-led retelling of haunting stories of working-class queer folks’ experiences fighting against, and ultimately living under, Section 28.

The piece is set to cerebral and heart-pounding soundscapes and voice overs which collide with the Narrator, played by Lewey Hellewell, who provides context, facts, and rallying cries to different sequences. The narration mostly provides a necessary emotional and informative thread between the chronology of events and the evocative stories the piece uncovers, but at times feels very on the nose. Largely projected words reading ‘Aids’, as well as various slurs and phrases, also lack subtly across mostly mesmerising choreographic episodes. These heavy-handed projected words take the audience out of the emotion and spoon-feed what they most likely can deduce from the intricate movement and staging of the overall performance. Film projections of a juddery and vexed Thatcher, played by El Perry, and a heart-to-heart from a teacher (Sarah Squires) afraid of what coming out at work might result in, work for much more thought-through audio-visual aids. More integration of film, multi-media, and historical materials like newspaper headlines, banners, and photographs, could make for a much rawer patchwork of theatre seeking to tell queer histories. This, coupled with Nia Wood, Chris Copland, and Keir Martin’s excellent execution of sound and lighting design, would make for a much more serious tone.

Though powerful and emotional messages of resistance and struggle cut through the noise, unfortunately ‘Detention’ somewhat faulters at delivering the urgence and importance of spotlighting the community it is voicing. The gorgeously designed blue costuming (by Hannah Boothman) of the House of Lords sequence, combined with electrifyingly slick choreography performed by Alexandra Bierlaire, Gavin Coward, Mayowa Ogunnaike, Alex Gosmere, and Imogen Wright, and underscored by Hellewell’s chilling delivery of anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric, highlights the real triumphs of what this piece can achieve. Furthermore, the almost teasing portrayal of demonised gay friendly children’s books also gave a fascinating angle to this part of Section 28’s harmful effects.

‘Detention’ does well to integrate LGBTQ+ Switchboard logbook stories into its narrative, carefully weaving the isolated, scared, and angry words of callers against a backdrop of tortured solo physical theatre. One drawback to these moments is the unwavering silence which each caller is met with, which perhaps draws a false message of inaction against vital listening and advice services. Further dialogue between or with call-handlers would provide a richer insight into the service’s history. It is also unfortunate that it seemed the only queer woman’s story represented through the Switchboard segments centred around motherhood and child custody. Enlightening further aspects of queer women’s struggles through Section 28, besides those relating to motherhood, would further enhance the show’s vision to tell an authentic story of a benchmark in queer British history.

Lastly, the inclusion of a local community cast affected by Section 28 in each place the piece is performed in is a beautiful aspect of ‘Detention’s’ mission. Community actors Steve Boodhun, Hedley Sugar-Wells, Tony Chapman-Wilson, Lindsay Nicholson, and Gary Short integrate brilliantly into the cast. The sincerity of stories and collaboration between the dancers and the community actors creates a touching and urgent driving home of the piece’s natural unifying message.

RIDE THE CYCLONE

Southwark Playhouse Elephant

★★★★

“You come away feeling slightly giddy, but feeling good”

RIDE THE CYCLONE

Southwark Playhouse Elephant

Reviewed on 19th November 2025

by Jonathan Evans

Photography by Danny Kaan

Recently reviewed at Southwark Playhouse venues:

RIDE THE CYCLONE

RIDE THE CYCLONE

RIDE THE CYCLONE

DETENTION

Northern Stage

★★★½

“touching and urgent”

DETENTION

Northern Stage

Reviewed on 16th September 2025

by Molly Knox

Photography by Joe Armitage

Previously reviewed by Molly:

DETENTION

DETENTION

DETENTION

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