Review: Moist, Moist, Moist, The Wardrobe Theatre – ‘it manages to achieve what most plays can’t’

Chris White loves the sea, and I love his play Moist, Moist, Moist – a ridiculous musical of songs, poetry and spoken word that reveals truths about love, sex, and the queer experience.

Within the first minute, two grown men enter the stage in matching green and yellow anoraks, with rain hats, stripy shorts, and colourful wellies. Having grabbed your attention, they are in full control of the stage within the first minute of the play and have the audience laughing all the way through to the end – from the fishy puns to the awkward silences before an intentionally terrible joke.

White has a knack for humour that can make you sigh in embarrassment, while also crying with laughter. But this lovely comedic sense is artfully and beautifully punctured by the powerful spoken word sections of the play.

Chris White in Moist, Moist, Moist – photo: Matt Austin

In his prose, he tells a story that we all want to listen to. It first makes us laugh and cringe as he depicts an 18-year-old boy falling in love with the sea. The audience is laughing, realising that there’s something deeper going on. At first, I was confused and lost about whether there was any meaning to his love for the sea. Then he reveals it to you. Mid-sentence, with a smile on his face, he states that the sea is a metaphor.

It’s this short switch between narrative and stand-up that keeps everything light-hearted throughout. Even though he deals with very serious topics such as his HIV diagnosis, the audience doesn’t feel overburdened by the weight of White’s subject matter, which is treated with a lightness that lets it sink in all the more.

Moist, Moist, Moist is not strictly chronological and jumps between different ideas and scenes. There is also an educational science section that serves as a break between the poems, songs, and audience interaction. White’s choice to eschew linear narrative makes the entirety more chaotic to watch, but also lends the play a more real and honest sensibility.

Moist, Moist, Moist – photo: Greenbeanz Photography

The show could not be the success it was without the music of the very talented Hal Kelly. Equipped with a keyboard, a pedal, a mac, and a yellow ukulele, he created a stunningly atmospheric soundscape for White’s beautiful spoken word. It was captivating to watch the music being made in front of my eyes, and unquestionably added to the immersive nature of the piece.

The balance between the two on stage performers makes for an entertaining comedic duo. Kelly sings, “I love the sea I do, I do”, whilst White provides a detailed description of his use of Grindr; at another point he walks on the stage, all in black dressed as Joni Mitchell, serenading a sad White in a paddling pool.

Ultimately, the play strikes a light and funny tone, and it manages to achieve what most plays can’t: White successfully pitches the comedy at the right level so that the message and meaning of the play are not overlooked.

He leaves the audience smiling, whilst also allowing them the space to think about his experience and how that relates to their own.

Moist, Moist, Moist is at The Wardrobe Theatre, The Old Market Assembly, 25 West St, Old Market, Bristol, BS2 0DF on February 23-36 at 7.30pm. Tickets are available at www.thewardrobetheatre.com.

Main photo: Greenbeanz Photography

Read more: Joyful, silly, interactive and celebratory: inside the Wardrobe Theatre

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