A German Duo with chemistry and character. They just need to organise the party.Rating
Good
Art-rock Euro-pop sibling duo Otto & Astrid are a gleeful pastiche of underground Berlin. They take the city’s grit, eccentricity and nightlife chaos, polish away the sharp edges, and transform themselves into bubbly characters — almost as if they belong in a children’s TV series about Berlin’s alternative scene. Their new show, The Stages Tour — yes, a nod to Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour — is a greatest-hits collection from the duo’s wonderfully strange catalogue.
Holding the show and the band together is their sibling dynamic. Older sister Astrid (Clare Bartholomew) commands the drums, resembling a tiny wind-up drummer, her arms held at right angles as she relentlessly batters the kit. Meanwhile, younger brother Otto (Daniel Tobias) brings a cheekiness and almost childlike joy to the stage, bounding around like a little techno goat in red lipstick. Every now and again, Astrid leaves the stage, tempting Otto with the opportunity to perform “unauthorised songs” — which, naturally, he does.
Between these songs, authorised and otherwise, the pair joke, bicker and reveal snippets of their wonderfully absurd backstory. They begin life in a small rural hometown, but after their parents are ever so tragically eaten by a lion, they move into a Berlin squat. It sounds like the premise of an excellent cartoon. The songs themselves are equally quirky and surreal, from ‘Ich Bin Nicht Bin Roboter (I Am A Lion)’ to ‘Tasty Snak’ and ‘I Wanna Be Your Kitten’. Lyrically, they offer playful, novelty takes on classic themes of love, power and technology.
That childlike quality, however, creates an unusual tension with some of the show’s themes, and it is never entirely clear whether this contrast is intentional. Asking a room full of adults to rock out to what feels like Berlin Kidz Bop creates a curious tonal clash. Is this a rock concert, or a piece of light family-style comedic entertainment? At times, the act feels caught between identities, needing to choose a direction and push it further.
There is something undeniably pantomime about the whole affair. When Astrid commands, “No unauthorised songs!”, her wagging finger encourages us to “oh yes we are” her. Later, after the audience inevitably urges Otto to break the rules, she returns to scold us: “Look what you have done, London.” Even the crisps she hands out to the audience add to the playful theatricality. It makes for interactive fun, but it also nudges the show closer to Berlin: The Musical than the underground cult comedy it seems to aspire to be. It feels like watching a pantomime dame and leading boy front a rock band.
There is also a lack of direction at a structural level which causes it to lose momentum towards the end, with one too many false endings. The inter-song conversations are amusing but do little to establish where the show is heading. In this case, the German duo would throw a better party if it were a little more organised. Astrid & Otto also occasionally spend too long talking to each other rather than to the audience. They are at their strongest when they break the fourth wall, drawing the crowd into their playful rebellion.
There is no shortage of charisma or technical skill on this stage. The show simply needs refinement, and the act needs a clearer sense of what it wants to be.
Created by Clare Bartholomew and Daniel Tobias
Lighting by Sam Lohs
Directed by Clare Bartholomew
Sound by Chris Carmichael
Otto & Astrid: The Stages Tour has concluded its run at Soho Theatre and will head to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in August before embarking on the next leg of their global tour
