Sex Shells is camp, colourful and coming in hot. A LGBT+ show for the masses, this is a glorious and heartily funny cabaret rout through sexual misadventures, satire and politics that gets the blood pumping courtesy of some phenomenal musical talent.
The show features everything from songs to dramatic storytelling to, er, something a bit more animalistic. It makes the rounds between lust, identity and contemporary issues throughout and often finds inventive ways to blend the three together. During the show there are hints at dark days for the LGBT community, but overall Sex Shells is a celebration. It is openly honest and fun, with cheeky side glances and drama aplenty. And you can’t leave without mentioning the performers costumes, which are detailed and sparkly enough to brighten up anybody’s life.
The show features a mixture of original writing from That Woman Rosie and also reinventions of well-known songs. Their spin on The Lion King’s ‘Circle of Life’ goes down especially well. The highlight however has to be a song about god from the performer Doctor Lestrange. This is a cheeky dig at prejudice and a spin on the almighty that you will not forget in a hurry. Rosie, just when she feels ever so sidelined, saves her writing talents for the end in a glorious final few songs. The lyrics occasionally can’t be heard over the glitz and ceremony in a venue that acoustically is far from ideal. Never the less, the crowd goes wild in the moments where the singing prowess rears its beautiful head.
The performers parody knows no bounds. The show gets political without ever losing its spark or descending into a lecture. It is a closely knit performance that lets the performers get right up in the audiences face, and we love every second of it. This is the show that should not be kept to the darkened crevasses of venues and shielded from the outside world. Sex Shells deserve to be strutting and romping around for all to see, with their messages about oppression, politics and climate change something we all need to hear. The fact it is done with so much glamour is a very welcome bonus.