Director: Fez Faanana – Sound Engineer: Benn Shambrook
Canberra Theatre Centre Playhouse November 21st
to 23rd November, 2024.
Performance on 21st November reviewed by BILL
STEPHENS
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| Mark Worrell leading the parade in Brief:Bite Club & Sahara Beck" |
Describing themselves as cult cabaret mischief makers, circus stars and heart-stopping hooligans, the cast of Briefs Bite Club have been surprising, delighting, even occasionally shocking their audiences around the world for more than 10 years.
In that time, they’ve perfected insouciance as an artform
with their cheeky mixture of burlesque, drag, amazing acrobatics and just plain
silliness with a succession of unique, cleverly produced extravaganzas.
Previously proudly all-male, for Briefs Bite Club
they’ve added a surprise ingredient in talented singer/songwriter Sahara Beck
with her excellent three-piece band consisting of her brother Ocean Beck on
keys, Damon Joel on Drums and Ben Mackay on drums all costumed rather
self-consciously in op-shop treasures.
Beck is a marvellous singer, with a voice able to shift
through angelic, ethereal, harsh, urgent and demanding. Her moody songs become
the soundtrack for the show which commenced with her earworm “Crack Crack Bang”
which introduced the five members of Brief’s with their cutely choreographed routine
featuring multi-coloured feather fans.
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| The cast of Briefs Bite Club. |
Following a long, wordy introduction from MC Fez Faanana,
Beck took the stage to accompany Thomas Worrell’s amazing hoop routine with her
composition “Like You” and Rowan Thomas’ cheeky Cyr wheel strip routine with “Mr
Breezy”.
The program continued with Beck featured in solos with the
band, or participating in delightfully silly production numbers built around
her songs, and the particular skills of Bite Club soloists, Mark Winmill, Thomas
Worrell, Luke Hubbard (Nastia), Rowan Thomas and Fez Faanana whose every appearance
featured an ensemble more outrageous than the last.
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| Thomas Worrell and Sahara Beck in Briefs Bite Club |
Among many highlights during the evening was the lovely solo, “Daisy” written and performed by Beck sitting alone in a spotlight on the edge of the stage, which heralded the second half of the program.
Mark “Captain Kidd” Winmill’s extraordinary trapeze routine
dangling practically naked above, and in, a huge cocktail glass; Luke Hubbard
(Nastia) performing death-defying tumbles in the highest of high-heel shoes to
“Can’t Get Enough”; and the stunning finale in which all five soloists performed
dazzling acrobatics to Beck’s “I’m in love” which brought the audience to its
feet for a delirious standing ovation; were all memorable.
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| Mark "Captain Kidd" Winmill in Briefs: Bite Club |
Briefs: Bite Club is one of the best of this genre currently
touring, with excellent production values and exemplary skill levels. However,
despite the undeniable brilliance of Sahara Beck and her songs, by placing so much
focus on her, the rest of the show became her support act.
As yet Sahara Beck doesn’t possess the necessary presentation skills to carry a show of this nature and while Briefs:Bite Club with Sahara Beck is an excellent concept, perhaps a little less Beck, and a little more polish to the compere’s presentation, would lift it into the world class show it has the potential to be.
Photos by Lachlan Douglas
This review also published in AUSTRALIAN ARTS REVIEW. www.artsreview.com.au
