REVIEW: WHAT IF THEY ATE THE BABY at Soho Theatre 17 – 29 March 2025

‘startling imagery for this slice of 50s Americana’ ★★★★

Multi-award-winning performers Xhloe and Natasha bring a double bill on alternating nights to Soho Theatre, Dean street.  Their signature style is grounded in clown, absurdism, and has a similar DNA, based on Americana, pop culture and American history. In WHAT IF THEY ATE THE BABY the pair bring 50s style to the fore along with an atmosphere of fear which was pervading the States at the height of McCarthyism.

The set nods to a period kitchen with checkered tiles and a lace cloth on the table. An off-kilter window frame adds to the impact of the stylized performances. Starting with a startling scene involving ‘jazz’ hands appearing as if from nowhere, the couple surprise throughout with brilliantly synchronised duets and sudden conflicting movements. 

There is a STEPFORD WIVES kind of vibe, faces behind masks, the fake smiles, the insincerity.  The show is far from literal, the storyline starting with a housewife calling on her neighbour with a casserole, the niceties of suburban life. Several repetitions drive toward the pair revealing their sexual attraction to each other, with the feeling of being watched. The footsteps coming from upstairs and the knocking on the door.  Finally, the piece delves into the possibility of dead bodies under the floor. 

Undoubtedly the pair bring a sense of claustrophobia and repression, but perhaps the show could afford to cut one of the earlier scenes, as it loses its impetuous in some sections. The scenes involving food, a recurring theme in the show are some of the finest.  A particularly flirtatious and sexually alluring scene involves naming parts of the body that they would eat. “The tongue because I would have your words inside me, and the fingers ….”

The pair hail from New York, but most of their work is confined to the UK as it is ideal for studio theatres (not available in New York).  The upfront a personal allows them to share their extraordinary expressiveness, and the astute intensions, with the smallest of gestures which speak loud and coherently. 

Photography: Morgan McDowell

Xhloe and Natasha present

WHAT IF THEY ATE THE BABY

Soho Theatre, Dean Street

17 – 29 March 2025

This show is on alternate nights with ‘A Letter To Lyndon B Johnson or God: Whoever Reads This First’