Stage: Grin and bare it

Garry Starr Performs Everything
by Damien Warren-Smith
director Cal McCrystal
Southwark Playhouse Borough, London
29.Nov-23.Dec.23 ★★★★

It's perhaps impossible to watch Garry Starr passively, largely because he simply won't let you. But this is a rare performer who actually makes us yearn for a bit of audience participation. As written and performed by Scottish-born Aussie Damien Warren-Smith, Garry is a hugely engaging actor working off his pain by indulging in full-on clown chaos. He's absolutely hilarious from start to finish, which comes far too soon.

After being badly treated by the Royal Shakespeare Company, Garry sets out to prove that there's fresh life in theatre by performing a full range of genres for us in an hour. And off he goes, spiralling through everything from the classics and melodrama to slapstick and romantic comedy, plus pretentious Euro-theatre, burlesque, ballet, butoh and circus acrobatics. He does this in various states of undress, including a masked theatre sequence in which the dark voices inside convince him to strip off completely and cavort through the audience.

Indeed, anyone watching is intimately involved throughout, as he interacts continually with everyone in the room. This includes continuous joking as well as coaxing people on-stage to play roles opposite him. And while these absurdly funny moments involve poking fun at his volunteers, it's impossible to be less dignified than Garry. That said, for all his goofy antics and silly running gags, there are pointed jabs and emotional undertones that continually catch us off guard.

Warren-Smith is a seriously gifted performer, using his full physicality and playing with words in ways that keep us laughing. So Garry is a wonderful creation, mischievous, endearingly infectious and remarkably vulnerable. This show is a celebration of the wide range of joy theatre has to offer, and a reminder that a really good piece requires someone who is almost supernaturally talented. It also helps if they look good naked. 

For details, SOUTHWARK PLAYHOUSE > 

photos by Will Hamilton-Coates, Marinus Schimmel, Jeromaia Detto • 4.Dec.23