Theatre / The Wardrobe Ensemble

Review: International House of Vape, The Wardrobe Theatre – ‘Superbly written, brilliantly acted, hilarious and beautiful’

By Tom Dewey  Monday Feb 26, 2024

‘Theatre is dying. The old models are defunct. Your audience ain’t interested. It’s time to redefine.’

The surprise of this battle-cry, towards the beginning of International House of Vape, was two-fold. Whilst modern theatre is inevitably ensconced within the context of industry-wide economic pressure, the decision to recast this lamentable truism from mere context to actual subject is a courageous one.

The second, and more acute, surprise is that Tom Brennan and James Newton address this decline – at least in the first half of the show – not as local artists deprived of opportunity and resource, but as free-market entrepreneurs offering profit-driven and soulless alternatives.

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International House of Vape – photo: Ben Vardy

The comedic heights of this show are hard to articulate. We are essentially plunged into a funding pitch, redolent at once of the vapid advertorial outputs of Silicon Valley. Brennan and Newton walk forwards and backwards in sync, crossing their arms and pouting, whilst exchanging adroitly crafted bundles of nothingness with the smug alacrity reserved solely for this genre of human being.

Following the obscene financial success of their vape business (somewhere in the billions of pounds), Brennan and Newton have come to save theatre. That their solution – some sort of technology which mass-produces hundreds of shows along established narrative structural grooves – would vitiate rather than restore the vibrancy of the industry is more-or-less beside the point.

International House of Vape – photo: Ben Vardy

The economic ‘viability’ of the arts is a strange subject. Strange because one doesn’t even need to resort to the legitimate argument that the benefits of artistic pursuit and consumption are primarily non-economic. The plain fact is that many of the most expensive creations in the world, generating incalculable tourism and profit, are works of art.

The show satirises sleazebags with alarming accuracy and precision. I laughed as hard as I know how to. On a stage absent of any set, and controlling the lighting and sound themselves, Brennan and Newton’s show is an ambitious testament to their finely-tuned skillset. The acting is superb, the writing is precise and hilarious. As the show was coming to end, I felt I had a pretty good idea of what I’d just seen: a basically flawless comedy, a State of the Nation Play in which the nation is the theatre industry, and the state is a word unfit for print.

International House of Vape – photo: Ben Vardy

But then something happened. The show veers – though not abruptly – in on itself, shedding its very ‘showness’ one layer at a time. It sheds its skin and leaves on stage two theatre makers – who for 10 years have pioneered devised theatre and represented our city, two theatre makers to whom Bristol owes its enormous gratitude – reflecting on their off-stage companionship and journey. They cradle each other, sharing the real-world fears and heartaches that led them to create this show. Then comes the final and total rebuke of profit-driven artistry, delivered in a stunningly moving few lines: ‘This last part of the show was for us. It won’t mean anything to you. We optimised it’.

We optimised it. In this moment, the show makes it clear where it lands in the argument. The optimisation of art is a solely emotional endeavour, concerned with beauty not banknotes. I cried with laughter at the beginning, but by the end had tears whose emotional origin I couldn’t discern. International House of Vape deepened and subtilised my understanding of friendship.

International House of Vape: Redefining Theatre Experience is at The Wardrobe Theatre on February 21-24 at 7.30pm, with an additional 2pm matinee show on Saturday. Tickets are available at www.thewardrobetheatre.com.

All photos: Ben Vardy

Read more: Wardrobe Ensemble duo bring their Fringe sleeper hit home

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