Busting Out!
Sun Herald
Sunday October 26, 2008
Busting Out!
Parade Theatre, NIDAToday at 1pm; November 12-15, 7.30pmTickets $35-$45Bookings 132 849Critic's rating 6/10I'M more of a leg man than a breast man, truth be told. A lot of this show, although it's not exactly highbrow, went way over my head. Oh well, until someone comes up with a scintillating hour of leg-manipulation comedy, this will have to do.In the footsteps of the pioneering, gratuitously offensive Bum Puppets and the internationally successful Puppetry of the Penis, Busting Out! offers a brisk hour of stand-up and physical grotesquerie, though unlike its genre predecessors, it's wrapped up in positive messages about body image and a celebratory tone. After a bit of a tease, Emma Powell and Bev Killick - sporting double-breasted jackets, naturally - introduce their co-stars: for Powell it's all about empowerment. Her breasts are named Hillary and Condoleezza (it's a left-versus-right joke, not a reference to colour). Killick names hers Starsky and Hutch. One has more hair.The physical business takes its cues from the compendium of "dick tricks" practised by Puppetry of the Penis. It's altogether less gruesome (few who saw it will ever forget PoP's "windsurfer") but you can't deny the visceral impact of two ample-bosomed performers kneading and squeezing that most revered symbol of womanhood like Playdough. Inventive boob origami - projected on to a video screen for added impact - results in a series of unlikely shapes and personalities. The Abba routine is inspired, as is their deft bit of shadow puppetry. Some of the sketch material is weak, however, particularly a TV infomercial routine featuring Killick's breasts as household appliances. Powell's "General Hung-Lo" skit - a sort of People's Liberation Army guide to expressing breast milk - is excruciating. The women complement each other well on stage, though. Powell is very much the hearty trouper with a belting voice and feminist perspective; Killick is the chainsaw-voiced upstager who gets her tits out for a laugh. Director Terence O'Connell turns everything over at an agreeable clip, although the performances could stand coming down a notch in these gentile theatre venues. At the moment, Killick and Powell look and sound like they've been rehearsing on an airport runway. Busting Out! also plays at the Joan Sutherland Performing Arts Centre, Penrith (November 3), Parramatta Riverside Theatres (November 4), and the Sutherland Entertainment Centre (November 5).
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