3 – 7 April
The Retro Theatre Company has set up shop in the Alma Theatre to bring us an entertainment. How to describe it? It’s a kind of love note to Bristol Zoo whisked up with early sixties nostalgia and some gentle comedy that likes to flirt with the surreal, occasionally developing a sharp edge without actually cutting – at least not too deep. The Catholic clergy come in for a bit of mild pummeling. Kim Hicks, who has more quick changes than recent government chancellors gives us a nun, the like of which would send a chill down the spine of any parent with aspirations for their little ones. With sketches, some slightly surreal (a pygmy hippo in a car) which we are told are based on real life anecdotes, we’re off for a day at the zoo.
Kate McNab is a hairdressing salon owner, a walking advert for her salon’s services and a warning to over indulgence in the use of hair lacquer. But if her character is a parody it is done with love rather than malice. With the easy facility of someone used to bending the ear of her clients with choice gossip and stories she takes us on a stroll around the zoo, mugging at the monkeys and gawping at the contents of the aquarium. Here Ms Hicks gets in on the act, broadening her repertoire beyond the usual gamut of characters as she slithers across the stage and between the legs of Ms McNab, who soldiers on with, ‘I only have eyes for you’.
Yes, Ms McNab sings; at the drop of a hat we find ourselves in a smoky jazz club, where it seems she has been waiting to entertain us. With a veil dropping not unlike that which revealed Susan Boyle to the unsuspecting world, our hairdresser launches into, ‘September in the Rain’, with all the assurance of Dinah Washington. We are definitely in the territory of revue. The name of Juliette Gréco is dropped and we can imagine the air filled with the smoke of Gaulloise and Disque Bleu. Our hairdresser is actually a chanteuse in disguise who you feel would be happier chatting between songs in her own nightclub.
With just a short run at the Alma this is the kind of show that, with a little tweaking, could happily fill a residency at any number of nightspots.
★★★★☆ Graham Wyles, 4th April 2023
Photo credit: Jack Willingham
