PHILOSOPHY OF THE WORLD, named after seminal outsider artists The Shaggs’ singular album, begins with experimental theatre-makers In Bed With My Brother (Nora Alexander, Dora Lynn and Kat Cory) letting us know that a magazine once described them as “they might be brilliant, or they might be shit.” Welp. That was us. But in this algorithmically curated hellscape, isn’t encountering something you’re not sure about – that skirts undefinably back and forth between amateurish and profound – an immensely powerful and increasingly rare experience?
Listening to The Shaggs epitomises that experience, to which the IBWMB trio clearly feel drawn when creating their own work. Their kinship with The Shaggs’ outsider status is what has drawn them to their story: of three sisters (Dot, Helen and Betty) forced to make music by their eccentric, stubborn and temperamental father. But what to say about their biographical late-night play of the sisters’ lives, without giving too much away?
Apparently, Tom Cruise owns the rights to The Shaggs’ story, but Hollywood would never in a million years arrive at this version. Meta-textual, morbid and with a killer performance from their obliging stage manager Nigel, In Bed With My Brother have made something joyously, gloriously balls-out (or, more fittingly, tits out) bonkers.
PHILOSOPHY OF THE WORLD, until 25 Aug (not 11, 18), 10.45pm