'Bare' features one of the most visually arresting opening sequences I’ve seen in a while. The stage is covered in red satin in the middle of which a woman named only as Susie sits hunched, back to the audience, looking like someone’s dumped a body. Eerie music starts and the mass of red undulates and shivers as she extracts herself from the drapes and emerges covered in red ballooons, moving seamlessly into a deliberately awkward interpretation of the burlesque Balloon Dance - popping each in time to slowly reveal herself in a white slip beneath.
Clearly a talented theatre-maker and hugely engaging performer - but what I saw was essentially a long and interesting introduction to a show that never quite happened.
Throughout this piece Susie uses elements of burlesque, performed in a knowingly un-sexy way, to illuminate the absurdity of affected ‘sexiness’. Particular highlights are a nipple-tassle sequence which begins as a token attempt to make them twirl, and becomes more and more frenzied to a soundtrack of Susie’s own recorded voice detailing her every physical flaw (lovely details here such as the scar she got from dancing too enthusiastically with a friend), by the end of which she appears utterly crazed. She uses a huge pink feather and a lot of eggy facial expressions in a hilarious reverse strip-tease - frantically pulling on and tearing stockings whilst peering coyly at her audience. It’s not accidental that when she emerges in a full length black ball-gown she’s the sexiest she’s been all night.
At this point, I was ready and hoping to listen to her tell the story she’d been hinting at having to tell from the start, so when the black-out came I thought it was a call-back to a lovely earlier moment when we were plunged into complete darkness and put at ease with “ Don’t you find it easier to talk to people when you’re not looking at them?”. Alas, that was that. Frustrating as by this point I wanted to know what she’d been hinting at. Maybe that was the point, but for my money (or the £10 ticket price), it felt like a cheap trick.
This show is part of Susie’s MA in Theatre and Performance, and occasional moments (not least the abrupt ending), did feel quite ‘student’. If stars were awarded for promise there’d be more of them - she’s clearly a talented theatre-maker and hugely engaging performer - but what I saw was essentially a long and interesting introduction to a show that never quite happened. A shame because, running at just 40 minutes, she could have held my attention for the full hour I was expecting.
