Stripped

Synopsis

One woman - Six characters - a wickedly funny, achingly honest look at the glittery tawdry world of lap and pole. Following it's sell-out staged reading as part of TBT/Team Angelica's Louder than Words Season, Stripped returns for another electrifying one-off performance.

Our Review:

16 August 2010

Hannah Chalmers is undeniably impressive in this one-hour monologue, apparently based on her own life, about a nightclub stripper learning (and breaking) the rules. Flesh-enthusiasts will be disappointed: there’s no stripping, an apt metaphor for a play in which the central character is a bit-part with whom we don’t spend enough time to really empathise.

The people she meets (creepy boss, ball-breaker colleague etc) are much better characterised. The posh businessman (with the manner of Prince Charles and the expressions of Norma Desmond) is a fascinating fish-out-of-water character whose treatment by our girl is the real meat of the show in the closing 15 minutes. I could well imagine a play just about them.

Stripped benefits throughout from the pace and panache with which Chalmers attacks it. The play may not give us the Full Monty but the performance is the Real McCoy.

- Benet Catty ...