FRINGE REVIEW: Little Death Club — brilliant and original cabaret
Our beloved Edith Spiegeltent has moved, and is now part of the latest Fringe World hub in Yagan Square. For the next week, she is home to one of the best imports to Perth in 2019, Little Death Club. The travelling family of kabarett queen Bernie Dieter, Little Death Club has been my introduction to the world of cabaret, and I am officially obsessed. With a collection of hyper-talented misfits, miscreants and fantastic freaks, Little Death Club is the only sensible response to our increasingly divided and fearful world.
As the audience crowded in to the packed to the gills venue, we quickly became the show for Gingzilla, Lolo Brow, Beau Sargent and Leah Shelton as they indulged in some pre-show people watching. Gingzilla, in particular, seemed to enjoy a bit of voyeurism as she nibbled on some pre-gig popcorn. This set the scene for an hour of thrilling (and at times terrifying) audience interaction.
Bernie — a cabaret singer of the finest order — commands the attention of the audience while stalking around the stage in black feathers. Her songs are entirely original and, frankly, genius in their construction. The ode to the dick pic, in particular, is hysterically funny.
Gingzilla, Lolo Brow, Leah Shelton and local hero Beau Sargent take turns thrilling the audience with their acts. Lolo Brown is a London based neo-burlesque performer who uses her body in ways that are decidedly and deliberately unsexy — then rapidly shifts into nudity and hip swaying. If this induces a kind of cultural whiplash in an audience used to a more classical kind of burlesque performance, Leah Shelton then takes it to the next level with a living doll striptease that was the highlight of my evening. Her performance was exquisitely conceived and executed as a middle finger to societal expectations of womanhood.
The audience on the night contributed enthusiastically to the success of the show. It was excellent, and the only reason I give them a 4-star review here is solely because the audience is so big. The floor routines were just impossible to see from the back rows. So for a 5-star show, make sure you get in line early!