Although this 55-minute, adult performance does not contain nudity as such, it does have attractive skimpy underwear, sexually explicit dialogue and raunchy acting, so it is recommended for ages 15 plus.

This daring Blue Room / Clara Loveny production can be seen at the Blue Room Studio Theatre, Perth Cultural Centre, Northbridge nightly at 8.30 pm. The season runs until Saturday 26^th November with a matinée at 6.00 pm on Saturday 26^th November.

Joshua Walker’s set comprises a large white dais, 60 cms high, centre stage, with a further smaller dais giving a pyramidal effect. Stage manager is Katie Moore. The lighting (design by Rhiannon Petersen) varied from the red-hot, sex scenes, to the cooler informal meetings, when a blend of UV and blue light was employed.

Leanne Puttick’s musical composition gave the perfect background to the variety of scenes.

        The theatre is pitch dark. Heavy breathing and panting can be heard. The lights rise to show two girls and a boy who are finishing a webcam porn scene. There is a fade to black.

        We see Alex (Elijah Melvin), a chef who is on his way home from work. He meets Zoe (Taryn Ryan), a shy veterinary surgeon who works at the local Animal Shelter. After a day’s work, Zoe smells of animal pee. She apologises to Alex, they laugh and the couple arrange to meet another evening.

        As a relief from his day’s work, and with Zoe in mind, Alex opens up his $35 a month, porn site and settles down for a night of solo, guilty pleasure. Zoe tells her friend, Nicola (Ann-Marie Biagioni) who works in a sex shop, about her new boyfriend. Nicola has a wealth of knowledge and plenty of sexual advice for her naïve friend.

        The relationship becomes adventurous, but seems to be going down a track that both do not seem agree upon. However, what happens in the bedroom stays in the bedroom – or does it?

Sex is always a difficult topic to depict on the stage, but Samantha Maclean and Timothy Green have blended plenty of humour into the storyline, helping make the topic more acceptable. Often directors and playwrights, possibly due to their own awkwardness, will hint at what they mean and the audience can quickly spot this discomfort, and in turn become embarrassed. Our daring scriptwriters jump wholeheartedly into the fray, no punches pulled. Occasionally, the actors chat with a friendly, informal air (and non-threateningly) to audience members, this helps the patrons feel part of their instructive adventure.

The bold, courageous actors are faced with quick, tongue-twisting dialogue and numerous acrobatic positions, and yet the pace of the show did not miss a beat. There were powerful and quite touching performances by this talented team.

I left the theatre a fully educated, satisfied punter.

This unique, 1-hour, Fringeworld cabaret is ideal for mature, artistic audiences. Her tasteful session, allows even the artist with minimal skills to have an opportunity at life drawing for a minimal charge.

The venue is the Flaming Locomotive theatrette opposite the main entrance to the museum which is in the Perth Cultural Centre in the James Street Mall, Northbridge. The fun shows are designed for small groups of friends (these are not drawing classes with full instruction), and are on nightly at 6.30, until Saturday 6^th February. Female or male singles are welcome to this tasteful, non-erotic event. There is wheelchair access. A limited amount of free art materials were available at the venue.

      The session is very light-hearted, as beautiful Taryn in a cream playsuit and white silk dressing gown asks how many people have tried Life Drawing before. As she strummed away on her electric ukulele, Taryn explained in song the reasons for her starting as a nude model.

     She then enlightened us on the many demands, both physical and mental, that are made on a model. Some jaws dropped, other artists just chortled.

     The audience were all encouraged to start drawing, first each other and then onto the part-interactive art class. It is soon became obvious that Taryn’s talents are much more than her shapely figure. She sings melodiously as she finally poses – dressed as nature intended.

 

Throughout the performance, West Australian Symphony Orchestra cellist, Emma Vanderwal, added a beautiful atmosphere to the cabaret, even giving a few touches of humour to her mellifluous playing.

After so much fun, one can only wonder how many couples rush home, strip off and draw each other.