Risqué business with EastEnd Cabaret

Feb 11, 2014

EastEnd Cabaret's Bernadette and Victor Victoria. Photo: Graham Denholm

They describe themselves as playfully perverse, promising Adelaide Fringe audiences a performance full of risqué songs, naughty stories, and instruments ranging from the accordion to a musical saw.

Here, EastEnd Cabaret characters Bernadette (the “deviant diva”) and Victor Victoria (the “half-moustachioed musician”) talk sex, gin and musical misadventure ahead of their Adelaide Fringe show Dirty Talk.

Who exactly are Bernadette Byrne and Victor Victoria?

VV: Bernadette is the star of the show. She is beautiful and dangerous, and although nobody really knows where she came from, her beguiling-general-European accent enchants audiences all over the world.

BB: That’s right, darling. And Victy is my half-man, half-woman band. We have known each other ever since we were children, and no matter how hard I try, I can’t seem to get rid of her!

Dirty Talk sounds a little risqué. What can Adelaide Fringe audiences expect from the show?

BB: Well, it is musical comedy, darling, but we have written all the songs in the show about real-life experiences (mostly mine) and they are of a quite intimate nature. After all, sex is a thing to which everyone can relate…

VV: Exactly, whether you’ve had your own misadventures, or it’s one that a friend has giggled about with you, or any number of hilarious secrets whispered about at the water-cooler… our songs and stories are definitely risqué, but we’ve had audience members up to 80 years of age laughing about them.

There’s been warnings of “audience-involving mischief and mayhem”. Will flak jackets be required?

VV: Bernadette does like to get up-close-and-personal with the audience – in fact, perhaps a little too close at times. But I don’t think flak jackets are necessary.

BB: I prefer the audience wear as little clothing as possible.

We love a piano accordion here at InDaily – especially one with a name. Aside from Sofia, what other instruments (props?) do you use in Dirty Talk?

VV: Sofia loves you, too! I have so many instruments; there is a piano, a synth, a violin, a musical saw, a loop pedal, sometimes a kazoo (because Bernadette wouldn’t let me bring the Peruvian nose flute from London)…

BB: She could go on about them for hours. You are such a music nerd, Victy!

Bernadette and Victor make no secret of their fondness for gin – after several visits to Adelaide, what are your favourite gin joints in the city?

BB: There are so many wonderful bars in Adelaide, but we do love the Howling Owl for a good late-night gin. It is always full of beautiful bartenders.

VV: But at this stage we still have some bottles of gin that we bought duty-free, so for the first week at least you will find us sitting in the Garden of Unearthly Delights drinking gin from a brown paper bag with the rest of the carnival folk. Join us!

EastEnd Cabaret will perform Dirty Talk in the Idolize Spiegeltent in the Garden of Unearthly Delights from February 14-March 16. The Adelaide Fringe opens on Friday.