Garden of Unearthly Delights – Le Cascadeur – Fri 28 Feb.

After a successful 2024 fringe,  winning rave reviews and 2 awards, Sarah-Louise Young is back weaving magic and enchantment. Welcome to the church of Kate.

The premise here is that although Kate isn’t here physically we are present because of her. I have to admit to being a little apprehensive that I was about to enter a pretentious rendering of all things Kate or even worse, a karaoke zone. This show is neither. Though singing is encouraged.

Sarah-Louise possesses the triple threat. Singer, Dancer and comedian! ( of course this makes for great acting so maybe the quadruple threat?) I was not expecting the comedic aspect, however it is this that ties the multiple threads of the performance together. It is ok to laugh along with Kate and at ourselves.

Beginning in complete darkness except for a small flashing red light and that most delicate flower of a song : And dream of sheep, the spell is cast from the outset. With minimal props and a few swift costume changes we are taken through a choice selection of Kate’s amazing back catalogue interwoven with stories of Kate’s now historical achievements and also tales of Sarah-Louise’s road to fandom. All told and sung with that wonderful, and at times, self effacing sense of humour.

The audience are encouraged to join in and sing along and occasionally take to the stage in this interactive and highly interpersonal performance.

I wanted to talk about all of the songs selected and the many connected anecdotes ( who knew that Kate had been singing Babooshka with incorrect pronunciation all this time!?) But that would be too many spoilers. I think with a larger venue and therefore larger crowd and heartier audience participation the finale would be grand indeed and could threaten to to take the roof off.

Kate was not with us, but we were there. And surely: “Whenever 2 or more are gathered in my name, I shall be there with them” Book of dreams: CH:18 V 20.