Mad, glitzy and totally camp, what a glorious night of theatre House of Life is. A silly show with heaps of heart, The Raverend (Ben Welch) and Trev (Laurence Cole) take their audience on a journey of joyous enlightenment through a 6 step plan to get happy quick.
Mad as a concept, the performance is less of a story and more of a cabaret-come-religious-experience, with glorious concoction of house, gospel and a cracking set of pipes (the Raverend in particular knocking it out the park vocally every time).
Attacking the audience’s insecurities with mantras of radical self love, honesty and community, House of Life’s great success is that it leaves no audience member un-nurtured. Chickens often the theme – an unsubtle metaphor for rebirth – we are offered egg-maracas (as well as face paint glitter, if willing) and encouraged to engage not only with the show but with the people sat around us. Happiness the aim, the duo don’t just decorate their audiences but make great efforts to keep them moving – be that grooving in their seats or out of them, as in this show, an out-of-seat boogie does not go amiss.
It’s a concept which relies on willing participants, with audience interaction extending to admissions of “why you love one another” between audience members who came together, and deeply personal confessions of our deepest desires or visualised futures – but, as we come to uncover, this performance is built around radical honesty and the relinquishment of shame, with recent bereavement and bouts of insecurity taking vulnerable centre stage.
Careful to balance the serious with the silly, in tender moments of quiet, outside the rave-experience, this is a show which acknowledges life’s difficulties in a loving, caring way.
Keeping the momentum high, Welch is expert in both creating a delightfully larger than life onstage persona and a genuinely comfortable presence, with Cole’s more inherently vulnerable character providing a guiding hand for the less instantaneously ‘involved’ audience member. Every choice in this production is made to create a welcoming environment. No stone left unturned, we watch Welch and Cole (purposefully) botch their lines, their sound queues and their lighting queues, all with stylish grace and humour, to solidify a space where mistakes can be made and honesty is praised.
Lighting and sound design are stylish and mega theatrical, with multicoloured spotlights and gorgeous pink hues blending perfectly with the saxophone riffs and (in the words of Raverend) funky baseline that makes the room feel like an explosion of 70s groove.
Only faltering momentarily, there were moments where audience members reluctance to engage with the show impacted the flow of the performance, and though this was dealt with kindly by Welch it is a reminder that it is not a performance which will be to the taste of us all.
Valiant in its efforts nonetheless, I do believe it would take a heart of stone not to leave the room smiling and with some more pep in your step.
Endorphin-boosting, energising and life-affirming at its maddest. Sentimental, heartfelt and raw when most honest. You’d be a fool to miss it. A therapist could only dream of achieving the quick-fix happy pill which House of Life is.
Reviewer: Sadie Pearson
Reviewed: 28th May 2025
North West End UK Rating: