High Tease – Lowry Theatre, Salford

Devised by The Ministry of Burlesque

Reviewer: Dave Cunningham

The Public Reviews Rating:

The latest production from the Ministry of Burlesque reminds us that teasing does not always guarantee satisfaction. High Tease seeks to revise the craft of burlesque theatre for the 21st Century. The results are mixed; efforts to blend historical routines with more modern attitudes sometimes jar whilst the acts that simply use the burlesque techniques are more successful.

Prior to High Tease I would have doubted that shows in which women take off their clothes could be asexual. Surprisingly, after awhile, the common features of the acts become hard to ignore. Each performer starts facing away from the audience before turning and gradually disrobing. The finale involves spinning tassels from the nipples and perhaps getting down to a miniscule thong. Audiences accustomed to the antics of, say, Lady Gaga they may feel this lacks excitement. There is, however, an authenticity to the show and the dull airbrushed perfection that infects many performers these days is refreshingly absent. Indeed there isn’t much difference between the members of the Ministry and the local performers Danni California and Cheri Fox who fight it out in a Battle of the Burlesque.

Persia Portia performs in the classic style – concealing herself behind umbrellas and balloons. Red Sarah is more modern spinning burning tassels and revealing testicles that turn out to be juggling balls. Kitty Klaw and Jim Devero put a modern twist on a classic act from the 19th Century. Having failed to attract the attention of her beau in the conventional way Kitty resorts to stripping. This too fails because, Devero explains in language that would be too graphic for the time when the act originated, he is ‘ The Piccadilly Prowler ‘. The couple are reconciled when Kitty returns dressed as a sailor.

As well as introducing the acts Mr B, ‘ The Rhyming Gentleman’, generates laughs by performing modern music in a clipped ‘ English’ accent. This is by no means a new technique and its success depends on the extent to which the audience is familiar (or better yet has an affection for) the music that is satirised. Deloris Delight is a petit figure with an incredibly small waist. She lives up to her billing as the ultimate siren belting out torch songs and cabaret standards in an excellent voice.

There is little in High Tease to cause offence. The only act that might generate any controversy is Blanche Dubois. The most original act in the show Dubois confounds expectations by beginning a strip as a man and ending up as a woman then turning back again. His interpretation of ‘ Like a Virgin’ is even more striking changing the Virgin Mary from a perfectly preserved statute into a scarlet woman.

The Lowry have gone to a lot of trouble to accommodate High Tease by replacing the stalls seats with tables but the Ministry waste this intimate atmosphere. The stage is too brightly lit and left bare of props and backdrops so that some of the acts look a bit forlorn in such a large space.

The ambition of High Tease is not yet realised and more work is required before the show is pleasing rather than just teasing.