Are you a gay man or a middle-aged woman? Do you want to be titillated, yet still maintain a scrap of refinement? Well, hold my ouzo - we have the show for you!Rating
Excellent
It’s a tough tightrope, isn’t it? We all like a splash of raunch – we are adults, after all. But where does appreciation become objectification? Precisely in Act 2 – I’m only kidding…well, partly.
Australian-born company Head First Acrobats have toured with some stellar shows – GODZ, Elixir, and RAILED – each blending their impressive skills with their even more impressive…sense of irreverent humour. Now they return with “a bigger, bolder and sexier version!” As a homosexual and Ancient Greek aficionado (synonymous?), I thought all my Olympic Games had come at once!
Two columns, golden chairs, portable stages, and a sequinned tablecloth are all the gents work with; the lighting effects do much of the mood-making, incredibly well – even crafting Hades. We meet the GODZ: Callan Harris, a beefy, bouncing and bountiful Hercules, leading much of the ‘narrative’, beaming with great, flirty audience work, while shimmying up a ladder and cracking whips. His performance alone is more lifelike than his eponymous musical 15 minutes’ walk away at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane (discuses fired).
AJ Saltalamacchia is Dionysus: a bottle-swigging, knife-slinging, bottom-baring juggler and acrobat with a killer wink and hands of Hermes-like speed (I feel like I’m writing a sordid Craigslist advert or a bad porn script). Liam Dummer, handstanding on impossible piles of chairs and fluttering his golden wings, is a slight and sensational Cupid. Finally, strutting on in glittering stripper heels and a beard, sinning and swinging from the ceiling, a gloriously femme Zeus. If the deity can shapeshift into a swan and fall in love with Ganymede, he surely can be embodied thus.
Thomas Gorham is a fantastic all-round acrobat, breakdancer, and impish personality, keeping the energy and comedy high – although the reference to the glowing god of the sun, Apollo, is a little dubious. Mat Piva, for me, would make more sense in that role with his fire routine and golden hair; yet he is Hermes – impressive all round and, when bathed in flickering flame, very…hot.
The first act is vaguely Greco, with simple costumes and breathtaking feats of the body. At one point, a triangle is formed by two of the gents handstanding into a ‘V’, then another leaps onto their clasped feet. They fly through the air, balance and flip off one another, chuckling and flexing, blending masculine stereotypes with softer, more subtle, homoerotic playfulness.
The interval feels unnecessary and seems cynically placed to encourage the purchase of merch and drinks – but such is the way of things. Afterwards, we have the infamous naked dance: golden plates pass over the guys’ cash-and-prizes as they stretch between each other, conga and cavort. ‘Appreciated’ would be putting it mildly, as a woman behind me started audibly purring – although I’d be lying if I said I couldn’t see why. “Contain yourself, Karen!”
Yes, there could be more effort to anchor the evening in the myths, but when Hercules is banished down to Hades, it’s easier to say ‘for dancing naked’ than the real story of ‘brutally murdering his wife and three children while under an enchantment by his jealous (but soon-to-be stepmother) Hera’: not very sexy.
It’s crass, with plenty of arse – a vaguely Hellenic hot step that will please almost everyone, unless you are deeply religious or a straight man/lesbian. And if so…are you lost?
Produced and directed by Head First Acrobats
Costumes by Chelsea Angell, Bryn Meredith
Return of the GODZ plays at the Peacock Theatre until Saturday 20 June.
