Sinsuality: Love | The Edith | Until 16 Feb | ★ ★ ★ ★
A marriage of some of Perth’s best performance artists bring another sensational variety cabaret to Fringe World Festival with the return of Sinsuality.
Local drag matriarch BarbieQ, Mr Boylesque Australia 2017 Karl Kayoss, Ruby Lai of Bobbi’s Pole Studio, Miss Burlesque WA 2016 Sugar Du Joure, and a super talented trio of Kinetica acrobats and aerialists – Matt, Bec and Sarah – have once again come together in an orgy of talent.
Taking out the Best Circus Award at Fringe World 2017, Sinsuality returns with it’s successful formula; an exploration of the seven deadly sins through the talents of each of these very different artists.
In 2020, the Sinsuality team have adopted the over-arching theme of ‘love’, a through-line as each of the performers tackle a sin of their own.
Love is a fitting theme, as hostess BarbieQ shares stories of her romance with fellow performer and fiancee Karl Kayoss. Any local drag fan will know Barbie can work the microphone as well as she can tear up the dancefloor, and salacious stories of Barbie and Karl’s lives together tie each act together throughout the evening.
Barbie isn’t shy as she regails the audience with all of the sinful details on everything from how the pair met, to miscommunications with body waxing specialists. Barbie warned the audience from the get-go that she isn’t afraid to offend, and the audience certainly didn’t seem to mind.
Each of the performers confess to their cardinal sins one-by-one. Kinetica’s Sarah is the Bad Guy of Sloth, but she definitely isn’t sleepy with her acrobatic, cupid-inspired number – and her compatriot Bec puts a Willy Wonka spin on a surprisingly bubbly number set to Sophie’s VYZEE.
Ruby Lai faces off against greed, spectacularly taking pole dancing to a new level with a swinging pole suspended from the heights of the speigeltent and Karl Kayoss teams up with Sarah and Barbie for an enviable Roxette number.
Slinking onto the stage, Burlesque beauty Sugar du Joure is mesmerising – and surprises with a suspiciously joyful interpretation of wrath, with a wickedly fiery finale.
Finally, Matthew Pope is entangled with lust, performing an aerial number to Bjork’s An Echo, A Stain. Erratically tangling himself in a web of suspended ropes, Pope had the audience on the edge of their seats with an acrobat number unlike anything I’ve seen at Fringe World.
With the end of Fringe World in sight, Sinsuality reminds me once again of the exceptional talent that Perth’s LGBTIQ+ community (and allies) have to offer, bringing a level of skill, polish and showmanship on par with national and global acts that can boast greater name recognition and budgets.
Sinsuality: Love marries together drag, burlesque, circus and cabaret with a home-grown flair that we can all celebrate. Don’t be too proud to support these brilliant local artists.
See Sinsuality: Love until Sunday 16th February at Fringe World
Leigh Andrew Hill is an editor at OUTinPerth, with a BA from the University of Western Australia in Media Studies & Art History. Since 2005, Leigh has studied and practiced journalism, film-making, script-writing, language, contemporary performance and visual arts. Leigh is also a freelancer writer, and producer and presenter on RTRFM 92.1.
