MUM’S IN: STORIES FROM RAZORHURST
If Tilly Devine and Kate Leigh time travelled to Darlinghurst today what would they think? “They’d think what a bunch of wankers,” performer/writer Vashti Hughes says to me laughing. The comedienne has created a one-woman cabaret full of bawdy ballads and hysterical historical anecdotes set in the Razorhurst time. “I’ll be playing five characters (men and women),” she explains. “It was a fascinating and dangerous time and because I’m not bound to a TV network I can be more honest to the story and the history of it. I don’t have to glamorise it.” In this show Hughes is teamed up with her partner, composer Ross Johnston, aka 3K short from Machine Gun Fellatio. “Music plays a huge role in this,” she continues. “And, I’ve written my own songs for each character.” Hughes, who has lived in the Kings Cross/Darlinghurst area for over 20 years, will be portraying colourful characters such as feuding madams Tilly Devine, Kate Leigh and death-defying prostitute Nellie Cameron in the newly renovated Kings Cross Hotel. “We’re encouraging people to dress up because it’s a decadent, beautiful hall with chandeliers. You feel like you’ve really stepped in to a 1930s brothel.”
Oct 25-Nov 17, Kings Cross Hotel, cnr King Street & William Street, $30, 1300 306 776, mumsin.com.au
