Briefs – Dirty Laundry – REVIEW
If you think you’ve seen it all, think again. Clichéd as that sounds, it’s true for this wild and raunchy assortment of sweet pleasures that is Dirty Laundry. Presented by those incorrigible boys from The Briefs Factory, Dirty Laundry is 90 minutes of the most hilarious, astonishing, grotesque, saucy, sensual entertainment you can have this early in the evening.
It begins when you walk in, with members of the troupe clad in dusky pink satin, tantalisingly short dressing gowns bearing fairy-lit baskets flit about selling raffle tickets to the audience.
Illustrious host, Fez Faanana (aka Shivanana) then opens the show with a warm, embracing welcome and a few house rules that this rugby player trapped in a drag queen’s wardrobe threatens to enforce.
Then, as if a fuse has been lit, the anticipation begins and the gown-clad ensemble, now assembled on stage, moves through a teasing sequence of dance routines before, at last, the gowns begin dropping to the floor.
This show is a hybrid of cabaret, burlesque, comedy, vaudeville, circus, suds and underwear. Whatever you are there for, you’ll get it.
On paper, the circus and aerial acts are likely things you’ve seen before, but there are elements to them that are unique and mind-boggling, as evidenced by the frequent audience gasps.
Without revealing spoilers, expect: a juggling routine with multiple bouncing balls that is a miraculous show of hand-eye coordination; a hula with a burning hoop; a floor routine that involves dexterity, flexibility, balance, strength and a mastery of platform stilletos; bawdy balloon sculpting with a some sinus flossing and did-he-really-swallow-that?; spinning on an aerial hoop that can only compare to NASA astronaut training; an aerial strap routine that is as beautiful as it is awe-inspiring.
That summary does not capture the sheer joy, raunchiness and give-all style entertainment in Dirty Laundry.
At the beginning of the show, MC Shivanana explains how, in their 13 very successful years as an independent, hard-working arts organisation, Briefs has never been able to get a government arts grant. Apparently, they are “unable to show artistic merit”.
Seriously?
See this show and see how wrong those grant deciders are.
Until March 4
Seymour Centre, York Theatre, cnr Cleveland St and City Rd, Chippendale
www.seymourcentre.com
