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.