MAYHEM AT MISKATONIC by Nick Cassidy and Ash Cassidy (Pointed Cap Playhouse/Fringe). At the Painted Lady (218 Ossington). July 6-7 and 12-13 at 2 pm, July 8 – 11 at 7 pm. See listing. Rating: NNNN
Things get cozy fast at this burlesque whodunit held in a petite dive bar. A packed house, we’re practically sitting on each other’s laps by the time freelance gumshoe Trixie Frisker (a.k.a. Bianca B. Boom) opens the show with a torchy song and tease from the postage stamp-sized stage.
The creative team are seasoned performers and Fringe veterans with hits such as 2017’s Lysistrata and last year’s Carmilla to their credit. Collectively, they have the silly but smart vibe down pat.
Burlesque involves riling up the audience to a fever pitch, and it’s great fun to watch the artists push the room temperature higher while taking their clothes off, slinging double entendres and maintaining professional cool (for the most part).
Highlights include Stella Kulagowski’s “Science, bitches!” routine performed on the bar as Neil DeGrass Tyson enthuses about atoms and stars, and a class wars-fuelled dance-off between working journo Sly Pereira (on the beat for “Then” Magazine) and Sebastian Marziali’s aristocratic Ethelbert Cumbersnatch. And when shady nun Daniel Bowen sheds their habit dancing full tilt down the narrow corridor between the bodies of rowdy Fringers, the energy is genuinely electric.
My advice? Go early for a good seat (the bar opens an hour before each show), grab a drink and get into it.
