Confession Booth invites musicians, actors, comedians, creatives and anonymous audience members confess to some embarrassing, occasionally empowering and otherwise disgusting moments from their life. It was quickly established that there was a proud tradition of poo jokes that somehow related to a communal drinking game, yet the crude nature of the this recurring subject matter didn’t appear to deter anyone – and proved to be hilarious.
The night was hosted by A.H Cayley and Matt Roden. While Cayley admitted that it gets harder with each event to try and dig up a new confession, she still pulled through with a fun piece. Starting with a I-swear-I’m-a-good-person set up, Cayley built a story that depended on the audience’s foresight and developed around a foot in mouth I-thought-he-might-have-died moment that turned out to be the reality of the situation.
Matt Banham began his confession by reassuring the audience “it’s alright, I’m drunker than you”. And while his slurred speech was a little incomprehensible at times, Banham demonstrated the reason Confession Booth is so entertaining: the event takes well known people and puts them in a relaxed environment, speaking on a personal subject that means they engage with the audience. Banham laughed ominously and took great joy in remembering the climaxes of his stories before he shared them. Though he spoke for a while, which became tiring, the audience listened and laughed with the same enthusiasm and fascination you’d observe an entertaining drunk friend with.
Tracey Spicer’s piece was clever and layered, confessing she had sinned she spoke about everything from masturbating with a hairbrush to succumbing to vanity. She epitomised the perfect poise of newsreaders but subverted expectations in her content, and even said the word cunt.
Roden read out a series of anonymous audience confessions and did a great job of balancing the element of surprise. While he identified that one confession was misogynistic and refused to read it, he maintained a fun tone that was consistent with the feel of the night.
Benjamin Law presented a story that played on a depiction of the perfect straight-A primary school student. In a hilarious over-dramatisation that played with ethnic stereotypes, he told us with terror about the time he mutilated a book of genitals.
Finally, Yumi Stynes ended the night by getting really fired up over sport and psychics. Unfortunately the laptop she read from blocked her face, causing a bit of disconnect with the audience who couldn’t see the expression on her face or much of her movements (though there was punching).
All up, Confession Booth is a great night, filled with a mix-bag of personalities and ton of laughs. They’ll be doing their thing again in Newcastle for the National Young Writers’ Festival on Sunday 5 October.
Reviewed by Lily Mei
