The Etties are very much a bit of fun to celebrate the shows and venues we spend most of our time at. Our awards focus very much on Fringe and OffWestEnd, so don’t expect to see any West End shows or big budget productions in our shortlists. Some of our categories even have a 100 seat maximum for the venue size just to ensure we give all our love and attention to those smaller venues that we believe to be the beating heart of the Fringe theatre scene.
However, for our Ettie for Uncategorised Genre we’ve opened the criteria up just a little. It’s for shows that don’t fall within the other categories, so expect to see a mix of the weird, wonderful and genre defying.
And with that in mind, our shortlisted shows for Best Uncategorissed show are:
Club Life @ Omnibus
Fred Deakin’s show proved to be utterly unique in its presentation. What could have been a rather standard autobiographical exploration of his life as a club runner, instead the performers encaourage the audience to join them on stage to “remind us why dancing like no one is watching is a pleasure we should have more often in our lives.”
Fabulous Creatures @ Arcola Theatre
Sometimes we’re not 100% certain what category to put a show under, and Fabulous Creatures was very much one of those. In the end we settled for Cabaret, but even that probably doesn’t quite do it justice for a show we said was “slick, funny, and beautifully told and sung”
Oedipus Electronica @ Brixton House
We didn’t see as much Gig Theatre as we’d have liked in 2024, but one we did catch was Pecho Mama‘s take on this Greek tradegy. It proved to be quite the experience for our reviewer who said “it’s scary, it’s raw, it’s deeply uncomfortable. I’ve never felt such fear while sitting safely in theatre seats before.”
The Belt @ The Coronet Theatre
We’ve certainly seen some different stuff at The Coronet, and this was no exception, something we descirbed as “a breathtaking immersive celebration of the possibilities of hip hop dance”. Dance is a genre we found ourselves heading back to in 2024 after a few years of hardly any coverage. So maybe next year it might even get it’s own category!
The Catalogue of Sexual Insecurities @ White Bear Theatre
With a title like that, it was always likely this would be a rather unusual show, and so it proved. We were impressed with its “inventive approach to topics that some may find a little uncomfortable, but which are handled in a considerate and thoughtful manner.”
The Rest of Our Lives @ Battersea Arts Centre
The second dance show to make the list, this one impressed us for many reasons, including because of “its very own passenger information display, informing the audience, for instance, that the current skit is about grief or that the next station is Vauxhall. These titbits not only guide us through the layers of performance but also sprinkle in puns and social commentary, making the experience simultaneously more accessible and thought-provoking.”
We will announce all our winners of our Ettie Awards during our live Runn Radio show on 3 March.
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