The Rug of Identity – King’s Arms, Salford

The origins of tonight’s play, a revival of a 40year old tale, by Jill Fleming, came from her time with the women’s theatre troupe, Hard Corps, whose aim at the time was described by website Unfinished Histories as ‘to perform lesbian soap operas at the London Palladium, overthrow the patriarchy and put tampons on the NHS’.

In a time when moral panic around AIDS was at its peak, Fleming and other member’s works didn’t follow any expectations of handwringing apologies for queer characters being the way they were, instead creating anarchic, in-your-face plays where the delivery of familiar theatrical tropes came from characters who just happened to inhabit every colour of the LGBTQ+ rainbow and took tremendous pride in doing so.

Best efforts aside though, works soon faded into obscurity and the show, which only had a small number of performances at the time had not been done since. Now, with issues of queer identity being front and centre once again in the media, and positioned as a moral bogeyman for right-wing populists, this revival feels perfectly timed.

The main crux of the show is a simple farce – our protagonist, aspiring novelist Joanna (a splendidly foppish Kate Butler) discovers her soon-to-be-executed Mother Mona (a vixen-channelling Eleanor Haigh) is not just a murderer, but a professional assassin, betrayed by her last client. Whilst being blackmailed into making her mother’s story the subject of her next book, Joanna decides with mummy-dearest soon to be no more, it’s time to track down her father.

With the aid of her ‘will we, won’t we’ paramour Laurie (charmingly played by Stella Cohen), Laurie’s overbearing mother, Mrs Proctor (spectacularly and hilariously overacted by Niamh O’Toole) and her mother’s prison officer lover (one of several multi-roles delivered by the versatile Leah Marks), Joanna soon discovers the rabbit hole of her, and her parents’, identities go much deeper than she could have possibly imagined.

Director Calima Lunt Gomez has guided her ensemble well, allowing the chaos to flow without coming completely off the rails, and adding heaps of Restoration comedy sensibilities to the buffoonery; finding another layer of hilarious lunacy with a few sublime touches that are laugh-out-loud funny and some zinger one liners.

From the fabulous reconstruction of one of Mona’s murderous rampages, through to the cast vocalising the sound effects, via a bonkers lip-synching routine to Queen’s ‘I want to break free’, it is a show crackling with joyful rebellion and the kind of self-confidence that belies its original 80s context.

A few fluffed lines, and a somewhat abrupt ending aside, it’s a riotous, bonkers affair with an audience that loves every minute. Let’s certainly hope works like these can find themselves back to theatres one day soon, rather than languishing for another 40 years.

For more info and What’s on, please visit www.kingsarmssalford.com

Reviewer: Lou Steggals

Reviewed: 8th April 2024

North West End UK Rating: