Lashes: A provocative song and dance about important issues

 Lashes
Melbourne Fringe Festival
Venue: The Butterfly Club
Until: Sunday September 23
Rating: ★★★

By MONISHA ISWARAN

Lulu Venom and Suckabelle’s high-femme queer creation Lashes is not what you would typically expect on a night out at the theatre. However, it successfully uses sullied song-and-dance routines to raise important issues.

 On the opening night, fierce feminists Lulu Venom (Lucy Putt) and Suckabelle (Hannah Monson) shocked and entertained the audience with their provocative material.

Lashes explores high-femme existence from a queer, dream-like perspective and aims to chip away at associated stigmas.

High-femme refers to lesbian women who are ultra-feminine in appearance and behaviour – think high heels, skirts, purses and acrylic nails – and this show examines these qualities through a cabaret-style presentation.

Taking place at theatre and bar The Butterfly Club and kicking off at 10pm, the show was unlikely to be conventionally scripted.

The surroundings were like that of a church, with the seating similar to church pews, heightening the surreal experience that Lashes was.

The intimate and cosy (yet never completely comfortable) setting left audience members feeling exposed as they were plunged into the events occurring on stage.

Although there was never a great deal of audience participation, not a soul in the room was left to feel as though they were merely a bystander.

The performance, which combined videography, nudity and choreography, kept the audience engaged, yet often lacked clarity of meaning and the synchronicity it appeared to be striving for.

Lashes touched upon issues of high relevance to women and appeared to aim for breadth as opposed to depth when it came to explanation.

The decision to span a broad range of topics such as female sexuality, the female body being more than just for men’s pleasure, abortion and beyond was an ambitious one.

The movement from one topic to another was often abrupt and therefore felt less impactful.

The show's saving grace was the connection between the two performers.

Their playful interactions, evident onstage chemistry and contrasting yet complementary styles were the strongest parts of the performance.

Highlight moments included their coy teasing and repetitive interactions with the audience, from Lulu Venom’s audience interactions at the start of the show to Suckabelle’s constant flitting between her demanding calls of “look at me” and bashfully changing her mind.

Monson’s ability to make each audience member feel as though her eyes were perpetually on you resulted in a slightly uneasy but effective feeling of being watched.

The audience was consequently made to examine their reactions to the pair’s antics on stage.

With a bigger space to work with, and perhaps a slightly more focused angle, there’s no telling what these two could create.