REVIEW: An Evening With Nana Funk - Little Liverpool Theatre Festival

 The Little Liverpool Theatre Festival returned to the city for a second year following the successful inaugural staging in September 2020. The festival is the sister event of the award-winning Liverpool Theatre Festival which was born as a response to the pandemic and the demand for live entertainment.

The festival ran over 6 days and showcased new writing, whilst celebrating new talent from across the North West. The location was St Luke's Bombed out church.  I had the privilege of attending five performances over the weekend. The very first show that I was able to catch was on Friday night and it was an evening of frivolity and genius improvisation. The hour long show was hilarious yet packed a deep and meaningful punch with its messaging. The protagonist Nana Funk (Angie Waller) forms a double act with keyboard player and percussion extraordinaire (Val) Claire Jones. 

We learnt that Nana has been performing for many, many, many years (Since 2013 in fact). She even taught Lady Gaga how to play the kazoo. She invited the audience to journey with her as she embarked on taking us through the archives of her very murky back catalogue of personalised songs. The cabaret show that ensued was high energy and a banquet of physical theatre at its finest. 

Val's facial expressions and physical stance throughout were hilarious. Nana dressed in traditional nana clothing and a grey mop of curled nana hair proceeded to sing a number of songs. It was clear from the outset that her message was that of "being awesome transcends age". Her first song spoke of menopause and referred to going "through the pause", not a full stop, a comma. Her witty repartee about the symptoms of this pivotal time in a woman's life was honest and empowering by the same token. 

Nana proceeded to sing songs about her ex boyfriends (she'd allegedly dated men with names from A to Z, therefore the song was lengthy and hilarious. My favourite song was the political manifesto she penned (or as she coined it - a nanafesto). Sung to the tune of Les Mis' "I dreamed a dream" Waller belted out with perfect voice an ode to the current state of affairs at the hands of current political leaders. It was impressive.

Another favourite of mine was an ode to percussion Pat - her late friend and member of her band. Sung to the tune of Titanium, she sang the most hilarious tribute to Pat. The words in part were:

"I might fall down,

but I'll get up.

My hips are titanium.

I'll hit the ground, but I'll get up,

My hips are titanium"

There was an opportunity for  audience participation in the Ask Nana section of the performance. The audience were asked to write a question on a slip of paper and to deposit it in a box on the stage. Nana would then create a song through improvisation and answer the question. The creativity was highly impressive and the audience were clearly wowed with he end result of each song. 

The final offering was a response to a Plantar 39 advert which Nana felt wrote women over 40 off as being over the hill and past it. She rocked an impressive outfit and said a massive "Eff You" to the patriarchal system that implies that you can't age gracefully and with fabulosity.

It was a fantastic show, entertaining, hilarious and meaningful. Congratulations to Angie Waller, Claire Jones and Bill Elms; Liverpool Theatre Festival Director for such a fantastic addition to the programming of the festival.