Reuben Kaye

Reuben Kaye
Adelaide Fringe Festival 2021. Wonderland Spiegeltent Festival Hub. Feb 19 - Mar 21, 2021.

Reuben Kaye is a celebration of everything that is LGBTQ+ (or ‘queer’ in simpler language). The seventy-minute extravaganza is the journey of one man’s childhood culminating in his ‘coming out’ at the tender age of 14.

The show has it all - glamour, glitz, a wonderful band (The Kaye Holes), comedy, raunch, pathos, but most of all it has the luminous Reuben Kaye!

Strutting the stage like a gaudy peacock (or in his first number, a flamingo), he works the audience with camp humour, bawdy jokes, sexual references aplenty, but behind the makeup, lipstick and luscious lashes lies cutting satire and an incredible intellect.

Kaye is mercurial. He can change the entire mood of the audience with a single look or word. One minute we are laughing and the next we are empathising with the struggle of a teenager who just wants to be accepted in a society where stereotyping is still rife.

He is multi-talented, with a voice to die for. He can belt out a lyric or pull right back and reveal the vulnerability of the man behind the glitter. Kaye paces the show beautifully, particularly the section concerning his father’s death and its effect on his career.

The finale (in a gold embroidered bolero style jacket), is an explosion of energy which lifts our spirits and leaves us wanting more.

Reuben Kaye is a cabaret ‘experience’ that will amuse, educate, shock (maybe), delight, but most of all entertain, and isn’t that what the Fringe and life is all about?

Barry Hill

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