TESTO
Purcell Room
★★★
“pushes the boundaries, defies expectations and refuses to conform”
Award winning drag artist, Wet Mess, closes the 2025 tour of their first full length solo show, ‘TESTO’, in London. Dismantling the boundaries of gender, transition, performance and more, this surrealist fever dream is as cocky as it is vulnerable. Self-described as “horny for your confusion”, the abstraction and pacing do lose me in places. However, the work remains provocative, inventive and daringly experimental – the kind of theatre we need more of.
Out of a green haze, the words ‘tell us about a dream’ glow red before taking us on an erotic journey involving butter that sets the tone for the evening. ‘TESTO’ explores transmasculinity in a dreamlike structure, weaving searching questions and real life interviews with movement and lip syncs. Themes surface in waves, some provocative, some reflective, others more ordinary. Only it’s not a dream.
Created by Wet Mess and produced by Metal & Water (Nancy May Roberts & Lucia Fortune Ely), ‘TESTO’ is anarchic and affecting. Beneath the swagger and spectacle lies a yearning to be seen, with all the contradictions and mixed emotions visibility entails. The closing sequence cycles the words ‘you are afraid but awake,’ anchoring the surreal in stark reality. Wet Mess also fulfils one interviewee’s wish to be mundane by fashioning a sofa from all that’s been discarded and cracking a beer. That said, it isn’t always layered, such as the giant gender sausages and defiant nude lip sync of Loreen’s ‘Euphoria’. Some of the more surreal sections elude me entirely – I’m looking at you butter bath. The pacing also falters: most sections linger a beat too long and a couple of passages seem to run out of development, creating gaps in momentum.
Wet Mess’ movement is an almost continuous thread, marked by strong shapes, intriguing lines and bursts of frenetic energy. However, it feels surprisingly restrained in places. The surreal butter dream, for instance, doesn’t lead into a dynamic grand entrance but some slightly anticlimactic swaggering. The sequence of jerking and humping risks becoming repetitive after a while. Though perhaps this is a deliberate subversion of expectations.
Wet Mess delivers an arresting performance, brimming with cockiness yet tempered by rawness and vulnerability. It is an assured, literally bare all display marked by precise lip syncs, strong movement and polished delivery. The lip syncing itself is cleverly varied, avoiding predictability, with controversial recordings sharpening the piece’s edge.
Ruta Irbīte’s set design is striking: a vulva like red curtain gives way to a phallic catwalk. Oversized sausages playfully suggest symbols of gender identity.
Baby’s evocative sound design weaves voices, vocalisations, synth and textured noise into a distinctive soundscape that shapes the atmosphere of each section and underscores the deeper messages.
Joshie Harriette’s lighting design conjures dreamlike illusions through deft combinations of smoke and light. Inventive spotlight positioning creates striking contrasts between light and shadow, while bursts of flashing intensify key moments.
Lambdog1066’s costume design is artful and layered, opening with a high fashion boxing cape – reclaiming a traditionally masculine symbol – and closing with a curtain repurposed as a robe – underscoring the interplay between spectacle and intimacy. Ultimately, the stripping away of all clothing functions as a powerful rejection of gender conformity.
‘TESTO’ pushes the boundaries, defies expectations and refuses to conform. But does it work as a cohesive show? I’m less sure. Still, that uncertainty doesn’t diminish its impact and the spectacle is worth witnessing, even if we never get to the bottom of the butter.
TESTO
Purcell Room
Reviewed on 28th November 2025
by Hannah Bothelton
Photography by Lesley Martin
Previously reviewed at Southbank Centre venues:
THE BRIDE AND THE GOODNIGHT CINDERELLA | ★★★★ | September 2025
NATURE THEATER OF OKLAHOMA: NO PRESIDENT | ★★★ | July 2025
AN ALPINE SYMPHONY | ★★★★ | February 2025
THE EMPLOYEES | ★★★★★ | January 2025
THE CREAKERS | ★★★★ | December 2024
DUCK POND | ★★★★ | December 2024
