Wom*ns Revue is back for 2024, with a powerful and dynamic show that is eloquent, impressive, and absolutely hilarious. Directors Amy Tustian and Adelaide Tustian have put on a thoughtful and clever show that satirises perceptions and experiences of gender with flair and humour. From Jojo Siwa to guerneys to an assortment of your favourite fish, this year’s show truly has it all.
Centred around the theme of shift-work, the show delivers its skits with a mix of humour and empathy. It wholeheartedly delivers on its goal to reflect on the world through the perception of those with lived experience as women. The show is unafraid to be raunchy and messy, though it remains appealing and entertaining due to the strength and comedic quality of its casting and the wit of its writers; Mariika Mehigan and crew. The show is immersive and engrossing, and it will certainly absorb you from start to finish — Wom*ns Revue 2024 is truly a world in itself.
The show is a dramatic and ostentatious display that divulges into important themes, such as misogyny in the workplace and sex education, while calling back to popular culture. It does perhaps lose some positioning for political and social critique through the universality of the perceptions it displays, and the show’s fun atmosphere. Though, the show is all-in-all unfalteringly entertaining and skilfully uses a mix of over-exaggeration and thoughtfulness to gut-punch the audience in times where it requires reflection, such as the Sydney Sweeney skit (Georgia Gray-Spencer, Autumn Shields, Grace Gay). As a student, it would be hard to ignore the clever jabs it made at campus life too, such as the sketch about dodging various political bodies across Eastern Avenue (Grace Gay, Jasmine Steele-Park, Kasia Ellis, Katarina Butler, Parisa Bell-Muir, Nashy Zaini). These were excellently executed and had the entire audience, including myself, cackling in our chairs. From the curation of the upbeat opening playlist to its end, I was well and truly amused and impressed for the entirety of the performance.
It would be unjust to ignore the dance performances (spectacles, really) throughout the show. They were light-hearted and lively in themselves, though overall effectively reinforced the political or cultural point the show wished to make. The parody of the iconic ‘Cell Block Tango’ (Meg Denman, Jess Garnett, Georgia Gray-Spencer, Lara Adcock, Carla Field, Kashish Patel) in particular, was vibrant and had the audience (including myself) entertained from the moment the music began. The opening and closing numbers too absolutely had that wow factor.
From first skit to last, Wom*n’s Revue is aware of the social context within which it is placed, while staying humble and true to university life. It is not afraid to poke fun at student theatre while appealing to a broader audience through the vast range of experiences that it portrays. At times, the show felt too self-aware, calling back to psychological themes more than a handful of times throughout the almost two hour long show. While they were sometimes a deviation from the core themes of the performance, these moments were interspersed with fantastic and out-of-the-ordinary skits whose strength came from their realness. It is safe to say that the show covers a lot of ground — a feat considering that it does not sacrifice quality.
While the show has no shortage of talent amongst its cast members, it is Georgia Gray-Spencer who stole the show. Without giving too much away, I found myself looking forward to every scene she was in and she certainly delivered each time. Her comedic timing was impeccable, as was the power of her voice and commitment to the bit. That being said, each individual performer brought something unique and special to the table, and the camaraderie between the cast and crew shone through their performances and the production. Wom*ns Revue should be commended for the hard-work they have contributed to make an amazing, well-rehearsed and clever show.
Wom*ns Revue 2024 played at the Seymour Centre from May 23-25.
