Review from: Lafayette, London, 3rd April 2025, 19.30
The Instagram-friendly Lafayette venue in Kings Cross, sitting some 200 people very snugly around a shallow stage extended with a classic spiegeltent round thrust, is a welcoming and atmospheric venue. It’s a fine choice for Sabrage, named for the ceremonial practice of using a sabre to pop a champagne bottle. It’s an unashamedly good time cabaret show created for an audience that’s equally up for a good time.
Directed by Scott Maidment of Australia’s Strut & Fret production company, the show is hosted by two vastly experienced physical comedians, New Yorker Spencer Novich and Remi Martin, a graduate of the State School for Ballet and Circus Arts in Berlin. Both, coincidentally, are bronze medal winners in Cirque de Demain. Gangly Novich’s madcap wit, dark humour and elastic-limbed body complements Martin’s gallic poise. They are both funny and very watchable, but there is a lot of them in this show and I would like to see one more speciality act added to redress the balance. As it stands, the duo is joined in a blend of burlesque, Eurotrash comedy, and circus by six other multi-faceted performers who, alongside their speciality, get embroiled in all manner of goings on, as do several well-chosen volunteers. Action frequently extends beyond the stage into the audience – most notably in a pillow fight – but without feeling intimidating.
A highlight on the circus front was New Zealand juggler Emma Phillips, who trained at the Beijing International Arts School and the Wuqiao Acrobatics School. Phillips manipulates parasols and twirls a table on her feet with aplomb, proving that audiences just love things that spin. Phillips enhances this with tremendous character and personality, a trait not always present in foot juggling acts.
As is the norm in this style of cabaret, there were a couple of single-point aerial acts; a sultry harness act from bearded beefcake Flynn Miller and lithe Kimberley Bargenquast, and roller skating that extends to aerial hoop from Christian Nimri. More aerial fun came from Barquenquast in a flurry of bubbles skimming over the audience on a pole to top up champagne flutes.
Strong live vocals are provided by Rechelle Mansour whilst dancer Skye Ladell completes the cast. Ensemble highlights include a ‘nothing but a bath towel’ variation on the fan dance.
Overall well-structured and well-choreographed, the show’s weakest point is at the beginning when Martin mimes the act of Sabrage with his sabre but leaves the cork firmly in the bottle, suggesting that that which is to follow might equally be bogus, though this is not the case.
Slick, always good humoured, sometimes sexy, often rude, the show thankfully inclines towards ‘the best possible taste’ mischievousness of Kenny Everett rather than in-your-face raunch. The cast have real character and seem to enjoy working with each other and with the audience, making it an engaging way of passing two hours. High production values are evident throughout, most notably in the costumes designed by James Browne.
Sabrage runs to July with tickets perhaps over-priced at between £25 and £80 for the two-hour show that includes a twenty-minute interval.
