FOR what could have proven career suicide, Erasure’s Andy Bell’s stories of Torsten have been critically acclaimed by seasoned theatre-goers of the Edinburgh, Manchester and Vauxhall Arts Festivals.
Torsten was initially introduced at the Edinburgh International Festival in 2014 to a baffled, shocked, but secretly enraptured audience. Bell’s hero, otherwise known as the Bareback Saint, surprised audiences with his lurid and unseemly tales of conquest and insatiable debauchery.
Two years on, Torsten is now the Beautiful Libertine. Just as sordid and equally crude, the bawdy lothario’s squalid tales are a 21st century spin on the blueprint created by Bertolt Brecht. Among the more accessible titles, Loitering With Intent, Rupert Drinks Vodka and We Were Singing Along To Liza will give a worldly audience a taste of what lies herein.
However, there is very little on Torsten The Beautiful Libertine that is likely to receive much airplay on prime-time radio. Adventure here only if you dare!
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