A sure-fire hit for lovers of the tongue-in-cheek that will leave you howling, blushing, perhaps, even crying.Summary
Rating
Unmissable!
Fasten your corsets and say ‘ooh la la’ for the unstoppable force of Lily Sinko’s new comedy setting hearts (and loins) on fire. Magdalena, Woman of Joy lives up to her exuberant mantle in a fiery French fling that “doesn’t bite, it licks”.
A crimson drenched in-the-round stage with pumping French electro-pop ushers us into the scandalous world of Magdalena: the Bear Grylls of the sex worker industry. A survivor of abuse, abduction and indoctrination, Magdalena’s life story is as gripping as it is funny, and the newly opened Playhouse East is its ideal setting.
A candlelit lounge bar leads up to a charmingly raffish attic space serving as an ample arena for Sinko’s shameless strutting. Her prostitute protagonist may use every French stereotype in the book but her baguette brandishing sex assassin obtains one quality she claims British people do not possess: “charisma”. Bubbling over with charisma, Sinko is instantly likeable even if she shouts in your face, drapes herself over your lap or calls you “a pervert”.
Her audience interaction is effortless whilst her sheer stamina keeps proceedings pacey as we journey through Magdalena’s impoverished Marseille childhood (where passport forgery is a form of arts and crafts) to her teenage detention at “The Virgin Mary School for Bad, Bad Girls (Cash Only)”.
Sinko’s astute choice to narrate parts of her one-woman show through a child’s perspective adds a layer of innocent heartbreak to each punchline. The slow realisation that “The Virgin Mary” is not a boarding school but rather a brothel presents a pure soul plunged into an underworld she is not prepared for.
Even in darkness, director Daniel Kettle finds light as a cheeky aside reminds a gentleman on the front row to keep his “eyes up here, I’m still a little girl at this point” thereby proving comedy and tragedy sit in perfect balance throughout this raucous production.
As the unabating plotline reaches its ‘great escape’ climax, another unsuspecting audience member is hauled onstage as Magdalena’s stand-in whilst Sinko embodies the hysterical cross-eyed boyfriend Pietro. This sequence in particular typifies Sinko and Kettle’s vision “rooted in instinct, humour and a shared love of the strange” as quickfire surrealist comedy delights a rollicking crowd.
With a show as audience-dependent as this, a return visit will undoubtedly produce unique results each night, but for a performer as adept at improv as Sinko, this will only add to the crazy cocktail that is Magdalena’s epic tale.
Magdalena, Woman of Joy is a sure-fire hit for lovers of the tongue-in-cheek (or anywhere else for that matter). It will leave you howling, blushing, perhaps, even crying. It is not to be missed.
Written by Lily Sinko
Directed by Daniel Kettle
Produced by Vandens Karta Ensemble
Set by Jordan Chandler
Lighting by Connor Divers
Magdalena, Woman of Joy plays at the Playhouse East until Saturday 28 June.
