Soho theatre, London
Emer Dineen’s semi-autobiographical show blurs the lines between raucous cabaret and memoir as her alter ego struggles with an existential crisis

Is this club? A fever dream? A staged memoir? Emer Dineen’s 0800 Cupid is a fantastic soup of it all. She introduces herself through song and dance as her drag alter ego Cupid – a mask she uses to hide the ever-deepening cracks in her life. She is here in all her glory to tackle the growing epidemic of “lonely hearts”.

But once the “stupid Cupid” act comes off we’re left with Dineen, a struggling artist, longing for an audience and some meaning in life. Everything we’ll see tonight is true – she says – although she wishes it wasn’t. In quick succession, she’s dumped, she loses her dead-end job in a call centre, and she gets diagnosed with Tourette syndrome. She moves into a solo property guardianship populated by a hive of swarming bees; her life in London makes her feel more isolated by the day.