Reviewed by Talia Carlisle

The tal­ent­ed team behind Femme Natale have worked their butts off to bring a mag­nif­i­cent sketch show­case of par­ents’ inner adult desires to BATS The­atre.

After return­ing from Edin­burgh Fringe with a new lease on par­ent­hood, their new iter­a­tion of Femme Natale is refresh­ing­ly hilar­i­ous and impor­tant to share in a time where par­ents, and all adults, face more pres­sures than ever before.

Femme Natale ‘The Queen Years — What hap­pens after hap­pi­ly ever after’ has a dream team of comedic tal­ent, each ver­sa­tile in por­tray­ing sports kid groupies, hap­pi­ly divorced cou­ples, and sur­pris­ing bod­i­ly func­tions sure to amuse.

Spe­cial guest Megan Con­nol­ly strings the audi­ence inside with their pow­er peri­od pos­es, before Fin­gal Pollock’s facials appear from the shad­ows, and con­tin­ue to amuse us through­out the show, wor­thy of every dynam­ic the­atre award.

I would also award Tracey Sav­age on pro­duc­tion for her per­for­mance as a menopausal air­line host with the most atti­tude, empha­sised fur­ther in beau­ti­ful shad­ow work, with light­ing designed by Fin­gal and tech­ni­cal oper­a­tor Mal­colm Gillett.

Chore­o­g­ra­ph­er and per­former April Phillips’ lifts our spir­its with her con­ta­gious dance moves, and hilar­i­ous roles in Vul­va, the “Breast Test”, and the heart­felt “Get­ting Back Out There” song. Her enter­tain­ing writ­ing skills shine bright with her tal­ent­ed all-writ­ing, all-per­form­ing cast.

You can next expe­ri­ence this tal­ent­ed play­wright in April’s show Blind Eye open­ing at Levin Lit­tle The­atre in July.

This mul­ti-tal­ent­ed team wouldn’t be com­plete with­out Piers Gilbert­son on sound design, mak­ing us all dance in our seats, but espe­cial­ly me. Piers cap­tures everyone’s atten­tion onstage also in his bril­liant por­tray­al as a vulva’s best friend.

Such a cre­ative team ben­e­fits from the tech­ni­cal sup­port and art assis­tance of Ana­ton and Lil­ian Rottpeter who deserve a par­tic­i­pa­tion cer­tifi­cate for their cre­ativ­i­ty.

The result is a well exe­cut­ed, bril­liant­ly deliv­ered and thor­ough­ly amus­ing evening away from the kids that gets the heart pound­ing, the hips wig­gling, and our applause beg­ging for more.