We don’t get to quote our favourite artist very often. No, it’s not Beyonce, calm yourself. It’s actually Louise Bourgeois, who, in her time, was the Beyonce of avant-garde sculpture. Bourgeois once embroidered onto a napkin ‘I have been to hell and back. And let me tell you, it was wonderful’. Tonight, Luke Bayer, in his one-man show Diva : Live from Hell at the Turbine Theatre, took us to hell and back. And let me tell you, it was pretty damn good.
The story is the sorry tale of Desmond Channing, current resident of hell. In life Desmond was the President of the Ronald Reagan High School Drama Club, but was eventually impeached and ousted for the murder of his dramatic nemesis Evan Harris. Evan’s only crime was to be a better actor and person than Desmond was. At first, it seems that Desmond is merely a poisonous narcissist with dreams of being the biggest star in the sky. His hissy belittling of the people around him is repellent but hardly exceptional in the annals of high school bullying. He is in no way likable but still, an eternity burning in hell seems a little harsh for being an adolescent a**hole. It’s only when his eventual crimes are performed that the reason for his damnation is crystallized. Up until that point he is awful, but the dramatic switch to truly evil gives the play a satisfyingly dark twist. The murder of Evan is gory, gruesome and character defining. The audience cannot escape the sight of Desmond’s car repeatedly running over ‘the squashed casserole of his face’ .
Bayer is adept at all the adolescent characters he plays as well as the occasional adult . Not only do his accents successfully hop from one character to another but, in one notable scene, set in a movie theatre, he literally hops from one seat to another while playing four different characters at once. It is slick without being glib and each character springs to life in a compelling torrent that is exhausting, but in a good way, like a pumping fitness class.
It is a comedy; however dark it gets. There are plenty of caustic one liners that elicit guilty laughs from an audience straining to keep up with the pace as it barrels towards damnation. There is a lot of singing, after all Desmond is a diva, which Bayer has the accomplished vocal range to carry although the music is mainly a narrative vehicle. The highlight is really the revelation of true evil beneath the petty machinations of an entertainingly self-obsessed drama queen. Think about that as you sing Break My Soul into the mirror tonight.
Book & characters by Nora Brigid Monahan Music & lyrics by Alexander Sage Oyen Produced by Alistair Lindsay
for the Unusual Theatre Company and directed by Joe McNeice.
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.
