I put on some make-up
and turn up the eight-track
I’m pulling the wig down from the shelf
Suddenly I’m this punk rock star of stage and screen
and i ain’t never
I’m never turning back

I think that it is impossible to watch Hedwig and not be affected. For me, this show is one from these precious few that can actually help you change your life. By changing you and your perspective on the world. There are all these issues that the text of Hedwig addresses: Gender, identity, fragmentation, alienation, betrayal. But above all, love. Searching for the origin of love...could the secret be hidden in a box together with a wig? Could it be heard in a broadcasting from the midnight radio? Could it be found in a wicked little town? Yes, it could.
People are most of the times sceptical when it comes to small budget college productions. They do not trust them. Even when they go to them, they tend to carry an insecurity and an air of distrust with them. So, it is a double burden for the people on and behind the stage to win their sympathy. And when it comes to shows like Hedwig, where the audience may be smaller but probably consisted of hardcore fans, actors may bend and crash under this burden. Not this time though. Goldsmiths Musical Society decided to stage Hedwig because they felt strongly about the play. And they had to overcome a series of bureaucratic and technical difficulties that are common when someone is involved in this ‘business that we call show’, if i am allowed to use Hedwig’s line. Although common, they can be very distracting and frustrating, hence the first bravo goes for the fact that none of them left these things distract them. In the end of the day, it was all about Hedwig, about the show, the songs, the love. You see, this is an advantage of the small productions. It is not about the money. It is about passion.
I walked in the student union on Wednesday full of expectations. I knew the amount of hard work been done backstage and I knew that all of the people involved in this production were professionals in their methods and amateurs in their passion. But still, there was a part of me worrying, praying that the show would make me feel all the emotions that the film and the soundtrack had made me experience. Lights fading, band in its place, Hedwig’s entrance. Smile. Yes, from the very first moment, you knew that this was it, you were watching Hedwig and not a bad imitator. Everything worked towards the building of an unforgettable experience. Angus Dunican was Hedwig. Playful, cynical, hurt, aggressive, betrayed, gorgeous. He was also Tommy Gnosis , his Tommy persona stealing at times the attention from the Hedwig one. Favorite moment: ‘I pull my body round to face him and thrust his hands between my---’Silence. ‘Then love the front of me’. Despair. He kept the audience in his palm. Emma Fenney as Yitzhak ,apart from being a wonderful singer, achieved an outstanding metamorphosis by convincing us as a man, and when in her final appearance as a woman freed her feminine power, gained a well-deserved applaud. A big asset of the production was the band (Matt Ellman, Antoine Ollivier, Amanda Bailsy, Stuart Darling, Matt Winkworth), rocking the songs and the audience and contributing to the electrified atmosphere of a live concert. The work in the costumes (Sarah Whittaker) and the make up(Nicole Lemery) was the best possible since it was both practical and imaginative, a combination not easily achieved.
So, Matt Winkworth, the producer and musical director, and Nicole Lemery, the director and probably one of the most dedicated persons to this production, can be proud for creating a show that touched the hearts of the each and everyone watching it. There is one more performance in the 24th of March at George Wood Theatre in Goldsmiths, so be there because the chances of watching theatre in its purest and most charming form are getting fewer and fewer these days.