The Secret Parlour – A Dark Cabaret
Club Mullum – Mullumbimby Ex-Services | 9 June | 7.30pm | $35 (discounts on earlybird and group bookings)
Celebrate the darkest month of the year at The Secret Parlour – A Dark Cabaret, at Club Mullum, on Saturday June 9, 7.30pm.
The Secret Parlour is a wild and wonderful evening, brought to you by Guilty Pleasures Shows.
It features moody, dark cabaret song and music influenced by 1920s German cabaret, glamorous showgirls, absurd sketch humour, political satire and outlandish, heartfelt characters – all woven together with live music from Gypsy,Balkan, Swing band Out of Range.
Book your tickets now and get a 10 per cent earlybird discount | The Secret Parlour | Club Mullum – Mullumbimby Ex-Services | 9 June | 7.30pm Go to www.guiltypleasures-shows.com, and click on the ‘buy tickets’ button.
Frankghanistan
Drill Hall, Mullumbimby | Friday 11 May, Saturday 12 May | 8–9.30pm | $22 – $28
Forget sex, sausages sell! The question is, ‘D’ya want dead horse with that?’ Celebrate our sunburnt country as Noel, the longtime local, takes you on a guided tour around his quintessential Australian suburb, Frankston. One-woman powerhouse Nel Da Silva is a first-generation Blasian (black Asian) Australian, storytelling through performance art, spoken word, documentary, cabaret and neo-burlesque vignettes, sharing defining moments coming of age in Frankston. No stone is left unturned as she boldly explores racism, violence, misogyny, sexual orientation, identity and what it means to call Australia home. ‘Frankston is a diamond in the rough. It was the perfect place for my Pakistan-born, Chinese/Anglo-Indian/ Portuguese parents to raise me as a typical Australian. In many ways I got the best of both worlds!’ Straight from her sellout second season in the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, Frankghanistan is ‘a show that will make you laugh, hold your hand to your mouth, as well as make you think and feel. Powerful performance.’ Join Noel and a handful of locals as Nel chucks all of her art and soul on the barbie for a yarn that’ll take your curry breath away. www.eventbrite.com.au
Red Hot Ocean Shores Lovers
Ocean Shore Community Centre | 11-20 May | 2pm and 8pm | $25
Ocean Shores’ first theatre company, Halpin Productions, hits the stage this week with Neil Simon’s classic comedy The Last of the Red Hot Lovers. The strong cast features Kasadevi Curtis and Gray Wilson. Buy Tickets at: www.eventbrite.com.au
Murwillumbah Art Trail
Murwillumbah | 18–27 May | FREE
The Murwillumbah Art Trail (MAT18) from May 18 till 27 is designed to surprise and amuse. Event organisers have pushed this year’s event beyond its traditional boundaries into a fully fledged arts festival. Stone & Wood, Pickled Pig Cider, and Husk Distillers support MAT18’s promise of a secret pop-up bar for a quiet drink, impromptu jam session, cool conversations, and fun in surprising places. Food trucks and wines to match. Murwillumbah comes alive as the arts hub of the Tweed region, celebrating its Art Deco heritage and architectural quirks with building projections and performance.
www.themurwillumbaharttrail.com
Carlotta
Bangalow A&I Hall | Friday 25 May | 7.30pm | $50-$73
Few performers have risked as much artistically and personally with greater frequency or success than Carlotta. At various moments throughout her life and career there have been people who have said that Carlotta could not do something. And each and every time, a determined Carlotta has proven them wrong.
Her personal journey began as a boy from Balmain with a dream of becoming a woman one day. This unique form of art began in 1963, which saw the birth of the famous Kings Cross Les Girls. Carlotta was the star and compere. Very soon it was the place to be seen, from curious celebrities to tourists from all around the world. The show attracted such visiting celebrities as Shirley Bassey, Vincent Price, Peter Allen and Liza Minnelli.
Les Girls – along with its transgendered star Carlotta – quickly became legends.
Carlotta was one of Australia’s first public sex changes who was made famous across Australia, owing to a leak to the media. In the 70s Carlotta took the Les Girls show on the road and toured Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong extensively.
A regular spokeswoman on the television and radio Carlotta has gained her popularity with audiences Australiawide. She appeared in the long-running Australian TV soap opera Number 96 among many others and starred in the movie The Naked Bunyip followed by a five-year stint on the TV series Beauty and the Beast.
Carlotta then was given the biggest surprise of all to be the guest of honour when This is your Life came calling, showing to all that Carlotta had become totally accepted.
Based on Carlotta’s two books He Did It Her Way and I’m not that kind of Girl, ABC and Glitter Productions filmed a movie based on Carlotta’s life called simply Carlotta, which won critical appraise Australiawide and with her recent appearances on Celebrity Come Dine with Me and Studio 10 as a regular hostess on Channel 10 shows Carlotta is riding a new wave of popularity.
The most attractive aspect of Carlotta’s long and always surprising career is that she dazzles audiences with her extravagant gowns, lavish jewels, stylish wigs and makeup. The illusion she has become famous for creating, the incarnation of so many people’s dreams and aspirations.
Ladies and gentlemen, without further ado, Carlotta!
Tickets on sale at www.beach-bum.eventbrite.com
Resident Alien
NORPA at Lismore City Hall | Wednesday 23 May – Saturday 26 May | 7.30pm | $25/$44/$49
From his early years as an androgynous nude model in 1930s London, to finding fame as the first to speak so openly about life as a gay man, there was no-one quite like Quentin Crisp. In Tim Fountain’s Resident Alien, the legendary author of The Naked Civil Servant opens the door to his famously filthy New York apartment for an unforgettable heart to heart about life as only he knows it.
Starring five-time Helpmann Award winner Paul Capsis as Crisp, and directed by Green Room Award winner Gary Abrahams, Resident Alien shares Quentin’s unforgettable philosophies and asks, are they truer today than even he would have imagined?
‘Quentin Crisp was THE prototype androgynous man,’ says Capsis. ‘Before Bowie, Freddie Mercury, Liberace, Reg Livermore, before the time we could categorise or describe a person as transgender or sexually ambiguous, there was Quentin.’
For producer Cameron Lukey, it is Crisp’s uncompromising individuality that makes him so relevant; ‘You can disagree with his opinions on any number of subjects, but it’s hard to argue with his example,’ says Lukey. ‘Quentin lived in the present and always embraced what life had to offer him, letting go of the need to fit into any world, gay or straight, and embracing his otherness.’
Resident Alien starring Paul Capsis | Bookings: www.norpa.org.au or call 1300 066 772
Macbeth – Royal Shakespeare Company live screening
Byron Theatre | Saturday 12 May at 1pm | $15–25
You may not be able to make it to London to see the world’s best productions of Shakespearean classics, but you can watch it live streamed at the Byron Theatre. The Royal Shakespeare company present the darkest psychological thriller of the bard’s back catalogue: Macbeth. Returning home from battle, the victorious Macbeth meets three witches on the heath. Driven by their disturbing prophecies, he sets out on the path to murder. byroncentre.com.au
Sound of Music Singalong
Brunswick Picture House | Saturday 12 May | 6pm | $15/12/10 Family of 4 – $35
The Sound of Music Singalong at the Brunswick Picture House is back by popular demand! People loved it so much the first time they have had to put on a second show! And what better way to get everyone in the mood for Mothers Day than lifting the Picture House roof off once again with The Sound of Music Singalong. Don’t miss out this time. Come dressed as your favourite Von Trapp, Sister Maria or Do, Re, Mi, Fa, So, La, Ti, and sing your hearts out with our choir maestros leading the way. Prizes for the best costumes. brunswickpicturehouse.com
Mark Swivel: Empty Spaces
Byron School of Art, Dalley Street Mullumbimby | Opening Friday 11 May. Until Wed 23 May | 6pm | FREE
Lawyer. Broadcaster. Singer. Cricket player. Performer. And now photographer, Mark Swivel wants to show us his pics. His show is called Empty Spaces. It’s a photo installation and it involves 101 images. Shown three different ways. Raw, cooked and processed. ‘Each image was taken with my phone. No flash. No filter. No fuss. At home and far away. Over the years, a theme developed, a kind of aesthetic, and a story. I called them empty spaces but that’s absurd – there’s no such thing. Still, the label lingered. After a while the photos seemed to make up a dispersed self, spread across the world, traces of a life. I like the artists Jari Silomaki, Catherine Opie, Hitoshi Sugimoto, Thomas Struth and Patrick Pound. You might see echoes of their work in these images. There is a gentle, understated dialogue going on. Raw. You will see 101 images in a clump. Travelog shots assembled on a wall, in small scale. Cooked. The same images, larger, captioned, arrayed in ranks. More serious. Curated. Maybe impressive. Processed. A film, with a voiceover and a dab of music. 101 images telling the tale of a divorce and a dog.’ byronschoolofart.com
Stories in the Club
Mullum Ex-Services | Sunday 13 May, 4–5.30pm |
Jenni Cargill-Strong has long been a storyteller to children, but now her tales and love of narrative takes a grownup bent with Stories in the Club – a storytelling session for adults. This month’s theme is Adult Fairytales with six tellers. www.storytree.com.au
Alan Clements: Spiritually Incorrect
Byron Theatre | Friday 25 May | 7.30pm | $28-$35
In a night of spiritual-political satire and activist entertainment. Alan Clements ignites conscience by celebrating freedom of expression and the power of the human heart.
A former director of Amnesty International called Clements ‘one of the most compelling voices of our times’. Critics have described Alan’s spoken-word performances as ‘existentially cathartic’, ‘enthralling and hallucinogenic’, ‘a brilliant deconstruction of spiritual and cultural propaganda that addresses head on the insanity of war, climate change and the commercialisation of consciousness.’ Byron Theatre
Sing with Janet Swain & Adrian Williams-Brett
Brunswick Picture House | Mondays | 9.30–10.30am | $12-$15
Singing is not about being a star or knowing how to do it well. It’s about enjoying the gift of our voices and sharing them with others. We were born to sing. It’s primal and it’s tribal. Voice is the language of our hearts. It’s how we express ourselves. And it’s very important to our mental, physical and social wellbeing. Come sing with Janet Swain of The Loveys and Adrian Williams-Brett. brunswickpicturehouse.com
