Tender @ SOHO Theatre

There’s a lot to like about this subversive dramedy, which centers on a group of male dancers who perform a show that sits within a loophole of legality, performing fantasy and creating a space for women to “let go”. The show takes us on the journey of these men learning through interaction with their Boss’ daughter, sent to “fix” the show, that true masculinity isn’t a partriarchal act of sexuality but actually is vulnerability.

The premise is clever, the text fine — but somehow the structure of the production doesn’t quite help it hang together (pun intended). There are almost too many ideas in the production; there’s audience participation, there’s choreography, there’s serious moments of introspection….but it just doesn’t quite connect for the power it could have. This isn’t to say it wasn’t a fun and engaging night at the theatre, but it just doesn’t quite meet its own ideals. I’d love to see a revised version that tightens up these ideas.

Jordan Brookes Fontanelle @ Soho Theatre

Jordan Brookes’ Fontanelle is a stand up show and a musical at the same time; it centres around the question of masculinity and what it means to be masculine, explored around the premise of The Titanic, and the fact that women and children were rescued first. Playing with the form of a standup comedy show, the production also has a chorus of 5 musical theatre performers who interject throughout. At times the interjections are funny and clever, and at times they feel like the concept is being shoehorned into the standup. The show works best when Brookes interacts with the audience, however in order to stay with the convention some of these seem to be rushed, rather than living in a chaotic performance space. Beyond this, the production is uneven — it plays with pacing, but unconvincingly. It plays with the edges of comedy, but without payoff. And it plays with performance, dipping a toe into failed performance, but without properly achieving this — and perhaps even unintentionally demonstrating failure in performance.

This all sounds like it was awful — it wasn’t. There were definitely moments of humour and clever insight about the bind between equality and chivalry....but it all felt undercooked, which meant that it veered into undertones of misogyny to get its laughs.

WEER - Natalie Palamides @ SOHO Theatre

The sheer delightful chaos of Natalie Palamides show is central to its success. In a time when many shows aim to be polished and perfect, Palamides gives us rough around the edges and spiky. Centered around a couple and their downfall, with flashbacks to their meet cute, and all underscored by late 90’s music, the show has all the storyline makings of a meet-cute based rom-com from the period. However Palamides turns this on its head in many ways, most notably by playing both characters. And not in the way most solo shows do, but rather fully embodied through voice, movement and COSTUME across half of her body. The choreography to achieve this is nothing short of outstanding, and I regularly found myself marvelling at the stamina needed to perform this.

This is not the show for everyone - spiky jabs at late 90’s bro culture and the expectations on young women from a 2024 lens might be a bit much for some, but for me it is this clown-inspired means of taking the old rom-com formula to task while still revelling in its delights that make it exceptional.

This was my first of Natalie’s shows to see live, and it will not be my last.

The Amazing Banana Brothers @ Soho Theatre

An hour of absolute mania; this two hander (of sorts) is performed at a frantic pace from the moment it begins, so that even the quieter moments contain the air of mania. This is a story of two brothers with dreams, and whose inability to meet those dreams fills them with darkness. That sounds a lot more high brow than it was and yet despite being silly, slapstick, shouty (not in a bad way) and frenetic — it was introspective and questioned our own ambitions and the efforts we make to stick to them.

I can’t say too much without giving it away, but suffice it to say this isn’t light watching. Darkly funny, completely silly, and compelling — well worth taking the time to see this if it comes through.