Saying a show is ‘not for everybody’ has never been higher praise. Sitting among the lightly padded benches in the Le Cascadeur tent, waiting for Sarah-Louise Young’s one-woman Kate Bush tribute cabaret, A Night Without Kate Bush, I realised we were a self-selective bunch.
A balance of faithful tributes and spicy reinventions
Perhaps this show would have been a different experience for those in the audience not mouthing every word alongside Young, but I will never know what that is like! The only review I can offer is one from a fellow Bush fan (or fish person!).
Embedding historical and personal details, mime, prop, dance, giant glowing eyeballs, audience participation, three wigs, two hat changes, and one hair reveal – and of course her effortlessly beautiful voice – Young delivered a balance of faithful tributes and spicy reinventions: like the all-Russian rendering of Babushka, or the RADICAL choice to wear white for Wuthering Heights! (no more spoilers from here on I promise).
Although Young began the show by repeating several times that the real live Kate Bush would not be eventuating in our tent, at points I felt there was no difference. Couples gathered after the show to take photos with ‘Kate’, we sang along to all the choruses and performed ‘woof’ call-and-responses for the Hounds of Love ARRUUWWWFFF! Young had to merely utter the words Cloudbusting, and a woman tucked away in the back-left of the audience let out an audible moan of excitement and appreciation. Kate Bush will probably not come to Australia. So, this was our church, and Young was our leader. The Church of Bush had a decidedly Protestant energy, ‘it doesn’t matter if you don’t know all the words! You just have to love her!’ she exclaims to us. Yes! I thought, so true.
It is often thought that if you look at an artwork and think ‘I could do that,’ either the art is not very good or you are very unsophisticated and do not understand abstract-expressionism. In the case of cabaret, however, and Kate-bush-tribute cabaret especially, the ‘I could do that’ feeling is the pulsing lifeblood of the show. Although we remained seated and Sarah-Lousie did most (but not all!) of the singing, dancing, frolicking etc… the show had an element of communitas. Watching Young’s impossibly light and magical movements I realised I recognised them from somewhere; that is how I look in my head when I imagine myself dancing to Running Up That Hill.
An Evening Without Kate Bush reminded me how good the simple ingredients of performance can be when delivered perfectly; nothing elaborate but still totally exceptional.
