It’s not too frequent that we’re caught doing something civil (apart from occasionally doing body shots off an enviably toned Dreamboy’s torso), so when we were invited to go and watch the Emma Packer show at the RVT, we thought it would be a good opportunity for a change of scenery.
We were welcomed to the Vauxhall haunt by hostess Josephine Lacey, who then took to the stage to get the crowd warmed up; and what can we say – her acidic tongue and vulgar humour was right up our street! And although we felt slight sympathy for the poor “fat fuck” being insulted in the front row, that was totally over-ruled by laughter.
Before we knew it Emma’s first character had burst through the door – and at first we thought it was Amy Childs in her mother’s clothes but it turns out it was another Essex bird – Beverley. What followed was a fast-paced montage of animated personalities that bore more than a passing resemblance to Catherine Tate’s colourful characters.
We were introduced to Susannah Cavanaugh, the Australian Tupperware enthusiast, who suggests that 9/11 may have been caused by poor service from the air hostesses. Wrong? Yes. But did we laugh? Shamefully, yes.
Amy Jones – a stereotypical chav – wasn’t actually as foul-mouthed as we’d have liked, or expected. But Emma was able to make you forget that it was the same person playing each character, which is often hard to do. Fiesty Magaret stomped around the venue waving her ruler in people’s face (not as naughty as it sounds) and drawing attention to everyone’s bad posture – except for Kay Greenwood, the hunchback pensioner – another one of Packer’s characters.
Emma’s ability to fit in a number of characters to such a small space of time was impressive, but the video intervals were exhausting and allowed time for the audience to disconnect from the live action. Shorter intervals with higher audience interaction, and veering away from character stereotypes would push the show to higher levels of comedy.
• Wednesday 18th September @ The RVT, 372 Kennington Lane, Vauxhall, SE11 5HY
