Bertie Page Clinic presents ‘Serpentine’, a rock opera that charts the evolution of the world’s most notorious undergarment, the corset as part of the Brisbane Fringe Festival.
What's the elevator pitch for your show... This fresh and surprising show opens a sartorial Pandora’s Box with dark humour, sumptuous costuming and mind blowing classic rock style.
After my show, you'll walk away thinking... I never knew that and now I really feel like buying a corset.
Fringe art means... The cultural underground, a hidden world that exists on the other side from mainstream entertainment.
Brisbane's artistic community is... Amongst the world's best. Brisbane has a very small population and its artists avoid the commercialisation of fringe art that has swept through other cities. There is more money to be made from burlesque in Australia's bigger cities, but the majority of these more lucrative shows cater for monied audiences in a predictable middle-of-the-road style. I have done Edinburgh Fringe Festival twice and I was shocked at the low standard among the thousands of performances that take place in the month of August every year. In that festival you can call anything ‘fringe’; even the most drab, mainstream, unoriginal acts are there making money, year after year after year.
You need to support local, fringe artists because... I am not a fan of the commonly used term ‘support’. You don't have to support anything, you should go and see an act because it is good quality. We live in a limbo era between the old fashioned concept of bums on seats and the new ways of Pozible campaigns — both valid concepts but artists are failing to find the finances needed through either attitude. I don't want anyone to ‘support’ what I do, I want them to buy a ticket because they want to see a striking and original show. The idea of asking for support casts the artist in a pitiable light — we are not beggars, we are hard workers who create a valid and saleable product. My show is well researched, sexy, surprising and musically accomplished — buy a ticket or miss out.
Any crazy/ weird stories behind-the-scenes stories during rehearsals? The strangest thing happened when we arrived to perform at our Adelaide Fringe Festival earlier this year. Even though it was raining we were told by the cast of the previous show that we couldn't come in to the venue or use the backstage area (a crappy BBQ tent from Bunnings) because they had exclusive rights to these areas. So it turned out that these girls were putting on a magic show for kids. They were so mean, it was like being in high school again, getting a serve from bitter little tarts in lycra leotards. They were so bitchy and up themselves, I know where they can stick their rabbit...
I want to inform my audience with my show because the history of corsetry is filled with misinformation and sensationalism, this is part of what makes the subject so fascinating. Most people can see how restrictive fashions have been used to control women, to assure that they conform with social norms. However the corset has provided women with the opportunity to do the opposite, to control their own bodies, to express themselves and to make dramatic impressions on the world around them.
The last time I saw the inside of a gym was... When I was stalking Roger the gym man in Sydney. The gym was on Oxford Street so he was probably gay and he wasn't interested in me, another reason why I like to think that he was gay.
What's the one chore you dislike the most? I have evil grass that grows in my backyard, you can't mow it and it laughs in the face of a whippa-snippa. I have to take a hoe and tear it from the earth; this grass hates me and I'm pretty sure that the neighbours hate me for my grass.
Social media is... Our lifeline, our window to the world, our outreach to our fans and (if we let it) the deadly killer of our personal confidence. Everyone else's life always looks better on Facebook.
‘Serpentine’ plays at the New Globe Theatre Sunday August 17.
