LISA-SKYE Spiders Wearing Party Hats
Gryphon Theatre, 22 Ghuznee Street, Wellington
23/02/2017 - 25/02/2017
NZ Fringe Festival 2017 [reviewing supported by WCC]
Production Details
Work Hard, Live Weird.
An unlikely love story from Australia’s favourite sparklepuppy muppet dominatrix hedonism muse.
This show has sold out in three countries, and Skye can’t wait to bring it to Wellington for her first ever time performing in New Zealand!
A solo show exploring a life lived in the most efficiently hedonistic way possible. Outrageous stories so ridiculous they must be true, with an occasionally heartbreaking sting in the tail.
Queer, polyamorous, kinky femme daddy Skye is Not Normal. This leads to wild adventures, but comes with its fair share of judgment, from family and strangers alike.
Meanwhile, Skye just wants to have fun and ensure everyone around her is having the best time. This includes her audiences: Skye’s warmth and contagious joy is legendary, from standing ovations in Berlin and Helsinki to sold-out shows around Australia and in her home town of Melbourne.
What does it mean to be alternative? Why is difference so confronting? And, most importantly, is her long-suffering husband only enduring her eccentricities because dividing up the blu-rays is too onerous a task?
On Saturday 25th at 5pm, Skye is holding ‘Relaxed Performances’. The National Theatre define Relaxed Performances as ‘specifically designed to welcome people who will benefit from a more relaxed performance environment, including people with an Autism Spectrum Condition, sensory and communication disorders, or a learning disability’.
A voice for the unique, the weirdoes, the sexually diverse and anyone else who unapologetically lives their most fun-filled life. Directed by ‘Homicidal Pacifist’ Sameena Zehra (Nominee, ‘Best in Fringe’ New Zealand Fringe 2016). Also features a relaxed performance
Gryphon Theatre, 22 Ghuznee Street, Te Aro
Thursday 23, Friday 24 and Saturday 25 February 2017
8:00pm (55 minutes)
Additional Relaxed Performance Saturday 25 5pm
Tickets: Full $18.00, Concession/Student $15.00/$14.00,
Fringe Addicts $14.00
Bookings: fringe.co.nz
Theatre , Solo ,
55 mins
Maintains a bold comedic stance with confidence
Review by Margaret Austin 24th Feb 2017
If Lisa-Skye was ever self-conscious, it was a long time ago. The success of her performance Spiders Wearing Party Hats at the Gryphon is grounded in an appealing lack of it.
This is her New Zealand premiere. She’s from Melbourne, and she’d like to plead jet lag, but there’s only a two-hour time difference. “This is a show about my life,” we’re told – and this reviewer hopes it will be as clever as it is confronting.
Her costume is red, green, and black – and her hair is green as well. “I look like I fucked a pixie,” she avows. This is the first of a series of vivid images that she peppers her discourse with. And I tick off on the list I’m making of what makes a stand-up comic memorable. Her description of her entry point exemplifies the self-deprecation that’s another hallmark of the show. And gets another tick.
Lisa assumes that her audience is as sexually astute as she is – and she’s right. Not much of what she says is lost on us – though I am not so keen on the poetry interludes about her relationship. I get rescued hearing about her ‘hair ombudsman’ though, and the scatter of glitter that precedes a chat about sadism. We also get a quick burst of Billy T – although Lisa admits to having “no frame of reference”.
She gets two more ticks – one for coherence, which she achieves by repeating a beautician’s remark she didn’t much like, and a final big one for taking a bold comedic stance and maintaining it.
Audiences revel in confidence, and ultimately confidence is what makes or breaks a performance of this kind. Lisa’s full-bodied gestures and her ease with herself lets her audience relax and assures us that she can take the piss without being offensive.
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