Dance / Reviews
Review: Bullyache: Who Hurt You?, The Mount Without – ‘Never anything but utterly compelling’
Over a four-night run this week, Impermanence – residents of the magnificent surroundings of The Mount Without – present Bullyache, billed by Frieze magazine as one of their 10 artists to watch in 2026.
In only their second ever performance piece, this genre-defying multidisciplinary company led by Jacob Samuel and Courtney Deyn have created Who Hurt You? – a messy, confrontational, but always exciting piece.
In a dizzying fusion of satirical drag, lip syncing, and sheer, starkly effervescent dance, the 90-minute show explores moments of joyousness as well as utter incomprehension, and is never anything but utterly compelling.
Classical pianist and self-obsessive drag queen Barbs opens the piece with direct audience interaction reminiscent of a customary standup routine, quipping: “Hello Bristol, I’ve seen more white people in dreadlocks here than I’ve got teeth”. They display an athleticism that belies the clomping about and falling over on high heels before launching into a full-throttle rendition of Whitney Houston’s All the Man That I Need.
Dancers Sam Dilkes and Frank Yang accompany the song in a sexualised wrestling sequence, ending up with one prone on the floor entangled in the microphone lead. We are invited to give Barbs prolonged applause and a standing ovation, and strangely, their performance thoroughly deserves it.
All the time we can see the artists who are not performing, either doing their eccentric makeup or watching from the sides. The commitment is total, and the show draped with a combative, intentionally repetitive synthesis of anticipation.
Some scenes are accompanied by such a loud techno backing track that the man in front of me had to remove his hearing aid. The effect is utterly absorbing. There are episodes of pure farce, and the humour is always kept firmly tongue-in-cheek. A delayed content warning about the sexual nature of the performance is delivered an hour into the show.
As a counterpoint, dressed in a macintosh upon which Christ on the cross is painted, the subdued violinist Magnus Westwell provides much of the live music – alongside several extremely well-sung and doleful ballads songs by the aging rock star character that features throughout.
The title is referenced as the narrative veers towards an examination of bullying; one dancer is told he is not up to it anymore and is reduced to holding a hand-held camera, the visuals for which are projected in an eery horror film manner on the screen above.
There are many references to young queer culture among the nods to Latin dance, pump and grind, and good old-fashioned mugging at the audience.
The overall effect is that we experience a darkly humorous artistic event. It is occasionally difficult to follow the narrative flow when it veers off into disconnected areas along the way, but last night’s performance ended with a satisfying finale, and whoops of acclamation and applause that Barbs would have enjoyed immensely.
Bullyache: Who Hurt You? is at The Mount Without on June 16-19 at 7.30pm. Visit themountwithout.co.uk for tickets.
All photos: Dan John Lloyd
Read next:
Our newsletters emailed directly to you
