Kaleidoscope Recs: four shows about sex work and sex you need to see this Melbourne Fringe
Savannah is a writer and a full service sex worker. Martha is not a sex worker or a writer - she’s the ideas girl. Here are their recommendations for fun, sexy and true-to-life shows about sex work and sex coming up at Melbourne Fringe (click titles for tix):
BABECITY HOTLINE
Sex Work is work. It’s the slogan we all know and love. BABECITY Hotline takes this slogan and puts it front and centre, making a show that captures the “work” element of sex work. Because what is work? It’s not the houses we build or the croissants we bake, that's the output, the service, the “sex” of sex work. The work is the 30 minutes of make-up before catching the 86 tram to the brothel. The work is sitting in the breakroom for 3 hours chatting because it’s a dead night. The work is simultaneously eating mousse with one hand, holding your work phone with the other and faking a moan for the 900th time so some guy on the other end of the call can get off.
BABECITY Hotline is inspired by lived experience in sex work, and the lead creative is a former sex worker. It is intended to be raucous and sex positive without poking fun at sex workers or the people who use sex work services. It doesn’t aim to glamorise the work. Instead, the humour stems from the outlandish campness and overt sexuality juxtaposed with mundane reality. Elements of satire abound as the fictional BABECITY call centre operates within a highly corporate francised workplace structure.
6 - 14th October, Trades Hall.
The venue is wheelchair accessible.
HORNY GHOSTS
Horny Ghosts by author M.V. Pask sounds fucking incredible. We were all more than happy to declare 2015 as the "Golden Age" of television yet everyone is afraid to admit that 2008-2011 was the Golden Age of the internet. No marketing teams or professional creators or branded accounts or fat-phobic, "body positive" influencers gaslighting us. No. Back then the internet was a Wild West of teens, nerds and hot girls stretching a very simple medium to its absolute limits.
For those in the industry , this environment meant dealing with the best and worst of the internet. From complete anonymity, and all the good and bad that came with it, to back alley websites (with absolutely no UX design) filled with people loaded with cash and others pretending to be.
Take everything I've just said, place it in the large Hadron collider with a pirated copy of Microsoft Office 2009 and your best lounge intro, and you've got Horny Ghosts.
At time of writing, Horny Ghosts has sold out!
20 - 21 October, Harehole Melbourne
The venue is wheelchair accessible, and they request you advise of access requirements when booking tickets. Thursday 20 October is AUSLAN interpreted.
POLES: THE SCIENCE OF MAGNETIC ATTRACTION
It might be called Sex Work, but it doesn't always involve sex. Sometimes it involves just the ugliest cat anyone has ever seen. Poles will make you feel like you're swapping stories in the back room, having some of the most intense D&Ms you’ve had since you got drunk at 16 and sat out the front of your friends' parents place in the gutter with an absolute stranger. We had the pleasure of seeing Poles at the Butterfly Club before it went to Adelaide Fringe earlier this year. This show is heartfelt, honest, and at times cringey, in the best way. Amelia does a great job of drawing you in with her hilarious, messy character and poignant storyline.
We spoke to writer Millie Pitcher and she said:
It’s unmissable: a funny, honest, and heartwarming ride through the late-night world of strip clubs, their customers, and messy young adulthood… see it before it becomes a major motion picture #definitelyofficial
6 - 23 October, Trades Hall
The venue is wheelchair accessible, and they request you advise of access requirements when booking tickets. Tuesday 18 October is a relaxed performance.
SLUTNIK™
Now, this play is not about Sex Work and did not involve workers in the process. But with lip-syncing cannibal space lesbians and a sexy aerobics routine, how could we not add it to the list?
SLUTNIK™ looks like a romp! A massive explosion of fun and queer love that doesn't take itself too seriously (taking things seriously is for the straights anyway). "Part lip sync, part fighting montage, part open mic night" is the kind of tagline that should genuinely get you excited.
We spoke to the team, and they said:
Adjacent themes are sex positivity, bodily autonomy for women and marginalised bodies, radical lesbianism, queerness, and more. The focus is on freedom and autonomy at large - which feels very relevant to SWs even if we didn’t directly engage with that community … I feel all at once obliged and cautious about sharing all of my reasons for writing, and my hopes for the performance. Take what you can, know that if you feel it in your bones then it is for you. Above all, if the show makes you want to holler and laugh and cry and applaud, then I think the team and I have done a pretty stellar job at achieving our brief.
6 - 14 October, Trades Hall
The venue is wheelchair accessible, and they request you advise of access requirements when booking tickets. Tuesday 11 October is a relaxed and sensory friendly performance, and Wednesday 12 October is AUSLAN interpreted.
This Kaleidoscope Recs was generously donated by Savannah and Martha.
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