Review: Kitsch at Canton Bar

Performance company Nicole in Red claim to specialise in theatrical performances in non-theatrical spaces. If this is their specialist area, they are not doing well.

‘Kitsch’ is performed in The Canton Bar on Hay Street as part of Fringe World. While it’s admirable to take theatre out of the traditional theatre spaces and potentially reach out to new audiences – this production is disappointing and hard to engage with.

As the audience take their seats around the stylish bar and woman in a tight leopard print dress and fishnet stockings, wearing a blonde wig starts to talk. Who knows what she said because she lacked the essential acting skill of projection. We were sitting at the front of the crowd and could hardly hear anything she said. She had some banter about men, and life and love…maybe..we struggled to catch any of it.

To add to the difficulty in hearing, the production has chosen to play a background soundtrack of a jazz band and ambient noise-  as it the noise of being in a bar wasn’t already enough.

As the blonde wigged lady stopped talking, another blonde wigged lady in a leopard skin print dress and fishnet stockings took over, slowly you realised their were many clones of the first performer scattered around the room.

One of the characters was blessed with having a much more visual performance, she created items to declare her love and affection on a sewing machine in a comical sequence that was very engaging. After that it switched back to people you couldn’t hear very well.  ‘

‘Kitsch’ was a disappointing show, and given the plethora of shows on around town at the moment, there are many other worth your time.

The show was directed by Joe Lui, and starred Nicole Warren, Georgia King, Holly Garvey, Dawn Pascoe, Ruth Battle and Beth Sheldon

Kitsch is at The Canton Bar for Fringe World until Friday February 8th.

Graeme Watson