The Edinburgh Festival takes up nearly the whole month of August with some 50,000 performances by artistes from across the globe. Over 3,000 entertainers play at some 300 venues. Oz is well represented and I went to see Amelia Ryan’s festival show `Lady Liberty`.
Amelia’s base is Adelaide, South Australia where she has appeared at the Adelaide Fringe, the world’s second-largest annual arts festival (after Edinburgh). For 24 days and nights during the Aussie late summer of February and March, it features more than 4,000 artists from around Australia and the world, featuring world premieres, hit shows and new artists.
Amelia says of Scotland’s capital: “I fell in love with Edinburgh the minute I arrived. The hidden passageways that connect the narrow streets, the way the sun, occasionally, hits Arthur’s Seat as it sets, and the palpable heartbeat of a city, bursting with productions. I came armed with my debut show ‘A Storm in a D Cup’; ready to take on the elusive mistress that is the Fringe. Granted, my love affair waxed and waned over the month as Fringe fatigue and several hangovers set in, but upon leaving at the end of August last year, I knew I’d be back.”
Her show is described as `Sexy, sassy and side-splittingly hilarious, a night with this critically acclaimed cabaret siren (winner: Adelaide Fringe Weekly Best Cabaret, nominee: Fringe World Best Cabaret) is like a bender with your bestie. Las Vegas romps to long-lasting love, champagne-guzzling to green-juicing, box gaps to feeling #blessed, she tackles the pressing (and totally first world) issues facing the modern woman in search of liberty. With powerhouse vocals and prolific parodies, it’s the liberation celebration you won’t want to miss! ‘Hysterically funny… incredibly inspiring’ ***** (UpsideNews.com). ‘Flawless’ ***** (RipItUp.com.au). ‘Heart and hilarity… too much fun’ **** (Adelaide Advertiser). #madeinadelaide `
She introduced herself as `The bimbo from Bombo` and asked the audience: “How many of you have ever heard of Bombo?” Not surprisingly no-one in the audience had heard of Bombo which is a small town on the New South Wales coast about 75 miles south of Sydney. Its main claim to fame seems to be there is a sewerage works there. I looked it up and found that is near a more sizable township called Kiama which has a population of just under 13,000. Remarkably, Bombo has a railway station and you can get to Sydney in just over two hours by train.
Amelia gave some brief details of her career – she had gambled everything on going to America and appeared in shows in New York City. She said that seeing the Statue of Liberty was where she got the idea for the name of her show. New York is where she met her beau, an Australian called Zac. Together they returned to their native Australia where they now reside.
She asked people in the audience where they had come from and the audience was quite cosmopolitan. There were people from Germany, Cape Town in South Africa, California, Sheffield in England and Falkirk in Scotland. Two of the people she spoke to were doctors while one was a lawyer. She got them out of the audience on to the stage area and sat them down in chairs with a glass of champagne each. She asked them if they had done certain sexually mischievous things and if they had they each had to drink a sip. Some of them got quite drunk! She used a power point display on a screen along with several costume changes ending garbed in a stylish little silver mini dress.
Her final song was an outrageous `My Vagina is 8 Miles Wide, Absolutely Everyone Can Come Inside`.
All in all, an enjoyable show with an attractive, outgoing and sanguine blond Aussie girl who we may well hear more of in the future.
You can read more about Amelia on her website AmeliaRyan.com