There’s a warm and weird welcome upon arrival at
The whole thing thrives off chaotically silly energy
Jennifer Byrne and Vicky Falconer-Pritchard, the duo behind the delightfully filthy East End Cabaret, have created a cast of crazy characters for a madcap hour of singing, dancing, ping-pong basketball, dismembered head magic tricks, psychedelic nuns, heartbreaking tales of childhood tragedy, pube seasoning, and violent revenge. It’s a heady mix and proves to be a great success thanks in no small part to the committed performances of its two stars.
Byrne’s Yeti is a highlight of the show. Charming, be-mopped and affecting a Southern drawl, she clambers around the audience with abandon providing several memorably funny moments and a heartfelt story of her past. Falconer-Pritchard is no less impressive though and has a couple of standout moments, particularly as an unhinged, impeccably coiffured, keyboard playing freak (very much in the Rick James sense of the word).
A loose narrative connects the manic set pieces, providing some semblance of a story, but really the whole thing thrives off chaotically silly energy. You get the sense that both performers are having a tremendous amount of fun and they draw you in with their range of oddball characters, even the less-developed ones.
With a cast of unhinged characters in a familiar yet otherworldly setting comparisons with the Mighty Boosh are inevitable. However the show is fresh and energetic enough to avoid feeling derivative. Rather it is a fun, flighty visit to a bar like no other. If it was my local I know I’d be a regular.