Lovecraft (Not the Sex Shop in Cardiff) @ The Wales Millennium Centre (Festival of Voice 2018) Review

LONELINESS in our modern, digital age is something we often see cropping up on the cabaret scene as a central idea for exploration. However something we don’t often see is a fully realised analysis of the science behind loneliness, complete with all the jargon and musical numbers about tits.

What BAFTA Cymru nominee Carys Eleri has created with finesse and joy is a genuinely necessary response to the questions on everyones lips; ‘Why do I feel like shit?’ ‘Am I the only one to feel like this?’ and of course; ‘Why do I act like a lunatic when I’m in love?’.

She takes us through a hilariously relatable narrative with ease, woven with a plethora of original songs of classy engineering and gifted musical ability. She essentially lets us in on some of the decisions which have defined her love life and takes us through the science of the hormones we all operate under the influence of, and in turn we discover together that none of us are lunatics after all, only gloriously human.

Sometimes I find myself watching a solo cabaret feeling for the artist as they struggle to keep variety in their delivery, variety needs to keep an audience engaged up there on their own – this cannot be said for Eleri. She has a humble ability to get an audience weeping with laughter and then in the same breath her audience are moments away from weeping while sharing in her pain. I think that takes real craft, confidence and heart. All of which she possesses in abundance.

A word must be said for the voice she’s got. This isn’t a comedienne attempting singing. This is a singer storyteller really delivering some cracking vocal moments which we properly delight in.

If, like me, you thought you were a lunatic in love, Eleri in this cabaret will help you laugh out the pain with her music, and clear the fog with her science in a really special intimate evening of Lovecraft. 4/5

Review written by anonymous.

Lovecraft (Not the Sex Shop in Cardiff) is currently showing until Saturday 16th June 2018 at the Wales Millennium Centre as part of Festival of Voice 2018. To find out more about the production, visit here…