Closure Cabaret at Soho Theatre (London) Review
Maria Ansdell as Razmatastique in Closure Cabaret
Written by Penny for Theatre and Tonic
Disclaimer: Gifted tickets in exchange for an honest review. All views are our own
Ahead of a run at the Edinburgh Fringe this summer, Maria Ansdell has brought her clown and character comedy show to Soho Theatre. It’s billed as a vaudevillian variety show hosted by Razmatastique– a “hopefully devoted”, French-accented emcee who cannot let her exes rest in peace. Over the course of an hour she introduces us to them, asking the question: Out of everyone we’ve ever dated, who really has the ‘Ex Factor’?
At the back of the stage is a screen draped in pink satin with a heart cut out in the middle, through which our host appears. The scene is set – this is a show about love. It’s all very promising and, as Razmatastique, Ansdell instantly builds a rapport with the audience, she’s sweet and charming and deftly draws latecomers into her story. She’s at her best with her audience interaction, peppering her words with a few phrases that could just about pass for French(!), and a few spoonerisms that, as well as raising a smile from the audience, can be seen to hint at the different sentence structure in the French language. She easily gets the audience on side with audible sympathy for her tales of being unlucky in love.
The accordion music playing in the background is suitably romantic (and French) but does slightly overpower our performer, who could probably do with a mic. She moves confidently amongst the audience to draw them all into the action, but this does risk losing the people sitting towards the front, as it’s hard to see and to hear what is going on without any lighting or amplification.
The main content of the show sadly does not live up to the Gallic charm of its host. Ansdell presents six characters representing her past loves, and mostly they do not offer anything particularly original or entertaining. The characters are possibly not exaggerated enough. A seven year-old boy playing pirates, a bad boy teen rapper and karaoke-loving cowboy are a little lacklustre and predictable, and the appearance of an Aussie plumber doesn’t add anything substantial – although does offer a nice call-back to earlier in the piece. More successful are the ex-fiancé – allowing her to do show off some mime skills, more of this please! – and a Byronic poet, which is definitely the strongest section of the show. Ansdell shows herself to be a quick thinker, composing Haiku poems based on audience prompts. It’s witty, the poet has a little more about him than previous characters and shows potential for perhaps a longer segment.
There is a lot of reliance on audience participation which, of course, is always risky as the show can live or die on the confidence and willingness of the chosen stooge. It’s all good-natured and fairly gentle and at this performance members of the sold out audience were keen to get involved, but this is something that could be more of a challenge with a smaller crowd. But again, this didn’t all land. A costume change was covered by somebody being asked to read a poem (written by aforementioned romantic poet character). The “joke” appeared to be that the poem was written in French and whilst our willing participant offered a perfectly good French accent, there didn’t seem to be any point to the poem they were reading and with a non-French speaking audience, any comedy in the lines is likely to go over their heads.
As a performer, Maria Ansdell has a lot of potential, her Razmatastique is a warm and charming creation. But the other characters and sketches need more work if they are to live up to the show’s promise. In its current form, it doesn’t have the “Ex Factor” that she is aiming for. But with some tweaks to the script and staging, and more done to develop her characters, Closure Cabaret could grow into a heartwarming way to spend an hour.
Closure Cabaret returns to Soho Theatre on Tuesday 30th June and then runs at Hoots @ Nicholson Square at the Edinburgh Fringe from 7th – 31st August 2026.
★★