The Travelling Sisters

The Travelling Sisters
Melbourne International Comedy Festival. The Butterfly Club, Carson Place, off Little Collins Street, Melbourne. 17-23 April, 2017.

The Travelling Sisters (Lucy Fox, Ell Sachs and Laura Trenerry) is a truly delightful comedy show. The incredibly talented trio employ a vast range of performance skills including music, clowning, pantomime, mime, physical theatre, theatre of the absurd and performance art to produce a highly satirical look at life, especially Australian life. Although they are well travelled their show focuses on some of the more absurd or bizarre caricatures that typify Australian culture. Their perspective is often uncannily accurate and astute, and the result is hilarious.

The opening number provides a great introduction to the comedy trio and sets the tone of the show. The comedy is often ingenious in its simplicity and this can be seen in skits such as “Pass the Pancake” and “Roll the Sausage”. These acts rely on some good-humoured audience participation and the artistry of the delivery by the performers. In these acts, and throughout the entire performance, the timing of facial expressions and the use of dramatic pause is always impeccable. 

The creativity of the staging and the costuming also reflect the incredible ingenuity behind the show, and they reinforce the surreal yet charming nature of the material. The interlude for some stand-up comedy is also treated with imagination and shows that the trio is not afraid to satirise all aspects of society, including their own art form.

Patricia Di Risio

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