REVIEW: FABULOUS CREATURES at Arcola Theatre 22 May – 15 June 2024

‘an intriguing idea, and the cast of three turn up the weird to eleven’ ★★★

Greek sea monsters had very high standards of contract compliance, apparently. When tasked by a (usually male) god to eliminate a mortal, (for god reasons, don’t ask), failure resulted in the destruction of the (usually female) sea monster. Scylla, Charybdis, and the one remaining Siren, having failed to squish Odysseus, have given up monstering to become cabaret artistes. Then a mortal woman enlists them for one last hit. That’s the plot, acting it out involves lots of songs, a few jokes, a truck load of glittery sinister posing, and quite lengthy discussions of the patriarchal nature of the Greek pantheon.

It's an intriguing idea, and the cast of three turn up the weird to eleven, but there’s an awful lot of exposition, there’s a huge build-up to naming the mortal enlisting monstrous support that a fairly sketchy knowledge of Greek mythology renders a bit overdone, and the many songs are hard to hear over a fuzzy sound system. That’s a shame, because the songs are the best bits, and Jazz Jenkins, the Siren, has an appropriately excellent voice.

Everything was laboured, over-explained. No-one had any character traits beyond their monstering skills and their sinister cabaret personae. Maybe it doesn’t matter if Hannah van der Westhuysen’s Charybdis is a cipher if all she does is eat sailors, but if she has to be persuaded to leave her safe performing life to go back to high-risk monstering, being able to make that journey with her would give the piece some more narrative heft.

Intriguing, flawed, and badly missing characterised monsters, Emily Louizou has directed a creepy cabaret that could be creepier, darker, more atmospheric. The glitter content is probably about right.

Photographer: Sophie Giddens

FABULOUS CREATURES

The untold story of the female monsters of The Odyssey.

Written by Quentin Beroud & Emily Louizou

Directed by Emily Louizou

ARCOLA THEATRE

24 Ashwin Street,

London

E8 3DL

Box office:

https://www.arcolatheatre.com/whats-on/fabulous-creatures/at

May 22 - June 15

Reviewed by Chris Lilly