GRISLY GLEE
If there may be any facet of 21c Western tradition sorely in want of being laughed at, it s ithe morbid fascination with police-procedural telly,, particularly true-crime and its ugly forensics. Murder has fascinated folks ever since Jack the Ripper, however the digital age has made it extra intensely. fictionalized and memorialized, screened and podcasted-about all the way in which from the wild fringes to infinite BBC Sounds trails (forgetting the Corporation’s outdated Quaecunque motto: look it up)
So hurrah for John Brittain, Matthew Floyd Jones and Fabian Aloise, and their joyful invention of Kathy and Stella, from Beverley close to Hull, younger adults consoling their failure-to- launch by operating a halfbaked true crime podcast chat from Kathy’s Mum’s storage. And, gloriously, insisting on involving themselves within the matter of the Hull Decapitator, to the irritation of the police DI Shaw (Elliotte Williams-N’Dure, who will get a beautiful second-half quantity concerning the problem of those large investigations and the way typically theres “no justice – just us”). Their public appeals are fantastic – illustrated by an ensemble of the deluded followers dancing round them and features like “If you know anyone with a history of arson and animal torture in the Beverley area…”
Kathy, the brighter researcher of the pair, had dropped out of University in despair. Stella is a sacked beautician. A touching set of flashbacks to their baby selves bonding over homicide books somewhat than Sweet Valley High provides us the story, and there may be actual coronary heart of their relationship. As Stella’s mom sings, Kathy is “the only one who understands you, the only one who can actually stand you”. But it threatens to finish when Kathy, in a hilariously dangerous style morgue scene, learns that she might examine forensics as a level, and transfer her actual life on. A considerate duet for our age has them each referring to the wonders of the web; Stella singing concerning the consolation of the “approooooval of strangers, Kathy college programs.
They’re an exquisite pair, Rebekah Hinds as Stella in fishnets, shorts and miniskirt, Bronté Barbé as Kathy in droopy ethnic cotton. Hannah Jane Fox does the complete diva as “Felicia”, the true-crime author who they admire and who will get murdered herself, her head in a bag posted to the podcasters by the thriller villain ( Stella is aware of she shouldn’t have taken a selfie with it…). All the forged are stuffed with glee; the songs (Floyd Jones is musical director, composer and co-lyricist) are sharp energy ballads.
It’s been on the fringe in 2022 and Manchester final yr. And it’s heartening to occur upon it within the little Ambassadors, correct West End. Because one thing good is occurring when a younger group, exterior the established and celebrated mainstream, get collectively and make a present on the fringes, daring to be completely different, dealing with the perils of launching it it down the slipway to fill the stalls with stunned glee. Especially when the product is recent but additionally disciplined, worked-up with a meticulous affection typically lacking from weary lollipop revivals. A decade in the past it was Mischief Theatre with the Goes-Wrong performs. In 2017 it was SIX, two years later Operarion Mincemeat. Both are actually mainstream must-sees. This may very well be heading that approach.
field workplace atgtickets.com to 14 Sept
score 4
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