One of the acts at the Fringe launch featured poetry readings by Yana Alana. This spot went down a treat and I couldn’t wait to see the full length show Yana Alana and tha Paranas in BITE ME and see whether this character could sustain a full hour.
Sarah Ward proved herself to be a versatile performer with a character piece that was quite different to her Sista She persona. In Yana, she has created a cartoonish Cabaret Diva with a vicious personality. She recited her ultra feminist poetry, sang angst filled songs, told a couple of jokes, broke into some interpretive dance and performed some impressive ventriloquism using a miniature version of herself. She was a fascinating character that took us through a roller coaster of empathetic extremes. We began by admiring her feminist stance, then were repulsed by her evilness and later felt her pain, laughing in hysterics throughout.
Yana was backed by a three-piece band of women known as Tha Paranas. Ania, Bec and Frances employed an upright bass, drums and keyboards to create a soundtrack to the lunacy. In addition to their musical ability, they were given the integral role of being characters with which Yana could interact. This created a clash of personalities that contributed to most of the shows’ humour, Yana being the control freak and the band covering the spectrum from submissiveness to outright defiance.
The shows’ structure was well crafted to use the character dynamics to their fullest. Yana’s way too serious demeanour had the audience howling with laughter despite her material about being a tortured woman. Her delusion of being the perfect performer had us laughing in the face of her lame pre-prepared jokes. The conspiring of the band against Yana provided some hilarious moments that came close to the humour of cruelty, prompted cleverly executed music / sound jokes and, even though the show was extremely feminist in nature, poked fun at The Sisterhood.
When the performance hit full cabaret mode, Yana / Sarah was able to show off her brilliant vocal ability, belting out a number of songs that were a mixture of amusing originals and creatively interpreted covers. The band were a tight unit and provided impressive accompaniment with some interesting instrumentation including slide whistle, gong and xylophone. This collaboration was a perfect fit in both theatrical and musical aspects.
Bite Me was an awesome cabaret experience that will amaze punters from both the cabaret and Sista She crowds. The in your face Feminism attracted a predominately female crowd on opening night, but men will also be blown away by Yana.
Visit the “Fringe Website”:http://www.melbournefringe.com.au/season/2007/show/281/ for further details