Make sure to check out our guide to the Melbourne Fringe Festival 2015
Torte e Mort: Songs of Cake and Death is an exquisite hour of cabaret. Anya Anastasia makes her premiere at this year’s Fringe, and an hour watching her show left me in awe of her talent as a singer, writer and performer. I can’t think of one thing I didn’t like about it, au contraire, it was consistently excellent in all aspects.
Anya transforms herself on stage from Marie Antoinette with an Australian twang, to the corpse of Marie Antoinette, her ghost, her disembodied head, Death and an oh-so-sultry she-devil. The performance is a progression of darkly comic, delightfully witty, edgy songs about death. And gateaux. Anya has is a great singer and keyboard player, the tunes are great, and the lyrics are smart and funny. Great puns too – plentiful but not cheap!
Her credentials as a talented performer are evident from the start, but I would be remiss in highlighting how well the show is put together too – lighting, costumes, sound effects – this is edgy Fringe material at is best, and very professionally put together and produced. Every little detail seems deliberately thought out and rehearsed to perfection. I’d gladly see this again, and anything else Anya comes up with in future. Bravo! Anya has a new fan and probably a lot more, given the thunderous applause she received at the Spiegeltent on her opening night. I told her so myself, and am a new follower of her fan Facebook page, curious to check out more about this Adelaide artist.
-Christian G.
Christian G. is an international man of mystery, book and cat lover; moonlighting as a finance professional by day.
Torte e Mort has a limited run at the Melba Spiegeltent ending this Sunday, 20 September. The venue is accessible.
