Laughing for Liberty
On the back of a successful season with Storm in A D-Cup at last year’s Fringe Festival, the blue eyed girl from Bombo is back with her new show Amelia Ryan is Lady Liberty.
Lady Liberty is the sequel cabaret show to the award-winning Storm in a D-Cup, which sees Amelia, Queen of the ‘overshare’, continue on her quest to find female liberation in a male dominated world.
Her opening night sell-out show, proves without doubt that Ryan is onto a winning formula with her mix of comic confessions and prolific parodies, moulded together in a musical celebration of egocentric divulgences. It’s the equivalent of a night out with your bestie that ends with a garlic-infused kebab, a bottle of vodka and a deep and meaningful so revealing it verges on the edge of awkward. And even while you’re vowing to yourself you’ll never go there again, you are craving the next hit!
Storm in a D Cup, exposes the busty babe’s debaucherous, but uproarious accounts of her one night stands, binge drinking, penchant for accumulating parking fines and the quirks of having a gay dad, that married a man who was once a woman, and you get the sense that Ryan’s life has been what I like to call, ‘Bridget Jones-esque’.
Lady Liberty starts where D-Cup left off. She’s about to stumble into the more grown up phase of her three O’s and is in the process of re-evaluating her life path. She’s made it through the woods of her twenties, only mildly scathed, and she’s ready to take on the world. With the help of her vision board, and self-help books she’s on a mission to find meaning in her life, maybe even a decent paying job and a long term boyfriend. Will she succeed in her search for liberty or simply continue along her wiley way?
The 70 minute show, includes some wonderful songs, albeit with slightly funnier lyrics, including Cyndi Lauper’s Time After Time (or as it will now forever be known to me, Wine after Wine), Part of My World (from the musical The Little Mermaid, now forever in my heart as the anthem for gay marriage equality) and in moving with the times young Tay Tay gets a guernsey as Ryan gets her fans to shake it off, shake it off.
One of the most memorable scenes in Lady Liberty is the game of ‘Never have I ever…’ where three members of the audience are invited to the stage to play the drinking game that requires you to reveal your darkest secrets. Sit at the back if you’re reluctant to become a audience participator!
A notable mention to John Martin as Ryan’s keyboard accompanist, assisting in backing vocals to Ryan’s confessional ditties, and keeping pace while the star of the show shows off her talent for both comedy writing and as an able vocalist.
This little pocket rocket of a performer is one not to miss. She is easy on the eye and easy to watch. Both of her shows feature in the Fringe program this year and is well worth the meagre $25 ticket price.
If her search for liberty means her colourful and crazy life turns grey and normal, then it would be a great lost to the entertainment industry. Shine on Amelia, you are one sparkly gem in the superpit of Fringe.
Amelia Ryan is Lady Liberty is at the Pleasure Garden until Wednesday 27 Jan shows at 7.15pm and Storm in a D-Cup plays at the Noodle Palace from 22, 23 & 27 to 30 Jan at 10.30pm. Book here.
