REVIEW: Derrière on a G String at King's Head Theatre 6 May – 7 June 2026
Even the spotlights have comic timing. ★★★★⯪
This is a ridiculous show—in the best possible way. Are you a fan of contemporary dance, but wish it featured more orgies? Do you like your Rossini with a chainsaw murder? Your Offenbach with gigantic rubber ducks? Does ‘The Buttcracker’ make you giggle? If so, this is the show for you. If this entire paragraph made something inside you die a little, avoid at all costs.
Derrière on a G-String is production company Some Smith and Moore's response to the question: How do we make dance more accessible? The answer, apparently, is lots and lots of sex. We kick off with a collage of classical music's greatest hits, then launch into a strip-tease. The emphasis is on a soundtrack everyone will recognise, which helps the audience anticipate the comic beats. It's a little like Disney's Fantasia, if Fantasia included latex and a whip.
The six cast members are all excellent at movement, comedy and not having a breakdown while performing their 15th quick-change. Each character technically has a name—Flop, Drip, Grunt, Slosh, Twitch, Vinyl—but they are never spoken aloud. Nothing, really, is spoken aloud, apart from nonsense words. Think baby talk crossed with an alien having a stroke: ‘Zibbidie-doo?’ ‘Zap-zap’ ‘Heyyyyy’.
The set is straight from music-hall farce, one big wall of doors and windows for heads (and bananas) to pop through. An archway of lightbulbs flashes merrily in tune with the music, and the lighting design is crisp. Even the spotlights have comic timing. And within this mass of silliness, the creative team has conjured up some strangely beautiful imagery: who knew that vaping could look stunning, if the lighting is right? Props must also go to the props department, which has sourced a mini vault of comedy objects, from umbrellas and bedsheets to bubble machines and old-fashioned phones.
There are twenty sketches in all. Some characters (or at least costumes) make multiple appearances, and throwaway gags are repeated between scenes. But the storylines, if they can be called that, are unconnected. Only at the end of the show does director Alfred Taylor-Gaunt attempt to tie it all together, in a nightmarish collage.
This means that everyone will have their favourites, and it truly is hard to choose—the gigantic swan stampeding across the stage, chasing a floppy, deeply phallic loaf of bread? The dancing duvet cover? The audience darling on press night was The Buttcracker Pas de Deux, which ends with a builder embracing his queer identity.
It's clear that the creative team was bursting with ideas, and none of them are bad. It's just that there are, perhaps, a few too many crammed in. This is particularly noticeable with the repeated gags: repetition makes them funnier until it doesn't. A ten minute trim of the running time, or a stronger through-line, would fix this.
Derrière won't be to everyone's taste, but it objectively takes slick skill to pull off something this deeply silly. And if you're worried about the nudity warning, don't be—strategically placed slips and knitting wool cover all crucial areas.
Tickets from £10.00
Pay What You Can: 9th May 2026, 1pm
Booking link: https://kingsheadtheatre.com/whats-on/derriere-on-a-g-string-md7x
Cast & Creative Team
Written and created by: Some Smith and Moore
Cast: Sammy Moore, Cam Tweed, Ryan Upton, Alice O'Brien, Courtney Cyrus, Ena Yamaguchi
Director/choreographer: Alfred Taylor-Gaunt
Set designer: Emily Bestow
Costume Designer: Reuben Speed
Lighting Designer: Andrew Ellis
Sound designer: Findlay Claydon
Casting director: Sarah-Jane Price
Assistant director: Sammy Moore
Assistant choreographer: David Rhys
Musical arranger: Luke Bateman
Production manager: James Anderson
Company stage manager: Elizabeth Khabaza
Assistant stage manager: Abbie Williams
Marketing: The 5th Wall
Public relations: Kevin Wilson
Social media: Jonni Knight
Graphic designer: Laura Whitehouse
Set construction: Set Blue Scenery
Producer: Some Smith and Moore
Associate producer: Daniel Chowdhury
Photography: Charlie Flint
