Ruth Katerelos and Heidi Weatherald play two sex workers who inform us and sing about “historical” women such as (Sweet) Charity, Mary Magdalene and Fantine, and how sex played a role in their lives.
The inherent problem with From Whore To Eternity is the writing. It would seem Cerise de Gelder is unable to find a balance between informing the audience and entertaining the audience. As such, we were bombarded with a number of scenes that were disjointed and clunky and struggled to retain our interest.
There were a good variety of songs chosen, ranging from rock to ballads and musical theatre classics. Unfortunately, it was the delivery of these songs that failed to hit the right notes. Neither performer had the vocal skill to do justice to many of these songs, especially when it comes to classics like “I Dreamed A Dream” that should therefore not have been touched. Their lack of vocal range and strength was apparent throughout and there was a strong need to project their voices.
The beacon of light in this show though was Weatherald’s performance of “I Don’t Know How To Love Him”. She managed to find some emotional connection with this song and found a good rhythm to carry the tune.
Special guest star for the evening Dolly Diamond, while entertaining, seemed out of place during the ‘break’ in From Whore To Eternity. She began chatting to audience members and cracking jokes, which left me wondering what exactly this had to do with the tribute to “the ladies of the night”. It’s almost as if de Gelder ran out of ideas and included a special guest to fill in the hour block.
There are so many great things From Whore to Eternity could have been, but sadly the only thing it will be in its current state is minimally entertaining, with many improvements needed on writing, direction and performance.
From Whore to Eternity was performed at The Butterfly Club as part of the 2015 Midsumma Festival.
*Original review appeared on Theatre Press on 10 February.
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