After singing opera professionally for more than 20 years, actor, singer and all round performer Kanen Breen is dabbling in the colourful world of cabaret with fellow singer, best friend and partner-in-crime, Jacqui Dark.
Together they're known as the Strange Bedfellows, and their performance 'Under The Covers' has been making waves since it's debut on the stage last year. Kanen says the pair initially made the show in an attempt to explain to people their unusual domestic situation after they became sick of telling everyone over and over again.
“I am gay and Jacqui is not gay and we're raising a child together that is not mine, but we're not a couple obviously. We've had so many bizarre conversations with people about how we came to the arrangement that we came to, and frankly we got a bit sick of talking about it. The original idea was that we were going to put the show on to explain our domestic situation of a gay guy and straight woman and an IVF baby all living under the same roof and sleeping in the same bed, hence the name Strange Bedfellows.”
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In case you're wondering, their name has nothing to do with the Paul Hogan film, and Kanen says he wished he'd looked into it a little more before choosing their name. “Had we known that film existed when we named ourselves we might have gone in a different direction because when you Google Strange Bedfellows, that's all that comes up,” Kanen laughs.
“We have have nothing to do with that film, and in fact, an Australian company a couple of years ago tried to turn that film into a musical that went absolutely nowhere, but they bought up all the domain names and website names so in order to get any sort of cyber presence we've had to jump through so many hoops and pay extraordinary amounts of money to buy websites off people that aren't using them, and it's been an absolute pain in the arse.”
While 'Under The Covers' was initially conceived to explain to people about Kanen and Jacqui's domestic situation, the show also touches on the awkward, funny and tense conversations that happen in bedrooms all over the country. “We expanded the notion of the show to encompass musical conversations about that sort of stuff but also to broaden it slightly to choose songs that were about beds or bedrooms or about conversations that happen when in bed. Awkward conversations, tense conversations, funny conversations, brea- ups, declarations of love and all of that sort of stuff.”{youtube}6cqpQj8FmIo{/youtube}
The pair had an interesting time trying to find suitable music for the show and in the end, they had to write a couple of songs to fill in some gaps. “We couldn't find any songs so we had to write our own songs which has been incredibly novel, because neither one of us is really a song writer. That's been an incredibly fun challenge to turn ourselves into lyricists and song writers. The results that we came up with, we thought they were pretty crap actually, but the two original numbers that we've got in the show actually struck the strongest chord with audiences more than anything.”
Kanen prides himself on being versatile enough to expand into cabaret, and not limiting himself to being just an opera singer. He's even been dubbed by some as The Clown Prince Of Opera – a title that Kanen says is rather fitting. “I have become known as a sort of cartwheeling, back-bending fruitloop on stage and as a result, that's the sort of role the company gives me – which is great because really, it allows me to have a great deal more fun than most opera singers do. It takes the pressure off me too, knowing that I don't have to sound like Pavarotti, because frankly, I just don't. I'm very happy to be thought of as The Clown Prince Of Opera as long as they're laughing with me, not at me, I'm fine,” Kanen chuckles.
So far, 'Under The Covers' has been well received by audiences, with only one minor mishap having occurred on stage so far. “The only epic fail we had was at our very last show in Sydney last week when I was pretending to suck a tampon out of Jacqui's vagina and she fell over backwards and cracked her head on the keyboard and broke the keyboard. We had to stop the show for five minutes while everyone sat around to try and fix the keyboard and it finally came good.”Strange Bedfellows Tour Dates
Fri 22 May – The Grande Hotel (Hepburn Springs)Fri 5 - Sun 7 June – Adelaide Cabaret Festival (Artspace Gallery)
Sun 14 June – Queensland Cabaret Festival (Brisbane Powerhouse)
Fri 19 - Sat 20 June – Melbourne Cabaret Festival (Chapel Off Chapel)
