Not F**kin’ Sorry! ☆☆☆
Soho Theatre, London
Not F**kin Sorry is a self-styled ‘crip punk’ performance. Not Your Circus Dog Collective and Access All Areas entertain with message driven satirical set pieces about how neurally atypical people are treated, mixed with cabaret style audience participation.
Devised and embodied by atypical performers DJ (Housni Hassan), Steph Newman, Emma Selwyn and Adam Smith the whole piece is set under the fake umbrella of a Children In Need style charity fundraiser. Remember those? Where it is judged which life is worthy of charity and which is not, with the nagging truth that it will be the tear jerkers, the cute or the most visually tragic that will cannibalize funding to the rest. The performers grab it with all hands and make it their own.
The set pieces include a game of Countdown. The chosen vowels and consonants have an uncomfortable habit of spelling word that are not supposed to be heard in a conversation with or about someone with a difference and yet are heard constantly (hint – the letters RETARD rearranged still only spell RETARD). Another set piece has DJ et al lipsyncing the real words of comedians who include derogatory language about differences for laughs.
It sounds doom laden but really isn’t. The satire is smart without being too intellectualized. It has sweat and slapstick and clowning liberally applied.
The audience is played with. They are eased in to celebrating with the performers that everyone likes sex, everyone is sexy, despite of or because of who they are. Then it spills over into discomfitingly highlighting that there is a prurient interest in the sex lives of those who are atypical. There is real bite as it swings from a joyous Leave Your Hat On strip tease that the performers ruled to a pay per minute confessional where there is never enough money to satisfy the audience’s interest.
The toughest part of the night is a Where Are They Now catch up of some of the people who were on Children In Need. It listed the real stories of the atypical who were abused, ignored and eventually murdered. The list was heartbreakingly long.
The show is an hour long and a few of the audience participation pieces need shortening to maintain momentum. It is, however, conceptually clever, provocative without being berating, revealing in its satire and unapologetic in delivery.
Tue 29 Oct – Fri 1 Nov 2019
https://sohotheatre.com/shows/not-fkin-sorry/
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.
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