Torycore: the death metal band that growls and screams through George Osborne's Budget speech

Alice Jones' Arts Diary

George Osborne (AP)

Not a fan of George Osborne’s budget? What if it were performed over the snarling guitars and howls of death metal? That’s what happens in Torycore, an extraordinary play/ gig/ political rally, featuring London theatremaker Lucy Ellinson on vocals and Chris Thorpe and Steve Lawson on guitar.

“The lyrics are by George Osborne and the architects of austerity”, adds Ellinson. “We couldn't think of a better way to underscore the Tory budget than with the sound of pure evil.”

In the hour-long show, which premiered at the Forest Fringe at London's Gate Theatre last year, Ellinson growls and screams through Osborne’s entire budget speech, names and shames peers according to how they voted for healthcare reform and quotes verbatim from Hansard over a musical score of “improvised sludge and doom metal”.

The trio won the Arches' Brick Award for the show at the Edinburgh Fringe last summer and are now preparing to perform it as part of the Glasgow theatre's Behaviour festival on 11 May. The lyrics will be updated to include Wednesday's news. “The government is riffing on a theme - we're not short of new material”, says Ellinson. Is Osborne invited? “I would be thrilled if he came to see it. I would happily scream his words bak at him," says Ellinson.

"It's quite an intense experience. The level of noise is quite unsettling so we give out earplugs at the start. It feels like an exorcism. The last time we did it, everyone screamed at the end.” Sound familiar, George?

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