I really appreciated Dickie Beau the first time I saw him in Lost in Trans and again as Oscar Wilde in The Invention of Love.  I also saw Botticelli in the Fire which I found more problematic.  I sadly missed his play Re-Member Me about Hamlet because I was abroad which I might have admired.  His latest concoction appeared at the Yustinov Studio in Bath in 2022 and now has come to Hampstead Theatre’s main house.

Purporting to be an exploration on performance, Showmanism is an eclectic experience.  Many celebrities offer their audio anecdotes to which Dickie Beau expertly lipsyncs.  But what exactly is the art of lip sync in creative terms.  Immediately I think of its immense benefit to those who cannot sing and more recently as a skill category on Ru Paul’s Drag Show contests. Beyond that I am underwhelmed.  I suppose the question it poses is how different is lip syncing from acting speaking someone else’s words?

When Dickie Beau employs the hand mime for the man stuck in an imaginary glass box, I cannot call this mime cutting edge because I have seen it onstage over a few decades.  The set is enormous and enormously detailed from the horribly white plastic skull for Yorick to the wig stand supporting a wig with fringe made out of a luxuriant mop head. Dickie Beau spends much of his act in his white Y fronts showing his all over tan. 

The anecdotes from Sir Ian McKellen are lengthy and as he was in the audience on Press Night I take the point about seeing Ian McKellen sitting there and listening to him onstage, his voice coming out of another body.  There are two visits to the every ten year event, the Passion Play at Oberammergau from McKellen.

Opera critic Rupert Christiansen’s views on theatre criticism made for cheap popularity rather than exploring the range of critical response and how do you choose if you can’t see (or afford) everything.  Before I was privileged to see almost everything, there were some critics I would believe more than others.  You have a choice.

I did have an issue with being able to connect with Beau’s stream of thought, not helped by the woman behind me who laughed raucously, even at poignant moments, and in between vocalised her agreement to much else that was said which struck a chord with her.  Annoying!

There is much on solving the difficulty of hearing in a 5,000 seat classical amphitheatre, ignoring that the Ancient Greek audience would be very familiar with the myths being staged.  

There wasn’t enough connection in Showmanism to be made by me and the show became episodic and hard to follow.  I don’t think that I would have had this problem with the Hamlet show Re-member Me.  Beau mentions a long list of things that brought him down.  I empathised.

Well done Hampstead for breaking the mould with an experimental production but I’m sorry I cannot recommend it.