‘Fame Whore’, written and directed by Tom Ratcliffe holds up a morality mirror (and light ring) to modern societies desperate desire for attention, relevance, and the ultimate goal, “followers”. It highlights the lengths that people will go to achieve fame, and the pitfalls for some once they achieve this, as well as the ever-evolving cancel (or call-out) culture that is growing within many online communities, that can leave some entirely ostracised from their friends and fans.
Part one-man play, part cabaret and part social narrative, ‘Fame Whore’ introduces the world to Becky Biro (Gigi Zahir), a hard-working drag performer, with a modest social media following, but a wild desire to be the next Drag Factor contestant. Beck feels she “deserves” fame, and having been rejected from Drag Factor before, decides that that only way to achieve her goal is to gain as many followers as possible, doing whatever it takes to get there!!
The creative team behind ‘Fame Whore’ have certainly worked hard to create modern backdrop to platform Becky’s rise up the influencer ladder. Becky has some beautiful costumes, including a baby-doll electric blue dress and wig, black patent leather dress and thigh-high black patent stilettos. Alys Whitehead’s set design includes mirrored floor, giant colour-changing ring light, and audio-visual projection screens (realised by Frances Ashton). Throughout there are projections of Becky’s fan’s Facehost social media posts, and later a Zoom meeting with various characters all played by Zahir. On paper it should all come together to create a unique theatrical experience, but the overall pacing of the show makes it hard to stay fully engaged.
Whilst ‘Fame Whore’ is a very smart, culturally relevant, and modern piece, it is billed as a fast-paced dark-comedy, and unfortunately the pace isn’t quite as fast as it needs to be to keep the humour going. Of course, it is wonderfully camp, with lots of belly laugh, iconic drag queen jokes, and Zahir carries the show brilliantly with his magnetic personality and intense physicality, but at 80 minutes, it is in desperate need of editing.
‘Fame Whore’ is showing at King’s Head Theatre until 29th October, and tickets are available here: https://kingsheadtheatre.com/whats-on/fame-whore
Reviewer: Alan Stuart Malin
Reviewed: 12th October 2022
North West End UK Rating: ★★★