IDA BARR
Described as Missy Elliot meets Marie Lloyd, music hall songstress Ida Barr is the inspired alter ego of Olivier award-winning actor Chris Green, previously the creator of Country and Western ego-monster Tina C.
But female stand-up Ida is no Danny La Rue style drag act. Instead Ida Barr combines a style, look and demeanour from the halcyon days of British variety halls with the sounds and lyrics of the street -
A favourite of popular Radio 4's Woman's Hour, comic Ida Barr first appeared on the British stage as the original enfant terrible child star at the beginning of the last century singing A Marrow's A Banana's Father, the song that made her name.
Since then self-named “original ragtime girl” has survived a variety of wars, the decline of music hall, the break-up of her marriage to 'the only Scottish Yiddisher fusilier in the Irish Guards” and a life of steadily worsening financial embarrassment – hence ida Barr’s new direction and career.
The one and only purveyor of Artificial Hip Hop (The Angina Monologues) Ida Barr minces coquettishly onstage, a vision of yellowing teeth, frayed Edwardian lace and Victorian feathers, female comedian Ida Barr is the reincarnation of a music hall star attempting to resurrect her career via the urban street sound of her Dalston/Hackney home – that’s east London to you chuck!
The result is an inspired piece of comic genius – an affectionate and brooding portrait of a previous and long-lamented era that also meets head-on the varied fascinations of 21st century Britain.
So you get musical stand-up Ida’s unique bingo calling, some hilarious pastiches of modern hip hop - her brilliant version of the afore-mentioned Missy Elliot's She's a Bitch is a gem - and a bit of serious political commentary on sheltered living, the lives of old people and how we treat them, and what we can gain by looking back at and holding on to old traditions.
And with the promise or threat of another career change from ‘”artificial hip-hop” to “slipped disco” to come, things can only get stranger - and more genre-choppingly delightful.
Nominated for Australia's Green Room Award 2004 for best cabaret artist and best cabaret show for Ida's sister creation, Tina C, Chris has also penned several pieces for BBC Radio 4 including End Of The Pier, So What If I Am? and Tina C's Tiny Island Tour.
Other TV and screen work includes Ginger Nation (C4), The Third Party (C4), A Salted Nut (Paramount Comedy Channel), and Piccadilly Pickups (Millivers Feature Film).
WHAT THE CRITICS SAID
"No one mashes up music hall and hip hop like Ida Barr". - Evening Standard