The Last Bordello @ Tron Theatre, Glasgow
Fire Exit's latest and largest production is a sumptuously mad theatrical treat
It’s a bittersweet experience seeing a show from a company that has just lost its Creative Scotland funding. Yet under the guidance of Artistic Director and all-round maverick theatrical genius David Leddy, Fire Exit is doing far more than soldiering on, producing a piece that's quintessentially European with homages to Jean Genet and Rainer Werner Fassbinder.
The Last Bordello follows a 19-year-old terrorist who arrives at a brothel due to be bulldozed in the morning, with one mission; losing his virginity. He ends up hoping that he may escape with his life. Once inside the brothel he plays out the various characters' games and scenarios, all the whilst becoming increasingly desperate as doors are locked to prevent his escape.
The opening, with the curtain moving like a peep show, reveals Becky Minto's all-white set, corrupted by Nich Smith's bold lighting cues. We may end up close to where we began, but the exquisite brutality with which we are taken through each layer of narrative is delightful.
We begin in Gaza to fit the terrorist narrative; we end up in an infamous brothel for sailors, whores and hopefuls in Barcelona to fit the Genet conceit. In between we hear and see stories with horrific endings onstage, or do we? Central is the maestro, Jean Genet, who may be watching, but then again, he may not be as the characters tell a series of brutal and delicious tales.
This is Leddy at his best, creating mayhem and mischief from a morass of crassness. The interplay between characters who are not what they appear, or indeed what they believe themselves to be, has a touch of Pirandello about it, setting Fire Exit firmly on the European stage.
From the crumpled paper programmes to the grotesque characters upon which we were played, Leddy wrings every ounce of theatrical flair out of convention for this treat; this is sumptuously mad. You would think funders would be falling over themselves to support this, wouldn’t you? As The Last Bordello shows, sometimes things don't work out quite as you'd expect.
The Last Bordello, Tron Theatre, Glasgow, run ended; Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, until 24 Feb