Kristin Hersh: Paradoxical Undressing
The Throwing Muses lead singer's spoken word show is a mixed success.
Bosco Theatre - Until 25 Jan
By Andrew P Street
First the good stuff: Hersh is a great writer and her readings are going to make for a thumping good read when they're published (which is happening in 2010, apparently). As an oral history of Throwing Muses it's superb, covering everything from her early days, from the early shows with stratified audiences (fans down the front, Goths knitting up the back, junkies in the middle) to the interplay of personalities on stage.
It's a joyful journey, and her exploration of the role of music in her incipient mental illness is fascinating. And a lot of the time, it's also extremely funny – her opening story about The Animal that lived in her squat is worth the price of admission alone.
However, it's a show for fans. Someone unfamiliar with Hersh's work is unlikely to get the significance of the song fragments she pulls out – her lyrics are oblique at the best of times, especially those songs from the period about which she was speaking – and while the idea works on paper, going from an anecdote into the out-of-context bridge from 'Hook in Her Head', for example, is more jarring than illuminative.
Also, the format of anecdote-music-anecdote-music bears unkind comparison with Ray Davies' 20th Century Man shows, which were far better paced (and were easier for audiences to digest, not least because more people are familiar with The Kinks' music than they are Throwing Muses).
And it's hardly Hersh's fault but the Bosco Theatre is excruciatingly uncomfortable unless you have a particularly well-upholstered rump: after 90 minutes perched on a hard bench I was almost relieved that I was being distracted by the mosquitoes dive-bombing the audience. I can't wait for the book, but as a show Paradoxical Undressing is a mixed success.
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