Reviews

Angie Le Mar – In My Shoes

| Off-West End |

20 October 2011

In My Shoes, a one-woman choppy sketch show billed as a “theatrical tour de force”, plays a little like a cabaret without music to the tables of Soho Downstairs. There’s little subtlety (giant picture of a vagina, anyone?) and yet some of the best moments are where this shines through – the states of the character’s actual shoes, the quiet silent moments of removing or placing them on the feet.

Though valiantly played by Angie Le Mar, her characters are a little 2D; there are too many of them and not enough requisite time. They feel rushed through, with little development in each so that they appear as little more than stereotypes that play up to the audience. And yes, Le Mar knows her audience and yes there are indeed flashes of funny. But overall the show feels a little raw, in need of a little extra moulding, and the scene changes (despite the big beats covering them) stall the momentum.

Take, for instance, the trainer-loving ex-gang member Dupre McKenzie. This sketch stands out as one of the best; Le Mar’s physicality, her energy, her voice, all excellently done. However, without the additional programme note explaining the visitation of his dead friend’s ghost, the final few minutes would have been entirely incomprehensible.

But the best moment comes at the end of the show, Le Mar riffing in character, a lone and welcome section of stand-up that provides a better vehicle for her talents and enables the show to go out on a high. In the end though, it’s like being offered a plethora of left shoes without the right – there’s just a necessary little something missing.

– Laura Tosney