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Edinburgh Fringe 2019

Sh!t Theatre Drink Rum with Expats

Soho Theatre in association with Show and Tell

Genre: Performance Art, Theatre

Venue: Summerhall

Festival:


Low Down

“Celebrating their final year as Europeans, island monkeys Becca and Louise got invited to the 2018 European Capital of Culture in Malta.”

Review

It all started when Becca and Louise were invited by their friend Charlie to perform in Malta. At the 2018 European Capital of Culture in Malta, to be exact. Without a show to perform at the time, they went to Malta to do research, to interview Expat Brits and to see what life in Malta was all about.

Sh!t Theatre – Louise Mothersole and Rebecca Biscuit – blend boisterous humour with meaningful stories, storytelling, performance art, characters, serious topics and drinks that they share with the audience! This show contains all these elements and more than even they expected when they agreed to create a show about Malta for Malta.

The stage set is a rough recreation of a real pub in Malta, appropriately called The Pub. There is a high bar, a thick pile hotel lounge type carpet with a nondescript pattern, and numerous wooden walls, national flags and a giant tv screen on the back wall showing a football match.

Becca and Louise welcome us, offer drinks and serve from the bar. It’s a great atmosphere already and they are wearing fancy navy jackets with gold epaulettes, naval hats and the Red Cross and white background of the Maltese flag painted on their faces.

They regale us with sea shanties and anecdotes about their friend Charlie who set the gig up and how they started to find out about Malta. They talk with wry humour and spontaneous banter and speak to us in unison or finishing each other’s sentences. Topics start with passports, and they describe some of the characters they meet in Valetta. On the screen images change and then a news item is reported about a boat and refugees, which turns their ideas about their original show around.

While the news reports flash on the screen Becca and Louise continue their vivid descriptions of people they meet, tell more rowdy stories and perform equally rowdy physical action after another round of drinks!

Meanwhile a serious story is being reported and Becca and Louise take note and get caught up in it. Through creative metaphors they interpret this situation, advance the research and tell the story about a boat from Libya. Pretty soon they discover more information about of the place they were invited to for their show.

Becca and Louise perform with exuberance and authenticity and still keep up their break neck speed of ideas, intuitive commentary of their observations, their point of view to what they discover (no spoilers here!) and juxtapose it all with their pirate stories, songs and personal anecdotes.

Sh!t Theatre Drink Rum with Expats is a finely crafted show that entertains and provokes. Their freedom and creativity in their performance bring together serious situations that creep up and make a huge impact. Entertaining, anarchic, informative, moving and provocative show!

Published