Little Lark of London

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Walking into Frankie Thompson and Liv Ello: Body Show, the atmosphere is immediately unsettling. Thompson and Ello are standing center stage on top of a white structure, seemingly perfect wedding cake toppers staring at the crowd. As I took my seat, I found Thompson blankly staring at me, looking like a Barbie with her blonde hair and pink dress. Ello is also staring at members of the audience, wearing a black and white tuxedo and having their hair slicked back. 

Once the show really begins, the white structure is split apart to reveal two screens that are used as television for both the actors and the audience to watch throughout the show. We are introduced to our setting – it is the end of the world, and Thompson and Ello are questioning the role their bodies have played in their lives. It is an interesting mix of bright colours and atomic bombs, a true Barbie/Oppenheimer mashup in its own way. Something that Thompson and Ello are able to do brilliantly is combine darker subject matters with comedy, ensuring that each has their moments throughout the show. The duo have you cracking up with laughter in one moment and gasping with shock in the next, making each moment striking in its own way.

Thompson’s journey as the Barbie-like doll has her facing body image issues, revealing the struggles behind the picture-perfect princess she portrays. There is one particular scene in which Thompson wears ballet slippers on her hands, imitating dancing as Ello rotates an inflatable globe underneath their “dancing feet.” I found myself empathising with her struggles, having faced many similar issues in my own life. It was beautiful yet heartbreaking to see Thompson portray these issues on stage. Indeed, beautiful yet heartbreaking might sum up Body Show as a whole. 

Ello spends the majority of the show looking for their penis, asking audience members to look under their seats and questioning their masculinity with a lack of male genitalia. There is nothing graphic in their speech, just a desire to find what they believe to be a missing part of them. They try using cultural references to find their place in the world, becoming a cowboy at one point and falling into the cult of Andrew Tate at the next. Ello’s physicality is delightful, with them strutting around the stage, particularly in a bit about the Marlboro Man. 

Thompson and Ello guide the audience through the apocalypse using pop culture references both on the screens and through clowning. I had been unfamiliar with child star Lena Zavaroni but found myself heartbroken at her struggles. It was difficult to watch Thompson watch Zavaroni through the screens on stage, trying to hide her own struggles with eating and lip synching along to the child star’s interviews about her weight. There were also some other British cultural pop references that I failed to understand, but their meaning was clear, crossing cultural boundaries. 

An absolute highlight of the show is when Thompson and Ello perform their own interpretation of The Last Supper, lip synching quotes from the iconic episode of Come Dine With Me in which Peter Marsh made meme-worthy comments like “Dear Lord, what a sad little life, Jane,” which is hilarious to imagine as a moment in religious history.  

Ultimately, Frankie Thompson & Liv Ello: Body Show is a vulnerable and powerful reflection on dysmorphia and dysphoria in a post-apocalyptic world. The blending of cabaret, comedy and spoken word works perfectly for the duo as they force the audience to look at their own beliefs and how the world we live in has such a strong effect. Even at the end of the world, it seems, our bodies will still contain us in ways that cannot be changed.

Frankie Thompson & Liv Ello: Body Show runs at the Soho Theatre from 25 September to 14 October. Tickets can be purchased here.

Photo Credit: Jonny Ruff