Jake Mace
A snappy Bridal shop owner chastises her latest client over her style choices – but is there something else bubbling beneath the surface? Talkers & Doers deliver a wholesome dose of Queer joy through this exploration of gay childhoods and closeted adulthoods. The piece draws out a relatively simple setup over the hour, which doesn’t lead to a great deal of dramatic tension, but we’re pulled along on this story by a fun and vibrant sense of humour, and a characteristic sense of playfulness.
Amber Charlie Conroy’s Charlie is a Queer Irish bridal shop owner in London, approached by Rosalie Roger-Lacan’s French-British Clelia, bride-to-be of financier Yves. What’s fuelling Charlie’s need to neg Clelia’s every decision – from vanilla Catholic wedding, to how she feels about her shoulders? It becomes apparent immediately that there’s something more than meets the eye between this pair. How soon before the veil slips?
As it turns out, a little too soon. The central dramatic secret crux between the characters in Gogo Boots Go is revealed within the show’s first fifteen minutes, which leaves the relationship between the two characters in a strange place over the rest of the runtime. The pair switch between reminiscing over their past encounter together and then almost immediately talking in euphemisms about weddings and Clelia’s relationship with her husband-to-be. The switch doesn’t carry much tension once the reveal is done, and there’s no real progression in their relationship until the show’s very closing seconds.
It’s hard to stay connected with the characters because of this lack of tension. The comedy, in the first section of the play, spins around this central comedic tension of us being unsure what’s led these two characters back together. After the reveal, a few clever and fun asides to Queer culture and analysing how ‘vanilla’ Clelia comes across get some solid laughs. However, the piece loses a fair bit of traction, and drags this relatively surface-level storyline over the rest of the hour. Depth and lucidity is missing here – and it left me wondering when we were going to see these characters traverse a story arc rather than harking back to this singular moment.
Despite this, the central performances manage to hold our attention. Conroy’s boisterous and plain-talking Charlie is a breath of fresh air. She is a woman with a hold of herself, shattered only by this unusual encounter, and comes across greatly three-dimensional. Roger-Lacan’s Clelia is rattled by an un-assuredness in the play’s earlier acts, and wobbles in between trying to assert her newfound identity against the constant negging from Charlie. The chemistry is fantastic, the banter relatable, the moments exploring fashion semiotics smart and fresh.
The show deploys a number of playful devices throughout to try and maintain the audience’s attention, to varying success. A section using shadow puppetry fails to create solid imagery, but marks a nice change of tone from the rest of the piece that hums in nostalgic sentimentality. The lip sync section provides a jubilant opener to the show, but I wonder about the use of a Chappell Roan track here – the moment appears as though it’s supposed to call back to this twenty-something pair’s childhoods, which wouldn’t have been marked by Roan’s music. Something more nostalgic might have rung more authentic.
Elements of the production design leave us out in the cold a little – harsh bleak white-washes feel a little out of place for a bridal shop, even as they are supposed to highlight moments of awkwardness, it felt like an overly-stylistic choice for something which otherwise essentially runs as a straightforward narrative, with unity of time and place only disrupted by some sketch-style interludes. The set and prop pieces overload the small stage, and lead to a general feeling of clunky-ness that unfortunately pervades the drama.
Talkers & Doers have made a decent effort at creating something fun, fresh, Queer, and navigable in Gogo Boots Go. The references to fashion, and Queer childhood, ring with originality while other elements come across half-cooked.
Recommended Drink: A flute of champagne, preferably not with a Wedding Ring at the bottom!
You can catch Gogo Boots Go until August 25th at ZOO Playground – Playground 3 from 14:40. Tickets are available through the EdFringe Box Office.
