Your Little Princess is My Little Whore – Kitten Has Claws - One4Review
*
1 Star
Oh dear. Sometimes I wish I didn’t have to write things like this, but to be fair to the public I feel I must.
This production was well attended with many people paying their hard earned money to see what read like a slick burlesque, physical theatre with multimedia links performance. But in truth it wasn’t what it said on the tin.
Yes there were elements of burlesque, but to start off with The Stripper was predictable. Then followed a series of seemingly unlinked scenes, interrupted with a VT system that seemed to have a mind of its own – starting when it shouldn’t, stopping when it shouldn’t or showing the same link twice before thankfully they abandoned it. We were left with silence or worse, an overworked stagehand trying to set the next scene in full lights or total darkness. It seemed random.
I was relieved when the finale happened, but I’m afraid it was as twee as the opening: this time the four performers running around to the ‘Benny Hill’ chase music.
Do yourselves a favour. Avoid.
*
Reviewed by Geoff
The Spaces@ Surgeons Hall V 53
16 to 29 August
22-40 to 23-30
Fringe Brochure P 307
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Geoff, I fear that most of the content may have gone over your head.
This was never coined as straight forward burlesque performance by any stretch (this was made clear in the piece’s listing). It was aimed to question it.
The opening scene was drenched in satire but maybe the visual of scantily clad ladies lead you to be distracted from deeper content, which there was in abundance.
Ranging from addressing the imbalance of gender roles, male expectations of woman, how the media affects female self identity and the empowerment of women being in control of their own sexuality.
As a female I found it hilarious and bitter sweet in equal measures, but I can see how some male members of the audience may leave less so. It wasn’t a feminist dig at men, more of a slight middle finger to those who presume burlesque performers do it purely to please the male punters.
As for the technical side, it ran very smoothly thanks. This is theatre not the iMax cinema.
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I think maybe the show is pitched more to a female audience or an audience who is familiar with the burlesque norms as this is what the show was deconstructing.
There were no technical hitches that I noticed on the night I saw the show.
It’s a shame you don’t go into the quality of the performers in your review. I thought the acts were visually stunning and witty. It’s one of the best burlesque shows I’ve seen in the Fringe.
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