A skilled SCUBA queen spends 90 minutes yassifying the ocean in an urgent cabaret call to action for climate change.
As I settled into the intimate atmosphere of the Charing Cross Theatre, I couldn’t help but feel the Cabaret offerings in the small area of Embankment were stacked: KitKat Klub to my left at the Playhouse, Dita Von Teese to my right at the Emerald. Here I was nestled in the superbly capable hands of emerging young artist EM the Master.
This show was part of Janie Dee’s Beautiful World Cabaret, a series of intimate cabarets themed on the merging of artistic freedom and climate activism. Here EM The Master is our Emcee (our “Emsea”, if you will) for 90 minutes of oceanic satire and sympathy for the blue planet and how humans have come to be the reason we can’t have nice things.
It starts with what can only be described as what I’m going to call the ballad of the yassified octopus, followed swiftly by an ode to the mantis shrimp represented as a mafia pimp. Straightaway the surreal vibe is established. EM is backed by a fabulous trio of drummer, double bass and pianist for a rather hodgepodge journey of jazz burlesques on a maritime theme.
Individually the songs and skits were skilful and emotively performed, however the meandering nature means you get emotional whiplash with no real moment to absorb. One moment it’s a funny bit involving the dreaded Corporate CEO Man being bad in the City, then an urgent call to activism about how mother earth is dying using a cover of Chicago’s When You’re Good to Mama. Then we’re laughing at a bizarre AI robot malfunctioning to come kill humanity, then there’s a grief-stricken lament about a turtle mourning the loss of her child (which I feel is an odd animal to represent desperate motherhood given how notoriously lax they are once they’ve laid the eggs). At one point EM’s singing student came onstage as he turns out to be a bona fide sea urchin expert. They both felt a little awkward in the interaction despite the fun sea urchin facts. It was tonally erratic.
Let’s be clear; EM is supremely talented. She combines singing, piano skills, clowning, dancing, spoken word, meditation, mime, and excellent freediving breathing techniques. There can be no doubt this is an incredibly authentic show and her utter devotion to the sea is evident. What I would like to see is less of a string of loose jazz vignettes on a nautical theme using skill after skill, and more of a call to action with a plot. We’re never really told, for example, exactly what we can do to help, other than recycle and don’t eat meat- hardly groundbreaking.
Though the show never felt like a pontification, there is the risk that the venn diagram of people who would go to a climate change cabaret, and people who are already trying their best for the environment is essentially a circle, so we run the risk of this show merely being activism in an echo chamber. We know there is already mass appeal to the concept of art and environmentalism- David Attenborough documentaries are eternally successful for a reason.
There is so much potential to EM’s eclectic show, but if it (and by extension, Janie Dee’s whole series’ concept) is to reach the people it needs to have any actual impact; it perhaps needs to be slicker. It’s silly and sassy and honestly a touch schizophrenic, which is great for cabaret, but for true, urgent activism, it needs to be more polished and to the point.