Dickie Beau in Showmanism [Amanda Searle]

DICKIE Beau’s brief for the Theatre Royal Bath’s Ustinov Studio (where Showmanism originated in 2022) was to produce “a concise history of the theatre”. Instead, inspired by a conversation with writer and critic Rupert Christiansen, he used this remit as a starting point for something far wider.

The show is less a chronological history than a surreal, 90-minute theatrical mixtape. Beau uses a mishmash of recordings – from director Peter Sellers talking about the origins of ancient Greek theatre and Ian McKellen on performing Shakespeare to Fiona Shaw and Greek actress Mimi Denissi reflecting on the craft of acting.

Justin Nardella’s eclectic set features an orange tree in a bath, an astronaut’s helmet suspended mid air and a ladder disappearing into the rigging.

Often clad in just his underpants, Beau lip-synchs to the various narratives and interacts with unusual props including a spade and Yorick’s skull from Hamlet. An egg boils in a kettle and – like Chekhov’s gun, where one expects an object on stage to be used – we wait for the egg to be eaten. But Beau denies us that satisfaction.

There are musings on nightclub drag queens and hiding behind masks, interspersed with aural cameos from Margaret Thatcher and Cilla Black, courtesy of impressionist Steve Nallon.

Co-devised and directed by Jan-Willem van den Bosch, Showmanism is delightfully bizarre, and occasionally baffling – there is no way of to identify all the voices without the programme.

The cabaret format feels odd in Hampstead Theatre’s main house and the show may not appeal to all tastes, but Beau received an ecstatic welcome on press night and, as Showmanism suggests, audience response is an integral part of the theatrical experience.

Until July 12
hampsteadtheatre.com