Australian trio, comprised of Maeve Marsden and Libby Wood, accompanied by the rather fabulous Tom Dickins on piano, serve up their tales and intoxicating harmonies about their favourite drink, gin.
Equal parts historical and hysterical, these buxom, loveable cabaret “broads” explore the origins of “mother’s ruin“, using familiar and original songs, nimbly accompanied by Tom and with the help of some further lubrication from various bottles of gin, smuggled in their cleavages.
A splash of Amy Winehouse, a drop of Billy Joel and a twist of Peggy Lee’s “Fever”, mixed with a lot of humour and audience sing-a-longs makes for a fun hour of song, exploring all there is to know about gin.
From the streets of London and Hogarth’s famous painting “Gin Lane”, to Ada Coleman the inventor of the famous cocktail the Hanky Panky, to the Australian bush, to the jungles of Peru; who knew there was so much to the history of gin?
There’s also the added bonus of a rather delicious Melbourne, Australia Four Pillars Gin and tonic thrown in for good measure for each audience member, to help lubricate those vocal chords; although I suspect a few annoying audience members had been imbibing before the show too, resulting in an all too enthusiastic need to join in every song.
It’s an educating, informative, well-crafted and researched cocktail hour of cabaret, exploring the mythology and propaganda surrounding gin, which has been used to subjugate women, build misnomers on miscarriage and hammer home the message of hysteria. A raucous masterclass in anything gin related.