Reviewed by Barry Lenny, Saturday 25th February 2017That's F#@%$D Up Gorelesque is another Velvet Chase production that challenges the conventional view of Burlesque as an art form. Like the sensational #nofilter that they premiered in the 2016 Fringe, and then took to the Festival dÁvignon, this breaks the mould, drops it on the floor, and stamps on it, crushing it into tiny fragments. This is not all glitter and feathers and pretty costumes. This is gritty and confronting.
This could easily be a long and detailed review, extolling the many virtues of each of the acts and performers, but that would be a futile exercise as it would negate the enjoyment that you will get from attending. Suffice to say that there are a group of people involved, some with a lot of experience and impressive credentials, and a few newcomers who are not at all out of place amongst the rest of the company.
Velvet Chase, herself, opens the evening with a piece that she calls TradieLady, returning later in the evening with another piece titled Eternal Youth. Let your imagination run wild, and think dark horror stories and your worst nightmares.
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Diana D'vine tells us that IT'S Alive, Viper Scoria adds Carnage Cruor to the bloodthirsty evening, Sarina Del Fuego is Smokin', and Ginger Pop goes to Carries Prom, and that is all before the interval, at which point you'll probably need a drink.
G.I Junk and Hazel Nutz ask, Take Me To Church, Bell and Moss are trained professional dancers in their day jobs but, by night, they are a drag duo, drawing on those impressive terpsichorean skills, Diana D'vine returns to ask us Am I Evil?, and Sarina Del Fuego is Tilted. Make what you can of that set of evocative titles.
The whole evening is moved along by a bearded and elaborately coiffured duo of drag artists', Jab Jab, who ensure that the show doesn't flag between acts, and they do a grand job of it. The Fringe, in its early years before it was swamped by the same old stand-up comedians whom you see on television with monotonous regularity anyway, who are here trying out their material before the Melbourne Comedy Festival, used to be about remarkably different, exciting, challenging, thought-provoking and boundary-breaking works. Look hard enough and you'll find there are still some in this Fringe. This is one of them, and it played to a sell-out audience, reluctantly turning away some people who turned up hoping to buy tickets at the door, so book now.
Here is a sneak peek.
