Director Susie Dee and writer Sarah Ward’s F Christmas is cabaret and burlesque with a social message.
Performing at The Malthouse, this work goes beyond challenging the public mores about nudity and propriety normally associated with the genre.
The troupe’s ability to juxtapose form and style provides an indelible message not just about Christmas but also about a range of prescient issues facing our world.today. The image of a polar bear being dragged on a sleigh against the backdrop of upside down Christmas trees to the aria, When I Am Laid in Earth from Dido and Aeneas, is full of melancholy and pathos.
The anachronism is poignant. We simultaneously laugh and are equally shocked by our own indifference.
And the whole work is full of such articulate messaging. A sinister elf.
The family phone call trying to organise Christmas that interrupts proceedings. The comic and the provocative nature of the work is a powerful combination and all the elements coalesce.
The finale of a naked troupe – there being too many to name individually – on large exercise balls is preceded by The Coventry Carol. Against the backdrop of current day atrocities, the lullaby about Herod ordering the slaughter of children resonates without having to be forced by anything extraneous. It’s a clever juxtaposition challenging the Christian message, our current politics and attitudes and, given what follows, questions the assumptions and attitudes we pretend to hold so dearly.
The ribald nature of burlesque has become a vehicle for challenging our pretensions and has us thinking deeply about our values.
There is laughter and merriment, there is entertainment and diversion, and then there are the real questions about current affairs. This is a superbly balanced and crafted show that makes us laugh and cry in equal measure with a healthy dose of shock and incredulity about the human body – temporal and intellectual.
Performance Season: Until December 15
Venue: The Malthouse
Bookings: malthousetheatre.
com.au

• Review by David McLean