Lucy and Friends Carrie On Laughing. ⚝⚝⚝
Soho Theatre. London
Remember the horror movie Carrie? With the buckets of blood and the vaginal references? Well Lucy McCormick, at the Soho Theatre London, just delivered Carrie On Laughing, a riot of bloody, absurdist, hamster wheel clowning, uncompromising dad jokes and pussy galore.
It was around the moment Lucy McCormick pulled out a pot of hummus while inserting a carrot into her vagina, gazing unflinchingly into the audience, that this critic thought ‘she really does have an excellent singing voice’. It’s that kind of show. Hard to define either logically or chronologically.
Starting with Cher’s Strong Enough, dressed as a tree, with a slightly confused but up-for-it audience throwing confetti McCormick Catherine-wheeled into her act. Anchored in some burlesque visual staples including pole dancing, an angle grinder spark show, some torch songs, and a gynecologically thorough strip the rest was curated chaos.
McCormick puts it all out there. Not just in terms of her CSI: Lady Garden episode or the ability to pee on stage on time on cue and into a bottle, but her thoughts on art, being an artist (it does have very, very, very flexible hours), and the role of critics. At her best, the closing monologue was a tour de force satire of East End, bohemian wank artistry, and the inevitable loneliness of the narcissist. Back that up with her magnificent voice and you have a show. Of some slightly elusive description.
The club origins of her performance are inescapable. Strong high-impact visuals and strobe-level energy. Nevertheless, amidst the too cool for school, she embraced the gloriously resurgent dad joke and spun puns with proper reverence. So did the audience. When singing Adele’s Hello she pushed her way from one side of the theatre to the furthest reaches of the other, through the stalls over the legs of a skittish audience, to do a deadpan delivery of ‘Hello…from the Other Side’.
Uncompromising and at times uncomfortable. Abstract and absurd. Childish and a little chic McCormick’s show leaves plenty of glare on the retinas. We were blinking the rest of the evening.
Queerguru Contributing Editor ANDREW HEBDEN is a MEDIA and 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: 2024, Andrew Hebden, Carrie On Laughing, London's Soho THeatre, Lucy McCormack, review
