by Zahid Fayyaz

After several years of development and subsequent building works, the Soho has opened its north London outpost in Walthamstow, in the beautiful former Granada Cinema that’s also a Grade 2 listed building. A lovely, glitzy venue, and with a capacity of just under 1000, this space debuts with Natalie Palamide’s award nominated Edinburgh fringe show, Weer.

This is an excellent show to open up this new venue: its concept is that Palamides is playing both lead characters in a 90’s set rom-com with a tragic end. This is undertaken by way of a wonderfully physical performance, where half of her body is done up as each character, Mark and Christina. The show starts with the end of their relationship and flashes back to how they met, with hilarious effect. The use of physical comedy is extremely well done, with the sex scenes being particularly funny highlights. To help with the extra characters needed to tell the story, Natalie brings in some audience participation, which adds to the interactivity of the performance and deepens the audience connections with the characters. There is undoubtedly a deeper meaning behind the comedy as well, with a look at gender disparity and masculine fragility, but this does not overtake the comedy of the piece.

This is one of the best comedy shows in London at the moment, this is well worth going to Walthamstow for. As a debut show for this stunning new venue, it couldn’t get much better.

Natalie Palamides: WEER ran through 10 May.

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