Gender Euphoria

Gender Euphoria is back with a powerful new multi-talented variety line-up of trans and gender diverse artists from across Australia. After a successful run at Midsummer, it has earned a well-deserved guernsey at the Spiegeltent for the Melbourne International Arts Festival.

Since 2017, the LGBTI community has come out waving the freedom flag of equal rights and gender equality, and this show represents a wonderful celebration of artistic lives that shine bright in their rainbow colors. The magic of Spiegeltent    delights with burlesque, circus, spoken word, lyp-synch, song, dance and comedy routines collated by the creative duo Mama Alto and Maude Davey.

Hosting the show, glamour queen Mama Alto, begins with a tale about a phone survey that fails to register her gender on - press one for male and two for female - relating a common story faced by her non–binary gender community.

The show is a continuous effervescent streaming of unusual talents. Bailee Rose lip-synching to a seventies classic “I’m Every Woman’’ with tongue-in–cheek attitude sets the house on fire. Between the classic Mama Alto high ranging songs, clever spoken word acts, by artists including Harvey Zeilinski, Fury, Quinn Eades and Nikki Viveca, expel inner frustrations driven by personal hardship, while the ‘gender whisperer’ Nevo Zisin approaches his skit with surreal baroque gentility.

Mayla Bird’a superb trapeze act has the LED light show fluttering in kaleidoscopic prisms; the audience are requested to wear 3D glasses (placed on seats) for full effect. The exotic Amao Leota Lu from Samoa offers an exquisite dance routine, and Tiwi Islands sister Crystal Love sheds light on her experiences in country.

This razzle-dazzle show is more than just a fun night out; it delivers cutting edge messages about gender equality and the right to live one’s life as one chooses.

To quote the show’s motto, “Gender dysphoria in favour of gender euphoria”, this is a must-see show.

Flora Georgiou

Images: Alexis Desaulniers-Lea Photography