The London Horror Festival is taking place from 8 October to 2 November 2019 at two venues in Islington, the Old Red Lion Theatre, and the Pleasance. The festival markets itself as “the UK’s original & largest festival of live horror performance”.
Him Indoors
One of the shows which caught my eye, although I am unable to accept the invite to review it, is the horror comedy Him Indoors. Described as The Mighty Boosh meets The Wicker Man meets The Exorcist, with eels, this promises to be a very silly show mixing the absurd with alt-comedy, the high school with the horrific. And it has a northern slant, and I’m northern, so that’s a mark in its favour before we even dig deeper.
What’s it about?
I’ll quote directly from the press release: “In the quaint Northern town of Tittitutar, something’s not quite right, and a very serious journalist is determined to get to the bottom of it. A scary spooky girl has a small man inside her, so they say. A tiny little man trapped in her belly. Don’t believe it? Meet the town’s many strange inhabitants, and find out for yourself”.
This show is the most recent from Cheekykita (also known as Sonja Doubleday), taking her stand-up characters out of that space and into a play format, breaking the fourth wall and bringing a bit of heavy metal sass and Gothic chill to the Pleasance. Cheekykita is joined by Nina Atesh (lots of supporting characters) and TiberiousChris (as the journalist).
Sounds good?
Where and when can I see it?
Him Indoors runs at the Pleasance, 19 and 20 October, at 9.45pm, in the StageSpace. It runs for an hour, and promises to be a stellar piece of absurd comedy horror. You can find the theatre on Carpenters Mews, just a short walk from Caledonian Road tube station.
If you want to see some of the other shows in the festival, there is plenty of choice – more than thirty shows in total. (I am clearing space for this in 2020 for sure). The Old Red Lion is showcasing three shows in the festival, including Last Orders, a haunted pub piece.
Credits
My thanks to Chesca Forristal, producer of Him Indoors, for info and image. You can find out more about Cheekykita/Sonja on her website, or follow her on Twitter at https://twitter.com/cheekykita1.