Sophie Tea presents Send Nudes: Live at London Palladium

Sophie Tea’s Send Nudes live show begins before the artist even walks on stage, looking absolutely radiant in a rhinestones and feather gown. It starts with the glamorous and enthusiastic crowd that is a true pleasure to watch, wearing pink, bows, glitter and sequins. Everybody seems to know each other, as if the theatre is just a fancy venue chosen for this big reunion. A triumph of colour and – palpable from the very first moment – joy. Joyous is also the word that keeps coming to mind throughout. The show – a one-night-only affair – is, in fact, first and foremost a celebration, of womanhood, sisterhood, motherhood and love.

At the very beginning, Tea takes some time to tell her story. She explains what brought her to the London Palladium painting naked bodies, treating the body as a canvas and the canvas as a body: a love for the female form, she says, and also a way to form a dialogue with her own body, healing wounds by meeting and immortalising the beauty of strangers (who do not stay strangers for very long) and individuality.

The show’s main strength lies in Tea’s effortless charm and her personality; genuine, down to earth, in awe of her “nudies” (like the rest of the audience). The performance’s arc is quite well thought through: a live painting session featuring a choir, stories being shared, tears being shed, culminating with a catwalk like no other. Women were having the time of their life, leaning on each other for support, dancing, twerking and singing.

Having a choir singing during the live painting is a very clever touch; there is never a dull moment, and also nothing condescending, pretentious or trite about this production. It is chaotic at times, but it works in the end. It is a titillating form of chaos, filled with life and love for life. However, the interviews with some of the nudies perhaps could have been longer and better structured, giving them more time to talk about their individual journeys.

Overall, Sophie Tea’s show exceeds expectations. A tender celebration of resilience and love. Self-love that intertwines with love for life in all its victories and losses, even when there do not seem to be any reasons to love. Love that perseveres and infiltrates everything, despite grief, despite loss – or rather, because of grief, because of loss.

Benedetta Mancusi

Sophie Tea presents Send Nudes: Live is at London Palladium on 5^th April 2024. For further information or to book visit the theatre’s website here.