Sugartits

“Cabaret has exploded”, proclaims Georgeois Bourgeois, of Bourgeois & Maurice fame, during their new show Sugartits, now playing downstairs at Soho theatre. Certainly, during the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, one could barely move for it, with many new acts falling into the Cabaret or Musical Comedy category. So how are veteran alternative cabaret act Bourgeois & Maurice, now in their third show at Soho theatre alone, to respond to said explosion? Evidently their response is a provocative, fun, self-referential new show, proudly displaying their battle-hardened skills.

The genre is one not without its problems. It often feels outdated or anachronistic; a relic of a time when audiences expected little more than ‘light’ entertainment. The combination of music and comedy, if not properly blended, can often result in mediocre and disparate examples of both.  The style of seating also occasionally feels unnatural and, particularly in a non-permanent setting, can often feel forced. But enough of the problems: Bourgeois & Maurice gracefully circumvent them all. If cabaret is outdated, then here it is used to discuss the most current of topics. The music and the comedy are beautifully supportive of each other. A feeling of camaraderie is created despite any reluctance of audience members with the duo’s considerable skills in audience participation and patter.

The boundaries between the audience and performers are broken from the very beginning, with Georgeois entering through the audience, perfunctorily proffering a tray of marshmallows to select audience members. Though audience participation may not be everyone’s cup of tea, it is never vindictive or goes too far; as Georgeois reassuringly says, “It’s not my job to embarrass audience members”. Indeed, one of the funniest moments was when an audience member was asked, coerced and cajoled into singing the name of her home town, which was then used as an audio-loop in an ‘improvised’ song.

The duo clearly enjoy performing together, and this shows in the slickness of their exchanges. Maurice Maurice’s impressively various musical talents complement and punctuate Georgeois Bourgeois’s banter beautifully, and then come into their own during the songs, particularly with her use of melody during ‘Goodbye Europe’.

Bourgeois & Maurice clearly have no problem with politically incorrect humour, clearly relying on having a liberally-minded audience able to appreciate their humour on an ironic level. Unlike other comedians or acts that use such humour, they do not push this point to extremes to make it clear. The onus is all on the audience to do the work themselves. Towards the beginning of the show, with songs with references to rape victims, one wonders if the glancing nature of their politically incorrect humour is problematic, whether everyone in the audience is appreciating it on the ‘right’ level. Yet as the show goes on, and their fearless and energetic referencing of sensitive topics continues, this actually becomes extremely interesting in itself. One is forced to examine one’s own prejudices, and to question what it is OK to laugh at. Sugartits, frivolously and irrelevantly entitled as it is, does end up delivering its own sort of political punch, whether in spite of itself or intentional. This is a wildly entertaining, funny and involving show.

Sugartits is playing Soho Theatre until 21 September. For more information and tickets, see the Soho Theatre website.