Hold onto your hats (and maybe loose a few other items of clothing) Melbourne, because when it comes to a night out that really suits us here at The Plus Ones, the bar has just been raised.
If you haven’t yet lost yourself in the labyrinth of lights and velvet at Melbourne’s premier pop-up playground Spiegel Haus, you are missing out on peak theatrical magic. It’s the sort of venue that wraps its arms around you, pours you a cheeky drink, and whispers, “anything goes tonight.”
Perched next to the Golden Square car park, Spiegel Haus was perhaps not the most desirable location we could imagine on one of Melbourne’s most rain-drenched nights in memory, however with the promise of another fantastic Briefs shows we knew we had to grab our raincoats and climb those stairs.
‘Briefs: The Works‘ a riotous collision of circus, burlesque, comedy, drag, and unfiltered nudity (and lots of it) playing as part of Melbourne Fringe Festival. If you’ve seen the Briefs team before (they are celebrating 18 years of shows after all), let us squash any rumors right here… resting on their laurels is simply not in their vocabulary.
Part of the sheer brilliance of ‘The Works’ is that it’s a living, breathing, sequins-and-sweat-soaked organism. Even if you’ve memorized their past routines down to the last feather, this iteration serves up enough fresh wicked twists, rearranged acts that celebrate their 18 years, fresh new faces and spontaneous chaos to make you feel like a wide-eyed virgin all over again.
Led by the incomparable ringmaster Shivannah (Fez Faanana), the troupe delivers a masterclass in how to juggle high-art acrobatics with low-brow belly laughs. The performers bend, twist, tuck, and strip with a precision that defies gravity and convention alike. You’ll go from gasping at gravity-defying aerial feats to howling at razor-sharp comedic timing in the span of a single musical beat. Every performer brings a distinct flavor of fabulous, straddling the line between fierce sophistication and unbridled, pants-dropping comedy.
So grab your crew and dive headfirst into the Spiegel Haus madness, and let Melbourne’s favorite boys (and non-gender specific others) remind you why live performance is always worth getting stripped down for!
– The Plus Ones
