Fringe World review ·
Elizabeth Davie, Super Woman Money Program ·
The Shambles in the Woodside Pleasure Gardens, January 22 ·
Review by David Zampatti ·
Sometimes comedy is best when the laughing stops.
When Elizabeth Davie stops with the funnies (she gives us plenty) she sits down and reads journalist Jane Gilmore’s unsettling story of the divergent economic and life paths of a man, John, and his wife, Mary, after their divorce.
It’s quite long, often quite dry and it’s no joke.
It’s a damning indictment of the systemic barriers raised against women who find themselves “financially independent” – either by their own choosing or by the actions of others.
As Davie puts it – and she’s not joking – she “has to raise an extra $350,000 for her retirement just because she has a vagina”.
Don’t be intimidated by all this; Davie won the Best Comedy award at last year’s Fringe World, and there’s a good reason why.
She’s got manic expressiveness, a body with a mind of its own and a voice that could break glass. (When she “sings” along to Shirley Bassey’s My Life I was glad my drink was in one of those hideous plastic cups).
She also does some rubbish glove-puppetry, a fair bit of staggering slapstick (the whole gamut of stand-up, really), says some really funny things – and then sits and tells us about John and Mary.
“I felt like I had cold water running down my back,” says Davie.
And, sometimes, that’s exactly what comedy needs to be.
Super Woman Money Program plays at The Shambles in the Woodside Pleasure Gardens until January 26.
Pictured top: Elizabeth Davie. Photo: Nayt Housman.
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