Teaser: The Burlesque Hour More
Is it really three years since The Burlesque Hour rampaged into town? If my files don't deceive me it's one month short of three years. So the sequel -- which opens tonight at fortyfivedownstairs in Melbourne -- is well and truly overdue. The divas are promising "new guests!" and "new acts!" and just plain "more!"
As a reminder -- and as a teaser -- here's one from the vault... my response to the first instalment.
The Burlesque Hour, conceived by Moira Finucane and Jackie Smith. At fortyfivedownstairs, 45 Flinders Lane, until July 25, 2004.
On the barometric scale that arcs from feminine to feminist to female, The Burlesque Hour is so far off-the-chart, the needle is pointing to Meteor.
Okay, so that's the brand name not the forecast, but you get the picture. You're going to need incontinence pants -- for one reason or another -- there's a storm front approaching.
The Burlesque Hour is a series of set pieces -- lip-synching mimes, dances and commando acts -- by an unholy trinity of fatale feministas: Moira Finucane, beauty queen of the damned; Yumi Umiumare, an Asian tiger in a China doll shop; and Azaria Universe, the perfect blend of form and function.
Yumi Umiumare is the only woman I've ever watched strip without being able to tear my eyes from her eyes. Written on her body in elegant Japanese script -- already blurring from perspiration -- is a lesson about ephemerality. Umiumare has a crazy sense of humour, totally off-beat, and an absolute devotion to her distinctive style of Butoh cabaret. She is total class, even when pulling thirty pairs of knickers from under her school uniform.
Azaria Universe is all sex and circus, fishnets and hula hoops, fetish and fantasy. Her routine to one of Polly Jean Harvey's Stories From The City could single-handedly propel her into the Performance Art stratosphere. You will not forget it in a hurry.
As for Moira Finucane, left, maybe I should have called her drama queen of the damned. Hers is the ecstasy and the agony... The ecstasy is a frantic, quivering, claw-fingered, shakin'-all-over routine in vanilla white. The agony is her black widow act to Elvis Costello's 'I Want You'. Finucane opens and closes the show spectacularly.
Not even a crook knee could stop artist Mirka Mora from being the first to her feet when the show finally wound up.
The Burlesque Hour is eye-popping, balloon-popping, cork-popping theatre. It's the kind of show you need a cigarette after... and several months of psychoanalysis.
An edited version of this review was first published in the July 19, 2004, edition of the Herald Sun.
The Burlesque Hour More runs until July 15, 2007, with interstate seasons likely.
As a reminder -- and as a teaser -- here's one from the vault... my response to the first instalment.
The Burlesque Hour, conceived by Moira Finucane and Jackie Smith. At fortyfivedownstairs, 45 Flinders Lane, until July 25, 2004.
On the barometric scale that arcs from feminine to feminist to female, The Burlesque Hour is so far off-the-chart, the needle is pointing to Meteor.
Okay, so that's the brand name not the forecast, but you get the picture. You're going to need incontinence pants -- for one reason or another -- there's a storm front approaching.
The Burlesque Hour is a series of set pieces -- lip-synching mimes, dances and commando acts -- by an unholy trinity of fatale feministas: Moira Finucane, beauty queen of the damned; Yumi Umiumare, an Asian tiger in a China doll shop; and Azaria Universe, the perfect blend of form and function.
Yumi Umiumare is the only woman I've ever watched strip without being able to tear my eyes from her eyes. Written on her body in elegant Japanese script -- already blurring from perspiration -- is a lesson about ephemerality. Umiumare has a crazy sense of humour, totally off-beat, and an absolute devotion to her distinctive style of Butoh cabaret. She is total class, even when pulling thirty pairs of knickers from under her school uniform.
Azaria Universe is all sex and circus, fishnets and hula hoops, fetish and fantasy. Her routine to one of Polly Jean Harvey's Stories From The City could single-handedly propel her into the Performance Art stratosphere. You will not forget it in a hurry.
As for Moira Finucane, left, maybe I should have called her drama queen of the damned. Hers is the ecstasy and the agony... The ecstasy is a frantic, quivering, claw-fingered, shakin'-all-over routine in vanilla white. The agony is her black widow act to Elvis Costello's 'I Want You'. Finucane opens and closes the show spectacularly.Not even a crook knee could stop artist Mirka Mora from being the first to her feet when the show finally wound up.
The Burlesque Hour is eye-popping, balloon-popping, cork-popping theatre. It's the kind of show you need a cigarette after... and several months of psychoanalysis.
An edited version of this review was first published in the July 19, 2004, edition of the Herald Sun.
The Burlesque Hour More runs until July 15, 2007, with interstate seasons likely.
Labels: Azaria Universe, Jackie Smith, Moira Finucane, Yumi Umiumare
posted by Chris Boyd at 1:49 PM
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