11 November – 10 December
Technically brilliant and highly original, ¡Showmanism! defies easy categorisation. From the very start it intrigues and puzzles. A lone figure stands in the centre of what could be a piece of installation art, something by Joseph Beuys, perhaps. There is a tape recorder, three TV monitors showing a close-up of a swivelling eye, a ladder, an astronaut’s helmet. There seems to be no unifying theme to all this, though a skull and a spade hint at the graveyard scene from Hamlet. Then that lone figure begins to speak, but not in his own voice…
Last seen here as a show-stealing Ariel in The Tempest, Dickie Beau employs his very considerable skill as a lip-synch artist to explore the history of theatre and the nature of performance. Though he is both devisor and sole performer, seldom can ‘one-man show’ have been a less appropriate term, for he populates the stage with the real voices of actors, directors, impressionists, academics, and critics. Some are unfamiliar, but others are very well-known, including Fiona Shaw and Ian McKellen. Captured in interviews, their pre-recorded words are embodied by Beau, who lip-synchs every utterance, hesitation and verbal tic to perfection. The effect is mesmerising and perhaps a little disquieting. The distinction between who we are seeing becomes blurred with who we are hearing, bringing to the fore intriguing questions about personal identity, and just what happens when an actor ‘performs’.
The voices address a variety of theatre-related topics. There is a lovely anecdote from McKellen about fear of ‘drying’ on stage, and there is a particularly fascinating explanation of the use of masks in Greek theatre, and of how the amphitheatres acted as huge ears to capture the actors’ words. Frequently stripped to his underpants, Beau delivers each sequence in dynamic fashion, employing facial expression, movement, mime and dance, often to comic effect. As a self-proclaimed ‘intrepid drag fabulist’ he cannot resist a few moments as a hip-swinging, glammed-up diva.
Deborah Warner’s first season as Artistic Director at the Ustinov has rightly been judged a great success, with Dido And Aeneas and Phaedra And Minotaur gaining particularly enthusiastic praise. So, has she scored another 5-star hit with ¡Showmanism!? Not quite, though this is certainly a must-see show. There is much in ¡Showmanism! that is simply astonishing, but there is unevenness in the material, and some sequences seem to be included merely as opportunities for him to display yet another skill, rather than to advance an idea. The lip-synching is dazzling, but it can distract attention from what is being said. Also, in a show that so intensely examines the relationship between personal identity and performance, it is perhaps ironic that it is presented by an actor who never sheds the assumed identity of ‘Dickie Beau’. He performs in near nakedness, yet he is still hiding. The most elusive role of all proves to be ‘self’, perhaps just glimpsed last night when he smilingly acknowledged the much-deserved applause at the end.
★★★★☆ Mike Whitton, 24th November, 2022
Photo credit: Hugo Glendinning
