Camden New Journal - Theatre: Salsa saved the girls

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The Review - THEATRE by SARA NEWMAN
Published:25 October 2007

The dances of the damned

SALSA SAVED THE GIRLS
Old Red Lion Theatre

WHEN neurotic Simon is catapulted into the lounge having been attacked by a crazed albino skunk, the audience forget their British discomfort with physical proximity – intrinsic to the Old Red Lion experience – and succumb to uncontrolled hilarity.
Like Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and Cat on a Hot Tim Roof, Rose Martula’s slither of dysfunctional American life all takes place in one night. We may love to hate reality TV, but there is a perverse pleasure in recognising the root of a person’s insecurity and where the parents went wrong.
Snapping his fingers and slicking back his hair, Louie (Simon Cole), the Calvin Klein donning absentee father of 14-year-old Kai and mature 17-year-old Sabrina, garners little sympathy when he refers to his daughters as “f***ers”.
The tragic yet strident leopard skin-clad mother Cali (convincingly played by Harriet Usher) lets her daughters drink alcohol and smoke “blunts” but will not condone Louie’s language. All the attention-seeking characters are obvious caricatures but the strength of the cast and direction of the play lends the comical script the depth it deserves.
Underlying the cliched personas of Sally Ann Ramage’s purposefully talentless, pirouetting Kai, co-producer Erin Hunter’s sassy quick-witted Sabrina, “Mom’s new date” Italian stallion Bobby or even the stalker Simon, there are real people.
Garish and loud, the neon, pink and Hawaii- themed set is horrible fun but there is subtlety too. Martula avoids spelling out the unspoken pain this family has clearly suffered.
Negotiating their way round Simon’s urine, a lingering reminder of Louie’s bad temper, a weakened Cali shares a last dance with Louie. Poignant moments like this, rather than the disappointing ending, are what “save the girls” and linger in the memory.
Until November 17
020 7837 7816

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