Arts

Funeral Meats review

IMG_7592The world premiere of Funeral Meats took place on Tuesday 8th August at the Kings Head Theatre.

This one act, five scene play is set from 7pm to midnight on the night of the funeral wake for Luke and Laura’s mother. Barabara, an old friend of their mothers’ drops by, as does Felix, Luke’ ex-husband. With the alcohol flowing, secrets and emotions run wild and bring new and unresolved issues to the surface. The themes of same-sex marriage and mental Illness are explored in a fresh way.

Funeral Meats is part of the King’s Head Theatre’s Queer Festival. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the repeal of the sexual offences act in 1967 and eventual decriminalisation of homosexuality.

Funeral Meats is presented by LUXE Performance. This company was founded by Cradeaux Alexander in the 1990s in New York. The company has staged critically acclaimed productions in the UK and New York including the premiere of Eh Joe by Samuel Beckett and Desire Caught by the Tail by Pablo Picasso. LUXE Productions reinvigorates classical modern texts, creates new texts and promotes experimental theatre and performance.

Cradeaux also stars as Luke and is the Artistic Director for the production. His expressions, tones and actions conveyed a vagueness and detached quality suited to the issues his character faces, and reminded me of a 1940s character.
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Ramona Von Pusch’s (Laura) soliloquy at the end was performed powerfully. Helen Adie’s (Barbara) lip movements were too frequent and over the top. While this shows the provocative and teasing nature of her character well, it maybe needs to be toned down a fraction. She also fiddles with her handbag frequently and without purpose which at times was distracting.

Luca Pusceddu’s performance as Felix seemed the most wooden of the four cast. However, his character did not have much of an arc and the time that he did cry was mostly in the dark. Pusceddu is also the producer.

At various times all the actors spoke quietly making some dialogue difficult to hear.

I felt the story came to an abrupt end. Indeed it wasn’t til other audience members started clapping that I realised it was the end. I felt myself wanting to know a little more about who these characters were and how they would manage their experiences in the future.

Funeral Meats is performing until 13th August 2017.

Venue: King’s Head Theatre, located at 115 Upper Street N1 1QN.

Time: Wednesday to Saturday at 9:30pm and on Sunday at 5:30pm. The run time is under one hour.

Tickets: £18 or £15 concession.
They can be booked by calling the box office on 020 7226 8561 or online at https://kingsheadtheatre.ticketsolve.com/shows/873576393

For more information about LUXE go towww.LUXE.org.uk or follow them on Facebook @LUXE.Performance.

Written by Caitlin Neal