If you're looking for a truly alternative Christmas show, look no further. Drag collective Sink the Pink have won over critics with their first-ever theatre residency, in the form of Ginger Johnson's HOW TO CATCH A KRAMPUS at The Pleasance. Find out what the Evening Standard, The Stage and others have been saying...
Truly alternative to the traditional festive fare, drag collective Sink The Pink have brought their brand new Christmas show How to Catch a Krampus, where it's decking the (music) halls with boughs of horror until 23 December 2018. Sink The Pink's most ambitious project to date, this debut theatre residency closes a year’s worth of 10th birthday milestones including a headline sold out Brixton Academy show for Pride in July.
Based on Victorian melodrama and the myth of the Krampus (a horned eastern European Christmas beast with the head of a goat and long hideous claws, of course), the story follows the scandalous exploits of a part-time spirit medium/full-time con-artist. Her shadowy life takes an even darker turn when her made-up magic suddenly starts to get results. When faced with certain death and growing suspicion from everyone around her, can she catch the Krampus and save her own skin in the process?
Inspired by London's bawdy and dangerous theatrical past and a love of classic British Horror - think Sweeney Todd meets The Wicker Man - How To Catch A Krampus is a Christmas story that's strictly for grown-ups, promising a truly terrifying night at the theatre.
The show is written and directed by Ginger Johnson, whose credits include Sink The Pink’s previous adventures Down the Rabbit Hole and The Queens Head at Selfridge's. Johnson also appears in the cast with a host of Sink The Pink faces, including Lavinia Co-Op, a 67-year-old drag legend of famed radical drag troupe BLOOLIPS, along with David Cumming, Mahatma Michael, Mairi Houston and Maxi More.
Ben Walters: Sink the Pink have "staked a claim to the festive season through a form that you might call outré experimental drag panto - although that doesn’t quite do justice to the macabre and outrageous charms of How to Catch a Krampus... in its exuberant ambition, its joy in togetherness and its copious music and laughter, it makes for a glorious kind of queer family fun."
Paul Vale: "A laughter-packed exercise in gothic high camp with subversive undertones from queer collective Sink the Pink... Lavinia Co-op steals the limelight with a mock trial, a fabulous wig and a Rihanna cover that brings the house down."
Stephen Vowles: "Krampus is bawdy, chaotic fun, think Edgar Allan Poe meets Dickens with a brilliant cast that put 100% into their performance. A superb farce where theatrical bedlam shines in all its glory."
Ezelle Alblas: "How to Catch a Krampus is unforgettable to the core... The outstanding effort from this cast really push the boundaries of this genre and do well to remind us that not everyone has the picture-perfect Christmas we so often think of."
James FitzGerald: "Much of the praise for this wig-raising evening goes to Johnson herself. The compere of the night is full of voice, magnificent of dress, and assured even in mishaps... A very merry Krampus for all concerned."
Sophia Halpin: "Fabulously dark and silly... All fits perfectly with theme of a deliciously dark and naughty Christmas panto, showcasing the performers’ skills at spoof and spook, dance and drama, slapstick and soprano."
Jennifer Christie: "The show looks stunning. The set, make-up and costumes are lush and multi-layered and the lighting design of Clancy Flynn provides a wealth of glorious visuals.. An eclectic and effervescent show."
Sandra Giorgetti: "I wasn’t feeling at all Christmassy until I saw drag collective Sink the Pink's show, How To Catch A Krampus which puts the claws into Christmas if not actually Santa... Rather freakish and rather fun."
Laura Richards: "If Christmas for you is a horror show, Sink the Pink’s festive panto could be the way to go... As chaotic as a dysfunctional family’s Christmas Day... but dysfunctional is how we like it. Terrifying in moments, and side-splittingly silly all the way along."
Chris Selman: "For those who are looking for something a bit different this festive season, it’s certainly a dark, bizarre alternative to the usual Christmas fare... with a gloriously shambolic rendition of the Twelve Days of Christmas."
Jacob Sarkisian: "Two hours of infectious hilarity...even the most cold-hearted person will find themselves laughing out loud. It’s a joyous, boisterous event (and an event it truly is) that guarantees to leave you in twice the spirits you arrived in."
