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Brighton Fringe 2014

Margaret Thatcher Queen Of Soho

Matt Telford, Ed Yelland, Matt Milne

Genre: Musical Theatre

Venue: Upstairs at Three and Ten

Festival:

Low Down

 The story of Margaret Thatcher’s transition from Prime Minister to the Diso Queen of gay bars. A show about homophobia, the 80’s and disco.

Review

This cabaret style play, starting with a rousing version of YMCA, tells of Margaret Thatcher’s belief that the booklet ‘Jenny lives with Eric and Martin’  was being introduced into schools to promote homosexuality and which led to the passing of Section 28 banning the promotion of homosexuality in schools. She then gets lost in Soho and ends up in a gay disco, leading to a new career as a disco queen.

Matt Tedford gives a lively and amusing impersonation of Margaret Thatcher, dressed in blue with the habitual handbag and a voice that exactly mirrored her intonations. He commanded the stage, sang the songs well & ad libbed to great effect with the audience, at one point telling two people in the audience not to talk while he was performing as it was his show – very Margaret Thatcher.

He was well supported by Ed Yelland and Matt Milne who played Hesel and Tine and others including amusing caricatures of Peter Tatchell, a young David Cameron and Jill Knight, main proposer of section 28, who was the pantomime villain of the piece. Even Winston Churchill made an appearance. They performed their cameos well and danced with tons of energy.

Through the humour, pertinent points were made about Section 28 and homophobia in general. Although there were some great one liners ‘where there is disco let me bring harmonies’, it was not as funny as I expected it to be and had the feeling of a sketch which had been padded out.

Not a play/cabaret which will appeal to everyone but many in the audience were enthusiastic. 

Published by Nigel Nevinson