Comedy / Reviews
Review: Any Objections?, The Wardrobe Theatre – ‘A weird and wonderful way of making the most mundane thing charming’
Scarlett Smith brings Any Objections?, her solo show blending music, comedy and play to The Wardrobe Theatre this week.
Described as an ‘electro-acoustic harpist and comedian‘ – she is a performer most often booked to perform at weddings; a rich seam that she mines for much of this genre-defying hour.
Striding confidently into the tightly packed room, Smith sits astride the harp and begins to play what can only be described to the untrained ear as an enchanting melody. Selecting her beats on the fx pedals and setting her looping effects, it takes a few more notes to realise I know this one – it’s The Weeknd’s Blinding Lights.
is needed now More than ever
A sense of ease pervades as the ‘aha’ moment makes its way through the room; the 120-strong audience kicking their feet along and bobbing their heads as the tempo picks up. She ends prematurely but most of the assembled throng seem already enraptured by the whimsy of the first five minutes.
While this might be an over-zealous audience reaction for a typical Thursday night, I suspect many friends and family are here for the third and final night in the run.
Electro-acoustic harpist and comedian Scarlett Smith – photo: courtesy of the artist
Setting up her confessional style for the rest of the show, Smith declares: “I’m an addict. I went to 56 weddings last year and I fucking loved it”.
Leading in with another familiar tune – if you’re familiar with dinosaurs that is – she recounts the time a bride and groom requested she play the Jurassic Park theme tune, throwing in for good measure the sound of a clock in a Blue Peter style (“this is one I prepared earlier”).
She ruminates over the couple’s lack of commitment to the song choice, preferring a traditional matrimonial uniform as opposed to an inflatable dinosaur costume to sashay down the aisle in.
Throughout the hour Smith keeps the musical surprises coming, from Wagner’s Here Comes the Bride to Dr Dre’s Still D.R.E., via Taylor Swift’s We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together. Each soundtracks a different tone: from the bride’s moment to the groom’s song and the divorce party.
She is keen to emphasise that any presumptions you may have of a harpist can and should be left at the door. Demonstrably, there is a lot of juvenile fun to be had with what many consider an instrument played only in stuffy rooms to folks of a certain age, who may or may not have been rocked to sleep by the sound.
Whether it’s a Mozart orchestral masterpiece, Big Bang Theory‘s Amy Farrah Fowler self-soothing her unsatisfied needs, or Mickey and the Beanstalk’s Singing Harp, Smith presents many different versions of what her instrument can be, and the varied audiences it can serve.
View this post on Instagram
She also plays lightly on the theme of representation in the music industry.
The expectation that she and any other harp or classical instrument musician is heteronormative, polished and restrained is something she tries desperately to challenge. She is moderately successful in that.
Lightly brushing over gender politics, she jokes about her distaste when a registrar addressed the wedding party as “Ladies and gentleman” Pausing to unsettle her crowd, she asks: “What about the dog? He certainly was no gentleman”.
A game of ‘guess the glissando’ strikes a note of eager audience participation that also serves to put sex, and its role in music, on the agenda. Was that noise created by a toy dinosaur, a tango can or a butt plug?
Throughout her performance, Smith’s training in circus and physical theatre really does shine through, and her stage presence fizzes with energy. Moreover, in finding a weird and wonderful way of making the most mundane thing charming and amusing, she strikes an infectiously childlike tone. However, it fails to push further than that.
Smith plays as though this is her only show and must encompass everything she has to offer – but given her skill and clear aptitude for performance, I doubt this is the case.
As driven as she is to forgo the shackles of classical music, bringing together her many talents with her rich experience and versatility, her need to cover so much means that in Any Objections?, Smith only scratches the surface of what it really means to push the boundaries of gender, class and sexuality.
A woman of many talents – photo: Scarlett Smith
View this post on Instagram
Scarlett Smith: Any Objections? is at The Wardrobe Theatre on January 29-30 at 7.30pm. Tickets are available at www.thewardrobetheatre.com. Follow Scarlett @BristolHarpist.
All photos: Scarlett Smith
Read next:
- Bristol harpist Scarlett Smith combines music and comedy, and asks: ‘Any Objections?’
- Irresistibly madcap Spencer Jones brings debut standup tour to Bristol
- Harpist plucks at heart strings as she goes on tour around BS6
Our top newsletters emailed directly to you
