La Soiree still sexy: but this year slapstick takes precedence over variety

French in name, but multicultural in essence, La Soiree takes a host of popular entertainment genres and mashes these in the most marvellous of manners. Actually, manners often go by the wayside with this lot of cheeky artistes.

Acrobatics blend into subtle striptease when The English Gents start to strut their stuff. Tennis is turned into a calisthenic sport when Captain Frodo is holding the racket. And the line between attention-grabbing cabaret and slapstick camp spreads thinner than Salvador Dalí’s moustache – or thicker than Freddie Mercury’s in the case of Mario: Queen of the Circus who must be the biggest Queen fan on either side of the equator.

Even the simplest old-school tools of leisurely pursuit, such as juggling balls and hula hoops, are put through the ringer, used and abused in most absurd ways.

It was American author and theatre critic John Simon who said “true absurdism is not less but more real than reality” and you kind of get what the guy is saying when you see the normal-looking folk of La Soiree, dressed in all their drag and doing the darnedest things with everyday objects. Just the fact that it’s a human being up there twirling 12 heavy hoops around her waist or zipping 180 degrees flat around a dance pole is enough to leave you gobsmacked, pinching yourself, shocked as you utter ‘This is unreal’. Indeed, this is very real. Count them hoops.

The first time I caught the La Soiree troupe live was at last year’s Fringeworld. Back then there appeared to be more variety – including the utterly amazing Cabaret Decadanse and their spot-on puppets that imitated world-class divas, and ‘Bath Boy’ David O’Mer who performed stunts half-naked in, on and around and old-school bathtub.

This time things are veered more towards vaudeville and madcap antics. While it’s refreshing to meet someone like Mooky, the Canadian ‘wannabe’ thespian for the first time (her audience-participated act had me in stitches – plucking one poor sucker from the crowd to read scripts off her armpits and elbows), the obvious ‘gap’ left by the departure (temporary, one would hope) of the likes of Decadanse and O’Mer made me feel like I was watching more of a ‘best of’ Fringeworld production.

Still, that’s good to be a good thing, non?  Antonino Tati

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La Soiree’ is on in the Museum Garden, Perth Cultural Centre as part of Fringeworld festival. Due to popular demand, season has been extended to Sunday 13 March. Bookings available through www.fringeworld.com.au.