Reviews

Impromptunes, in its third year at Perth’s Fringe World, is an amazingly popular show, and is therefore a “must review”, as well as purely a pleasure to see. I must admit though, that reviewing this is a little bit redundant.

I don’t know what you are going to see when you go. Completely improvised from an audience suggestion, every show is the opening and closing of a brand new musical.

Playing to a packed house, Cougar Morrison – Animal Instincts is a show that defies classification. Part drag, a little bit ‘boylesque’ and a good deal old-school cabaret, it is mostly just a great show.

Cougar, the alter-ego of performer/producer Clint Strindberg, is bitchy without apology, tells a brilliant story and cuts down hecklers with sass and style, but the highlight is that Cougar is an amazing singer, with gorgeous trade-mark vibrato, who delivers unique renditions of material as varied as Piaf and Bieber.

Bus Boy is a sensitively told tale about a boy obsessed with buses, who meets a young girl who is almost desperate for a good time.  Set on Rottnest Island, this locally written production by Izzy McDonald, is tightly performed by Rorschach Beast.

Sean Guastavino wins hearts in a compelling performance as Bus Boy, a boy in his late teens, who is clearly on the Autism Spectrum. He can name any bus-route on the mainland, can tell you the exact requirements for driving for Transperth and believes his Transperth-green coloured bike is a bus. He is also lonely.

La Soiree allowed Perth Fringe-lovers to kick off this year’s FringeWorld a fraction early, opening a week ahead of the official launch. Direct from London’s West End, La Soiree is becoming something of a FringeWorld icon, in its third year at the festival.

In a new location, Cathedral Square, nestled next the City of Perth library, and in a new Spiegeltent, WAAPA’s ‘Edith’, this show remains classic, naughty, fringe-style entertainment.