Cabaret

Who Patti Plinko and Her Boy

What Addictive, bourbon-soaked theatrical cabaret. Feature continues

Why The small stage, as it is, is decked out like someone’s back yard after one hell of a party. On bamboo screens hang fairy lights, a religious portrait of Mary and faded black and white photographs, a Mexican mask is propped against the wall, liquor bottles sit by instruments. The lights are down, there are three people seemingly passed out in crumpled heaps as the audience gingerly steps over and past. And then it begins. Patti might be a wisp of a thing, but she sings like a hell cat – all purrs, growls and deranged screams – and looks like wild amounts of fun on a night out: her hair’s tousled, her tea dress is coupled with battered cherry Doc boots. ‘Her boy’, as the anonymous guitar player is called, is barefoot in a black car mechanic’s jumpsuit and mirrored sunglasses and the receiver of many adoring looks; new for 2009 and also in black is the violin player who completes the trio. A dreamy, dark, bourbon-soaked show full of fire and attitude, Patti Plinko is an unmissable chanteuse . Simone Baird

Until Aug 31 at Assembly, 10.05pm