We sat down for an exclusive interview with Sammy Moore about his show Derrière on a G String by Some Smith & Moore coming to The King’s Head Theatre this May.
This show runs from 6th May to 7th June – Tickets here: https://kingsheadtheatre.com/whats-on/derriere-on-a-g-string-md7x
This show tells its story entirely without words, relying on movement and timing. As a performer, how does that shift your approach to storytelling compared to text-based theatre?
The best thing about that is it means I get to use my face much more than I’m usually allowed. Somehow, my face moves quite a lot and has been described as “elastic” by previous audience members. There is nothing subtle about this show, and taking out the words means everything else has to be huge, and that’s so much more fun! The jokes within each piece of movement are timed with the music, which, of course, is a challenge, but it creates this unique feeling within the audience that there must be a punchline coming up because the music is leading them that way. The comedy then comes out because this beat is satisfactorily met or purposefully subverted!
The piece blends slapstick, dance, and classical music into something quite anarchic. How do you balance precision as a dancer with the chaos and unpredictability of comedy?
Every single movement is choreographed with precision. It has to be because the chaos means there is a lot happening, and if we don’t all stick to our tracks perfectly, there is a potential danger of an accident. In a similar way to Tommy Cooper being a brilliant magician but pretending to be awful, we as a cast have to nail every step so the chaos can ensue! The music very much leads the narrative of each joke, and the fun is playing with whether we go with that or subvert it!
You’ve previously performed this show at Sadler’s Wells—how has the piece evolved for this new run at the King’s Head Theatre, and what feels different in this iteration?
Derrière is essentially a sketch comedy show, and this means that some jokes from previous iterations, with the passing of time, no longer work, and we have to get rid of them, but excitingly, that also means new, current and socially relevant jokes can be put in. I’m so excited to see how audiences react to these new pieces that we have come up with! This is the biggest and best version of the show we have ever done, and thanks to the previous iterations, it will also be the most slick and polished, which makes for a better viewing experience. There is a brand new set/costume/lighting and sound design with some rather extravagant ideas…strap on.
The show plays with “awkward, absurd, and unexpectedly intimate moments.” How do you negotiate humour that borders on the risqué without tipping into discomfort?
It’s certainly a difficult balance between a desire to be outrageous and yet keep the audience at ease. We exaggerate things to the point they are patently ridiculous, which I think helps alleviate any awkwardness that could come from sexual scenes. Whereas the genuinely intimate moments aren’t sexualised, there’s romance to them. So it’s never serious at the same time as being sexual, which I think is where that awkwardness would come from. If you’re watching a drama on television with your mum and there’s a sex scene, there’s nothing more awkward, and you have to suddenly dash off and make a cup of tea. But you can laugh at an innuendo together. That’s where the line is, and we toe it as well as we can.
There’s a strong lineage here—from Laurel and Hardy to Mr Bean. Do you see yourself consciously working within that tradition of physical comedy, or are you trying to subvert it?
We do love to subvert things and keep everything unexpected! But that mostly comes from flipping the music on its head; the physical comedy itself actually is more traditional. It’s often said in comedy that people don’t want new stuff, they want a new version of the last thing they liked. And by maintaining some of the time-honoured devices of comedy, we’re able to achieve this while packaging it in a wholly original concept. There’s something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue.