resented by Adelaide Festival Centre
Reviewed 23 June 2016
Created and directed by Moira Finucane and Jackie Smith, The Birds is a distinctly feminist variety show, which elaborately captures a bizarre mix of the more traditional French and German cabarets and more contemporary music and dance.
Finucane’s performance cannot really be described as burlesque. It’s more dark than comedic and more scary than sexy, making her performance overall more art than entertainment. Finucane is known for this specific arty type of act, which provides complexity and more social and political commentary than most performances in the burlesque and cabaret genre.
Clair St Clare provides a dark and sultry Piaf style character giving a somewhat subdued performance. Unfortunately St Clare doesn’t quite have a voice to match her sexy persona and her challenging selection of songs doesn’t quite hit the mark.
Mama Alto fares somewhat better with an impressive falsetto voice and a sparkly sexy presence.
Aerial artist Rocky Stone is the absolute highlight, with quirky and amusing bird like impressions and slick and sexy rope work. Stone is mesmerizing as she smoothly moves from one position to the next while elegantly dangling without a safety wire.
Miss Chief on piano adds to the atmosphere as does the dark and smokey lighting, while two uncredited dancers provide some booty shaking fun and show terrific hula hoop skills.
This is an unusual and arty performance that will definitely appeal to fans of Finucane and Smith but if you are looking for the more run of the mill sexy striptease and booty popping burlesque, this one might not be for you.
Reviewed by Ceri Hutton
Twitter: @Ceri_Hutton
Rating (out of 5): 3
Venue: Festival Theatre
Season: Till the 25th June
Duration: 60 mins
Tickets: $49.90
Bookings: Book online through the Adelaide Cabaret Festival website or phone BASS on 131 246
More News
