Racy, sultry and slightly scary, Greta Titelman takes Soho Theatre by storm this week with her show Exquisite Lies. Expect a plethora of songs, maniacal revenge anecdotes, and a healthy dose of filth.
If you imagine a film noir character, singing cabaret at a smoky bar, mixed with the crazed intensity of a theatre villain the moment they enact their revenge, glued together with dry sarcasm, quick comebacks and copious crudeness, you almost have Greta Titelman’s hilarious onstage persona. Comically narcissistic and persistently toying with the audience, you’re left wondering where the character ends and Titelman begins.
If you’re a musical comedy fan, you will not be dissapointed; Titelman is incredibly musically talented and there are some catchy numbers in the show; a favourite of mine being a song about Chlamydia, and Titelman’s dismay at how ‘boringly easy’ it is to clear up.
More a one-woman play than traditional stand up, Titelman kicks us off by asking herself, who am I, and with that, journeys back to her earliest memory; of enacting sweet revenge against her father after discovering something shocking from his palm pilot in 1996. Titelman’s descriptions of her younger selves – an angsty teen, a keg-drinking freshman and a twenty-something raver – are so colourful and stark, she appears to be acting roles in a play as opposed to versions of her former self, which is perhaps a reference to the show’s title. But the intricate detail of each relived memory – the Justin Timberlake cutout in her friend’s dorm room and the cap sleeves and moccasins of her first day of college – makes me believe it all. I particularly enjoyed the nostalgia in the show, and how Titelman can paint a memory vividly; a personal favourite moment of this was when Titelman romanticises about the time her best friend taught her to snort drugs in her dorm room, age 14, using a tampon.
Titelman is a hurricane – both in how her onstage persona goes through the varying milestones in her life, and in her physicality in the room; a number of times clambering on top of the front row, squealing in someone’s ear or stomping across the stage. But, don’t let the noise deter you, Titelman had the audience in fits of laughter.
You can catch Greta Titelman: Exquisite Lies Mon-Sat 20-25 May @ 8:45 PM at Soho Theatre, tickets here
