Sugartits: so wrong yet so right
Fresh from a primary school tour of the American Deep South, Bourgeois & Maurice’s Australian debut sets out to prove that cabaret is pointless if it can’t change the world.
Deadpan glamourpuss Maurice Maurice (Liv Morris) and her limber, lamé-clad brother Georgeois Bourgeois (George Heyworth) confess they told a little fib to get this gig – they don’t really “do” cabaret. Despite this, they’re determined to give it a go because they really need the money.
Sugartits is a pre-apocalyptic romp that tramples through all the big issues. What’s so wrong about global warming? Change is good! Fed up with Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? Social networks make you feel s**t sometimes when you’re on the outside looking in. Worried about the decline of Western civilisation? Wave bye-bye to Europe and call her a cab ’cause the party’s over and sitting slumped in the gutter’s not a good look.
The hysterical, high-energy, 100 per cent original numbers veer so far over the line of too much information you need a floodlight to find your way back again. Australia’s carbon levy inspires a sexy tax dance, love gets a thrashing in a celebration to emotional distance, and Maurice thinks she’s in with a chance with Rupert Murdoch now that Wendy Deng is off the scene. There’s even a stadium rock tribute to the Leveson inquiry – just face it, life is an open book – because phone tapping shouldn’t worry you if you have nothing to hide.
Helpful advice is plentiful and hilariously contradictory. There’s a mass audience singalong, frequent bursts of breathtakingly enthusiastic contemporary dance, languid pianistic stylings and a brief stab at stand-up comedy. Maurice’s single “joke” moves her sibling to point out she’s no Eddie Izzard.
Sharp and snortingly funny – Sugartits is so wrong and completely right. Things DO look better in retro and these superbly talented emo/neo/alt-cabaret lovelies will be dancing around in the garden of our imagination until they make it back here again. #FABULOUS!
Sugartits’ season at Artspace is now finished.
More Adelaide Cabaret Festival reviews
Review: Meow Meow paces and purrs
Review: The cabaret charisma of Capsis
Review: Surrender to the Strangeness of Rramp
Review: Chaplin: A Life in Concert
Review: Tom Burlinson’s salute to swing
Review: Shane Warne the Musical
