views from the gods

saints and sinners of the stage and screen

The Singing Psychic
Tristan Bates Theatre
17th August 2015

★★★☆☆

Publicity image for The Singing Psychic

Photography provided by MarysiaLand

Never mind if these walls could talk, what if they could sing? Well, apparently they do, your untrained ears just can't hear them. Not to worry though, in London you can find a professional to help you with absolutely anything, and the singing psychic (Maryisa Trembecka) is ready to explain the songs all around us - and the song in your heart. Forget tarot cards and speaking to the dead, this psychic has a new way of making predictions.

After several years at the illustrious Psychic School, armed with her trusty grimoire of pop songs and the weeks in which they topped the charts, The Singing Psychic will tell you something you didn't know about yourself, all through the medium of music. Now, you may well know what song was number one when you were born, however Trembecka not only belts that out but also warbles hits from either side of your birthday, so you can't necessarily anticipate her reading. Whilst she may not be a genuine psychic, she does guage her audience well, looking at little tells and signs in their behaviour before deciding which tracks should complement their birthday song and either going for strangely accurate or downright funny, depending on what she has to work with.

Trembecka's show is part-narration, part-improvisation. Not everyone wants to play along, at least not immediately, so she fills the lulls with the backstory to her character. The singing psychic has had to really fight for her career, standing up against parental disapproval and working hard to hit the right grades as well as right notes, and this pre-scripted tale is delightfully funny. Trembecka weaves this narration into her live cabaret act, pausing to sing big numbers with ease. Given she doesn't know what she's going to sing until she looks up a member of the audience's birthday, it's impressive just how tight her vocals are. This character act of hers wouldn't work if she didn't have the vocals to support it, which thankfully she does. In spades.

Donning a curly blonde wig and a slinky psychedelic 70s number, and addressing us with a thick Polish accent, you immediately know Trembecka doesn't take herself too seriously, and that allows you to relax into her performance. The whole point of The Singing Psychic is to have a good time, it's not about parodying the likes of Derek Acorah, it's the sort of show where you want to bring a bunch of mates and have a really good giggle.

With only a small audience, Trembecka is a great deal of fun. However, the nature of her act is that she really needs a large, enthusiastic crowd to really hit her full potential. With more people in her audience, I'm sure she would be an absolute riot, but without actually seeing this happen, it's only a prediction. The song in my heart says it's a fairly accurate one though.

The Singing Psychic opened on 17th August and runs until 22nd August 2015 at the Tristan Bates Theatre, as part of the Camden Fringe.

Nearest tube station: Leicester Square (Piccadilly, Northern)



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