What better time than during Melbourne Fringe to turn our thoughts to an artform that (unlike so many others) is completely dominated by women: cabaret.
What are the limits and recurring themes of cabaret? What makes it so attractive to (women) artists with stories to tell about difference, queerness, sexuality, tragedy, and being an outsider? Is it dismissed or undervalued because it’s “just” women’s stories about their feelings and sex? Why is the genre able to accommodate narratives of alternative sexualities, gender identities, disability and other forms of difference and yet remain so determinedly white?
We’ll ask these questions and more of an amazing panel of bangin’ cabaret babes:
Diana Nguyen: singer, performer, outsider, feminist
Kate Boston Smith: belter, comic, maverick, feminist
Hissy Loco: singer, performer
We’ll also be treated to a live performance from Sydney’s sensational feminist cabaret act Lady Sings It Better, beloved for their gender-bending genius of reworking songs sung by men. The brilliant Maeve Marsden, singer with LSIB, will join the panel for the second half of the show.