Creepy Cabaret | EC Venue and Damien Cassidy
Creepy Cabaret is just that - a tale of fake blood, puppets and blow up dolls, and a homage to sex (or lack of) complete with a twist on risking the status quo. It’s a great show and producer Damien Cassidy has pulled together a diverse international stellar cast in the one room.
Image: Leah Shelton (supplied)
Cover image: Clint Bolster (supplied)
Our emcee for the night played by a Russian Freddie Mercury (Mario Queen of the Circus) keeps the sex, drugs and rock‘n’roll comedy flowing with a number of intermittent routines. These included juggling to Queen songs ‘Another one bites the dust’ and a racy striptease and unicycle act to ‘Bicycle’. Mario really set the standard for the rest of the acts.
Psycho Siren (Leah Shelton) was a standout, she performs twice as a classic bombshell complete with blood splatter, a death scene or five, phone sex and the life of a ghost. Leah’s second act vamps up into a life-sized blow-up doll peeling off her plastic skin, a stark contrast between the exaggerated plastic lips and her natural physique. As provocateur, Leah’s work explores the strong female protagonist and the place of violence towards women in horror flicks, a shocking journey of murder and how ridiculous the beauty standards are for women. Burlesque has traditionally been about women’s stories and the body and with 2019 focused on #metoo, these stories are still needed to be told and as relevant as ever.
Image: Andrew Cory & Leon Cain (supplied)
Blow-up doll themes sure went well for most except for ’Wendy and Leon‘ which saw poor Wendy the blow-up doll epically deflate during a dirty dancing scene with a devastated Leon parading her around the room. I am wondering what other themes (at this point) are to be touched on apart from how desperate we all are – you either got laid and holed up with a significant other, or bought online and supported the sex toy industry who did better than ever thanks to social distancing and the expectation to wear a mask for COVID-19 safe sex.
The night was all about interaction which is what audiences are craving - cheers, laughter, and more alcohol. I have seen a couple of shows lately and I have seen numerous audience members end up the performer, everyone is eager, maybe too eager. Clint Bolster’s character BOOFF takes absolute advantage of this, pitching the audience against each other when they stuff up their bell ringing cues. BOOFF doesn’t hold back on piss-taking, insulting and eventually rewarding the audience after he’s milked them for as much as he can by pitting them against each other until they pre-empt him to finish the final song – a solid sneaky move indeed! This was probably the highlight for the audience with many happy punters having a great laugh at each other.
For me personally, Anna Straker’s puppetry and rhymed story telling felt like I was watching a live scene out of the Never Ending story, and Andrew Cory’s Two Guys in a Box were the standouts for me. Why? Because they moved me into an alternate reality and explored questions of inclusion and exclusion. Two Guys in a Box is about two men in a relationship, one questions, the other reinforces the couples’ status quo, and then what happens when one partner loses control of the other. This was skilfully executed by using the notion of the cardboard box prop to highlight themes of domestication, power imbalance in relationships - submissive / dominant contexts and a stab at falsehoods and entrapment of religion. I loved their use of a classic theatre exercise which alternates power dynamics between the two characters. I look forward to seeing how the unfinished story unfolds now that I am two episodes in!
The night ends with a party girl routine by Helen Cassidy known for sexy balloon twists and full circle back to the theme of sex and blow-up dolls. 2020 is really the year that the art sector either did or did not get laid. But whatevs, it makes great fodder for performance art and a great night out.
