Director: Hannah McLeod
Updating The Emperor’s New Clothes to the contemporary world of couture, Baby Lamb Productions has created a very silly show filled with exaggerated satire about the personalities and vacuous preoccupations of the super-rich fashion set. But in co-devising EXPӦSED, it misses the opportunity to use that silliness either to support the moral reckoning that the folktale offers up or provide a political commentary on an image-focused world beyond embarrassment, where even a failure can be spun into social media gold. Performed at the Lion & Unicorn Theatre by an enthusiastic cast of writer-performers, this show accidentally exposes its own emptiness.
Fashion supremo The Emperor’s latest line is slated by the luxury fashion press, and desperate for a comeback idea, sends his team in search of a rare and exotic new fabric. Conned by some tricksters into believing that anyone who fails to see the fabric is not cool, everyone is quick to reassure The Emperor that he’s on the right path, with only his decent assistant Maureen refusing to be taken in by the invisible fabric or by the empty fashionistas she works with.
EXPӦSED, directed by Hannah McLeod, is a really clever concept and translating this Hans Christian Andersen story to a more recognisable setting works well and makes sense. Baby Lamb’s construction of the fashion house with an over-mighty and sulky man-baby in charge, flanked by yes-men and others coasting on the designer’s fame, is well observed, while the exuberance of this working environment, the emotional extremes and behaviours are cliched but relatable, drawn from pop culture landmarks including Absolutely Fabulous and The Devil Wears Prada.
Yet EXPӦSED is all over-extended plot and heavily repetitive jokes with relatively little characterisation or pointed observation to give this greater purpose. Running at a long 70-minutes, there are too many people in a story that doesn’t use them all effectively and, common with co-devised pieces, lots of subplots to give that bigger cast something to do. Other than the people falsely verifying the existence of the cloth, story points about a couple in The Emperor’s circle who might be cheating on his girlfriend and then discover a prior relationship with one of the con artists goes nowhere. Similarly, jokes are recycled too many times, including a human woman called Alexa being treated like the AI device by The Emperor, which is milked over and over without getting any funnier.
The audience never finds out why the two tricksters are selling the fake cloth or whether they have form, nor why The Emperor’s allegedly dowdy (she’s not) assistant, Maureen, continues to work for him, given the extensive workplace bullying. In fact, EXPӦSED fails to utilise Maureen as either the moral centre, ensuring her boss’s downfall while vindicating her level-headedness and decency, or by making her the mastermind behind the fabrication as a revenge driver that would allow her to rise in his place. Teaching the designer a lesson is all very well, but the show says nothing really about goodness, decency or the wider failings of the fashion industry.
The cast has a great time in their multiple roles, although the pitch is often too strong for such a small space, and Nisha Emich has the best of it as the restrained Maureen. However, with no moral centre or an alternative sense of why terrible people continue to thrive, EXPӦSED leaves you feeling as empty as The Emperor’s new wardrobe.
Runs until 21 February 2026
