You know what you're going to get with this show as soon as you sit down. | "Do anything you can to bag yourself a ticket for this rip-roaring, rambunctious ride through filthy gorgeous naughtiness and mayhem." | |
On stage a table dressed with red roses, two glasses, and a bottle of red wine stands upstage-right, enveloped by a partial wall covered with flock wallpaper, bathed in the pink 60 watt bulb of a nearby lamp. Our hostess, Flick Ferdinando, perched like a madam behind a cabaret lounge reception desk welcomes onstage each of tonight's acts, and directs them off again to get ready. She's the kinda lady that dresses up in seamed silk stockings only to ladder them later during an escape act involving brown paper and parcel tape. She's the kinda gal that keeps her party dress clean, only until she gets to the party. You know the type. Befitting, then, is the title of tonight's show: Besame Mucho sounds much better in Spanish but the English translation, Kiss Me Lots gives a clear impression of what we are to expect. According to our hostess's saucy hiss this is a show about "…love, lust, obsession. And the love that dare not speak its name". My my. Her first guest, Buddy Cheeseman (Matt Burch), is a hapless archetypal hero of 1950s America complete with comb and quiff. He is handsome, coiffeured, and everything a swoonsome movie star should be. If only he didn't keep dropping his comb and tripping over his own feet. His character is bustling with testosterone, battling with his love of the 'ladeeeeeeez' and acute lack of special awareness making for a shrewd little skit of 'coooooooool' physical comedy. Burch sets up the standard of gravity defying acrobatics that make me half-fearful they have peaked too early. Next, we are invited to 'slip over to the dark side' with Spanish magician, Miguel Munoz. Miguel plays with the audience with comedic flair and slick slight of hand as he jokes through his act involving scarves, glass balls, a glowing stick, and cards. Oh, and, members of the audience. It wouldn't, after all, be a cabaret without a healthy bit of audience participation. As if acrobatics, magic, nudges, and winks weren't enough the bumbling Stefano Di Renzo arrives to delight and amaze with his slack rope circus skills and is matched by the fluid and controlled body of Natalie Rechet as she shows off her hand-balancing set to a delicious score. It's all good. But the star of the show, the 'piéce de résistance', if you will, is an aerial rope act by Company F.Z co-founder, John-Paul Zaccarini. This beautifully balletic piece turned the audience agog and all fears that they may have peaked too early slid away. Zaccarini stepped up the rope as if it was a concrete staircase and his effortless motion was delivered with a confident breeze. Likewise for the aerial piece 'Two Men in a Bath', a flirty fandango between Zaccarini and Burch, swishing like mermen in a bath hoisted from South Street's lighting rig. And aside from how sore my eyes were from not blinking for fear I might miss something, all I kept thinking was 'how on earth do they make their bodies do that?!' With this in mind, the criticism I had that the theme of 'love, lust, obsession' offered only a tenuous link paled into insignificance when compared with the sizeable skill of this bevy of artistes which, let's be honest, was the whole point of the show. There were a couple of lulls between acts which our hostess had to grapple with but, hey, in an evening of 'dark delights', feeling ever so slightly uncomfortable was all part of the fun. You may, alas, have missed your chance to see this show in Reading, but Company F.Z are doing the rounds; do anything you can to bag yourself a ticket for this rip-roaring, rambunctious ride through filthy gorgeous naughtiness and mayhem, played to the soundtrack of a panting audience. | 
