It is commandeered by Faz, a Pacific Islander drag queen dressed in the best of St Vincent de Paul’s, and she is accompanied by 6 other men who are excellent twirlers, dancers, acrobats and comedians. Given the format of the show, it is very difficult to describe it without setting off the spoiler alerts, so allow me to paste this pic instead:
Please note that this acrobat was actually on top of the audience. No safety net. And he had most of his clothes on. In **this** photo, at least. He does make some changes to his outfit in midair. Now, this part of the show is perhaps the reason why a good 70% of the audience were women. And yes, there was a very clear “Sex & The City” vibe to them - this event was, after all, held in the Sydney Opera House, so they were dressed to the nines, some with matching fascinators. The stage performers loved them, and definitely made sure the giggling ladies had their eyefull, with one of the scantily clad performers ending the show by diving into some young woman’s lap (and they also ended up frolicking on the floor - how very Brisbane).
And that is telling of the show and its roots. They tend to do things that defy Sydney convention: kicking empty plastic buckets to the audience, breaking ceramic plates on the stage floor (and into some audience members as well), swearing endlessly (and perhaps even needlessly). One can argue that that is part and parcel of the show, but in the context of the Sydney Opera House, it just seemed out of place.
To make it worse, the hostess was quite amateurish in her humour as well. Her dialogue was haphazard and does not do well to introduce the next acts. A comedian doesn’t just jump on stage and expect humour to flow casually (unless you are Robin Williams). Comedy takes practice and timing - and she just didn’t do or have either.
I guess it is good that she was backed by amazing performers who knew what exactly they were doing. All the circus performers were at their peak, and even the weakest performer (Mr Plate) was amusing at least. In fact, I have to say that 85% of the show was fantastic, and the small bits that were just a bit off... well, they can be changed. And given that we watched the first show of their very (ahem) brief stay in the Opera House, I assume that it will only get better from here.
The show will run until the 15th, and for more info, click here.
Do I recommend it? Yes, 4 slices.
Just a few notes: You **HAVE** to buy the meat tray raffle ticket. And you can buy alcohol inside the Studio itself so no need to queue outside for a bottle of white. And don’t use flash photography. And you should take an orange when it comes your way. And you **HAVE** to buy the meat tray raffle ticket. No, really, you **HAVE** to. In fact, buy 10. Good luck!
Thirty minutes later, we were at the bottom of the Golden Staircase, and began the 2 hour trek to the Ruined Castle. Most of the terrain was level, save for the last 30 minutes of the walk, closer to the Castle itself.
Just for the record, the Castle is actually made of ginormous boulders that, from afar, look like a ruined castle. If you can squeeze through the two boulders in order to reach the peak of the "Castle" (and coming down from that was actually no easy feat in itself), the view is absolutely fantastic. We had lunch in a makeshift picnic area nearby and had an awesome view of the valley.
The tricky part (and traumatic for me!) was the walk back to the car. Some of us opted for the longer but relatively more level walk to the Scenic Railway, which is the world's steepest railway (according to the Scenic World pamphlet, at least). Three of us decided to brave the trek up the Golden Staircase, and that was where I hit trouble.
