Physical theatre and mime performer David Hoskin brings a show with a comic curiosity and manic manipulation to the London horror theatre stage as part of the Old Red Lion’s Grimfest.
This was something of a wildcard for me, and with a small Sunday evening audience, it was perhaps inevitable that I became a participant in the show (an event that didn’t quite equal my ‘Andrew Garfield’ in F*ckboy).
Hoskin relies a lot on the audience to add sound effects and sometimes step up to play off his own routines. A volunteer called Thomas was convinced to juggle and shoot both gun and crossbow, capturing a nervous energy of his own.
A Haunted House is a mix of scripted routines and improvisation. Although very funny, it relies too much on blackouts and distorted sounds to be really scary. There were two jump scares but it was thin fare within an hour’s show.
I enjoyed the monster rocking out to At The Bop and the werewolf transformation a la Thriller, but a routine to Joe Cocker’s You Can Leave Your Hat On, presumably discarding body bits, was too weird.
Hoskin certainly throws himself into the show, sweating into contortions and creativity. He’s an affable yet slightly unnerving performer whose grasp of mime us solid and occasionally even a little poignant.
My bit as ‘my new best friend’ doesn’t make me want to tread the boards at all, but I applaud any fringe show and petformer that gets out there and adds something different.
I’ll be looking out for David Hoskin again to see what he does next.
A Haunted House played as part of Grimfest.
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