This Fringe, Millicent Sarre (‘Opinionated’), Jemma Allen (‘Reclaiming Harry’), and Rosie Russell (‘The Finest Filth’) are joining forces as they ask their audiences: ‘What is a Bisexual Intellectual?’
All three, in their own right, are among Adelaide’s finest performers. Combining their vast experience in cabaret, these three local icons are bringing a fresh, big, bold new show full of cathartic comedy chaos.
Millicent, Jemma and Rosie caught up with Glam Adelaide’s Arts Editor, Ben Stefanoff, to shed light on their new show and how this collaboration came about.
Rosie:
“This is reflected in the tone of the show – the idea started as a joke, almost a dare between us. We’ve all worked in the Fringe in previous years and we’re all very good friends, so we have supported each other’s work in that time and it felt like quite a natural next step. I think we had the title of the show, in all of its rhyming glory, long before we had any of the content. Our trust in each other and our capacity for foolery helped create the show. Our title is essentially what led us to getting funding, and then we thought we better write the show! It was very organic.”
All three have different writing and performing backgrounds and Millicent shared how the creative process worked when it came to writing Bisexual Intellectuals.
“In a very cool turn of events, the final product that we’ve come up with is very representative of all three of our different flavours of artistry. We had a general structure and had these overarching ideas that we wanted to focus on. Then it was a pretty even split as to where we focused our effort and our skill set. Jemma’s been an absolute queen on the beat and also the jazz numbers. Rosie is the wild ideas woman and helped us see them through. I utilise my skill sets of being a bit more of a traditional songwriter on the keys and the ukulele, and focusing more on the lyrics and harmonies. All three of those things have merged seamlessly and we have a really cool set list of songs – all originals – and they’re all vastly different from one another. That’s really exciting for me – that it’s so sonically diverse, and that regardless of what kind of music you’re into, so many genres are represented in the soundtrack.”
We asked Rosie what this collaborative new show is all about.
“The show is very episodic in its structure, rather than following a narrative. It is pulling from our real life experiences of being three bisexual women and talking about various aspects of representation, love, sex, and identity in an incredibly unhinged way. The tone is so wide, and we have so much fun performing the material that we’ve written that I think it appeals to a very wide demographic. I don’t think you have to identify as bisexual, or even identify as queer, to enjoy the content and to be able to access the content.”
Jemma shared with us how one particular lucky audience member is vital each night to keeping the flow of the show…flowing!
“It has been a little challenging to remember the order of how the show is structured, but with practice, it’s all fallen into place. In the first workshop rehearsal we had, which we did in December, we asked our workshop audience if there was enough through line – was there enough that’s holding the show together thematically and narrative wise? We do have a special little treat for one particular audience member who is very, very involved in the show and will have a very important role to take on in the show. We don’t want to give you too many spoilers, but it’s pretty exciting. By virtue of having that person being involved, they are the thread, the through line that we are relying on. So no pressure on that one audience member.”
Anyone who has seen a Millicent Sarre show before knows there is a suitably themed costume or two. Millicent assures us that Bisexual Intellectuals is no different.
“Are there costumes…just you wait till you see what we have planned. The wonderful news is that in addition to our base costume, we have some additional costume pieces and fun props which will make an appearance, which will be very exciting.”
All three are excited to bring this new show to Gluttony as Rosie explained.
“I think I’m excited to reel the audiences in with the expectation this is going to be a Millicent Sarre classic cabaret and then to be like, ‘What? This is just really just a lot of silly fun and joy’. It’s going to be fun. The test audiences we’ve had so far have provided some excellent feedback. There will be a lot of laughter, there’s a bit of confusion, and everyone just seems to be having a really good time. On the whole. It’s what I’m most excited for, is just to give you a fun time.”
Bisexual Intellectual is playing in The Kingfisher – Gluttony, between February 16 – 25. For further details and tickets visit: https://adelaidefringe.com.au/fringetix/bisexual-intellectuals-af2024 .
Photo credit: Kieran Humphreys
More News
