Liz Gill enjoys both the fun and exuberance, and the serious message, of this unique theatrical experience
If you fancy a not-quite-15-minutes of fame then try and get an aisle seat at the Arts Theatre. It’s from there that you might be pulled on stage by a member of the cast of The Choir of Man.
And even if you don’t get picked to join the ensemble you might be serenaded under a spotlight, handed a free beer or at least catch a beer mat or a bag of crisps as they are hurled into the audience. They even use catapults to reach to the circle.
Such jolly touches add even more fun to a vibrant evening where nine immensely talented men – they can all sing and dance and play a variety of musical instruments – perform a range of songs and exuberant routines.
The concept is that we are all in an old-style pub called The Jungle – no gastro nonsense here – and this is its choir. You can buy tokens to spend at the onstage bar before the show starts and the actors arrive and start mingling. Their nicknames reveal their characters: there’s the Hard Man, the Romantic, the Joker, even the Pub Bore and their back stories are revealed in tender and amusing verse monologues between the songs.
These cover a wide spectrum from foot stompers like The Proclaimers 500 Miles and Queen’s Someone to Love which we are all encouraged to join in with to the powerful ballad of Hello and the melancholic Dance With My Father, its poignancy only marred for me by my companion rustling the crisps he’d caught.
There are droll moments too such as when the Bore belts out The Impossible Dream while a member of the audience tries to build a tower of beer mats or when the barman emerges from behind the counter and dances downstage for a show stopping I Like Pina Colada.
The Arts Theatre is a compact and cosy venue ideal for this kind of super-interactive show and with reasonably priced tickets a show has repeat attenders. I heard someone behind whisper ‘this is a good bit’. It’s also only 90 minutes long with no interval which enhances its intensity and proves the old showbiz adage of ‘leave ‘em wanting more’.
The Choir of Man is not all rip-roaring merriment though. It also has serious points to make such as the importance to the community of the public house – the clue is in the name – and what will be lost if the present rate of decline is not halted. It is also a celebration of the power and strength of masculinity at a time when testosterone only ever seems to get a bad press – and the importance and significance of male friendships.
Perhaps the most moving moment comes at the end when after a wild finale which has the audience on its feet, the action is paused for Sam Ebenezer as the Poet to make a brief appeal for CALM, the anti-suicide charity Campaign Against Living Miserably. One hundred and twenty five people a week kill themselves, we were told, or one every 90 minutes ‘the length of our show.’ Three quarters of them are men.
The performers’ mikes are switched off, the four piece backing band put down their instruments and the men sing acapella the haunting song The Parting Glass – ‘a song for anyone you would have liked to have had another drink with.’
The run at the Arts Theatre, London has been extended til the end of September.
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