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| Tiffany (Brett Pfister) - Miss Behave (Amy Saunders) |
Produced and performed by Amy Saunders and Brett
Pfister
The Playhouse – Canberra Theatre Centre – 31st
January to 2nd February, 2019
Performance on 1st February reviewed by Bill Stephens.
Honed during an eighteen month stint in Las Vegas,
then the Edinburgh Festival, and last year at The Sydney Opera Show, “The Miss
Behave Gameshow” delivers exactly what it promises - a riotous hour of audience participation of such
staggering silliness, that it was impossible not to be drawn in.
The show was presented on the stage of The Playhouse
which for the season was converted into a grungy theatre restaurant decorated
with neon-coloured Lurex curtains, cardboard props, and cardboard signs proclaiming
such faux existentialisms as “Nothing Means Anything” – “Don’t Ask Don’t Get” –
“Don’t Tell Me What to don’t” – “Life’s Not Fair”.
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| Miss Behave (Amy Saunders) |
The self-proclaimed, talking Glitter ball, Miss Behave,
(London cabaret artist, Amy Saunders) and her assistant, Tiffany (Brett
Pfister, tall, lanky, tattooed, mustachioed and wearing worryingly-short shorts)
were already on stage when the audience entered. They directed people to their
plastic chairs, occasionally chatting with someone, or pointing out the bar,
but generally going about their business setting up props, or relaxing with a
book.
Although she resolutely refused to commence the show
before the advertised starting time, when that was reached, Miss Behave flew into
action, quickly divided the audience into two teams based on the brand of their
iPhones, explained the rules of the game, which most, including her, ignored, and
displayed the array of prizes up for grabs, which included a used VHS tape, a
toll of toilet paper and a vintage sanitary pad.
Then for the next hectic hour Miss Behave was the quiz
master, judge and jury, asking generally unanswerable questions, allotting and
subtracting points at breakneck speed for anything and everything. No-one was
pulled up on stage or embarrassed, but as Miss Behave cheerfully doled out
helpful hints for coping with life between issuing penalties to teams for
breeches like, not speaking up quickly enough, or not being disappointed enough
at not winning, it became hard for even the most reluctant audience member to
resist being caught up in the excitement and the silliness of supporting their
own team.
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| Tiffany ( Brett Pfister) performs an interpretive dance |
Whenever there was a break in the barrage of
questions, Tiffany would demonstrate his amazing flexibility with an eye-watering
interpretive dance. At one point Miss Behave stunned with her act which
involved a rose and her tongue, before a couple called Matt and Svetlana charmed
with a graceful quick-change act which turned chaotic when a wardrobe
malfunction left them both naked and confused.
Almost predictably the performance ended in a
bunfight. Literally, when the audience burnt off their over-excitement pelting
each other with hundreds of coloured plastic balls showered from the stage.
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| Miss Behave (Amy Saunders) encouraging audience in art photography |
Silly?…Of course.
Cheeky?…Occasionally .
Bawdy?…Definitely, but as presented here with such under-lying skill and
chutzpah, terrific fun.
This review also appears in AUSTRALIAN ARTS REVIEW. www.artsreview.com.au
