Drama
Burlesque Blitz!
British Legion Bar

Nothing beats a good sketch show to alleviate mid-season doldrums and Dazzle Troupe’s latest offering of their Burlesque show did just that.

The sex factor was turned up several notches by two peformances

Produced and directed by Nicole Cuschieri, Burlesque Blitz! was held in the most appropriate bar in Valletta and made the most of its World War II theme.

I can unabashedly say that this year’s offering most certainly did not tank, but rather came back with a resounding bang.

Matt Bonanno’s Percy Purvy acted as Emcee and his Butlins’ style campness was reminiscent of a Carry On film. His characterisation worked well within the scope of the show and helped to bridge the individual sketches by using comic compering suitably.

Another performer who managed to provide a link between the items was Vee Stivala’s pseudo-subtle, but blatantly visible spy, Miss Vera O. B. Vious, whose completely silent and clumsy character still managed to be non-verbally expressive in an extremely amusing manner.

Her character’s styling made her look rather like the hypothetical child of Inspector Clouseau and Carmen Sandiego.

Marilù Vella provided two musical numbers in Maltese dressed in 1940s glam. Her sultry rendition of Andrew Alamango’s Valletta in her guise as Lu Lu de’ Frou made for pleasant listening, while the ridiculous get-up she wore for The Gourmet Triplets and Dr Zicotron, in which she was accompanied by Alex Spiteri Gingell on the keyboard and flanked by mannequins in sailor costumes, bagged quite a few laughs too.

A very weird take on what I could only interpret as being an attack on omnivores was Rachel Tedesco Triccas’s and Teo Reljic’s piece Prophecy-Death-Undeath. A silent Tedesco Triccas choreographed her way around the stage while interacting with Reljic’s seemingly famished soldier by feeding him corned beef – yes you got it right – corned beef, with ever-increasing urgency, having previously held up warning placards which seemed to indicate the triumph of a cow.

While Parvati Patel might have liked it, I’m doubtful Ron Weasley would have.

Reljic’s other concept piece worked better; with General Grandiloquent Gass and Clerk Joy Division, featuring Karley Cole and Marie-Claire Pellegrini, as an army general and her accompanying officer, respectively. These two young women channelled ’Allo ’Allo’s Helga in her shouty mood and the ever cheerful Hans Gruber perfectly.

Of the other less than verbose performances, I found Karley Cole, Miriam Calleja and Joseph Zammit’s wacky mime sketch – in which two sexy nurses and a deranged surgeon do the weirdest things to their patient – pleasantly amusing.

The Marching Trumpets by Vive Dance Co, choreographed by Lynne Salomone Reynaud, gave an energetic and well-stylised dance set to 1940s music, with some very cheeky high-kicks.

But the sex factor was turned up several notches by two performances which surprised me in their burlesque authenticity. Tigerbilly Vella’s Dance of Eva Rose was proper burlesque striptease – from trench coat to lacey corset, stockings and suspenders to the black cross nipple pasties exposed at the end of the show.

Big boobies they may have been, but no Fallen Madonna here, though Van Klomp might have been proud! Leona Gold’s burlesque strip as Shelly Boom Boom gave the art of undressing a transvestite twist – I have to hand it to Gold – she held her own to Vella in the most dangerous kind of footwear I’ve ever seen.

Leaving the best till last, what completely killed me with laughter were two sketches. WhatsTheirNames Theatre presented a piece scripted by Philip Leone Ganado and Nathan Brimmer, which featured a pommy British Officer, played by Joseph Zammit, who engages two Maltese bus drivers of the pre-Arriva days to fly a bomber and target the enemy.

The ensuing conversation, between Joe Depasquale and David Chircop, as they blunder their way over Valletta towards an unknown German destination, was hilarious, peppered with the rough brogue and laden with slang and expletives which every Maltese has experienced on the old bus system. I pity our noobs on the newly sanitised system: a whole world of humour will be forever lost on them.

The other sketch was a musical piece: an instructive lecture-cum- operatic interlude by Alex Vella Gregory in drag as the erudite and accomplished soprano Millicent Mallia Milanes, accompanied by Veronique Vella as Felicity Felice. Vella Gregory’s rendition of Adalgiża u l-Prinċep Tork sung in Maltese with a distinct ‘pepe’ accent and that haughtiness which Maltese women of a certain age and social class at times exude, was made all the more hilarious by the incredibly funny lyrics laden with intentional double-entendre.

What made this sketch so side-splittingly funny was the fact that the character of Mallia Milanes seemed completely oblivious to the incomparable hilarity of her song and her serious tone and operatic falsetto made this piece the most enjoyable of the lot.

Burlesque Blitz! was a great concept for light entertainment and made for a good night out.