Theatre Works Acland Street until 5 October as part of Fringe.
Playing Haus is an original drag comedy and the inaugurate show from VILE Production Co., founded by the queer theatre-makers that comprise its cast. Though this whodunnit boasts a new murderer every night, don’t expect an intricate murder-mystery that could rival Agatha Christie; the plot of Playing Haus is barely comprehensible and more or less irrelevant. To quote Louisa Cusumano, the show’s director, co-writer and lead, “This is the stupidest thing that has ever been written.” While this is a rather grand proclamation, with its unabashedly campy writing and presentation, nonsensical yet amusing burlesque routines and seemingly endless supply of dick jokes, Playing Haus manages to live up to this incredibly high bar.
The show follows Teddy and Lorelai Cuck (portrayed by Cusumano and Sam Morris respectively), the hedonistic husband and wife at the helm of the illustrious Cuck Manor, and their ostensibly Russian yet effectively German maid, Mishka Kraut (Tom Weinert), who keeps every crack and crevice of the house sparkling. Throwing a wrench into the works is the arrival of the seductive(and remarkably well-endowed) Ace Plumbing – the “jack off all trades”, played by producer and co-writer Ez Kenworthy – who, after the onset of an unexpected storm, becomes trapped in Cuck Manor alongside its insatiable inhabitants. When an anonymous body is discovered, the four characters must hump, writhe and screw their way to an answer, and the outlandish shenanigans and rambunctious ribaldry that ensues will have you belly-laughing at the sheer absurdity.
The performances are ridiculous, but that’s a part of their charm; Cusumano in particular, with her exaggerated British accent and precise comedic timing, is, like her character, the glue that holds Cuck Manor together. Whodunnits may be a drag, but with gags as crude and unsubtle as Mishka’s big pink furry box and a feather duster that grows when it’s happy to see you, Playing Haus is anything but.
