The Burlesque Hour

is on again at the Studio, Sydney Opera House. See it if you can!

'The Burlesque Hour locks loads and liberates Burlesque for the 21st Century, bringing together Australia's hottest and most intelligent exponents of gender in performance and contemporary burlesque. Salubrious salon meets cutting edge culture; The Burlesque Hour invites its audience into a world of pure old-fashioned burlesque/variety/music hall, layered with the work of astonishing artists who have twisted this artform until it screams for more, and have exploded the boundaries of gender in performance for over a decade.
Created by artistic collaborators Moira Finucane & Jackie Smith, renowned for their creation of intimate theatrical spectacles where variety, cabaret, burlesque, the gothic and fairy tale are melded into indelible visions of gender, power, violence and desire; The Burlesque Hour is an explosive mix of circus, vaudeville, carnival, showgirl, magic realism, text, burlesque, music hall, dance, butoh and performance art; colliding in extraordinary images of liberation and oppression. A crash curve carnival of Bearded Ladies, Japanese Serpent Warriors, Italian Stallions, spike covered Showgirls with sharp teeth, trembling Victorian spinsters, mad Hello Kitty devotees, Ecstatic Ice Queens, Bodice Ripping Adventuresses, Apocalyptic Beasts in shredded fishnets and towering stilts.

The Burlesque Hour features internationally acclaimed Queen of Cabaret Bizarre Moira Finucane, whose volcanic physical performance has turned cabaret and variety on its head and made critics from Hong Kong to London exclaim she is 'a towering inferno' and 'less of an actor more of a force of nature'; Moscow circus trained Azaria Universe - a contemporary Circus and Burlesque Star, the love child of Mad Max and Marilyn Monroe; Japanese Shock Cabaret Artiste Yumi Umiumare - from Japan's seminal butoh company DaiRakudakan, a wild-cat amongst the pigeons.'

And check out Moira's other work here.