Burlesque performers, producers
Highway Robbery Productions
The After Hours Cabaret Club
14–30 September
The Wonderland Spiegeltent
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| Bettie Bombshell and Miss Maple Rose Photo by Brigg Bree Photography |
If you could invite anyone to your show (and you knew they would come), who would it be?
Good ol’ Frankie, Frank Sinatra.
The Melbourne Fringe in three words?
Highlighting the alternative.
A favourite Melbourne Fringe memory.
Sitting on the roof-top of the Butterfly Club, enjoying a smoke and a whisky while relaxing and kicking back with our fellow carnies after all of our performances have finished for the night. There’s nothing so pure in art than the first moment you get to let go.
Your experience as an independent artist being part of the Melbourne Fringe.
As independent producers, the Fringe has given us a platform to share our world with more Melbournians than usual. In this day and age, it’s hard to stand out among all of the distractions, and the Fringe gives us a spotlight that is usually quite dim and hard to reach.
What makes the Melbourne Fringe unique?
Melbourne itself. There is no other city in Australia that supports the arts as consistently as Melbourne does.
Your advice for choosing what to see in the Melbourne Fringe?
Pick something that you would normally not be drawn to. Expand your horizons and explore new avenues.
Do you think there’s a better system than star ratings for reviews?
Star ratings are difficult because it’s so cut throat. Stars don’t describe the hard work put behind the scenes, such as the writing, the acting, the costumes, everything that makes a show epic. They literally represent an opinion that may not necessarily coincide with yours or the artist’s. We admit they make it easy to grade a show and to help choose what to see when there are thousands of shows going on at one time. That’s why we still use it. Once we start suggesting alternatives to the star rating, we just begin to make it all messy. As much as we’d like to, we can’t have everyone winning. That’s just not how life works.
Five shows/events that you will not miss at the 2017 Melbourne Fringe.
Lady Bunny in Trans-Jester
Becky Lou: Seen & Heard
Last King of Vaudeville by Idris Stanton
A Showgirl: Deconstructed by Carletta the Great
PO PO MO CO: Recreation & Leisure
