In 20 years of shows, Victoria's award-winning, boundary-pushing cabaret production company Atomic Vaudeville has had many memorable moments. Co-founder and co-leader Britt Small and co-leader Kathleen Greenfield gave a hilarious and heartwarming list of examples in an email to Victoria News.
"The time we pretended to end the show and made the audience drink Kool-Aid with us as though we were part of a doomsday cult. The time we put tomatoes on the table as an experiment (never again). The time we mounted our cabaret in Toronto as part of the Summerworks Festival. The first show back from the pandemic, playing to eager audiences, full houses and reconnecting with each other creatively."
The good times will continue to roll with their upcoming annual Halloween show and 88th episode, CRONE-O-PHOBIA, slated for Oct. 24 to Nov. 2 at the Fellowship Hall at Quadra Street and Balmoral Road.
The theatrical and comedic show digs into Hallow's Eve, fear and aging women. It was inspired by Small's work on a feminist musical on hags that she created with a group in Whitehorse, which dug into mythologies around "aging, beauty, and the abject in womanhood," Smalls told Victoria News.
Like past Atomic Vaudeville shows, CRONE-O-PHOBIA is a series of fun and artistic skits that ultimately remind audiences of their shared humanity. This particular cabaret follows the Wyrd Sisters Kelly Hobson and Amanda Butler with biting humour and creative vision. The event description hints there will be cats, trade wives, pigs' blood, and answers to the questions, 'Who is Perry O'Menopause?' and 'What comes after Brat Summer?'
Small and Greenfield said after 88 shows, they are still able to keep things fresh by drawing inspiration from current events. "Also, working with upwards of 20 performers (veteran and new), we get a real variety of expression," they said.
Something they're both excited about in this year's show is a new Telenovela act written by Taylor Lewis and performed in Spanish by some of artists from Chile, Mexico and Columbia. There will also be a repeating act about undecided voters written by Andrew Bailey.
While the group's radical expression might not be for everyone, it's hard to imagine someone not having fun at the show. Greenfield and Small had a good idea, though, of who would most enjoy it.
"Anyone looking for a big energy, funny, moving and highly entertaining social evening. Those in search of joy. Nonconformists, iconoclasts and rebels. Lovers, dancers and thinkers," they said.
More on the show can be found at atomicvaudeville.com/crone-o-phobia.
