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Life upon the wicked stage: Already Perfect at Kings Head Theatre

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Performing two shows a day on a Broadway run sounds exhausting enough. But when you’ve just had a not-so-great matinee and are having a crisis of confidence, I would assume the last thing you’d want is to confront your past. Yet that’s the situation in Already Perfect, writer-performer Levi Kreis’s slightly autobiographical journey of confronting the past and his younger self. With a series of toe-tapping and emotional songs in a sleek production, you’re invited to experience someone else’s therapy session. And with a show title called Already Perfect, you know what kind of session this is going to be. It makes for a show where nothing is left unsaid, even if it is unnecessary,  unbelievable or best left on a greeting card. It’s currently playing at the King’s Head Theatre .  The story begins in his dressing room after a matinee, with Kreis alone. The show didn’t go so well. Struggling after being dumped by a lover, pressure mounting on the evening show being filmed for poster...

The woke and the trolling: Scrounger @Finborough

Athena Stevens

Athena Stevens takes her experiences with an airline that damaged her wheelchair and refused to pay for a replacement into a sharp and an incisive piece on how discrimination affects disabled people. The incident led to her confinement in her flat in Elephant and Castle for months while she tweeted about the experience and gained media attention. And was called a scrounger by the usual band of internet trolls. It’s currently playing at the Finborough Theatre.

It's an exciting piece of storytelling that puts you in her shoes. Stevens is a detailed storyteller, and she expertly covers the everyday ordeals that people with disabilities face. From the passive aggressive remarks uttered by flight attendants to friends who have trouble thinking that Elephant and Castle is a part of central London. It's all told with humour, warmth and a healthy amount of outrage.

Athena Stevens and Leigh Quinn
While the case was eventually settled, she explains as far as her non-disclosure agreement allows, how people, including liberal-minded theatregoers, are accomplices in disability discrimination. It seems that in the era of woke, it doesn't always translate into woke actions.

She is assisted by Leigh Quinn who plays a series of supporting characters. What emerges is of conflict avoiding able-bodied people, poorly written regulations and general ignorance and indifference.

Adding to the intensity of the story is the inventive use of sound effects from sound designer Julian Starr, and directed by Lily McLeish, the piece moves through events quickly.

You don't need to look far to see disability discrimination in the real world either. The Finborough Theatre no longer has accessible toilets since the Finborough Arms pub (which share the building) ripped them out. There is now a small kitchen serving bog-standard food in their place. Welcome to 2020. No accessibility but plenty of chicken wings and scampi.

Scrounger is at the Finborough Theatre until 1 February. But this is a show that feels like it should have a longer life, either as a transfer or adaptation for television.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️



Photos by Nick Rutter


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