Cassie George is bringing her cabaret ‘There’s Something About Mary(s)' to the Brisbane Powerhouse as part of the Wonderland Festival.
Inspired by her own life, Cassie describes her work as “a fun-filled cabaret full of anecdotes of a girl’s love life and how she finds the balance between that and her gaggle of gays”.
This will be a triumphant return home for both the writer/performer and the piece itself, the cabaret having been performed first at the Short and Sweet Festival at the Powerhouse in late 2016, and then an excerpt being performed at the Powerhouse in June as part of the Queensland Cabaret Festival. “Those two performances were really great to be able to get a general vibe of how the show would be received. We did a full debut performance at the New Globe Theatre in Fortitude Valley in August,” the singer explains. Leading up to the return at the Powerhouse the show is having a test performance in Ipswich.
Cassie’s history with the Powerhouse goes even deeper including the moment when she first decided she was going to be a performer telling “I remember one moment when I was in my degree, we did a performance of ‘Hair’ the musical at the Powerhouse. I remember standing on the scaffolding and being able to look out at the audience just before everyone’s come in and just realising yep this is home. And that was the moment I went yep this is exactly what I want to do with my life.”
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The performance at Wonderland will be the accumulation of everything they’ve learnt over the past year workshopping the cabaret. Fresh off participating in a Clowning Workshop recently, Cassie has taken away a valuable lesson to “embrace the flop” which will come in handy as her and Director Luke Volker aim to interact with the audience even more than previously. “With the version we’re presenting for Wonderland it’s a lot more interactive than our performances at Short and Sweet and the Cabaret Showcase were. There’s a lot more room for audience interaction and questions being posed as opposed to me telling the story. So there’s a lot more opportunities for the audience to respond and being able to take off from what the audience vibe is giving.”
Fans of music from the 1980s and 1990s should be well catered for with artists to feature including Salt’N’Pepa, Christina Aguilera and Prince with some being performed in a new light. “Salt’N’Pepa I never wanted to toy with that because I think they’re perfect just the way they are. The Prince and Christina Aguilera songs I got to toy around with, they’re in a new context which I really enjoy. For example the Christina Aguilera song we’re doing ‘Come On Over’ which is like I’m having a text conversation with a guy I’m about to see whom I’m essentially booty calling,” Cassie elaborates.
“I had always toyed with the idea of doing an autobiographical show because in my life I have a tendency to have quite funny stories happen to me similar to like a ‘Will & Grace’ kind of storyline almost. What I’d love to get audiences to see and to take away from it, is that you can have both. You can keep the scales with the gaggle of gays and potential boyfriend in balance but you have to be prepared for the moments when it does tip over and that’s also okay. It might even give you another great story to tell!”
