Review: PRANCER & VIXEN Give the Gift of Laughter at Melbourne Recital Centre

If you happen to be looking out this December 24th night for the perv in the red suit taking credit for all the presents your parents bought this year and notice the posse pulling the sleigh looking a little anemic, well there's a perfectly logical explanation:

Prancer & Vixen have flown the coop, unceremoniously dropped by Nicholas himself who, by their bawdy, musical reckoning, is no Saint. Prancer's unfair dismissal for being the only openly rein-queer of the bunch, and Vixen's constant barn-hopping finally drew the ire of jolly old Santa - and lucky for us, because this festive cabaret confessional is well worth the slight delay we might experience Christmas morning per Santa's sled being two deer short of the herd.

The Strange Bedfellows, Jacqui Dark and Kanen Breen are at it again, bringing their multi-dimensional multi-disciplinary vamp and vocal talents together for what was a riot of a show. Taking their turn with well-known Christmas melodies to share scandals and sparkling-spitting jokes, whilst throwing in some compositions of their own, Prancer & Vixen is not only funny, but smart, full-bodied and even had the gall to be earnest. Although the Recital Centre didn't quite match the vibe of the show, leaving some audience members coy in their pomp, and the slapstick caricature slipped into realms of the unnecessary, being that these two are so talented, their work is well worth subscribing to so as not to miss it when it comes back around. Elements of costume and props kept the show on a steady incline and the audience as enchanted as aroused.

Commendations for knowing precisely where to invoke the solemnity of the season, with their merchandise being donated to supporting asylum seekers still suffering on Manus Island and elsewhere on the fringes of this "great nation". Dark's Weimar-inspired Santa swan song, and Breen's comedic stylings betwixt singing provided a highlight-filled hour that was over way to soon after it began.

Keep abreast of The Strange Bedfellows here.

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