Twiner makes a monster of an entrance as she rides atop a bedazzled child’s toy excavator. She performs a number of sketches from “Gina Rhinestone’s” life, including baby Gina’s first words to the valuable “daddy thoughts” she has been raised on, with some incredibly racist comments about Indigenous people made by her father, comments that Rinehart has never publicly condemned.
We are also treated to the more adult events in her life, such as being named Telstra’s Businesswoman of the Year, where she shares her own “me too” ordeal, and the debacle over her demands that a portrait of her hung at the National Gallery of Australia be taken down. Twiner finds marvellous humour in these sketches, sometimes exaggerated and sometimes subtle, but mostly cleverly highlighting the power and influence that Rhinestone’s wealth has afforded her. Some toilet and bodily function gags undermine the thoughtfulness and consideration that Twiner has put into the show and perhaps there's a need to reconsider those moments.
Twiner’s extensive experience with clowning sparkles as much as her costume with extreme facial expressions and body contortion that simultaneously elicit laughter from the audience while heightening the tension and the grotesquery of what we witness. A simple yet effective lighting design adds to the environment and world building.Twiner is in peak form in Gina Rhinestone: Pig Iron Queen of Asstraya as she shines a flame lamp on someone who has, for the most part, shied away from public life. But this isn’t a show purely for shits and giggles about a mining magnate, but an opportunity for us to reflect on how mining and land digging is causing irreversible damage to the world and why we are allowing this to happen.
Gina Rhinestone: Pig Iron Queen of Asstraya was performed 2 - 6 October 2024 as part of the Melbourne Fringe Festival.
No comments:
Post a Comment