Mad, sad and in equal parts both chilling and camp, The East London Session Players gave an ingeniously original portrayal of Tennessee Williams’ iconic and surreal cult classic, Suddenly Last Summer.
The production was staged in the now notorious Haggerston pub and queer performance venue, The Glory. Its basement space was used inventively and bravely, and the scene was set brilliantly; the dark corner which is usually reserved for Attitude Magazine interns getting off with Cockheart models, was transformed into a garden bower, festooned with lace and flowers, and garden furniture that John Sizzle probably stole from his neighbours in Highgate.
Directed by Giorgio Spiegelfeld (of Mister Glory gold hotpants fame), the cast were a veritable “who’s that?” of the alt drag scene; Sizzle snarling away in a headscarf and heels, Giorgio looking respectably fuckable in a white suit and Moa Johanssen pleasingly neurotic in a plastic chair. And how could we forget, there was also our very own chic clubland columnist slash fashionista slash DJ slash model slash actress slash scenester Princess Julia! Looking effortlessly fabulous, OBVIOUSLY, in high-heeled white satin boots. Her character’s name is Miss Foxhill and she delivers the line “you’re twenty-three seconds early.” Need. We. Say. More.
It was Jonny Woo though, as always, who really stole the show. Playing the venerable Mrs Violet Venable, portrayed in the original by Katherine Hepburn, he was intense, strangely amusing, and wonderfully tragic all at the same time. He spat his lines with gusto, sometimes descending into a horribly ominous mutter, which perfectly captured the illogical insanity and inherent, gleeful malice entrenched in the character’s psyche.
By the way, an absolute ten points to Griffindor for Max Allen, the play’s costume designer. The outfits were original and beautiful, lending the whole thing a consistent and instantly appealing aesthetic, from Julia’s aforementioned cloppy boots to Giorgio’s aforementioned sexy white suit (and, at one point, an even sexier white PVC apron. If it didn’t make an appearance at Fetish Week, it should have).
AND, ten points to Slytherin for Jeffrey Hinton for his disconcertingly brilliant facilitation of the production’s ambitious multimedia aspects. We are NOT going to say it was a “multimedia extravaganza”, because people say that FAR too much these days. But it was.
So yes, all very good, of course it was going to be good, it was at The Glory, it had all those people in it, it was based on Tennessee Williams. It was almost annoying that it was good. We sort of wanted it to be bad so we could slag them all off for once. No such luck. Well done kids.
• 27th, 28th, 29th and 30th July, 7:30pm
• The Glory (281 Kingsland Road, E2 8AS)
• Tickets £15.
