A well-performed grownup fairytale from Kit Sinclair and Tom Blake, if not entirely new.
It’s Gigi Star’s 27th year and her Saturn is returning (a.k.a a period of challenging transformation is on the way). From the stars we travel with her down into the depths of Hell as she battles her doubt and seeks to reclaim her voice.
Really, it’s the classic coming-of-age story of a struggling artist. Someone who has moved to London to pursue their dream and found that the rat race is exhausting and unkind. The world Gigi has left behind had great hopes for her and she has failed to reach their expectations (or so she believes). The production makes the interesting choice to personify Doubt to join Gigi on her journey, and with the help of chakra-reading Raff, off they head to the underworld.
Kit Sinclair (Gigi) and Tom Blake (Doubt) jump between many different roles, perhaps most enjoyably the mouse sidekick Pippin and the evil record producer Lucien (see Lucifer), and their chemistry is probably the show’s saving grace. They are clearly talented performers, Sinclair is the writer of the piece and Blake the multi-instrumentalist composer, working tirelessly with unfailing commitment to keep the energy of the show up.
The set is fun, the lighting and sound design do exactly what they need to do, and the writing is good on the whole, particularly Doubt’s endless and familiar quips which drive the show well. It’s also great to see some theatre in Newham, the borough identified by Arts Council England as having the lowest arts engagement in London.
The shame is that the piece kind of falls a bit flat. I think the problem is that this story has been done before, by countless fringe shows and countless artists who want to stylise their own stories. I have nothing against this, but it means the only impactful elements are the surprising ones, and I know where the story will end (if not how it will get there). Being a fairytale, the metaphors are obvious; again, fine, but this is a grownup story and might mean more if the morals were less simple. Being a sellout is evil? In an ideal world, sure, but what about the role privilege plays in that choice? You should always follow your dreams and be authentic? Yeah, great. But that’s easier to say when you’ve been born exceptional, with “vocal cords of magic.” And there’s also a question about agency. She’s coerced by the Devil into signing a contract (not good, we can all agree), but do artists need to take some of the responsibility for choosing to sign? I suppose I hoped for something more from Kit Sinclair, who is obviously an expert performer and an exciting creative. But I’m probably being unfair. The fact is, Gigi Star wholly succeeds at being the type of show it is trying to be. It also deserves a shoutout for the hard work that has gone in to making it accessible—a rarity in modern theatre despite its importance. How accessible, though, to the normal people of Newham? Ask the audience of hipsters.