What's on in London: Showmanism

We tend to associate the art of lip-syncing with drag queens - miming a performance to someone else's song.

John Epperson - performing as Lypsinka - was one of the first to edit together snippets of dialogue to create fully realised pieces of theatre.

It's a style of performance embraced by Dickie Beau - his latest work is Showmanism, which is currently on at the Hampstead Theatre in London.

With slick set design and minimal but impactful props, Beau's performance exists in the liminal space of imagination, of overheard conversations, of memories.

He spends most of the performance wearing little more than a pair of white briefs. His body is lean and strong. An aspirational physique.

Ostensibly a meditation on theatre, the audio clips also invite reflections on our sense of self, the personas we create, and what we choose to show to the world.

A form of spoken-word performance, the lip-syncing is flawless. Beau effortlessly embodies voices and switches characters seamlessly - it's a joy to watch.

It's a collage of conversations and it's clear that a lot of thought has gone into piecing this work together - pulling disparate strands and stories into a coherent tapestry. It's all very interesting even if it's not clear precisely what Beau is saying - what is the perspective that he's conveying through the voices of others?

Side-bar: There were a lot of actors in the audience for this show. I was sitting next to Benedict Cumberbatch. I played it cool.

Showmanism is on at the Hampstead Theatre in London until 19 July.