Following their acclaimed performance in Shockheaded Peter, The Tiger Lillies bring their ghoulish punk cabaret based on the Seven Deadly Sins to the exotic surroundings of the Spiegel Tent.
The trio of musicians with guitar, drums and accordion create a striking image, as they take to the stage in Victorian suits and bowler hats. Wonderful lighting from below casts ominous shadows and the lead singer, with his grease paint mask, looks like a character out of Tim Burtons Nightmare Before Christmas.
The music is initially intriguing with the singers extraordinary screeching falsetto voice soaring over the rhythm section. But before long the pure monotony of the material is revealed. Like the rounds of a boxing match, each deadly sin is introduced by the buxom and corseted Ophelia Bitz. Ophelias parading apart, there is little to distinguish one Sin from another and one screeching falsetto performance from another. The feeble comedy of the Punch and Judy sideshow offers no respite from the tedium. Relying on smutty schoolboy humour and foul language this show aspires to be offensive but their material fails to challenge anything. To reinforce their puerile credentials the drummers stool is a toilet and even goes to the length of pretending to eat his own shit.
There is very little engagement with the audience and the atmosphere falls increasing flat as a result. They slowly strangle their own creation sin by sin till there is barely a pulse. The final nail in the coffin is the bands insistence that the bar staff do not sell drinks during their performance thus robbing us of the opportunity to drown our sorrows.
