Candy Gigi Friday Night Sinner★★★★
Soho Theatre London
There are some things that only a woman can say about being a woman. There are some things that only a Jewish person can say about being Jewish. Candy Gigi says, sings, shouts and vomits them all at the Soho Theatre. And it’s hilarious.
Candy Gigi believes she was born to bask in the heat of fame. She wants to ‘put the Star in the Star of David’. She wants to ‘put the ass in Passover’. And, if it all works out, to become ‘the Jewish Barabara Streisand’. However, currently, her life is putting the bore in Borehamwood. Desperate to get another starring role after winning £50 in Borehamwood’s Got Talent she fears that all that is left for her is domestic hell with an unwanted, unattractive husband. Time is running out for both her theatrical ambitions and her ovaries. She lives constantly under her mother’s admonition that if she doesn’t play the good Jewish wife and have lots and lots of lovely kosher kids she will be ‘finishing what Hitler started’.
Candy Gigi could easily be mistaken for a drag queen. The humour is raw, physical and close to the bone. The first thing that happens is that the usher strongly suggests paying close attention to the trigger warning before entering. Nothing is going to be off limits to the woman who wants ‘to be more famous than Anne Frank’. For this critic, there was that odd, out-of-body sensation, of trying to digest the content as a sensitive viewer, and then having to abandon the preconceptions of what that means. Candy Gigi makes humour out of the female body, without laughing at women. She makes humour out of Jewish sensibilities, without denying or degrading them. Gigi is an expert at turning a gasp into a laugh.
The program gives credit to Annie Brooks, the puppet maker, and deservedly so. Candy’s subconscious makes frequent stage appearances as an enormous vagina. Labia with a life of their own. And the voice of god channeled through a prosthetic penis. As for the lactating boobs, all we can say is that the show involves audience participation, so perhaps bring an umbrella.
Candy Gigi is a glorious grotesque. More cerebral than a clown, and with a salty dose of satire. She clambers through the audience, mowing down their expectations and invading their comfort zones. It’s a stiff drink that you worry may have been spiked. It might choke you, it might burn your throat, but it also might just hit the spot.
Review by ANDREW HEBDENQueerguru Contributing Editor 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.
