Review: Retrofuturismus New World

Retrofuturismus New World
Anni and Maude Davey
8 July 2016
fortyfivedownstairs
to 31 July
fortyfivedownstairs.com

Teresa Blake. Photo by Ponch Hawkes

There’s a gap between nostalgia and embracing retro fashions, as there’s a chasm between the future world we want and the one we’re likely to have. This space in between is where Retrofuturismus New World create, dream and play; where they fill the emptiness with feminist performance art that questions itself and dares its audience to enjoy themselves even when they know that every thought and act is political.

Maude and Anni Davey host in gold jumpsuits with retro-future shoulder pads (they will be back), comfy rubber heels and hair buns that show man-buns how to bun. They don’t hide their 50-somethingness and don’t concede to any ideas that women in their 50s shouldn’t be astronauts or cockroaches, or that burlesque, cabaret or circus should adhere to dated ideas and expectations.

They are joined by Anna Lumb, who always brings the unexpected with hoops; Gabi Barton, who leaves everyone wanting to dye their ‘unsightly’ body hair bright yellow; and Teresa Blake, who remembers the phrase “shit a brick”, makes a reverse strip even more questioning, and knows that being naked isn’t always about sex or enticement.

Each bring themselves to their art and love that their work is so much the better by always asking why. They are joined by a guest artist each week, with Kura Puru (13–17 July), Yana Alana (20-24 July) and The Huxleys (27-31) July. But week one was Azaria Universe.

Azaria Universe. Photo by Ponch Hawkes

Universe performed on a single trapeze in frilly retro bikini and elastic bands that cut into her bare body every few centimetres. It must hurt, it exacerbates the fat on her strong and fit body and she smiles because she has to; why would a woman do that to themselves? Maybe ask the women in slimming underwear that doesn’t let them eat, or breathe, and shoes that they take off as soon as they sit down.

Retrofuturismus New World is a space that loves the future image of the past in the likes of Barabella but re-invents the way women are treated in the film. Theirs is a future that’s created by the best of now and one that re-invents any ideas that women are hysterical creatures that should never dare to be themselves.

This was on AussieTheatre.com.

Review: Glory Box, La Revolucion

Glory Box: La Revolucion
Finicaine and Smith
Melba Speigeltent
to 13 September
finucaneandsmith.com
facebook page

For those who live on my side of town, they are on at the Kinsgton City Hall at Moorabin
on Tuesday 1 October.
kingstonarts.com.au

Moira Finucane. Glory Box: Viva La Revolution

Right now, it's easy to let the state of the world leave you feeling powerless and heartbroken. Throw in the Australian government and its response to pretty much everything and it's a wonder that anyone can get our of bed and manage a smile. But it's also not hard to look around and see that we're not alone; that millions and millions of people all over the world really do give a fuck and are doing what they can to get us back on track.

If you need something to make you feel better and be assured that many fucks are being given by wonderful people, get to Glory Box: La Revolucion.

It finishes this weekend.

I promise that this show will lift your heart and give your soul the sort of tongue pash that leaves you so happy that you will have the energy to keep going and the determination to make a difference.

Everything about this year's Glory Box is about making our world better. From the performance that was free for artists to inviting amazing young performers Natasha May, from Tennant Creek, and Yeshewambtat Maharete, a refugee from Ethiopia, to join the company.

And it all began with the glorious boxes being invited to Cuba. Glory Box is the FIRST Australian show to be invited to the Havana International Theatre Festival. I can't think of any other company who are better to represent Australia. Don't look at our government, look at our artists. This is the real Australia. Viva!

This is a show about acceptance, love and humanity. It's about being who you are, not giving a toss if anyone is different, and doing what you can to value every person's life. And it's sexy as all go get.

There's not much that I haven't said about the artistry and general brilliance and artistry of Moira Finucane and Jackie Smith's burlesque shows. They are magnificent, and each year I wonder if Glory Box can possibly get any better. This year has surpassed itself.

Saint Claire & Moira Finuaine

Along with the new young performers, Holly Durant and Lili Paskas continue to combine the weird with the exotic, Moira brings out the milk, and Azaria Universe puts the pearls on for Total Eclipse of the Heart (I've lost count of how many times I've seen her do this, but it will never be enough).

New to the team is circus wonder and strongwoman Rockie Stone with dazzling rope work and a balance-strip with a wine bottle that will pop the most stubborn and repressed of corks. And Melbourne's own velvet-voiced Mama Alto feels so at home that it's hard to imagine a show without Benny Dimas.

Which is all wonderful, but there's also the new stage coupling of Moira and Saint Claire. There's a number with tomato sauce and white dresses that's heart breaking, but then they sing Garbage's "#1 Crush" with Moira as a bare-breasted king in a black leather jacket with flames, tight jeans and Cuban heels and Claire as a goddess in a strapless black dress with matching flames. I don't think I've seen anything hotter. (And I've seen St Claire and Mikelangelo.)

The night finishes with Moira's "Coffee of No Regrets", a monologue that starts with Saint Claire and Mama Alto singing "Non, je ne regrette rien" and ends with the Speigeltent screaming yes to personal, intellectual and sexual freedoms and ensuring that "his cafe latte was not hot enough" is on its way to becoming the cry of artists, activists and rat bags all over the world.

Now, I'm off to #LightTheDark.


GLORY BOX LA REVOLUCION! TILL 13 SEPT | Melba Spiegeltent 35 Johnston St Collingwood | from Finucane & Smith on Vimeo.

Review: Glory Box 10th Anniversary

Glory Box
Finucane & Smith
16 August 2014
Melba Spiegeltent, Circus Oz
to 24 August
Facebook event

Ten years ago I saw The Burlesque Hour in the Famous Spiegeltent on St Kilda Road. Moira Finucane, Azaria Universe and Umi Umiumare (and the Town Bikes); I was blown away and I still haven't seen anything like it. Many try, and are bloody wonderful, but they don't find that bit of me that says 'thank you'.


Finucane and Smith's Glory Box, as it was renamed, has toured the world but never misses a home season. This year, it opens the super-gorgeous Melba Spiegeltent in Circus Oz's new home in Collingwood – and it feels like it's come home.

Burlesque and strip. There's always been some female-positive acts, but mostly these performances were (and still are) created to be seen by male eyes and leave the performing woman in the position of an object to be enjoyed by the watcher. Like so many of us, Jackie Smith and Moira Finucane see women through better eyes, so they devised work that that doesn't just subvert that image, but smashes it to pieces and recreates it as something exciting, welcoming and celebratory.


This is burlesque that artists love performing and are doing so to share the experience with their audience.


This is strip that embodies feminism without the need to repress those parts of the feminine that can be ignored, rejected, criticised or fetishised.

This is feminist art that embraces the diversity of the sexual feminine, be she masculine, frilly, wild, angry, sassy, despairing, bejewelled, saucy, sad, prudish, glittery or quiet.

This is art where power and desire have no hint of negativity.

These are people who see nudity without shame or irony.

These are audiences who welcome bodies of all shapes and ages.

Here is subversive, queer, feminist art that didn't give a hoot if you're straight, conservative or "I'm-not-a-feminist-but".

And it's hilarious, sexy and outrageously glorious.

So, thank you!

Over the years, Moira and Jackie have welcomed some of the most amazing guest artists and helped many others to find their voices and their passion. Some are special guests during the season, which makes it hard to choose just one night to go!


Our guests were the magnificent Maude Davey, amazing flyer Roxie Stone, and the seriously sensational Emma J Hawkins whose broken doll strip sums up everything the Glory Box is about.

And every night there's Moira, Yumi, Azaria, Holly Durant and, new to the box, the magnificent songstress and siren Saint Clare.

It's a best of show, so expect favourites including Moira's "I Touch Myself" and Azaria's "Total Eclipse of the Heart": two pieces that they have to keep doing for as long as they can stand.

If somehow over the last ten years you haven't seen this show, there's no more excuses. The sparkling wine at the bar is excellent, it's not that hard to park, it's near tram stops and I promise that you'll leave happy and proud of being exactly who you are.

This was on AussieTheatre.com.

Review: Carnival of Mysteries

MIAF 2010

Carnival of Mysteries

Finucane & Smith

9 October 2010

the Arts Centre, Playhouse

to 30 October

www.melbournefestival.com.au

There may be a handful of tickets still available for Carnival of Mysteries, but not for long. If you have yours, don't let them out of your sight because people like me will cast morals aside and plot to steal them so that they don't miss or can have another wondrous visit to the best carnival ever.

Using such a definitive phrase is never good for objective reviewing, but Moira Finucane & Jackie Smith create worlds so wonderful that it hurts to leave them.

45downstairs has been exquisitely transformed by the Sisters Hayes into a nostalgic but timeless world of sideshow and cocktail bar where there's room to sit with a drink, play a parlour game and watch the bar stage for surprises like Azaria Universe's butterfly dance or the special guest appearances like singer Lois Olney. 

But your ticket was exchanged for a stash of the illegal carnival tender, which lets you buy entry into the mysteries of the tiny sideshow rooms or the hand-painted carnival tent for intimate and very personal performances by Finucane & Smith's favourite artists. 

Focussed on themes of innocence, passion, mercy, forgiveness and love, these shows are as voyeuristic and confronting as they are personal and liberating. This carnival celebrates all that is wrong with our perceptions of beauty and art, and questions all our notions of right and wrong. It's a world that welcomes the out of place and leaves everyone feeling like they are in a world where they can and will find love, passion and acceptance. And, of course, it's all a bit naughty and very funny.

The only disappointment is not being able to see every secret and mystery. I saw Sosinia Wogayehu's too sexy ball juggling, Maude Davey's glorious library discussion of her grandmother's implied cunt, Brian Lucas's monstrous gigolo, and Moira's Ice Queen and her gothic horror librarian.  All were wonderful, but it wasn't enough. I missed treats like Carolyn Lee writing me a letter, Derek Ives not being hanged and Paul Codeiro being the handsomest dancer ever born. And so much more that I'm only just seeing in my keeping-for-ever carnival passport.

The Carnival of Mysteries is the hottest ticket in town and as this first carnival fades into legendary status, those who missed out will claim to have been there.  So, do what ever you can to be among those who really were there. And, as it's on in a street that has ACDC and Dame Edna lane, I say we remember the Mysteries and re-name and the alley at the back of 45downstairs Finucane & Smith Lane.

This review appeared on AussieTheatre.com.

photo by Jodi Hutchinson

Review: Tooth and Nail

Tooth and Nail
The Candy Butchers
12 March 2010
La Mama

The next time I think there’s no room in my brain for a spectacular thought, I’m going to remember that The Candy Butchers found room in La Mama for a double trapeze and a tissue routine.

Azaria Universe and Jess Love were a fingernail’s length away from bruises, but their aerial work is still as awesome as any flown in big tops.

In Tooth and Nail, The Candy Butchers join Finucane and Smith’s delectable Salon de Dance and the droolable Feast of Argentina Gina Catalina to make a March visit to La Mama even more scrumptious, outrageous and unnerving.

The Candy Butchers recreate old-time circus, but never forget that circuses were once the only place that freaks could feel at home. This is circus for grown ups with the kind of clowning that make us understand why some youngsters are terrified of clowns.

While not as bloody as Love’s recent The Little One Said (soon at Melbourne's Comedy Festival), Tooth and Nail continues the Butcher’s slightly macabre look at what goes wrong in circus.

Azaria and Jess bicker over routines that Azaria can’t get right, but Azaria gets a pair of Jess’s tights for her collection and Jess unwittingly exposes herself every time she walks through a door. And Derek Ives... I’m not sure what Derek was up to, but he supplied title’s tooth gag (and rigged the room so the girls could fly).

For all its absurd weirdness, acrobatic wonderfulness and satirical hilarity, Tooth and Nail could do with an extra hammer bang to fix the wobbly narrative. The final scenes are gorgeous because they are so oddly disconnected from the rest of the show, but the nature of an audience is to try to make connections with what has gone before and look for story patterns that may or may not exist.

But narrative consistency is about as important as the pips in a toffee apple. Tooth and Nail is nostalgic, juicy and a perfect combination of tooth-rotting bad and keep-the-doctor-away good. So leave any expectations at home and take a jaw breaking bite.

This review appeared on AussieTheatre.com

Review: Salon De Dance...Deluge

Salon De Dance...Deluge
Finucane and Smith
5 March 2010
La Mama

Bienvenue à la deuxième Salon De Dance, avec beaucoup de merde franglais et la gall to call itself Deluge.

The independent theatre world takes its art very seriously, but Finucane and Smith’s salone is about having fun, some Absinthe and a dance with a good looking stranger in the brand spanking new La Mama courtyard.

In its second year, Salone de Dance...Deluge lets some of our favourite performers show us the stuff that doesn’t always fit into shows. Sometimes it’s very funny, sometimes very personal, sometimes a bit odd and even a bit indulgent – but the combination is brilliant and seedy and sexy and I hope the La Salone returns to La Mama regularly.

This year Azaria Universe writhes with razor blades; Jess Love makes martinis; Paul Cordeiro gets out his Michael Jackson wig; Brian Lucas let me dance with him and showed us his own special ‘Something’ ; and Rob McCredie, Harriet Ritchie and Holly Durant are back.

Special guest Christopher Green from the UK (who I’ve only just recognised as the fabulously wonderful Tina C) brings a new level of wow to Yumi Umiumare’s always extraordinary butoh by singing as she dances, and later proves that you don’t need tits to be Molly Blume.

Moira Finucane recovers from The Feast of Argentina Gina Catalina (there is no question about it – see both shows), puts on the hard rock, the white uniform and brings out a meat pie and sauce. Everyone who has seen her over the years knows what happens when Moira has food on stage, but she still gives us something unexpected.

And, of course, it’s hosted by Maude Davey. On Friday night she mocked the passing shower as she introduced the la Deluge and appreciated the irony when she sang “I can’t stand the rain”. After Saturday, I have to wonder if we offended someone or something very powerful. (For anyone not in Melbourne, on Saturday the rain fell on our city in a way we had never seen.)

This review appeared on AussieTheatre.com.

Salon de Dance 2009

Burlesque Hour Legends

Burlesque Hour Legends
Finucane and Smith
25 June 2009
forty five downstairs

I’m searching for a superlative that hasn’t been used to describe The Burlesque Hour. Reviewers from all over the world rave every time this show appears. Created in Melbourne, it’s back home as The Burlesque Hour Legends and I’m trawling my thesaurus for any word that comes near to grasping the wildness, the sassiness, the spectacle, the irony and the understanding behind the show that continues to leave my brain wet and wanting more.

The term burlesque is readily applied to anything that shows a bit of nude and, too often, this results in moments that leave some of the audience feeling uncomfortable, inadequate or just sad that women continue to let themselves be seen as something less than a whole person. It’s not easy to take the exploitation and the wank factor away from strip.

This is where director Jackie Smith and performer Moira Finucane stepped in and, with other like-minded performers, perfected a style that has re-defined burlesque as political, inspirational and liberating. Strip is, of course, about exposure, but the exposure of bodies doesn’t compare to the exposure of secrets, of longings and of the unexpected. It’s still also totally hot and squeal-out-loud hilarious.

Don’t give it a miss this year because you’ve seen this show before. Legends is mostly new material and has an overall more rounded and complete feel about it. The regular performers explore some of their favourite themes from new perspectives and new guests try out their ideas. This does mean that some of the most loved moments are missing, but the new compensates for the loss of the old.

Yumi Umiumare’s new pieces are extraordinary. With characters including a lost and manic Tokyo pop singer and an office worker (or an executive) trapped in a suit of regret and longing, her Butoh inspired choreography is unsettling in its ability to grasp the essence of a character and expand it to a point that it’s almost overwhelming. I’m looking forward to her solo show at Malthouse in August.

Maude Davey changes the pace with dancing words, discussing her grandmother’s cunt, and her faded showgirl’s “Say Goodbye” must be what Mark Seymour’s unconscious was thinking when he wrote the urban anthem.

Then there’s Moira Finucane, whose new Veil act may well be responsible for making smoking an acceptable social habit again. With Jackie Smith, she continues to create work that challenges every boring and clichéd notion of femininity and sexuality. Her electrifying grotesques are powerful, terrifying and disturbing, but they affirm that the real grotesques are those who want women to look like 20-year-old size 0s, cook like their mums and fuck like blow up dolls.

And that’s just week one and two! The Burlesque Hour Legends changes every two weeks. The incredible Azaria Universe returns on July 12, as the marvellous Maude leaves, along with swinging Jess Love. But plan for at least three Burlesque trips in order to see the special guests. The blissful Paul Capsis joins the girls from 9 to 19 July, then Toni Lamond (yes Toni Lamond!) will be confirming her own legendary status from 23 July to 2 August. Which only leaves until July 11 to see Ursula Martinez. Ursula has been seen at La Clique with her nearly-ethnic dilemma and her perfected the red hanky strip, but she brings more to Legends, with an opening act that sets the room on fire.

Photo by Jodie Hutchinson

This review originally appeared on AussieTheatre.com.

The Burlesque Hour

The Burlesque Hour
fortyfivedownstairs
21 June 2007

I was told off this week for having a 'feminist rant' about The Burlesque Hour. Let me share.

The Burlesque Hour takes a genre that has (at times) and is (at times) used to demean, objectify, humiliate and embarrass women. This show subverts this genre – then rips it to shreds, cut the shreds into smaller pieces, grinds them into the ground with a Doc Martin and a Manolo Blahnik and re-creates something that is positive, empowering, celebratory, powerful and just fabulous.

If this kind of questioning of gender roles, sexuality and sexual politics is ranting, then I’m very happy to rant.

The Burlesque Hour has been around since 2004. This was my third viewing and it gets better every time. There are some old favourites missing, but the new material is just as addictive. Jackie Smith and Moira Finucane continue to create extraordinarily original, daring, shockingly hilarious, sassy, sexy and mind-blowingly intelligent theatre.

Each piece is superbly conceived and executed. Azaria Universe’s bearded sheman proves the inter-changeability of gender roles; Yumi Umiumare reminds us that the cute little hello kitty girl could be a demonic little hell cat, and the fixed pout of painted doll could mean she’s broken; and Moira Finucane finds the grotesque within the coquette.

The strip in this show isn’t just about tits and titillation and the final revelation is not a brazilian wax. These women reveal power, humour, strength, moodiness, frustration, joy, loneliness and pain. This strip isn’t about the body. Bodies are simply bodies in this show.

Seeing this strip isn’t about anonymity or hiding or voyeurism. The Burlesque Hour is as much about the performer as the audience and makes the gathered crowd interact and join in the fun and celebration.

For the ultimate subversion, Angus Cereni (a bloke) guest stars. Angus strips to a song written for a teenage girl in a most un-teenage girl manner. This is mighty fine irony. I do, however, wonder why it wasn’t a complete strip. It felt slightly strange to have the one male in the show not completely reveal.

It’s hard to pick favourite moments, but two always stick with me. Moira’s butohesque “I Want You” is as true and powerful expression of repression and longing and guilt as I’ve ever witnessed. And then there’s Azaria’s “Total Eclipse of The Heart”. She takes drag, strip and 80s pop and hurls herself, and the absurdity, frustration, sadness and hilarity of it all into our faces. It’s brilliant.

Finally, as Moira’s Argentina Gina Catalina says, “Big minds have great sex.” So please, enlarge your minds and your thinking and get to The Burlesque Hour.

This review originally appeard on AussieTheatre.com.