Tuesday 13 October 2015

McQueen: A Play Inspired by the Life of Alexander McQueen

Fashion genius, Alexander McQueen, contributed abundance to the industry's identity. Creating masterpieces, he bewildered us with his formations, stunned us with his distinctive collections, and most of all, captivated us by the sincere wonder and amazement of the mind behind these true works of art.

Image from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/theatre-reviews/11617617/McQueen-St-James-Theatre-insufferable-navel-gazing.html
If you truly believe that any fashion designer is neither worthy nor important enough for such an honour of having the basis of a show stationed on their own life, then I challenge you to watch this magnificent play. Award winning actor Stephen Wight takes you through a lone night where the designer is struggling for inspiration for his up and coming collection. After the surprise of finding girl, Dahlia - fantastically played by actress Carly Bawden - stealing a dress, ideas strike and you're taken through a whirlwind of an adventure of the mystical thoughts within Lee Alexander McQueen's mind.
As the audience, you begin to feel sympathy for Lee as he meets with ghost from the past, Isabella Blow. The pair discuss the heated topic of their common denominator (besides them both leading outstandingly predominant roles in the fashion industry) of depression, conversing from the wonder Blow felt when she found, furthermore bought, all of Alexander McQueen's MA collection, to the suicidal depression that troubled and haunted them both. As the couple are wrapped in consultation, you witness the speciality of their relationship and just how much Blow's death may have had on McQueen's own depressional state.
Dancers coated in dream-like costumes twirled around the stage, a vivid representation of McQueen's mental state, yet the clear explanation for the inspiration behind all of his designs: his own madness. Choreographed by Christopher Marney, haunting faces and eerie movements threaten to tear down the great empire that McQueen has built around him and called his own