Rubies and pearls

It’s so rare I want to shout about anything from the rooftops but I do want to shout from the rooftops about The Ruby Dolls and their latest show, Rubies in the Attic, which takes cabaret and shapes it into something so original that if you can catch it you must.

It’s so rare I want to shout about anything from the rooftops but I do want to shout from the rooftops about The Ruby Dolls and their latest show, Rubies in the Attic, which takes cabaret and shapes it into something so original that if you can catch it you must.

The Dolls, whom I caught at the Riverside Studios in Hammersmith, are four women — Jessica Sedler, Tara Siddall, Jenny Grove and Susanna Fiore — who dress glamorously in the Forties style (oh, if only I could wear red lipstick like that!) and explore their own personal family histories through song, humour, acting and spectacularly inventive, playful story-telling.

There are puppets. And Russian dolls. And a very funny paper seagull. It may be the funniest paper seagull you will ever see.

They sing as a close-harmony group and somehow manage to intertwine Noël Coward and Tango with South African folk and Hollywood musicals without ever losing their sense of purpose: to explain who they are. Jessica, for example, is descended from a Russian Jew who arrived in the East End thinking it was Cape Town, and was then mercilessly exploited as a tailor. His story is told movingly, as well as uniquely, just as all the stories are.

So, if you like theatre, this is great, and if you like cabaret, this is great, because The Ruby Dolls are absolutely both. If you can catch them, you must.

For further information: www.therubydolls.com