The Rise and Fall of The Hamburger Queen

Written By: Mark Armstrong

Format: Show
Genre: Comedy
Date: November 4 2016
Location: Unity Theatre, Liverpool, England

If you are unfamiliar with the term "Hamburger Queen", you may wonder what the title means. Is it a new mascot for a fast food chain? Is it a best-selling Halloween costume at Asda George? Is it a secret character in a Mario Kart videogame? In reality, Hamburger Queen is a unique competition held annually in London; however, for the purpose of this article, Hamburger Queen is of greater relevance in providing the backdrop for Ashleigh Owen to tell a very interesting, and very funny, first-person account of her life story so far.

A local Liverpool girl whose carefree ways and innocent naivety are topped only by an outspoken love/hate relationship with her mother and an outrageous sense of humour, Ashleigh Owen uses her conversational personality, musical numbers, eye-catching props, plenty of memorable one-liners and, most importantly, the art of dance - or, as Ashleigh puts it, DANNNCE! - to explain how, inspired by aspects of her late father's own career, she decides to embark on a new path, one which in her mind could make her the next great British dance sensation.

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Homotopia 2015: Scratch and See

Image Source: Unity Theatre

Written By: Mark Armstrong

Format: Show
Genre: Variety
Date: November 3 2015
Location: Unity Theatre, Liverpool, England

As part of the 2015 Homotopia festival, the Unity Theatre hosted Scratch and See, a variety show of sorts in that there were three very different acts, all with the same message of promoting one's rights to embrace their true personality and desires (some more subtle than others). Each section lasted around 20 minutes apiece, and the three-part showcase covered the entire quality scale.

The evening opened with Freddy & Frida, which was an unusual double act. Apparently hailing from Switzerland, and allegedly influenced by The Gods of Cheese, the two-some were something of a Eurovision parody as they delivered several songs which were either past Eurovision tunes or were similar to those seen at the annual music festival (by that, I mean the lyrics didn't make much sense; not that this is a knock on the likes of past Eurovision performers ABBA and, erm, Jedward). This was accompanied by some deliberately hammy dance moves and facial expressions, and with the performers themselves donning 1970s-style wigs and flamboyant attires. I wasn't quite sure what the underlying message of this act was. A parody, yes, but of what? They did discuss cheese a lot, and I have heard of cheesing (thanks to South Park; look it up, it's quite funny actually), but I'm unclear as to what their purpose was.

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