Diva
By Tiffany Barton
Directed by Helen
Doig
Performed by Tiffany
Barton
The Vaudevillians
Jerick Hoffer (Jinkx
Monsoon) and Richard Andriessen (Major Scales)
In Tiffany Barton’s small
triumph of that name, the diva is June, a faded opera singer living out a scratchy,
frustrated retirement with her costumes, her wigs, her pills and her lurid
memories.
It’s beautifully
constructed, and sets you up for an absolute zinger of a
climax, a seemingly inevitable ending that doesn’t so much fail as get rejected
outright, an affirmation of life, with all its heartbreak, darkness and
obscenity.
Barton is simply great
as June. She has an impeccable collaborator in Helen Doig, a
director with all Barton’s courage who keeps June’s unruly story firmly on the straight and narrow.
Jerick Hoffer’s
celebrated character Jinkx Monsoon is far and away the
most convincing, and authentically talented drag artist I’ve ever seen. With
the gifted Major Scales (Richard Andriessen) alongside her, and the
brilliant conceit of the show, it’s a fantastic
set-up, but it ended up leaving me cold.
Link here to the complete reviews in The West Australian
No comments:
Post a Comment