REVIEW: ALL THE FRAUDULENT HORSEGIRLS at The Glory 2 – 9 October 2022

‘open hearted and fun’ ★★★

The Glory puts on shows in the basement, with several rows of chairs, lots of cushions on the floor, and numerous pillars. The stage lighting is low-key, frequently someone with a torch, the acoustics are awful, particularly when there are audience members who find almost anything screamingly funny, thereby obliterating large chunks of dialogue, and the entertainment is niche.

All that aside, ALL THE FRAUDULENT HORSEGIRLS is an intriguing show. Three actors play Audrey, as an 11 year old Pony Club fan, as John Grady Cole from Cormac McCarthy’s All the Pretty Horses, and finally as The Author of the play. There is lots of audience participation. There is the dissonance of an adult performer with a beard playing 11-year-old Audrey, there is a lot of camp performance, there are a lot of songs from an on-stage band. It was hard to hear a lot of the fabulous story-telling, but it was certainly fabulous.

There were lots of pop music references that escaped me, and lots of Cormac McCarthy references that didn’t, and I’m not sure it added up to much, but it was performed with enthusiasm and received with noisy delight, which is probably the main purpose of the show. It worked well as a bonding exercise for the pub’s clientele, less well as a polished piece of theatre, but it was open-hearted and fun, and those are valuable qualities on a dark night in Hackney.

ALL THE FRAUDULENT HORSEGIRLS at The Glory 2 – 9 October 2022

Produced by Brooklyn Rep

Tickets available on Outsavvy: https://outsavvy.com/event/10326/all-the-fraudulent-horse-girls

Reviewed by Chris Lilly

Chris Lilly read Drama at Hull University in the 70s, stage-managed a bit, spent 8 years as a community arts worker in Tower Hamlets, did the occasional tech job, then taught in East London and participated in shedloads of community theatre. Since retiring from teaching, he has acquired an MA in 'Theatre' from the University of Surrey and indulged a passion for live performance anywhere in London courtesy of his Freedom Pass.