The Betty Grumble Circus
Words by Kathryn Robertson
WOW WOW WOW…. Where do I start with Betty Grumble….shock, horror, humbled and amazed all at once. Let me tell you this is not a show for everyone! But I think everyone found Betty’s message compelling to say the least.
We walked into a stage in total disarray, mess, rubbish and clutter everywhere, mayhem in fact. In the centre a nude woman hangs out of a bin… what the?? Where was this heading??
Out of the bin comes crawling this leath body, a woman, a thing?. Resembling something out of the horror movie The Ring… Betty had our attention!
Very confronting at times… I was not prepared for this; I honestly thought I had seen it all.
The audience was taken on a genre-smash hit of cabaret, theatre, sex and burlesque dance. Betty Grumble took us on a journey of unabashed storytelling of life, love, world politics, struggles and her desire to save the world. Betty has come to spread the word of her eco-sexual world of love and light! And that we should all return to the earth… right?
At this stage I still didn’t quite get where this was heading but I was intrigued along with everyone else…
The focus of the show, was Betty pulling out a beach ball painted to resembled earth (our big blue planet). She went onto discuss life’s mishaps, our world gone mad and her fight against misogyny and the corporate world. The total destruction of our earth.
Probably one of the most raw and confronting things I have seen was Betty covering herself in black oil, which she scraped out of the big round ball (EARTH). A confronting and poignant moment, referencing the multi conglomerate interests that control the world. I got shivers and the crowd went silent… this was a very moving and powerful moment.
Betty then proceeded to remove all her make-up. Standing naked and bare. I think we all got the message,
Amongst a display of nudity, sexual shock, horror and grotesque fanfare, in the end, it all kinda made sense. As far as political statements go, this was loud and clear.
I think along with everyone else I got it. Even if you didn’t like it or follow, you couldn’t ignore it!
This was an incredible and clever show! Give me more of Betty Grumble Please! No suprise she won the Underbelly Edinburgh Award 2016….. AMAZING STUFF. 10/10 from me.
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