BIGGER AND BLACKER

 

Bigger and Blacker. Steven Oliver.

Musical director. Michael Griffiths.Belco Arts. Belconnen Arts Centre.May 5 – 7 2022. Bookings: 02 61733300

Reviewed by Peter Wilkins

Michael Griffiths and Steven Oliver 

 

Gay black Comedian Steven Oliver and Helpmann Award winning piano man Michael Griffiths bring Oliver’s autobiographical comedy Cabaret Bigger and Blacker to Canberra for a limited debut season. With heaps of cheek and just as much chutzpah Oliver wriggles his derriere , swivels the hips and thrusts the pelvis in an unabashed and proud account of his “faboriginality”. The show’s songline takes us on a personal, profound and honest journey through Oliver’s life, highlighted with original hip hop songs that he hears, then hums and finally sings their way into his existence. They are songs that sting, taking a swipe at ignorance and false judgement of the minority within the minority whose vote doesn’t count, who suicide or die in  incarceration, who suffer a high infant mortality rate and die too young from alcoholism and ill health. The songs are dark, tempered with Oliver’s  quick quipped True God Gammin or in the white man’s urban slang dinky-die lie. To lighten the mood Oliver does a Peter Allen with the Caracas as he sings  about The Manhole  where even if you’re straight you can have a good time.

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And it was obvious that his audience was having a good time, joining Griffiths and Oliver for the final song Powerful. The show is a powerful affirmation and celebration of who you are. It is a triumph over the dark experiences of confused identity during the Black Comedy series when Oliver was expected to always make people laugh, or the grief at the suicide of a young man who did not have the mother’s love that Oliver had when he came out. In Bigger and Blacker Oliver is reacquainted with his identity. He celebrates his sexuality and delights in a self-mocking display of a tea towel image blazoned with SLUT. He revels in the connection that binds families together in a shred love of parent, siblings and children. A moment of intensity is quickly relieved by a joke, when while ambassador for RUOK, he asked for a Mardi Gras float to be carry the sigh RUAGAY. The smile sparkles and the feet tap out their tune as the multi talented entertainer accompanied by the Best Cabaret Performer of 2016 serves up a cocktail of humour and thought provoking social commentary. He shares his music and his love in Powerful, his call to change and see the world differently. It is impossible to resist the charisma of the high camp larrikin.

Oliver’s not wrong when he says that he and Griffiths have saved the best for last. Also, if you can find a sexy man for him while he’s in town he’ll be happy to rename the city Man-berra.  And if you can’t then make sure that you get to Bigger and Blacker. There’s much more to this comedy cabaret than hip hop and a bit of tap.