The Burlesque Hour
From the frenetic house of Finucane & Smith – internationally acclaimed Queen of Cabaret Bizarre Moira Finucane and Patrick White Award winner Jackie Smith – the work that has created an international storm of sell out critical acclaim and won 6 Australian theatre awards for its provocative and astonishing images of gender, sexuality, power and desire.
The Burlesque Hour… SIZZLES! With a mind-cracking mixture of the old, the new, the unexpected, in the world’s most astonishing, most sizzling salon of showgirls with very sharp teeth!
Artistic & Performance Directors! Moira Finucane and Jackie Smith
Creators of the Burlesques! Moira Finucane and Jackie Smith
Azaria Universe
Yumi Umiumare
(Kitty’s World and Hebi Onna created in collaboration with Finucane and Smith)
Deluxe Designers! Sensational Set by Adrienne Chisholm
Luxe Lights by Marko Respondeck
Curvaceous and Crazy Costumes by David Anderson
Sonic Seamstress Darrin Verhagen
HOT ON THE HEELS OF A WORLD TOUR, THE SMASH HIT OF FESTIVALS EVERYWHERE RETURNED TO MELBOURNE FOR 4 SIZZLING SUMMER NIGHTS!
More information : http://www.moirafinucane.com/shows.html
Legendary iconoclast Maude Davey with her infamous and fabled strawberry act; Moscow circus trained circus and burlesque star Azaria Universe; Japanese butoh dancer and shock cabaret artiste Yumi Umiumare and guest artiste Clare Bartholomew’s Pierre – Magician and Love Machine!
Creating a frenzy amongst critics and audiences around the world, from Tokyo to Trieste, London to Ljubljana, Edinburgh to Croatia to the Opera House and beyond; The Burlesque Hour mixes vaudeville and variety, circus and sideshow, striptease and cartoon strip, boho and butoh, music hall, monologue and mayhem in a wild ride that hijacks Burlesque, explodes expectations, and delights and disturbs long after the carnival is over.
SELECTED REVIEWS
“Dramatic, original, effective, breathtaking … beyond genre: the cabaret variety set on fire, definitively”
Vecer News, Slovenia
“I thought I would have nightmare after seeing this show but it was a fantastically indecent and breath-taking night!! In this political time, this indecent and crazy event was so perfect to have at the old warehouse in Yokohama, where it was as if “evil place” in a famous action movie popped up for one night only”
Wander Distance Magazine Yokohama
“Intensive and hairsplitting physicality… it opens up a whole new world, a world of the surreal”
Dnevnik News, Slovenia
“Sexually emancipated, hilarious and kerosene fuelled… gender bending, bodice ripping, stereotype trashing, neo-circus cabaret madness”
Metro UK
“Every single artiste is wickedly entertaining, yet hugely different… saucier than your Edinburgh chippy … grotesquely addictive … with more than a tablespoonful of gothic sex appeal…”
Three Weeks UK
“Unmissable…The minds that inspired it are as sexy as the bodies that perform it… comic, erotic, dynamic, acrobatic… The Burlesque Hour is a night to remember and will retain its power to delight and disturb long after the carnival is over”
The Sunday Age
“From the sublime to the subversive, the hot to the hilarious… outrageous and unforgettable”
The Times, London
“… it was a fantastically indecent and breath-taking night!! Big applause!!”
Wander Distance Yokohama, Japan
“Prepare to be shocked and overwhelmed. Expect no less. Experience so much more. The Burlesque Hour is not for the faint-hearted, the queasy or the conservative. But even these types have to appreciate the entertaining spectacle for what it is. It’s difficult not to. These showgirls are polished and prepared to dazzle, from their go-go dancing routines right through to mad moments of nudity. Jaw dropping, feisty, seductive, dynamic. I suggest you grab a drink, sit back and allow yourself to be thrilled. Unmissable.”
Edinburgh Guide 2005
“The Burlesque Hour is a series of set pieces-lip-synching mimes, dances and commando acts- by an unholy trinity of fatale feministas : Moira Finucane, Yumi Umiumare and Azaria Universe.
Umiumare has a crazy sense of humour and an absolute devotion to her distinctive style of Butoh cabaret.”
Chris Boyd – Herald Sun, 19 July 2004
“The Burlesque Hour is succession of delights; short pieces devised and performed with enormous wit, style, intelligence and originality… ”
“…Umiumare is also funny as a schoolgirl stripper shedding multiple pairs of knickers, and starkly impressive, revealing and ascetic black costume beneath a rich kimono…”
Bill Perrett – The Sunday Age,18, July 2004
“Pain and pleasure in the art of the tease”
“The Burlesque Hour …, involves pungent commentary on gender, power, violence and desire.”
“Yumi Umiumare ..takes the pop culture icon Hello Kitty and makes a notion of demonstrating the evil flipside of this cute, demure creature which happens to lack a mouth..”
Thuy On The Australian, 19 July 2004
“Moira Finucane, Azaria Universe and Yumi Umiumare deliver powerful performance, drawing on contemporary popular song from the schmaltzy sob of love-gone-wrong, to hard-core thrash..” “Umiumare always pushes the limit when she perform…her most profound act was a sustained solo cloaked in orientalism, her body concealed then tantalisingly revealed..”
Hilary Crampton – The Age, 19 July 2004