Director: Jude Christian
Cult cabaret act, Bourgeois & Maurice, return to the Soho Theatre with a hilarious new show, Pleasure Seekers. No Thinking is their first rule. This is a show devoted to hedonism: we are told not to look for depth. The huge llama-shaped piñata on stage, for example, has No Meaning.
But Bourgeois & Maurice are in a reflective mood. They decide their previous work has been Too Negative. But Maurice (Liv Morris) with her trademark beehive, is having a bit of an existential crisis. She is not finding performing fun anymore and retreats behind the keyboard. Much of the show is about Bourgeois (George Heyworth) coaxing her to enjoy herself. Despite fancying himself as a Piano-Based Social Activist, he is determined to make fun happen. He tries motivational sayings: ‘You’re not being buried alive,’ he insists, ‘you’re being PLANTED!’. This takes him into a fabulous song about his relationship with veganism. He’s decided to take a break: ‘I’ve been swallowing the same old aubergine for two long,’ concluding ‘I NEED MEAT!’.
Another of the show’s consistently fantastic songs is about his relationship with Amazon: Buying Shit on Amazon. The doorbell rings. Boxes in familiar packaging are dragged in. But it goes one surreal step further. A pile of smaller boxes becomes a robot-shaped lover with whom he dances. There is more, much more, of this delightful stuff throughout the show. Maurice is brought back to life with some of the tremendous dance routines for which they’re famous.
There’s a particular funny section when they decide it’s the interval (where there’s none in reality). They supposedly come out of role, tell us to do what we want (‘Check your phones!’) and wander around chatting. They fancy a cuppa, so Bourgeois wheels in a tea trolley and they make themselves tea while reflecting on life. Revivified, they wander onto ever-stranger shores, at one stage sitting under glittering stars in the Metaverse. They’re not quite sure that the Metaverse is, but they realise they’re getting a second chance at life and brainstorm about what they might choose. There’s a hilarious take on playing air-guitar. They quickly come up with the worrying realisation that it’s more fun being selfish than doing good.
It’s a hilarious, witty and warm show.
Runs until 30 April 2022
