Picture: Jane Hobson
The Fabulist Fox Sister – A Musical Lie continues via live-stream from Southwark Playhouse, London until 12 December 2020.
Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩
The Fox Sister in question is Kate, who with her sisters Maggie and Leah pioneered seances in the 19th century. Basically it seems they were making it all up but it certainly caught the public imagination with the knock once for yes twice for no format. Kate here is played by Michael Conley who is certainly a fabulist in this show which is ‘loosely inspired by a loosely true story’. The Fox sisters themselves were seemingly billed as fabulous back in the day, which has quite a different (or at least a double) meaning…
The girls apparently started their experiments when they were young. Maggie and Kate learnt to make convincing enough noises to order with their toe joints and off they went. The American Civil War made the demand for talking to the dead go through the roof.
The whole show here focuses on Kate’s version of the story though Maggie and Leah make an eerie appearance and the whole story might have been substantially different if told by either of them. Conley spiels and sings his way through the whole thing with great gusto. He is also the writer of the book and lyrics and music is by Luke Bateman. Director Adam Lenson explores some interesting camera and sound effects in this live-streamed production. The excellent band is musical director Tamara Saringer and percussionist Becky Brass.
The show is worth seeing and you can! It’s back live at Southwark Playhouse this weekend after the postponement of Public Domain until January 2021.
Clare Walters
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