“Sure, it’s a violent movie, but it’s a Tarantino movie. You don’t go to see Metallica and ask the f***ers to turn the music down.”
– Quentin Tarantino
Fox Force Five & The Tyranny Of Evil Men is a play inspired by the works of Quentin Tarantino.
And believe it or not, it’s a very violent play.
You see, If you watch the movies of QT closely, you’ll a) see more bare feet than a workaholic podiatrist and b) notice that they’re all set in the same cinematic universe. Same brands, same characters, same weirdly altered history, and same predilection towards acts of casual bloodshed. So someone had the bright idea of setting a musical in that universe.
That someone is a company called For the Record, and they’ve already given the same meta-musical testament to the movies of Baz Luhrmann and Martin Scorsese to great effect – Bruce Willis’s daughter Rumer even played Mia Wallace when this exact show first hit the stage in LA. And Quentin Tarantino was there to watch it (and apparently loved it). Now it’s made its way across the Atlantic, and will be pitching up at Hammersmith’s Riverside Studios for a couple of months over the summer.
Story-wise, the details are sketchy at best. Apparently: “You will follow the Fox Force Five — a group of fierce female superwomen popularized by Pulp Fiction — as they join forces to take care of business and fight the Tyranny of Evil Men.”, meaning that the plot synopsis is only slightly longer than the title. But we do know that the play involves recreations of iconic scenes from each of his movies (refresher: Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill, Django Unchained, Reservoir Dogs, Inglourious Basterds, Jackie Brown, The Hateful Eight, Death Proof and Once Upon A Time in Hollywood) along with a live band playing the many cult songs that he helped to popularise.
But sketchiness is probably all part of the game plan, so that you go in fresh without knowing what to expect. But if you’re wondering if there’ll be countless references, callbacks, and quotes from Tarantino films for you spot throughout the show?
That’s a bingo.
NOTE: Fox Force Five & The Tyranny Of Evil Men has now finished its run at Riverside Studios. You can find out more right here.
Riverside Studios | 101 Queen Caroline Street, Hammersmith, W6 9BN
Want some dinner before the show? Head to Sam’s Riverside, it’s literally next door.