Death Drop: Back in the Habit
Theatre Royal Brighton
13/12/2022
What kind of crazy madcap show is this?
I had read the interview with Chris Clegg and Jesse Jones and trusted that an evening at the Theatre Royal Brighton watching Death Drop: Back in the Habit would be fun and something a little bit unusual, but honestly, I didn’t realise just how entertaining and utterly bonkers it was going to be.
With a cast of drag superstars (RuPaul’s Drag Race / Drag Idol UK), it was easy to conjure up an image of colour, highheels and glamour, but Death Drop is a play with a sinister (ahem) plotline where things are not quite as they seem.
Father Alfie Romeo (LoUis CYfer) is sent by The Vatican to investigate the strange goings-on at the Convent of St Babs. He arrives to find the convent is home to four glamourous Nuns, who don’t exactly welcome him with open arms. He is given lodgings for the night, but it is not long before he witnesses some very strange goings-on.
What follows is a ridiculously paper-thin plot, hammish acting and toe-curling innuendo. Robert Evans‘ script is steeped heavily in pop culture references and audience asides. The audience are drawn ‘in on the joke’ and are party to the cast’s endless quips about the set, cast changes and copyright infringement.
The cast are having a blast and the audience drink in their enthusiasm. Mother Superior is majestically played by Victoria Scone who has the audience in the palm of her hand playing the matriarch of St. Babs. Understudy Alex Roberts glamorously steps into Willam’s high heels for the press night at the Theatre Royal to play Sis Titis and belts out one of the two musical numbers in the show. Cheryl Hole (Sister Mary Berry) hilariously executes the perfect death drop and completing the quartet of vivacious nuns is River Medway as the innocent Sister Mary JulieAndrews.
If sleighbells, baubles and panto are not your thing, but you want to have a riotous time this Christmas, consider giving Death Drop: back in the Habit a punt- as the saying goes ‘It’s as camp as Christmas’!
⭐⭐⭐
Reviewer: Sammi O’Neill