Brighton Fringe 2026
Wench
Felix Le Freak
Genre: Fringe Theatre, Theatre
Venue: Ironworks Studios
Festival: Brighton Fringe
Low Down
Every word is worth hearing, every lyric is dazzling, every joke drops perfectly into your lap. This intense feminist drama written and performed by the award winning drag queen Felix Le Freak is unlike anything you will have experienced before. And much like the river, that never “stays where you put it” neither does Martha Tallow, appearing throughout history, laconically commenting: “I was once hanged under a different sky”.
Review
When you go to see a Fringe performance by an award winning drag queen (Drag Idol UK 2018) who is also known around Brighton for hosting a bonkers variety show (every Friday in May: Junk Poets, Caravanserai, 20.30) you might expect the usual – risqué comedy, karaoke-like singing, fun outfits. Here though, at ‘Wench’, something very different is taking place. This performer gives us more, much more, gives us theatre, history, new songs, a deeply intense character who draws us in and spits us out, spits at us, screams at us, makes us cry for her, shout with her. Plus ‘the odd knob joke’.
Felix Le Freak has created a woman from history. She is called Martha Tallow and she lives on through epochs, persecuted as a witch, is a showbiz medium during the Weimar Republic in Germany, a disco diva of the 1980s and a prostitute by the River Thames only yesterday night. One thing Martha never loses, no matter how often she is hanged or cancelled is her gift of the gab. Whether in song or in speech, she gives it up, she gives it back, cheeky, rowdy, intense, truthful: “I was a problem before!” Felix is in complete control of their creation, beautifully made up with the perfect wig for each incarnation. Felix owns the story, has written it themselves, their research impressive, their knowledge worn lightly and sharply.
The stage is bare, scintillating lights, a pounding backing track, and on stomps Felix as Martha, wearing – underneath a number of stunning wigs (created by House of Peluca) and fabulous and historically apt costumes (created by the modest and very gifted Sam) – a corset, tights, kitten heeled pumps and a sparkling posing pouch. The first song, which is the reason I am here tonight, as I heard Felix sing it at a showcase in April and was immediately pulled under their spell, is about the River:
Down by the stream, where the dragonfly flits
Where the frogs lay their spawn and the maidens their shits…
Between the black reeds, where eels slither by
There’s a skin on the river as thin as a lie
And if ye dare lean in her looking glass gleaming
She’ll paint up thy face on a canvas of sky
But stranger beware, for the smile declares,
May be lilies and lavender…
Or maggots and flies.
I immediately wanted to hear it again and if you think the above quote is all there is, you are so wrong, the song goes on and never fails. All the songs in this show are poetic and deeply felt, beautifully written, full of entrancing visuals and clever language. You want to buy the album to take home and slowly digest the lyrics in your own time. Alas there is no album – yet. Felix has only just written this behemoth of a show, they have created all the music themselves, only three performances have been given, if thou wantst to see it, to Edinburgh thou must go to find Felix at the Underbelly in August at 22.45 upon the night.
I wish Felix a great venue, with a lit catwalk so they can go into the audience and be seen. I wish Felix a loving sound engineer who pays constant attention and gives them reverb to help protect their voice at times. I wish Felix a rich and kind producer who takes over the hard job of putting on this work so Felix can simply shine. They have created a piece that many singers and actors will want to perform themselves, so much abandon, fun, challenge and opportunity to play and at the same time is a serious piece of feminist theatre – performed by a Queen of their craft.
