WAKE – Aviva Studios, Manchester

Creators and directors: Jennifer Jennings and Phillip McMahon with text from Carys D Coburn

Choreographer: Philip Connaughton

A wake is a ritual social gathering, held before a funeral, at which family and friends pay their respects to someone who has passed on and celebrate the life which has ended. The emotional tone of a wake is perceived as more positive than a funeral due to the socially supportive atmosphere focusing on the life, rather than the death, of the deceased. WAKE, created and directed by Jennifer Jennings and Phillip McMahon and featuring members of Dublin-based theatre company Thisispopbaby, is a raucous, irreverent affirmation of life and ceaselessly entertaining.

Aviva Studios, Manchester, turn their Warehouse space into an intimate ‘theatre-in-the-round’ which is perfect staging for the event. A raised platform, separate from the circular stage, features a live band – Alma Kelliher on keyboards, accordion player Darren Roche, fiddle player Lucia McPartlin and drummer Ryan McClelland. The musical selections range from interpretations of pop songs to traditional ballads, opening with I Am Stretched On Your Grave with the full cast in suitably sombre clothing.

The solemn mood does not last long. A blank verse poem from Nigerian spoken word artist Felispeaks clarifies that the event is less a funeral rite and more a perception of death as process of transformation which facilitates change and, hence, is a cause for celebration. To reinforce the point Cristian Dirocie takes over the stage with a blazing display of breakdancing.

Co-creators and directors Jennings and McMahon do not take a restrained approach, preferring to shove in everything but the kitchen sink to reflect the contradictory nature of life. There are slick, precise acrobatics, glitter cannons that blast out, but also a raw, authentic rendition of On Raglan Road.

Routines in WAKE sometimes start one way then veer off into a different discipline. Inevitably at a wake someone has too much to drink so a comic routine begins with a pratfall by a drunk sliding onto the stage without spilling his beer which mutates into an uncomfortably up-close and personal sing-along with members of the audience joining in on I Want To Be Seduced. This evolves initially into tap-dancing then into a hilarious raunchy striptease routine; you really do not want to know where the dancer hangs his tassels.

Many of the routines are acrobatic featuring pole dancing with a difference – the difference being the pole hangs well above the stage and there is no safety net. Julian Smyth’s costumes, variations on circus/wrestling leotards, combine practicality with a slinky, sexy appeal.

Sex, although present in many routines, is treated lightly and played for laughs. Michael Roberson’s strip/acrobatic routine to an anthem by Bronski Beat actually opens as a cheeky tribute to the Irish football team. There is, however, no denying the smoking hot sexuality of a pole dancing routine featuring a scarlet-clad dancer in foot-high stilettos.

As WAKE originated in Ireland one expects traditional Irish dancing but the show constantly teases and offers false starts and radical interpretations. The solemnity of a typical straight-legged high-kicking dance is undermined by dancers wearing garish polka-dot leotards or waving (and later wearing) massive balloons. Traditionalists who were outraged by Riverdance allowing Irish dancers to move their arms and the trunks of their bodies might not be impressed by the cheeky approach.

Darren ,an ‘English cousin’, interrupts the wake taking the opportunity to make his debut as a clueless Ali G-style DJ dressed in a horrible 1980s shell suit. This is comedy of embarrassment at its most excruciating with a pair of expert dancers graciously giving the clumsy impression they have just been drafted in from the local disco to help out.

WAKE celebrates not only the joy of life but its chaotic, anarchic nature. It is a reflection not so much of the sombre circle of life, more the giddy circus of life.

Runs until 21 April 2025