Recording: The Fabergé Fruits Collective

Artist: The Fabergé Fruits Collective

Songs: Bizarre Love Triangle [New Order cover] + Love Is Such A Drag + Forrrest^*

Recorded at Videofag ("Feint of Hart" – Parts 1 + 2), July 13, 2013.

The Fabergé Fruits Collective - Bizarre Love Triangle

The Fabergé Fruits Collective - Love Is Such A Drag

The Fabergé Fruits Collective - Forrrest

Full review to follow. A few selections here from the dare-I-say epic mounting of Henri Fabergé's Feint of Hart. Originally a somewhat freeform cabaret series, the concept (and some of these songs) have been around for a while now, but here have been boiled down into a two-part saga of repression and rebellion. Nearly Shakespearean in its tragic scope, it manages to evoke genuinely strong emotions, even while keeping a lot of charged homoeroticism and goofy humour at the centre of the action.

Henri Fletcher (in his alter ego of Henri Fabergé) does a good job here, but he is largely a catalyst. It's especially the performances of Alex Tindal and Kayla Lorette that bring a sense of internal conflict to the proceedings — and in the case of the former, also an excellent musical turn in his secret drag persona Queer E-Lezzie-Bitch the Fist. The music was very well done throughout, and the whole thing was held together with considerable discipline by director Zack Russell. A laudable achievement for all involved.

Completely sold out for its entire run at the intimate Videofag space (here marvellously transformed by Juliann Wilding's art direction) it seems inconceivable that there will not be a clamour for a remounting of this show, but in the meantime, you'll be able to find members of the troupe hosting SummerWorks' Performance Bar series, August 8-18.

^* Thanks to HDWF for passing the titles to these along!