The new Soho Theatre offshoot in Walthamstow certainly opened in style. A launch party on Thursday, night graced by Ian McKellen among other luminaries, was followed on Friday by the opening of the first show there: Weer, from comedian Natalie Palamides.
To be honest, calling the Grade II listed building an offshoot does not do it justice. With an auditorium that seats almost a thousand — The Beatles and Rolling Stones once played here — it's much bigger than the Dean Street space. And glitzier too, with high ceilings and 1930s Spanish baroque and Moorish stylings.
And, to be just as honest, to call Natalie Palamides a comedian does not do her justice either. The Los Angeles-based performer is a fearless, terrifically talented physical storyteller and clown — though at times closer to challenging performance artist than red-nosed entertainer. It is apt that she was chosen for the inaugural E17 event as some of her early UK outings were on the original W1 stage.
Weer, which was nominated for an Edinburgh Comedy Award last summer, is Palamides' most accessible set yet. A one-woman show featuring two characters, star-crossed lovers, Mark and Christina, teetering on the brink of break-up. We join them on New Year's Eve 1999 before flashing back to 1996 to see how they got there.
Palamides plays Mark and Christina simultaneously by splitting her outfit down the middle. Lumberjack shirt and jeans on one side, pastel pink top and short skirt on the other. Fez-wearing TV star Tommy Cooper did a similar act, playing English and German soldiers, but not for almost ninety hilarious minutes.
The execution is a formidable feat. Whether Mark and Christina are squabbling over car keys, snogging in the onstage shower or getting repeatedly splashed by imaginary traffic it is easy to forget that there is only one person onstage.
Like the venue, which boasts three glamorous bars, upstairs and downstairs, Weer works on a number of levels. You can read it as a comment on gender — Palamides' previous show Nate deftly explored consent. Or you could simply sit back and enjoy it as a romcom send-up, complete with brilliantly sly nods to Richard Curtis in general and Notting Hill in particular.
There is audience participation but of the distinctly benign kind. You won't get hauled onstage unless you really want to. There is no chance of anyone else stealing the show. This is very much Palamides' night. Romeo and Juliet by way of a forgotten Pearl Jam cover version, various 1990s pop classics and some rubbery prosthetic genitalia. It is not really suitable for children.
It is ambitious to book a comedian not known for their TV or online work to play the first week. But if anybody can pull it off Palamides can. Weer is a silly, seductive, slapstick joy.
A spectacular show to open a spectacular location.
Weer by Natalie Palamides, Soho Theatre Walthamstow, until May 10, sohotheatre.com.
