That Girl vs The World by George Lester. The Brockley Jack Studio Theatre, 408 Brockley Road, London SE4 to 31 May 2024.

4✩✩✩✩ Review: William Russell.

“Passion and power.”

This is a show with a message delivered with passion and power by George Lester who not only wrote it but performs it. A Bridge House Theatre production directed by Luke Adamson it is about the demonstrations carried out in 2023 by homophobic far right groups against the Magical Storytellingtime session That Girl, in other words Lester, was holding at the Honor Oak pub a few miles away from the Jack. The local community came out in support of the story telling although they have stopped. The piece has been effectively staged with some powerful projections on the back wall showing That Girl’s alter ego, Intrudi, an even more sharp tongued diva, delivering put downs when the one in the flesh, who spends act one putting on make up and changing from a slim young man with a hairy chest into a painted doll drag queen style who owes a debt to Ru Paul of Drag Race fame, a race in which That Girl apparently participated. It is interesting watching the transformation but all rather rambling. However, after the interval That Girl comes on in full drag, a glorious red creation displaying admirable legs, a high neckline covering that chest about which one had wondered, to deliver a series of show tunes – That Girl can sing – and tell the story that is the point of the evening. The events outside the Honor Oak in 2023 - and a chilling tale it proves delivered with passion. The video and sound design by director Adamson is impressive and the sequence which build up a montage of pictures of the people supporting That Girl packs quite a punch. The mob was defeated, no help it seems from the local police, but the Storytellingtime sessions have been abandoned. It is an evening for any community faced with such intruders to ponder. That Girl could have been abandoned to the mob but that did not happen and Lester delivers her story to the manner born.

Cast

George Lester – That Girl & Intrudi.

Creatives

Director & Video Designer – Luke Adamson.

Lightin g & Sound Design – JLA productions.

Theatre, play. 29 May 2024.

Photo Credit – JLA Productions.