Reviewed by: Fringefeed
Review by Stephen Dedman | 17 January 2021

Wild, Divine, Feminine, at the After Dark Gallery, is an energetic and mildly raunchy cabaret featuring a local all-female cast* performing in a variety of styles from traditional burlesque and striptease to samba and hip-hop, concluding with a poetry recital by a former Miss Nude Western Australia. It lives up to its billing as a celebration of different expressions of female sexuality from Lilith to streetwise "bad bitch", and the mostly female audience apparently enjoyed it enormously. 

There is some near-nudity, but the visual highlight of the show was the Samba Goddess's dance in a spectacular costume worthy of the Carnival in Rio. The performances were lively and enthusiastic, and the small venue added to the heat factor; the performances weren't exactly "in your face", but if you were sitting on the front row of cushions, some of them were only a few centimetres from it. If you're easily embarrassed, you would be well advised to sit a little further back – and even more so if you also have a phobia of live snakes, because two of them guest-star.

It wasn't the most polished cabaret I've seen at a FRINGE WORLD; the aerialist act had to be cancelled on opening night because the necessary carabiner couldn't be located in time, and the fire-breathing act and belly-dancer that feature prominently in the video on the FRINGE WORLD website were also notably absent with no explanation given. It's possible that the show you see will be somewhat different. If you're lucky, they may even have fixed the lift.

It's not as fiercely feminist as (for example) Yuck Circus, but the energy is empowering rather than exploitative, with a strong vibe of "girls just want to have fun". Audience participation is mostly limited to appreciative applause, and there was plenty of that.

* except possibly for the snakes.