Marcel Lucont: Les Enfants Terribles – A Game Show For Awful Children
Bosco: Brighton Spiegeltent
Ah, mes amis, it is not every day one witnesses a spectacle where enfant terrible meets the art of comedy with such élan. Marcel Lucont, the self-proclaimed “grumpiest Frenchman”, has truly outdone himself in his latest offering at the Brighton Fringe. Les Enfants Terribles – A Game Show For Awful Children is a tour de force of wit, whimsy, and wonderful wordplay, a veritable joie de vivre for both young and old.
From the moment you step into the tent, it is clear that Lucont has crafted a show that operates on multiple levels. His sophisticated jabs and double entendres fly over the heads of the little ones, hitting the parents with a delightful coup de grâce. Meanwhile, the enfants themselves are entranced by the daft, scatological humor that Lucont effortlessly weaves into his performance, ensuring that no child is left out of the fun.
Lucont’s mastery of improvisation shines through as he engages with his audience, showcasing his ability to navigate the unpredictable waters of children’s humor with a deftness that is impressive. What could easily devolve into chaos under lesser hands becomes, in Lucont’s, an entertaining and coherent spectacle that keeps the audience laughing throughout the afternoon.
The highlight of the show, is the J’Accuse segment. Here, Lucont invites children to share their parents’ most embarrassing moments, live on stage. The result is a hilarious confessional that spares no one, least of all the hapless adults who find themselves the butt of their children’s innocent yet devastating honesty. It’s a brilliant piece of interactive theater that leaves everyone in stitches and ensures that the show is not just something to watch, but something to experience.
Lucont’s personification of the sardonic Frenchman, complete with perpetual shrug and world-weary sighs, provides the perfect vehicle for his sharp barbes aimed at modern UK life and parenting. His criticisms are delivered with a charm that makes even the most biting remarks feel like a friendly taquinerie.
In sum, Marcel Lucont: Les Enfants Terribles – A Game Show For Awful Children is a delightful divertissement that is worth every moment. It is a show that truly offers something for everyone, from the youngest gamin to the oldest adulte. This is not just a show, but an afternoon of laughter, surprise, and pure enjoyment.
Bravo, Monsieur Lucont! This is an engaging spectacle in which kids get to be pests, politicians and pétomanes which gently, but ruthlessly mines a rich seam of humor of insouciance meeting infantile exuberance.
From the moment the impressive lights dim in this purpose built geo-domed space, it’s clear that GODZ is more than just an acrobatic show; it’s an experience. The performers, embodying divine figures with a modern twist, bodies are chiselled, muscles defined and showcased under an excellent lighting rig that accentuates every flex and movement. The sexy allure of the acrobats is undeniable, and they wield it with confidence, knowing exactly how to tease and engage their audience. They shower intimate sexy smirks down on the audience who enjoy the tongue in cheek charm of this troupe. These Boyz exhibit a natural comedic flair, interacting with the audience and each other in ways that are both charming and laugh-out-loud funny.
Among the many highlights of the show, the Diablo performer deserves special mention. His skill with the Diablo is the best and fastest I’ve ever seen, leaving the audience in awe with every flick of his wrist. The speed and dexterity with which he manoeuvres the spinning object are mesmerizing, making his segment a definitive showstopper. His performance is a masterclass in concentration and agility, earning him well-deserved applause and admiration.
The show’s structure cleverly balances between gravity-defying acrobatics and comedic interludes, ensuring that the audience is continually entertained. The physical stunts are nothing short of spectacular. From stunning break dancing, high-flying aerial acts to complex high balanced handstands and group pyramids, the acrobats push the boundaries of what the human body can achieve. Each routine is executed with precision and grace, leaving the audience in a state of amazement. The synchronization and trust between the performers are evident, showcasing their dedication and rigorous training.
The sexual tension in the air is palpable throughout the performance. The acrobats frequently engage in flirtatious interactions, both with each other and the audience. There’s a fully naked section with four lithe nude men and three brass plates, it’s a traditional fun element but done here with an almost burlesque flair with gets more frantic as it develops. There’s an element of teasing that’s skilfully maintained, never crossing into the crass but always suggestive enough to keep the audience on the edge of their seats. This blend of tease and revelation is artfully done, making the section, and the show, as tantalizing as it is thrilling.
GODZ pays homage to classical themes while infusing them with modern, Metrosexual Laddish and LGBTQ-friendly sensibilities. The divine personas adopted by the acrobats are both a nod to mythological grandeur and a celebration of contemporary post-queer culture. This fusion is evident in the costumes, which are both minimal and extravagant, and the routines, which often play with traditional expectations.
To start, Fool’s Moon: Dance Plague had all the makings of a sophisticated dance school end-of-term comedy show. And no, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The performers were committed and the audience was positively generous with their applause. The show’s premise—examining the inexplicable dance plague through a blend of clowning and dance—was intriguing, even if the execution occasionally felt hollow.
The narrative—or should I say, the nebulous string of scenes pretending to be a narrative—was the show’s Achilles’ heel. The historical backdrop of the 1518 dance plague is ripe for exploration, but the story here was thinner than a drag queen’s patience with polyester. Instead of a cohesive thread, we were handed a series of vignettes that felt disjointed. Yes, it’s an endearing kind of chaos, with the Dancing Trio keeping a lively pace when ever they were on stage, but gentle chaos nonetheless.
These short life ‘acts’ provide the narrative thrust. A quick intro allows us to understand the journey we’re on and these disparate actions—from growing up and wanting to play with your friends, to a manic flash of puberty, eggs are smashed whilst odd powerful dances takes place, taken together they create a unique tapestry of life’s moments. We are gently invited as audience members to supply narrative choices at key moments of the show, whether these actual influence what happens or not is difficult to judge, but they certainly engage and bring laughter. Our own experiences of love are gently teased out of us to general delight.
Paulina’s costumes are serious fab, floaty tulle, off the shoulder diaphanous dressing gowns, read leather coats and chic Parisian glasses, with some wonderful reveals and changes to provide physical laughter supporting these burlesque elements of the show, i adored the extravagant BabyJane tulle bow with a towering wig adorned in roses. These outfits are ingeniously explored, deconstructed and discarded, offering character depth as ‘life’ moves on. Gloves are used to wonderful comedic effect in this show, it’s probably the best use of gloves I’ve ever seen, so very very funny, matched perfectly to a growing sense of alarm in the performers eyes. The show opens with Paulina in the dressing room, back to us, catching our eyes in a mirror as she finished her make us, wonderfully intimate and subversive start. She’s conversing with the sound tech via radios, the sound was never quite loud enough to catch most of the dialogue which was a pity as it was a funny running joke.
I liked the existential thread that ties the acts together, but it would benefit from delving deeper into the mythological concept of ‘Puella Aeterna,’ (an eternally young woman filled with a zest for living) More context would enrich the audience’s understanding and engagement with the various routines. But this is perhaps a critics demand and not something from an afternoon audience on a hot sunny spring sunday. The Audience seemed more than happy with following along. We end with ageing and death, of course, handled with charm and gentle humour and real roses lad down to rest on her body, that had been handed out to various potential lovers earlier in the act.
Author David Rees
The staging and decorations are vintage fairground with a modern aesthetic totally on point and hand painted by local queer muralist Dave Pop, the ethereal atmospheric electronic soundscape by The Fast Set waves it’s teasing audio over the spaces and original costumes by House of Flying Stitches offers up a fantastic array of superb outfits, drawing attention to each performer in a cheeky, courturured way. There’s some serious fashion rocking here, including a superb purple demi-caped gold 
Director Carnesky has looked at our voyersitic and patriarchal attitudes towards performers and particularly the Women who have chosen to live life through full octain expression and feats of astonishing skill and re-views them through a decolonised, deconstructed contemporary, diverse feminist and queer lens, with them having full agency.
Based on historical research by Carnesky, Showwomxn’s cast of over 33 women and non-binary performers explore hugly famous artists of their time and also look at the stories which made these people and their groundbreaking acts such a magnetic draw for our ancestors. We have recreations of 1930s sword maestro Koringa, who also worked for the French resistance and 1880s aerialist Ms LaLa who hung from her teeth and was painted by Degas. Wandering around with the music, ohhh’s, ahhh’s and palpable excitement of the crowd on this sunny Saturday afternoon we gently glide around knife balancing body stunts, dangerous wrestlers, fire whippers, an aerialist with a hair raising act, a disturbing writhing contortionist, glass walkers, dancers, drag kings and other surreal performers. We are reminded with the seagulls and tourists that the Seaside has often been a place to rediscover yourself, reinvent or runaway to find yourself, I enjoyed the diverse Brighton audiences wandering in and out of a curated space.
We enjoyed Carneskys’ welcome, explaining what to expect and what to see, laughed out loud at the mischievous ancitis of the wrestling due, were seriously impressed by sharp sword full body balancing and entertained by surreal performances of Almodóvar style mannequins, my personal highlight the Whip Woman and her impressive fire whips!
This Showwomxn Sideshow Spectacular certainly makes us reflect on a host of preconceived cliches of historical circus and carnival life, and on a deeper level connects us with the thrilling freedom these performers must have found outside the normative bounds of the societies at the time. In between the fascination and thrills it asks us to look at our attitudes to female representation, our understanding of racism and colonialism and how we then engage with carnival and circus performers and asks is it snobbery which stops us treating and vererating these lifelong trained artistes as we would opera singers or harpists. But as soon as we start to slip into serious reflection it drags up back with a jolt into pure spectacle, thrilling, chest throbbing, breath catching delight, where there is just the now, and the astonishing things we are watching with our fellow gawking punters.
This is certainly a Sideshow Spectacular, leaving the crowds entertained and delighted. My companion said she enjoyed the clever subtle representation of artistes and the aerialist was her highlight spinning under the bright blue sky to Yma Sumac, along with the opportunity to hear and learn more about the fascinating stories of these early Showwomxn pioneers. You can l
It’s a fun combination show, Séayoncé accompanied by Leslie Ann and their perfect comedic musical timing, is a tightly scripted, apparently random exercise in audience bonding and machine gunned gauche wit. Siblings is a throw-it-all-in and see chaotic blend of silliness with an abyssal dark underbelly where you can’t stop them going.
The Siblings scurrying around, like puppies on poppers, taking ages to leave the stage, calling Séayoncé ‘Daddy’ relentlessly, all delicious, Séayoncé wafting through the carnage of their carefully wrought act like a Drag Dido, more than holding their own, literally head and shoulders above this demonic dangerous due of delight. My favorite part of the show is where Siblings arrive dressed as Séayoncé each skewering Séayoncé routines with the rapier wit that Seyonce themselves is known for, seriously funny, meta monstering at its best. This trio in costumes present us with a triple Goddess of Séayoncé , each more bonkers than the last. Eventually order is recorded with a flash of crystal testicle, of course – it’s the Fringe after all,
House of Horror is fun, silly, night out of car crash comedy, bravely committed to fully by all four performers and giving each other space to shine while undercutting, undermining and verbally dynamiting each other at every opportunity. With a less accomplished confident crew, or a kinder one, this might have been messy, but with this undead crew of supernatural whip sharp wit sadists we got to see them murder, kidnap, and slaughter each other time and and time again on stage, in front of us, then rise again to dish out and take some more..
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