Linking the ragged poetry of Shane MacGowan and Kirsty MacColl with the force of Sinéad O’Connor, David Bowie, Tom Waits and Nick Cave, Camille O’Sullivan’s latest show, Loveletter, emerges as a deeply personal homage to the musicians she has known and the many more she reveres.
Staged at Soho Theatre, the evening unfolds with a kind of deliberate disarray and frayed melancholy that clings to O’Sullivan like her bedraggled duct taped boots. Each number summons a private memory or ghostly echo, and yet, despite the stylistic sprawl of the repertoire, O’Sullivan stamps every song with her unmistakable signature.
Between numbers, she offers gentle benedictions to the selected songwriters, as well as to Fergal Murray, her close friend and musical virtuoso on keyboard and trumpet. Her affection for both the makers and the music is the show’s lifeblood, with the emotional connective tissue enrapturing an audience.
The show is, at times, unfocussed and slightly rambling, but this also forms part of O’Sullivan’s charm. Both performer and audience experience a palette of emotions throughout the show, which serves as an ode to musicianship and lyricism. Occasionally, it is deeply uncomfortable to watch, but perhaps that is the point. Rarely does an audience awkwardly laugh only to be floored in seconds by O’Sullivan’s searing covers of Tom Waits’ ‘Martha’ and Fascinating Aïda’s ‘Look Mummy, No Hands’.
O’Sullivan utilises her voice with mastery, moving from moments of piercing hoarseness to whispers of vulnerability. This further feeds into the chaotic belly of this beast and exposes the rawness of grief. It is bewitching and deeply arresting.
Sometimes, the sound is amplified excessively and can pull one out of the performance, but such distraction is swiftly remedied by the smaller and tender performances. Further, the main house at Soho Theatre may not be the best venue for a show that would seem better in the round. This show and O’Sullivan’s strengths lie in their inability to be contained, and this space felt at times like watching a wild cat trying to escape a wrought iron-clad circus.
This show is a must-see for those mystified by poetic lyricism in music and for those who want to experience the rare rawness that O’Sullivan’s candour delivers in spades.
**** Four stars
Reviewed by: Jeff Mostyn
Camille O’Sullivan: Loveletter plays at London’s Soho Theatre until 6 December, with further info here.
