★★★★

Reviewer - BECKY

*Disclaimer: Gifted tickets in return for an honest review.

CONTENT WARNING: This show contains dark adult themes, strong language and sexual references.

The Body and Blood is an original idea written and performed by the artist, writer and filmmaker, Carol Murphy. A 19th-century Irish famine folktale told in verse centred around the story of Maggie Murtagh, an Irish country girl who transmogrifies into The Vigilante Cannibal Nun after the death of her family. It is a dark Robin Hood-esque tale, she steals from the rich to give to the starving poor and feasts on some colonizers along the way, ultimately destroying her soul.

Murphy serves as our narrator and is hypnotic as Maggie. Her gripping stage presence has you hooked from start to finish. Her ability to hold her own throughout the 70 minutes, with such heavy material, is a true talent. Her delivery was seriously impressive. Fast-paced but not challenging to follow, her whole body exuded expression with every line of dialogue. She truly embodied the character we were being told about.

This swiftly moves us onto the costume design. Murphy dons the floor embellished in gold jewellery, in an almost street bling style, serving as a trophy of those she has eaten. Along with this, she is masked in glowing warrior face paint, effective at reminding us this is a one woman’s battle for revenge against those that have wronged the women of Ireland who have no voice and will do nothing to save Ireland from its famine.

Set in The Cavern within the vaults festival, this location serves as an excellent accompaniment to the eeriness of the play. The cavern's silence only added to the dark themes throughout the verse. The vaults were the perfect location to go and see a darker production such as this one.

Carol's voice is powerful, occasionally breaking into song, relevant to what was happening within the tale. All still while maintaining powerful eye contact with the audience, the silence from everyone was in unison. She gripped onto every word as if everything she uttered had the same amount of importance as the last.

It was immersive, sinister and a “bloody” good time. The comedy was witty yet extremely subtle, but the timing of those moments were perfect. These were the points within the show where she really connected with the audience, and even shook hands with the likes of myself.

The Body & Blood was launched online in January 2022 as five films at https://www.thebodyandblood.co.uk during the pandemic. Carol Murphy has now travelled all the way from Belfast to the Waterloo Vaults to perform her one-woman show and to take you on a dark and mysterious journey of breaking constructs and the loss of innocence.

This was really a fantastic and incredibly thought-evoking original piece of work telling the compelling story of addiction, violence and lust.

The Body & Blood shows again on the 5th of February at the Waterloo Vaults. https://vaultfestival.com/events/the-body-blood/">https://vaultfestival.com/events/the-body-blood