Tahi Festival, at Bats Theatre
and Circa Theatre is a celebration of solo artists, a 10 day Festival dedicated
to showcasing the finest and most engaging solo performance from around the
motu.
Tonight we were treated to a
bit of historical cabaret with a twist. Australian born, now Wellington
based burlesque performer Jo Marsh aka Jo Jo Bellini can be seen on red light
stages around town but tonight she was a secret agent in waiting.
She told us that, like some of
her idols in this show, she too had wanted, from an early age to be a
spy. She wanted the romance, the sex, the adventure. She wasn't too
keen on the executions part though.
Her show mixes wit and wisdom,
song a salacious, saucy snippets of history as she profiles 5 amazing female
spies and one transgender provocateur.
Cheeky and full of attitude she
struts about her simple stage of archive boxes and manila folders whipping out
facts on the lives of WWI agent Mata Hari (did you know she was a wife and
mother as well as an exotic dancer?), Yoshiko Kawashima (who defied the onset
of Mao's Cultural Revolution in the Sino Japanese War), Ace Spy Nancy Wake
(better known as the White Mouse, and a Kiwi to boot), Mary Bowser (who's
photographic memory helped the Union to win the American Civil War), the
outrageous Madamoiselle Chavallier D'Eon de Beaumont (who was really a man, but
became a woman) and the WW2 spy Noor Inyat Khan (a woman of colour who spied
for the English, right under the noses of the Gestapo).
Marsh liberally flaunts her
favourite playlist ditties - Kim Carnes' Betty Davis Eyes, Blondie's One
Way Or Another, a bond theme - Nobody Does It Better - and more, rearranging
the lyrics to suit her characters, of whom she inhibits during each number.
My favourite scene was when Jo
is talking about Nancy Wake (who was a Wellingtonian - did you know that?) and
she reaches into her file box and pulls out a cat puppet with a swastika
armband and a mouse puppet who will sneak off with the cheese (a metaphor for stealing
war secrets) all performed while doing her best Debbie Harry
impression.
There are other magic moments
along the way, too. Her brash impression of Kawashima 'kicking against
the pricks' as a punk rebel hero was also memorable.
If anything Marsh was a little bit
let down by her own small falters. A line missed here, a spill
there. But nothing major.
Director and former flatmate Sameena Zehra keeps the action simple and effective, relies on the usual flourishes of cabaret, costume play and dance moves but also acknowledges Marsh's own personality and body movement. She doesn't get her to do anything that looks too posed or unnatural. This is Jo Marsh onstage, after all. I loved the show, the concept and the very idea of bringing history to life, especially HERSTORY like this is a very worthy thing. Can't wait to see what comes next from Jo Marsh et al!
Read more about Jo Marsh at Blog On The Tracks
Book and see Agent Provocateurs
Book a Tahi show here: https://www.tahifestivalnz.com/
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