Frau Welt becomes Hackney Showroom’s first star of the stage
Berlin to Broadway: Frau Welt (aka lead actor Peter Clements). Photograph: Holly Revell
“Infamous, international shape-shifter” Frau Welt is the titular protagonist of the first play in Hackney Showroom’s two-year history, which runs until 21 October at the Hackney Downs venue.
The character (in reality actor Peter Clements, who co-wrote the piece with Oliver Dawe) presents her story as a one woman show, which chronicles a journey from the cabarets of Weimar Berlin to her eventual Tony Award win on Broadway.
However, in the course of the play, we learn of a dark, duplicitous past to the woman Exeunt Magazine called a “demented nightclub hostess”.
Nina Lyndon and Sam Curtis Lindsay, Hackney Showroom’s Artistic Directors, both heralded Frau Welt “a bold and striking piece of work” that “uses the traditions and tropes of drag and cabaret, but takes them out of the realm of the sketch and into a narrative-led drama”.
Hackney Showroom opened in 2015, with the mission “to present and produce outstanding performance, work with leading artists and organisations, and create an inclusive, vibrant and accessible community building”.
Tickets are on sale now from the Showroom website, and range from £15 general admission to £5 for under-25s.