Review: CLUB LIFE (Omnibus Theatre)

Review by Dan Sinclair

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Coming to the Omnibus Theatre for a limited London run, CLUB LIFE was one of the big hits of 2023’s Edinburgh fringe, it received a Fringe First and a string of 4 and 5-star reviews. Now, when I see that a show gets across-the-board praise and hype, the evil theatre reviewer in my brain goes - ‘but is it REALLY that good’. Yeah, they were all correct, and CLUB LIFE was possibly the most joyful theatre experience I’ve ever had. 

An experimental immersive show, CLUB LIFE takes us through the life of Fred Deakin (played remarkably well by… Fred Deakin), from his spotty childhood playing The Slits at awkward house parties, to running a string of hugely successful and radical club nights. And radical in the sense of telling the hard truths, sometimes a ‘cool’ club should play Barry Manilow. We experience this history first-hand, being taken through the stories from these clubs (eg: Blue, Thunderball, Misery - ‘it’s complete shi*e,’ which was my personal favourite) and then the club seems to take over the theatre itself, and all at once, the audience hops onto their feet and goes back in time. I have never had this much fun in a theatre. Bring some friends, have some drinks (or however many it takes to get you dancing, if it’s none at all then props to you), and go mad. 

The show is not all dancing and laughing, it does an excellent job of hitting on some really complex topics. Early in the show, Fred discusses the history of the inimitable Leigh Bowery, the Taboo club and the classism and exclusion that came as a side effect of trying to create a safe queer club space. He digs into the infamous interaction between Bowery and a clubgoer at one of his doors, holding up a mirror and asking, ‘Would you let yourself in?’ It’s camp and cutting, but an unpleasant classism runs underneath this iconic exchange. 

Fred regularly touches base on his own personal health issues, he is completely frank with us as an audience and this openness creates a special bond. A closing moment has him dance in a spotlight, alone. It’s rhythmic, contorted but beautiful, in a show stripped of traditional ‘theatricality’, it’s a rare moment where the audience sits in sweaty silence and watches him give a small performance that wouldn’t be out of place at the Royal Ballet. 

CLUB LIFE opens with the premise that clubbing is an art form, and Fred’s correct. But it goes deeper than that, with this piece of theatre and Sita Pieraccini’s direction, it is a whole new way of storytelling. In an ending monologue, Fred reminisces how the clubs, the people, and the memories will soon be dust, but there’s something special about passing on these memories. In CLUB LIFE, the telling of these stories is a full-body experience, it’s put into our bones. There’s something authentic and almost spiritual about being told a memory of a club you never knew, and then getting on stage with 80-odd strangers and being completely transported to that place through lights, music, actors, smells, alcohol, friends and dancing. They have created something not a million miles away from time travel. 

The immersion is taken up to another notch by the exceptional ensemble: Abbie Kane, Ben Standish, Camila Lopez, Lily Smith, Michael Barker and Price Jones. They weave throughout the crowd, creating small performances as they go, every single audience member will come away with a different experience. I wonder how many people on my night had a chat with a guy offering me pills whilst his jaw was falling off, or if anyone missed saying hello to the giant snowman, or a dance circle with Fred himself to some hardcore Garage. I would love to be able to credit these special moments, but through Laura Lees’s costume design and the transformative performances, they were completely unrecognisable from scene to scene. Plus it was pretty hard to see with Cameron Gleave’s visuals and the epic lighting design. 

I regularly hear that immersive theatre is marmite, but I believe that CLUB LIFE blows that rule out the water. It’s an impressive feat to make an audience feel nostalgic for something they a) never experienced, b) didn’t realise they needed, and c) sorely lack. Like most other art forms, clubbing culture is in serious trouble, and CLUB LIFE lays the blueprint for how to save it. 

CLUB LIFE is playing at the Omnibus Theatre till 24th November.

Tickets from: https://www.omnibus-clapham.org/club-life/ 

Photos by Kat Gollock