This season, the KCR sprang back in time to 1890s Montmartre for The Lost Estate’s Le Chat Noir: a wonderful evening of opera, mime, comedy, magic and French cuisine.
If you’ve been to The Lost Estate’s shows before, you’ll know that dressing up is very much encouraged. That said, unless you happen to have a satin gown with leg-of-mutton aka gigot sleeves, you’ll definitely be forgiven for channelling anything vaguely bohemian or loosely aristocratic. Perhaps a chance to get another wear out of that slightly extra fascinator you only wore one time at Goodwood Revival, or an opportunity to dust off the saucy corset you found at Chelsea Town Hall.
Greeted with a ramekin of pâté, several slices of baguette and an extensive list of absinthe cocktails (some of them served from vintage glass drips), Le Chat Noir is definitely fuel for the creative fire. This is interactive theatre at its very best, where the audience serves as both sounding board and spectacle, giving life to the cabaret club made infamous by Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen’s iconic advert, featuring a black cat with pronounced whiskers and a sardonic smile.
Word has it that the show (conceived by writer and director Will Kunhardt) has caused a national absinthe shortage, but let’s take everything cabaret host Rodolphe Salis (Joe Morrow) says with a pinch of salt… The Green Fairy (la fée verte), as the drink was known, was banned in France in 1915, but you’ll enter a world before the ban: more or less the Paris of Lautrec and Van Gogh. With magic from Neil Kelso, burlesque from Coco Belle, clowning from Alexander Luttley, you’ll also be treated to live music from a fabulous quintet complete with accordion.
A stand-out performance from Issy Wroe Wright who embodies the Muse with the voice of angel, the grace of a swan, and the wit of the finest courtier. Based on real life Belle Époque cabaret singer, Yvette Guilbert, Wroe Wright’s tender and humorous portrayal is testament to the depth of research employed by The Lost Estate in bringing their theatrical imaginings to West London while you just sit around looking pretty.
Without pussyfooting around, Le Chat Noir is the original Paris cabaret club. So forget about crazy horses and charred windmills. Throw on your best cravat and get down to West Ken tout de suite. chatnoirlondon.com
