Who can forget Briefs’ sensational circus tent shows? The world’s most glamorous drag queens, burlesque dancers, acrobats and trapeze artists teased with feather fans or swept over your head in a haze of glitter and attitude.
Their new show, Briefs: Bite Club, however, has to struggle with a new venue – the much larger, more austere Queen Elizabeth Hall. It just doesn’t suit them, and, as if in sympathy, the lights kept failing on Press Night. The first issue is that no longer have that direct, intimate contact with the audience which suited their cheeky cabaret style. Then there’s the problem of the relatively small stage. As this show features a band ranged upstage, the playing area is small. No one seems to have thought about sight-lines, so acts performed downstage are often only partially visible.
Lots of our old favourites were there: the fabulous acrobatics, the shimmering fan dances, the superlative glass bath act by Captain Kidd. The audience goes wild every time. But other familiar elements fall flat, especially The Raffle, where a hapless audience member who wins is dragged on stage for some unexpected fun. Invention seems to have deserted Briefs here.
But the main difference with Bite Club is the introduction of the singer, Sahara Beck, about whom the show now revolves. Beck is an extremely talented songwriter and performer, belting out some of her terrific numbers with real passion. But her songs are characterised by a certain bittersweet quality. ‘Every one needs someone to be sad about’, one lyric begins, ‘ I dreamt that I was beautiful’ another. Most are expressive of a raw melancholy that is so different from Briefs’ trademark frolicsome campery. Beck is clearly outside her comfort zone when required to speak directly to the audience, including the gauche fairy tale she is made to relate about how she met up with Briefs. And she looks frozen with fear when required to sing one number perched on a trapeze. So despite efforts to link the two components of the show, Briefs’ physical extravaganza and Beck’s ballads, they just don’t work together.
Fez Faanana, the director and co-founder of Briefs, in extravagant drag is a splendid presence. But he’s not a natural stand up. His various spoken interventions feel awkward, under-rehearsed and are frequently inaudible. And surely comedians should have learnt by now that references to the pandemic are passé?
Runs until 31 July 2022
The Reviews Hub Score
Lost mo-jo
