Your great-grandad was Elmer Fudd?

The latest in an occasional series of theatre reviews...

Natalie Palamides : WEER : Soho Theatre Walthamstow 

A new theatre - and not just a new theatre for me, but a new theatre for everyone! And it's one with some family history attached, so buckle up for some back-story. My baby sister, way back in the mists of time just after she had graduated with an arts degree, managed to procure the rarest of things - an actual paying job in the arts! This was as part of the team at Soho Theatre who opened their base in Dean Street in 2000 - which I'm pleased to say is still going strong, celebrating its 25th anniversary year by continuing to host an eclectic range of acts. 

As time moved on, both her and the team looked further afield - she emigrated to Australia, but Soho Theatre (sensibly) decided to look closer to home, getting involved in 2013 in the campaign to save the Walthamstow Granada which, after what must have involved a massive amount of blood, sweat and tears, re-opened its doors as the new Soho Theatre Walthamstow last week. Due to my sister's location, she's unable to investigate what they've done with the place - so I was ordered to attend (I didn't take much persuading) and decided that the first show of their first full week seemed like a good place to start! And we will come on to the show, but not for a bit yet...

Walthamstow might have an "end of the earth" feel to many in London, but it's really only "end of the Victoria Line" - which is 20 minutes from Kings Cross, so works very well for me. Coming out of the tube station, it's a mere five minute walk round the corner before we get our first view of the building - and very smart it is too!

But it's way smarter on the inside - a palatial entrance area complete with a huge mirror ball leads to two very smart bars, both of which were nicely lit and doing a good trade in drinks and Indian street food.

But all that is swiftly forgotten when you step into the absolutely gorgeous venue - there's been a LOT of work gone into this and it looks fantastic, with quite a few others being as sad as me and wandering around taking photos from various angles. It's a 960 seat venue with comfortable seats and plenty of legroom and, from seat Q18 in the stalls, a good view of the stage (and the sight lines looked to be good from everywhere as far as I could tell). 

So, what were we here to see? Whilst the show was picked mostly due to its date, I was actually previously aware of Natalie Palamides, having watched Nate, one of her previous shows, on Netflix - and let me tell you it's QUITE the watch. It's quite a clever and funny show, but it's also absolutely bonkers and features some excruciating audience interaction. So I was looking forward to seeing her latest show (which went down well at Edinburgh) but had to admit to some trepidation (hence the selection of a seat some way back and in the middle of the row for safety).

And, well - how much to tell you about the show? The show tells the story of a toxic relationship in the style of a 90s romcom, with Natalie playing both halves of the couple - but not necessarily in the way you'd expect. One side of her body has short hair, a beard and men's clothing whilst the other has long hair, make-up and women's clothing and, depending upon which character she is portraying, this is the side that she displays to the audience. Which is easy to follow during simple conversation between two people, but things do a little bit more confusing when they're kissing, fighting, having sex (and yes, the anatomy is as accurate as it can be), performing CPR or dying in a hail of bullets - all things that happen in the course of a normal relationship, right? And that's probably all I should tell you.

Just the half/half nature of the set-up sets up a huge amount of physical comedy, but Natalie doesn't hold back in making things difficult for herself using the full width of the stage and a large number of props, very few of which get tidied up as the show goes along, so it's an absolute rubbish tip by the end of the show. But as well as physical comedy, there are straightforward laughs, clever jokes, visual gags and moments of pure surrealism - and some funny audience interaction, which fortunately dial down the levels of cringe from that seen in Nate. All in all, it's a clever show which worked really well for me - but I would say it won't be to everyone's taste (Nate is a good guideline here - if you liked that, you'll probably like this).

However, whether Natalie is to your taste or not, I strongly recommend you make the trip out to the end of the Victoria Line to visit this absolutely gorgeous venue - particularly whilst it's still looking sparkingly new. The line-up has a strong comedy focus and Soho Theatre have a fine tradition of unearthing new talent, so maybe take a punt on something new - but remember to watch the stage rather than taking in the beautiful surroundings. And if you do fancy checking out Natalie, she's there until the end of the week and tickets are available for most nights.

The Years - Not as great as they said