Piera Dennerstein Brings PURSUING PLEASURE to NSW
Performances are on 7-11 July 2025.
Piera Dennerstein will perform her award-winning cabaret Pursuing Pleasure on 7-11 July 2025 at The Old Fitz Theatre as part of their Act 2 late show programming.
Opera singer turned curvaceous cabaret cantatrice Piera Dennerstein (Finucane & Smith, Blue is the Colour Midsumma 2022, Call the Doctor! Melbourne Cabaret Festival 2024) shares the intimate truths of her body and mind in this sexy, silly and deeply human solo show - winner of the Fringe World Weekly Award 2025.
Using the exceptional versatility of her voice in everything from Puccini to Cardi B, Piera tells the story, with humour, sincerity and hope, of her experiences forming her values and beliefs as she recovered from the toxicity of the opera industry and intimate partner abuse. Extrapolated from a poem she wrote in 2020 entitled, 'This is what my body was built for', this work will explore how leaning into the pleasurable - demonstrated in the operatic and sensual - as long as it causes no harm to others, is a powerful political act.
‘A large portion of my healing from the challenges I will gently touch on in this work occurred due to strong artists and women showing me what is possible. As fellow soprano and cabaret performer Ali McGregor says, cabaret particularly is a place where people can see themselves on stage when they may not otherwise be able. I hope that through presenting a work such as this, where I am publicly vulnerable and share my story, I will in some way show others who have experienced such challenges what is possible, and that they are not alone. As performance art legend Betty Grumble says, it is wonderful to be seen.’ – Piera Dennerstein
With dramaturgy by Melbourne Fringe Living Legend Moira Finucane, and from the director of Skank Sinatra, Olivia Charalambous, this deeply personal work boldly continues Piera’s dramatic aims of blurring the boundary between high and low art and cultivating a shared humanity. In exposing all, Piera hopes to provide those who have survived rejection and oppression an opportunity to feel seen, find hope, and have a much-deserved giggle.
This cabaret was developed through The Round's Midsumma Residency program, aimed to support the development of LGBTQIA+ performing arts projects, assist local LGBTQIA+ artists to develop/maintain their arts practice and advance their creative development.
Following a decade of operatic training and performance both here and internationally, Piera 'ran away and joined the circus' in 2018 when she commenced her tenure as an artist with premiere cabaret company, Finucane & Smith. From there, Piera’s mastery of the human voice has seen her perform everything from opera, to jazz, to country; everywhere from rural China to Kalgoorlie. Piera is also an award-winning writer and poet and has MCed extensively throughout a variety of performing artforms.
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