Lionel has been dumped by his boyfriend and is just not managing life anymore.
Sick of all the whinging, his despotic dominatrix of a therapist takes over, books him a theatre and decrees he will use cabaret to overcome his fears and finally express himself. More afraid of his tyrannical therapist than an audience full of strangers, Lionel shows up to the theatre in time for his performance and spends the evening trying to work out how to ‘do a cabaret’.
The show that evolves from this kooky set-up is a brilliant combination of humour and genuinely touching moments filled with pop-culture references, relatable break-up woes, glitter rain and dragons. Dash Kruck embodies Lionel’s character so perfectly it would be entirely reasonable to suspect he is, in fact, Lionel and this ‘Dash Kruck’ chap is merely a front. The only thing that really reminds you the story’s not real is the cleverness of the songs and the undeniable ‘cabaret-ness’ underpinning it all.
A delightfully enigmatic art-form, cabaret has traditions but no limitations. Lionel’s understanding of cabaret’s customs is limited to information gleaned from a quick wiki search (done on stage), but he manages to nail all of them while simultaneously subverting them and going somewhere completely new with the genre.
While cabaret is a flexible and ever-evolving art-form, it has one unchanging necessity: the connection between the audience and the artist. The audience needs to be so engaged in the moment they lose the world outside entirely to the one the performer has created in the theatre.
Dash takes this concept to a whole new level, dipping in and out of the crowd throughout the evening and getting butt-to-face personal with one lucky audience member. But he is perhaps most captivating in the moments when his character dissolves into sincere and unabashed honesty about his breakup. The emotion is cleverly woven in amongst the fun, cultivating that connection with the audience while maintaining an overall light-heartedness.
The theatre was filled from start to finish with cheers, sighs, laughter, whistles and catcalls: the hallmarks of a successful cabaret show. Afterwards, the audience effervesced out of the theatre, chattering and smiling and giggling to themselves. As they bustled around each other, they couldn’t help but make eye-contact. With already smiling faces, they would catch each other’s grins and add them to their own. Smiles grew brighter, faces happier and it was a bubbly gaggle of people who dispersed back into society that night. To have created such a lasting effect, a happiness the audience will take with them back into their lives, is one of the greatest feats a performer can accomplish.
Dash Kruck performs 'I Might Take My Shirt Off' at The Butterfly Club 23-28 June, and Hayes Theatre Co 20 and 27 September, and 11 October.
