Retro Futurismus - Review

Retro Futurismus

Maude Davey, Anni Davey, Anna Lumb & Gabi Barton

With special guests

fortyfivedownstairs | 45 Flinders Lane, Melbourne

10 – 28 June 2015

Maude and Annie Davey are legends and just about everything they do is worth catching and Retro Futurismus is no exception. 

However be warned it is wild and rough around the edges and unsettling with its uneasy postmodern references to not to distant past.  Both women strut their stuff in a cabaret style performance intermingled with unexpected, and at times what feel to be unresolved and not completely integrated, items from Anna Lumb, Gabi Barton, Leah Shelton, Stella Angelico and Teresa Blake.  Each week there are to be another three special guests – it’s a variety show. 

So all in all it is a bit of an adventurous rag bag of contemporary cabaret with a retro feel both in content and style – it feels a bit subculture and dangerous – boundaries are being pushed.  And I think I can be forgiven for wondering if I wasn’t back in the late 1980s early 90s.

As shows go it is is slick and moves swiftly.  But on opening night the lights seemed to be lacking and the sound a little loud and brittle.   (Hopefully technical issues were resolved before the next performances.)

Edgy and out there kind of butch bricklayer/handyman/ bobs up with an number of surprising acts.  By contrast Stella Angelico delights as a burlesque songstress – rich and sultry.   Then there is the film diva who just keeps dying in more expressive and outrageous ways.  (If there was a program I would be able to be more sure of who everyone was and appropriately credit performers.)

The downstairs space at 45downstairs is used well so one can feel free to sit pretty much anywhere although I might be even better if what feels like the main-stage was slightly more elevated.

All climaxes with a ‘Golden Girls’ item that is lavish bright and great fun.

Maude and Anni Davey - photo Ponch Hawkes

All in all the ever adventurous the Davey sisters shine and yes the show has the power to surprise if not shock.  An opportunity for a fascinating night out being amazed, amused and challenged by these ever inventive performers and their cohorts. 

Guesting in Retro Futurismus.

Last Week of the run:  The sublime soprano Simone Page Jones and an awesome dance duo and solos from James Andrews and Bendy Ben Hancock and Teresa Blake will come back cos they can't let her go!

It will be memorable.

Suzanne Sandow

(For Stage Whispers)