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The brown word: Death on the Throne @gatehouselondon

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We’re warned at the start of the show with an upbeat number that this is not the usual sort of musical. And it turns out to be just that. But with boundless enthusiasm and energy from its two leads, who deploy a range of voices and breathtaking energy to create a series of voices for puppet characters, a bedtime story becomes a silly oddball tale about four souls stuck in purgatory. With puppets. And various toilet humour references. It’s currently playing at Upstairs At The Gatehouse . The piece starts as a bedtime story. Daddy (Mark Underwood) is about to read a bedtime story for Louise (Sarah Louise Hughes). But her stomach felt funny, and soon, she went to the bathroom. Then, for reasons that seem to only make sense in the confines of the show, they start telling the story of four people who died in unfortunate circumstances in the bathroom. Depicted as puppets, they’re stuck in purgatory as St Peter doesn’t have enough space for each of them in the afterlife. And so begins a puppe...

Flipping memories: Catch Me @FlipFabriQue @UnderbellyFest


It's the start of summer. The weather's hot and the Underbelly Festival at the South Bank Centre is opening with its usual eclectic mix of circus acts, comedy and cabaret. And Flip FabriQue's Catch Me fits this bill well.

There is beauty and fluidity in the performances. The premise is that ten years later a bunch of friends reunite for another weekend at a cottage together. They play. They have fun. And they do strange and unusual things with straps, trampolines and diablos.




Quebec-based Flip FabriQue brings together circus artists to tell stories drawn from their own experiences. With a backdrop of a cottage the acrobat routines evoke memories of the past and a spirit of playfulness.

A squeaking Bruno Gagnon is soon flipping through the air. Hugo Ouellet Côté on straps is looking at a photobook. Camila Comin and Yann Leblanc soon become intertwined on a Cyr Wheel. It's amazing to watch.



Underbelly is continuing with its reputation for bringing the best circus acts to the South Bank summer. And this had me recalling past years with Circa and Gravity and Other Myths.

Perhaps those productions were a little sharper and focused. Not every scene works here which makes the show drag at times.

There is an interlude in sleeping bags that seems out of place. Another segment with exercise balls and Barry Manilow's Copacobana seemed less impressive. It's probably not a good idea to use that as a backing track. It's too much of a distraction. Either half the audience want to sing along while the other half want to cover their ears.

Still it's hard not to like a show which features an ice-lolly eating competition and duelling diablos (not the sexy one's we're used to). There is also some incredible high energy trampolining to close the evening.

Directed by Olivier Normand, Flip FabriQue: Catch Me is at the Underbelly Festival at the South Bank Centre until 9 July.

⭐︎⭐︎⭐︎



Photos by Richard Davenport.






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