Trompe l’Oeil implies a deception, and that is there from the start for, though the publicity promotes it as “A Queer Love Story?”, note that question mark. The description refers to the subplot. For Trompe read Trump, Donald Trump, himself a great deceiver, who is the central subject of this eclectic concoction.
Henry Parkman Biggs claims inspiration from the surrealists and Justin William’s decor indeed has references to Dali and Escher, and a couple of anti-Trump terrorists, as he would call them, sport bombs that look like Magritte apples, and there is a running gag about not actually saying “surreal”. The lyrics, too, often play word games with acrostics, anagrams and hidden messages, and when “terrorists” gum up the President’s computer, he’s given a song to sing with lyrics including one vowel only: “They’ll Never Get Me”.
In fast-paced performance, an audience may not pick such things up, but the programme explains all their cleverness. What they can’t miss is Emer Dineen’s wonderfully outrageous Trump. It is a comic portrayal of the former President played with explosive panache and a wild wig. Forging forward led by a bulging belly,Trump introduces himself as “Marvellous, mystical, magical me!”
He makes a Faustian pact with Putin for mutual support, but Vladimir can now squeeze his scrotum by remote control if he steps out of line, but he gets sexual satisfaction whenever he fires someone. Cue running gags and surreal surely? The President is joined by Olivia Saunders's glitzy Ivanka (they make an iconic tableau with a flickering flag and a drag Statue of Liberty), later joined by his son-in-law who delivers some quicksilver hip hop.
This isn’t political satire, more bonkers, as I heard it described the interval, but it is vibrant and fun. Outrageous accents and an occasional shrieking pitch sometimes make the lyrics even more incomprehensible, and just getting people on and off stage in this small space makes it seem episodic, but it doesn’t restrain the demands director and choreographer Blair Anderson makes on his actor-dancers including trampoline action. William Elijah-Lewis, Sarah Louise Hughes, Craig Bartley and Yasmin Sharp deliver with camp vitality.
Running in parallel is that queer love story. Republican Rip and Democrat Demi meet at at a rally and are drawn together by a mutual attraction. Alex Wadham’s Rip is touchingly real compared with the Trump scenes and Dominic Booth is delightful as Demi, who is not so much a drag queen as a drag housewife with pizzazz, though the way they come together and Biggs unites everyone in a happy finale of “Better Together” is sadly over-optimistic.
Trompe l’Oeil is a bizarre confection that pokes fun at Trump’s personality. It lacks real bite, but the precision and energy with which its hard-working cast deliver it hold the attention.