SOAP- THE SHOW

 

"Bubbling over with invention ... fantastic"  *****
(Metro UK)

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Adelaide Fringe Review 2017: SOAP Cabaret *****

Gluttony Peacock until March 19

A packed marquee welcomed Soap back to the Fringe, eager for vicarious hydrotherapy. This time it’s even sexier than before, the singing more luscious, the clowning kookier and the bodies, wet or dry, totally delicious. The rapport between the performers and their sheer joy of playing is unmistakeable and the skill they bring to every routine is mesmerising. There are crowd pleasing big routines and subtle erotic moments. There is the one physically visceral act that everyone waits for.

One man, one bath of water and a routine so energetic, so risky, so forceful, so primal that it takes your breath away.

If you sit close you’ll get wet, so sit close.

The Advertiser February 18, 2017

Ewart Shaw

 

EDINBURGH FRINGE REVIEW – Soap! The Show *****

SIX BATHS, FOUR MEN, FOUR WOMEN. AND A WHOLE LOT OF ‘WOW’

The Show makes for a memorable performance which will leave you energised and wanting more. 

This is a show for all ages, with no language barriers, which is clearly deserving of the standing ovation and enthusiastic response it received from the audience. 

 

FRINGE REVIEW: Soap - The Show

ADELAIDE FRINGE FESTIVAL GETS SOAPY 

The Adelaide Magazine's verdict on one of the most talked about shows in the Garden.

The vibe

An immediately entertaining (and strangely erotic) blend of theatre, dance, opera, acrobatics and moments that will have you feeling all funny inside (due to the aforementioned bodies – you ain’t never seen abs like these!), all set to a startling soundtrack by the likes of Sia, Gnarls Barkley, Mika and Tool ('Schism' will never be the same after seeing this show).

Reality bites

If the premise of creating a show that entertains for well over an hour with a simple bathroom theme seems challenging, think for a couple of seconds about your ablution routine. Multiply this by about 50 - considering it’s performed by some of the world’s best acrobats - and you’ll see where the show is headed. No towel is left unturned.

We’re telling our mates... Splish splash! It’s time to get your feet (and other bits) wet.

Verdict... 5/5 Mall Balls

The Adelaide Magazine (The Advertiser)

Kate Bowden

 

SOAP LEAVES AUDIENCE SPEECHLESS

Genre : Cabaret, Circus, Comedy

My plus-one and I stare mutely at the spectacle before us: a lissome gymnast, soaked to the bones, perched taut and backlit on a bath full of water, contorts his body sensually to the stirring strains of Tool's Schism. 

My companion leans over to me and murmurs throatily: “Is this doing ... things to you?” 

I'm so breathless, so turned on, I can't answer. 

We can't close our mouths, we can't speak, we can't get our hearts to slow. Water falls from the gymnast's body in glistening sheets, the perfection of the human form renders itself unfathomable, and we're reminded that everything is better when it's wet. 

This is the highlight of Soap – the Show. 

Brisbane Times

September 19, 2012, Sommer Tothill

 

Soap The Show at St James Theatre, Wellington From 28 Jul 2011 to 6 Aug 2011 

DELIGHTFUL, ENTHRALLING, PROVOKING AWE 

Bath time will never be the same again! Frothy and frivolous, sensual and exciting, this cleansing theatrical experience had me truly absorbed. 

I spent 2 glorious hours with 7 people, 6 bathtubs, a rubber ducky and quite a bit of water. Strange for a theatre you might say, bizarre would be more accurate, but spellbound I was, all the same. It was fun. 

Clever, effective staging, music and lighting gives the show an ageless and global quality. Laughter is universal. And the mixture of classical and contemporary styles, with a full range of emotions is cleverly choreographed for the audience's total enjoyment. 

Behind their consummate skills as either aerial artists or jugglers, their characters take on very believable personas. This makes it more interesting and I still marvel at seeing a life time of honed training oozing from every pore. Having previously witnessed an array of the world's best, 

Go see Soap. Towels and shower caps are not always necessary. Sadly, there is no Grand Finale; it leaves you wanting more. 

But where did all the water go?

Reviewed by Greer Robertson, 29 Jul 2011

 

Soap The Show at St James Theatre, Wellington From 28 Jul 2011 to 6 Aug 2011 

SOAP, WITH A DASH OF OPERA, REVELS IN MAKING A SPLASH 

Once you've seen Soap you might be forgiven for thinking that this brilliant hybrid of circus, theatre and vaudeville was an expensive ad for a club not a stone's throw from the St James. 

There must be about as much water on stage as there is in the club as the seven unnamed wizards of aerial silk, acrobatics, comic miming, juggling, singing, and dancing splash about in their bathtubs or get rained on from sprinklers high above the stage. 

Also – and I certainly wasn't expecting this – there's an opera singer with an extraordinarily powerful voice who sings arias ranging from Mozart's ‘The Magic Splash' all the way to Strauss's ‘The Blue Dantub' and the Beatles' ‘All You Need is Splash'. 

The magnificent seven also do a neatly choreographed dance with mops in a vain attempt to clean up the water. And three of the men perform with great modesty a funny teasing dance with towels to a well-known tune by Tchaikovsky, while the amazing juggler performs a striptease as he bounces three rubber balls. 

One expects the performers to be supremely fit athletes, and of course, they are. However, I find it impossible to believe that any one has toes as flexible as the toes that performed a romantic love story on the edge of one of the seven baths. 

This is showbiz at its polished professional best with something for everyone. I suggest you splash out and pay these artists a visit. 

Take the youngsters too; they'll love this sassy, spirited show. They left the enthusiastic opening night audience demanding more but professionals to the end they gave no encores.

Reviewed by Laurie Atkinson, 30 Jul 2011 originally published in The Dominion Post 

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