It is good to see a musical which is original and not a version-with-songs of something you have seen on a screen elsewhere. Miss Brexit is vibrant, colourful, loud and unashamedly partisan.
The tone is set, before the lights are up on the stage, by slides about how Brexit visa rules have been a disaster for the arts…lies on a bus…lost opportunities in the EU science programme…that sort of thing. Something tells me this isn’t going to be subtle.
Six actors in leotards dancing to Euro-techno-pop start the action as it means to go on – brash, sexy and in-your-face.
The premise is that five women from different European countries are eager to stay and work in the UK. The format of a game show puts them through their paces and tells their separate stories.
The compere, played with appropriate light entertainment sleazy bonhomie by George Berry, frolics, leers and prances, bullying and cajoling by turns.
The music is brassy and insistent, the lyrics are fun doggerel (‘so spirit of the borders, I am at your orders’). The actors give it their all in dance and movement routines that reinforce the message: this choice really matters to them.
Our contestants are from Portugal, Spain, Italy and Switzerland. They play up to the national stereotypes – the Italian talks with her hands and likes fashion, the Swiss woman carries chocolate and yodels. On the way they assail British stereotypes such as dressing up to queue for a pantomime of the Queen’s funeral ‘the greatest act of British performance art ever seen.’
In one sketch the British citizenship test calls on the contestants to declare what they like about the UK, leading them to wax lyrically about the excellence of English food and the appeal of the weather.
In the ‘personal stories’ beloved of the dance-off, bake-off TV genre, we see au pair Maria in a disgustingly dirty family and Portuguese Marie in a struggle to find accommodation but ending in a friendly, overcrowded immigrant flatshare. Miss Catalonia, Alba Villaitodo, gives a sassy, standout performance, but all the cast shine.
Audience members are engaged to be involved in the final decision of who is to leave in what in TV play-off style is enthusiastically announced as ‘Elimination!’ ‘You tried in vain to earn the leave to remain’ jeers the chorus as the contestant slinks off with her wheelie trolley.
The audience is engaged to cheer the winners and respond vocally to the question whether they are having a good time, which rather shows the limitations of this show’s conception: there is so much false game show excitement here, Miss Brexit rather becomes what it is parodying.
Miss Brexit is great entertainment through, fresh and pacey all the way through with a faultlessly hard-working cast.
Co-Directors: Alejandro Postigo and Amaia Mugica
Composer: Harvey Cartlidge
Cast: Alba Villaitodo, George Berry, Isabel Mulas, Maxence Marmy, Ricardo Ferreira, Shivone Dominiguez Blascikova
Duration: 85 minutes no interval
Until: 15 February 2025