Musical comedy titan Selena Mersey has put together a beautiful, hilarious show about a bisexual woman just existing, and a man making it all about him. Film noir is the sandbox she’s playing in – a genre parodied to the point of exhaustion, and yet Mersey finds something fun, new, and delightfully silly to do with it.
Detective Johnny is a soft boiled (practically runny) public dick one shift from retirement. A chance encounter with a beautiful dame – Bisexuelle – sends him on a fool’s errand, filled with toxic assumptions, red herrings, and the possibility that maybe people like doing more than one crime at a time.
Mersey is a brilliantly talented performer, whose physical comedy has gone up another notch on the clowning belt since your correspondent last saw her on stage. This is tight stuff: an early torch song gets laughs just from parodic over-enunciation of specific vowels; during the fun opening title card sequence, the audience are led to laughter just from a suggestive eyebrow and the odd side-eye.
Bisexuelle specifically explores themes of misogyny and biphobia; this, though, never overwhelms the funny. Indeed: one minor concern is whether the message of the show is quite explicit enough. Certainly not a problem for here, in Brighton, with an adoring queer crowd. Elsewhere, a slight tweak – or more emphasis of the comedy mapping – might be required.
There are many stand-out moments, as Mersey plays both dame and Detective; a trenchcoat is all it takes to turn Bisexuelle into Detective Johnny, it’s almost as though gender is comprehensively performative. Surely not, Johnny. Get such thoughts out of your head and have another whiskey.
Especially fabulous are Johnny’s exchanges with the chief, played here as a hand puppet. The interplay between Mersey, on stage, and Dan Wakeling, in the tech booth, voicing what is palpably a sock in a police hat, are some of the funniest moments of the entire show.
Entirely successful, too, is the show’s audience participation section, featuring a scripted interview with a suspiciously Germanic Frenchman. One trend I’ve noticed this year at Fringe at alternative shows is a lot more care with audience participation, so as to ensure that whoever ends up on stage truly wants to be there. Though Mersey’s expression when she realised the audience member was someone she knew was beautiful comedy in itself.
We end with a beautiful, heartfelt song, and leave with excitement in our hearts at what this brilliantly witty, thoughtful, and talented performer will come up with next.
Reviewed on 23rd May. Runs to 24th May.
