Damsel Sophie enters the room to dramatic music wearing a glittering black and gold dress and a top hat with a long tulle veil. Displaying her Best Cabaret Show Adelaide Fringe 2011 award, she sings about her heartache and the hope of a new day.
Apparently this is not a cabaret, as Damsel Sophie has had trouble figuring out how to follow up last year’s award winning show. She sings her heart out anyway about the struggles of working at a call centre and her determination to be classy. She has expressive energetic eyes and a face that can contort into any possible shape,and will for a laugh.
Damsel Sophie is very funny and very talented, but her critique on minor fame and the struggle to continue making people laugh fell flat. In questioning the point of performing cabaret she turns to ‘serious political’ theatre to find meaning. She performed a parody on the stereotypical ridiculousness of self-important solo shows that centres on the plight of the donkey while wearing a lavender unitard and donkey ears on her head.
She’s undoubtedly not afraid of making herself and others look ridiculous. Her moments of audience interaction and participation definitely hit the mark. So does her voice: she belts out a version of Adele’s Someone Like You that’s really beautiful and works in her crazy world of self-analysis. However, in the end, the show lacks a point and leaves the audience wondering why.
