Our Review Of The Double R Club In London: Celebrating 16 Years Of Lynchian Cabaret

Not many cabaret shows in London can celebrate their sixteenth birthday, and arguably none can commemorate the occasion with nudity, fire and bingo all rolled into one.

At The Double R Club, the Lynchian cabaret show, indirectly or directly inspired by the dark and beautiful worlds of the late filmmaker David Lynch, this is nothing short of the usual twisted and entertaining production that faithful regulars have come to expect.

Benjamin Horne's One Eyed Jacks girls come to London.

DesignMyNight’s Review Of The Double R Club

Co-founded by Rose Thorne and Benjamin Louche, and named after the beloved Twin Peaks diner fuelling the fictional town’s sheriff department with cherry pie and a ‘damn fine’ cup of coffee, the club has grown as a cabaret institution since its Bethnal Green debut in 2009, touring with stints at Soho’s Century Club, Shoreditch House, Skibo Castle in Scotland, and more, before finding a new long-term home in Walthamstow’s Trade Hall.

It was there that I arrived to find a queue winding around the corner, half an hour before doors opened, lured by the promise of Agent Cooper coffee shots and birthday cake, and even presents on this occasion, for the first twenty-five guests.

Benjamin Louche (pictured left) co-founded the club with Rose Thorne. 

What could easily have been the location for a 40th wedding anniversary or village jumble sale had been transformed into a hazy den, complete with iconic red drapes, eerie music and lingerie-clad women; a dreamlike ambience had been conjured up masterfully.

As a prelude to the evening, Louche gave an unnerving performance as our host, dipping in and out of wicked character to perhaps, unbeknownst, charm us. The acts that followed offered theatrics, elegance and horror: ‘Something That Does Not Belong’ set a horrifying tone, which left me fearful for nightmares that evening; however ‘Missy Malone’ swept in with her ruby red cape and dazzled me into a daze, the antidote to fearing being visited by an uncanny clown at 1am.

Anna The Hulagan (pictured) was one of the performers on the night.

Other highlights included Rika Fujimoto’s bird song, a comedy cabaret fusion show from Jamie Mykaela, and Heavy Metal Pete, whose performance made me question whether the venue's smoke alarms were working. What was most compelling was the fact that every act had a fever-dream sort of link to Lynch, while being its own thing entirely. Monochrome party hat in tow, I left on a high and with a lingering sense of unease. A feeling that Louche and Thorne would, no doubt, be proud of. Clearly, sixteen years have not softened their edge.

Overall: The Double R Club

While age is just a number, this birthday party was a milestone for The Double R Club. A not-so-sweet sixteenth that reaffirmed its place as a remarkable show on London’s cabaret scene. We need the absurd, the dark, and the delirious more than ever in 2025, and I hope that the club has many more years of bottom-dangling, body-contorting and renditions of ‘Just You’ by James Marshall ahead of itself.

For more, check out our guide to quirky date ideas in London.