Walking out of a 16-colour Sierra game comes Clara Cupcakes – platinum blonde hair, purple skin, eight tentacles. Cephalopod molluscs never looked so fancy, as if straight outta the pictures; Marilyn Monroe from Some Like It Hot meets Ursula from The Little Mermaid.
An octopus has three hearts (thanks, Wikipedia), which makes Clara’s heartache especially wretched. Spurned by her “Octo-King”, she strives to set things right. With the help of her trusty prawn called, er, Prawn, Clara begins to progress, but there are setbacks – fantastic, hilarious, and sexy setbacks. Clara retreats to her shell, there’s the beautiful muffled patter of the audience hitting their start buttons, and she ‘restarts’ and begins again.
The burlesque and ukulele were impressive, but Clara certainly isn’t the only performer offering those, so just ask yourself where else in the MICF you’re going to go and participate in an octopus laying her eggs?
Sometimes theatre is at its absolute best when it isn’t tidy, when it colours outside the lines. Clara’s performance was fun throughout, ending on an unexpectedly sweet and truthful note. There’s some bravery under all ‘dem hijinks’. Elly Squire, along with director, Geraldine Quinn, have fashioned a glorious show. Get yourself a ticket, use eight arms if you have to.
Clara Cupcakes – The Worst
The Butterfly Club, 5 Carson Place, Melbourne
Performance: Tuesday 11 April 2017 – 8.30pm
Season continues to 23 April 2017
Bookings: www.comedyfestival.com.au
For more information, visit: www.claracupcakes.com for details.
Image: Elly Squire as Clara Cupcakes (supplied)
Review: David Collins