Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Acclaimed opera singer and cabaret star Le Gateau Chocolat brought a brilliantly intimate new solo show to the Unity Theatre as part of Liverpool’s ongoing homotopia festival occuring throughout the city as he charted his personal difficulties and triumphs with depression, identity and music.

The unique appeal of this exploration piece – where the darker side of a seemingly effervescent performer’s identity is spotlighted – lies in the universally connective personal story of Le Gateau working in tandem with his niche background as a drag artist and opera singer. On walking into the theatre the audience is immediately presented with the perfumed presence of Le Gateau in full drag sitting on a bed, as if waiting in private for the show to begin. This sets the tone of confidentiality and disclosure, revealed through a children’s story style projection about his childhood beautifully weaved in with monologues and baritone renditions of iconic contemporary and operatic songs.

The choices of songs are faultless and his singing brims with personality adding untold feeling and depth to his story, which though complex and wrought with pain and sadness, is told in a brilliantly simple and matter-of-fact way with plenty of genuine laugh aloud moments. The intermittent survival guide for the overweight is brilliantly self-deprecating and the song representing life as an N.H.S. call centre advisor is inspired musical comedy.

There are many moving moments in this brief hour-long show but the highlight has to be the use of Whitney Houston’s I wanna dance with somebody. It managed to capture the entire spectrum within which someone struggling with depression exists; the polarizing between melancholy and joy, and how a person’s experience of a song (or indeed anything) can be completely altered depending on their particular mood.  The brilliance of this metaphor remains long after the close of the show, as does the charm, honesty and eclectic story telling of this roller-coaster hour of theatre.

Toby Hall