Regretxit ☆☆☆☆
Etcetera Theatre ( part of Camden Fringe)
For those unable to make it up from London to the Edinburgh Fringe for the 20th year in a row there is always the more convenient, and accessible by tube, Camden Fringe. In its 14th year and running up until 25th August there is plenty of time to be stuffed from all angles with more theater than can possibly be digested. If you just fancy just a little bite then Regretxit, at the Etcetera Theater, is a little show, in a little venue with a lot going for it.
Do not be put off by the Brexit reference in the title. Though Brexit looms throughout, like it has with all our lives, this monologue is not a political one. Unless you count the politics of sex, relationships and regret. What you get is a stage full of camp fantasies concocted by the rather clever Matthew Cleverly. It is a funny, zooming, helter-skelter ride incorporating lip syncing, puppetry, slapstick, singing and, dare we say it, powerpoint.
Regretxit is the tale of fickle Matt who, when he faces a big choice, gets caught up in his own oddball fantasies about where those choices might lead. The choices are often about sex. At one point, on the thrilling verge of Matt gorging himself on a Ukrainian co-worker he, and the audience, end up distracted by a wrestling match between Matt’s roommate and his aunt.
The show smartly creates a thread between the bizarre fantasies that cause Matt to fall in and out of his relationships and the spurious fantasies on either side of the Brexit debate. Even better it makes a larger observation about how people often fall in and out of relationships because of unreasonable fantasies of something better.
Cleverly zooms through his material at breakneck speed slipping from Welsh lilt to throaty Ukrainian with (barely) a mishap. He has a Seussical frenzy that manages to be physical yet focused. Whilst not suited to be a singer he manages a rousing, if overlong, remix of Destiny’s Childs Independent Women that is magically transformed into “United Kingdom. Independent. Oh, how hard could that be?’
The show is about an hour in length but manages to span the full range of good writing, visual humor, comic pacing and good old-fashioned sauce. Grab a cold pint at the Oxford Arms downstairs and go get your Fringe on. Who needs to travel all that way to Edinburgh?
Regretxit
Directed by Aneira Evans
http://www.etceteratheatre.com/
Until August 11 th 2019
Review by Andrew HebdenQueerguru Correspondent Andrew Hebden is a MEDIA & CULTURAL STUDIES graduate spending his career between London, Beijing and NYC as an expert in media and social trends. As part of the expanding minimalist FIRE movement he recently returned to the UK and lives in Soho. He devotes as much time as possible to the movies, theatre and the gym. His favorite thing is to try something (anything) new every day.
Labels: 2019, Andrew Hebden, London Theatre, treview
