May The Farce Be With You!

May The Farce Be With You is the latest themed cabaret night to hit London and is inspired by epic films of intergalactic drama and their many spin-offs. We sent intrepid explorer, Arthur Foxaque in to make his presence felt and find out what-the-Jedi is going on. Please note: no Bothans were harmed in bringing us this information.

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‘May The Farce Be With You’, is a new sci-fi themed soirée devised and produced by the quartet of Niki Stevens, Tom Baker, Dominic Jones and Jake Stevens, and is much more than just an amusing pun (not just about one franchise in particular). Those stepping into its spaceport for the night will see the Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club has been temporarily converted into an orbital station. In their second outing, the Rebel Alliance is called to assemble; the audience can recline with a drink and think of Alderaan as they enjoy fancy dress fun and a highly tongue-in-cheek cabaret variety show. Before the end credits roll, they will have witnessed Lucha wrestling, Twi’lek showgirls, strange songs, bespoke masks, a laser-wielding Yoda and an orange-faced house band. What’s not to love?

 

The Bohemianauts’ Tom Baker, dressed as an X-wing pilot, introduces the night’s theme and the evening’s host Jones who plays Admiral “it’s a trap!” Akbar.

As a horny Admiral Akbar, our charismatic host, Dom Jones, plays a galactic lothario draped in three mysterious gold painted Twi’lek showgirls. Adorned by a spectacular headmask and a blue sequinned jacket, Akbar sets the tone (low) and barrages the room with quick-fire quips. Without skipping a beat, he accepts command of the Rebellion with an admirable absence of modesty.

The Twi’lek Trilogy are not just here for decoration: beneath the glitz and head-dresses are fire performer Luce Lemons, fine artist Sinead Miller and blues chanteuse Milky Sugar. When not escorting Admiral Akbar, they glide about the club in tight formation, baffling everyone with their Twi’lek babble while casually pilfering the occasional drink. Two of these miscreants, Lemons & Miller, made the Akbar & Binks masks especially for the show!

Super Luchadoras In Training (SLITS) roll up as the first act. Two different Princess Leias were amongst the brawling luchadoras before “Sue-bacca” battered them all and carried Darth Vader off over her shoulder through the crowd. I am still trying to come to terms with this space oddity [sorry].

As Grand Moff Tarkin, Simon Lukacs brought a refreshingly mundane take on life in the Death Star with an Alan Bennet flavour, “Tarkin Heads”. Did you know that Earl Grey tea and Battenberg cake were indeed in ready supply for Imperial Fleet top brass? Every day is a school day.

Akbar returns to play the game “Tracker Bar or Trap!” wherein a volunteer is blindfolded and asked to test various nutribar products and guess which are the real flavours and which, well, aren’t and never likely to be.

Rebel Instigator Niki Stevens gives us rousing songs written especially by her for the show. She enchants with her tale of unrequited Wookie love before waxing lyrical about “eating Solo”.

No sci-fi piss-up is complete without a costume competition. Even Admiral Akbar, in all his coked-up narcissism, tries it on in the line-up! My costume was the best, of course, but I refused to participate, as I generously wished others to have a chance to win.

Half time break is played out by the house band, Rum Buffalo who are moonlighting as the ‘RagTag Rebels’ (available for private inter-galactic hire & Mos Eisley cantina brawls).

Later on, RagTag Rebel band leader Jake Stevens appears in his own quite confounding routine. With the aid of a full bespoke headmask, he gives us a song as JaJa Binks in drag, resplendent in a red dress borrowed from his mother. Apparently, he lost the dress after the show and his mother’s going to horsewhip him for it. I’d pay to watch that!

The Fabulous Bakewell Boys appear as quizzical droids C3P-Who? and R2-WTF? Bewildering and painfully funny, these two bots did Yorkshire proud, making an off-world record attempt whilst singing 1980s pop hit “99 red ballons”. Surrealist confusion abounds and there’s more where that came from…

HP Lovebox (a Cthulhu-masked Tom Baker) returns to the cabaret stage in greater context than ever, with a joyfully daft rendition of  “Always look on the light side of the force”. We all whistled along to this winning version of the Monty Python classic.

Avant-garde artist and cabaret performer, Apple Tart, topped the space soiree with a master Yoda re-hash: channel hopping on the big screen until she found a lightsabre duel on channel  186,282 with her laser guided remote control baton. No one was certain how to react to that or knew what the hell to do next, which is why you rarely forget Apple Tart’s performances.

So the cabaret was closed by the house band, followed by DJ Slim Chance playing disco hits. Because… well, why the fuck not? The Wrong was strong!

 

“May the Farce be With You” will return to BGWMC on (when else) May the 4^th  2016, for more interstellar Silliness. Strike While the Irony is Hot.

I’ll be there, dressed as Indiana Jones. Again. What will you come as? Use the Farce wisely…

Watch this space for the future adventures of Arthur Foxaque.