The producers of this year’s Queer Festival currently playing to good houses at the King’s Head on Islington’s Upper Street have a canny eye for spotting a play that pushes boundaries and with Cradeaux Alexander’s Funeral Meats, which he wrote and directs, this is most certainly the case. Meats is an intriguing and intense look at morals, suspicion, deception and the rather sadistic way that a human being can twist another one around their finger, both on a physical and mental level. This is the story of Luke and Laura, siblings that were at each other’s throats almost from birth so when they fall foul of the family obligation to attend their once famous movie star mother’s funeral and wake, they are forced to reminisce. It is clear even from the grave she is having a profound and sinister effect on her children. With the ominous tone of a chiming clock making the four hours that pass within the hour of the play, it’s clear that Cradeaux is giving a nod to the style of film noir, this adds to the macabre and perplexing way the play unfolds. Funeral Meats is beautifully played by fellow cast members Helen Adie as Barbara, Ramona Von Pusch as Laura and lastly Luca Pusceddu as Felix who interplay with each other with an air of controlled nervousness that builds and builds to the last second of the last minute of the hour. Haunting stuff!
****
Funeral Meats runs to the 13 August at the King’s Head Theatre, 115 Upper Street, Islington, N1. Box office 020 7226 8561. kingsheadtheatre.com.
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