Feline Intimate
Dunstan Playhouse 19 and 20 Jun
Feline Intimate is the latest offering from highly credited cabaret queen, Meow Meow. An entertaining mix of performance art and Meow’s very own brand of “kamikaze cabaret”, she presents vocal performances interspersed by a hilarious show of diva antics.
Featuring John Thorn on piano, the set list was enjoyable but low-key. With every tune mellowed and drawn out, the musical numbers entertained but seemed to lack something. The show might have been well served by increasing the tempo now and then, but perhaps the song choice was aimed at balancing out the comedy and theatrics in-between.
A public costume change ten minutes in was a good indication that this was going to be something a bit different. Audience beware: this is not a show in which you get to sit back and quietly observe. Meow pushes the envelope with intimate crowd interactions and won’t take no for an answer. Regardless of whether a crowd-surfing exercise to the middle rows was what you had in mind when you booked, be prepared to catch her anyway.
Meow reveals her pop culture credentials in the closing number with a cover of Radiohead’s Fake Plastic Trees, though again she manages to take an understated song and strip it back further, leaving it feeling somewhat empty.
Overall an enjoyable performance, but carried mostly by the quality of Meow’s voice and her riotous theatrics rather than the mellow set list.
Nicole Russo
