Review: Remythed (King's Head Theatre / UK Tour)

Review by Sam Waite

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Stories, we are told early on, are comparable to items of clothing. After sufficient use, be that a telling or a wearing, we put them back through the wash and begin to notice differences – a thread coming loose, a loosening of the neckline, a stray sock being bundled in when its match disappeared long before. As so Bet’n Lev Theatre have set out both to correct centuries of mistranslation and warping through retelling, and to put their own spin on some well-worn tales in Remythed.

The show begins before the performance-proper actually starts, with members of the company dancing around the auditorium and striking up conversations with those nearest them. When I caught eyes with Ishmael Kirby we had a quick laugh about how overheated they were getting, and the tone for the next hour was immediately set. Focusing on queer storytelling, from long-standing mythologies to recent Grindr-infused bar stories, Remythed is a truly joyful and singular piece of work.

As the company take turns narrating, so too do they jump in and out of an endless parade of roles, from gods and monarchs, to peasants and passers-by, to flora and fauna alike. From the introduction, there’s a breezy, intimate quality to the performance that lends the more dramatic, focused moments an increased weight and much higher tension. Co-creator Joel Samuels merrily narrates where a new joke has worked out or an existing one has finally truly landed with an audience, allowing us to see in real time just how fluid and informal the show is.

Alongside Samuels and his co-creator Roann Hassani McCloskey, there are the aforementioned Ishmael Kirby, Lucy Roslyn, and Emile Clarke. Spanning various races, ethnicities, religious backgrounds and gender identities, this small ensemble find real joy in bringing to life these unapologetically queer stories, always imbuing them with the gravity they warrant alongside a hefty dose of humour. The hour in their company alternates between a relaxed feeling, where a few friends are telling you some of their favourite stories, to grand and reverent displays of physical theatre in which those same tales are brought to brilliant life.

All five performers are remarkable, bringing gravitas where called for, casualness where not, and making everything easy for the audience to digest without sacrificing their obvious skills as actors. Samuels and McCloskey have created something both tightly choreographed and gloriously free-form, an opportunity for each audience to come away knowing they have seen something uniquely theirs, and that should they pay another visit they will never quite see the same performance. Everyone latches on magnificently to their moments of pure acting, relishing in the opportunity to share their gifts, and all are equally willing to be a clown, a buffoon, a regal presence, an over-serious antagonist, with no sense of ego or of compromised ideas.

Like a real-life counterpart to Mischief’s Cornley Drama Society (of Goes Wrong) fame, there are also snatches of the actors themselves mixed into the narrative. Samuels breaks the most, so delighted by the work of his castmates, while Clarke’s entrance from the crowd as “just an ordinary plant” is a hilarious response to being beckoned to as, “looking like a classically-trained actor!” It’s these hints of an outside narrative, a suggestion that the want to tell these stories properly comes from real-world desires, that really makes Remythed a singular and unmissable experience,

Frankly, this review will have to run shorter than I would have preferred, because there is both so much to say and so little that can be said. We at All That Dazzles are steadfast in our avoidance of all but the most necessary of spoilers, and to give anything but the vague premise away would be a disservice to just how unique an evening in the Remythed crew’s company is. Managing to be both tightly constructed and freeingly loose in structure, I’ve never seen a piece of work quite like Remythed, but I’ll be keeping a watchful eye on Bet’n Lev theatre for the opportunity to do so again.

Remythed is on a UK tour until July 11th

For tickets and information visit https://www.betnlev.co.uk/remythed

Photos by Ali Wright