Anya Anastasia is an Adelaide-born singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, comic, satirist, chanteuse and burlesque performer, and those are just some of her many talents. I was unaware of her work previously but had seen the posters, knew it was listed as "cabaret" (catnip to me) so went along.
And what a performance it was. First off, this was a proper cabaret atmosphere with tables set up around the stage, some smoke and haze, a grand piano in the centre of the stage and multiple instruments setup around the stage. As we walked in Ms. Anastasia was slumped "asleep" at the piano (similar to what Alice Fraser had done at the start of Empire, where she was sitting with her impressive back to the audience as the crowd was settling in). As the show started she woke up and played and sang a sleepy wistful balled, dreaming about love and noting those really aren't tears on her cheeks but glitter. At the end of this touching song she realised an audience was in, the three members of the band came in - a keyboard player, a bassist and a drummer/percussionist - and the show kicked off.
It was a great show. Ms. Anastasia was a startling, tall, stunning figure who played the piano beautifully (clearly classically trained given her wrist position and fingering), sung wonderfully, also accompanied herself during a song on the ukulele and was generally awesome. The songs (all self-penned) were witty, occasionally mucky and both touching and enormous fun. There was quite a bit of audience interaction which was fun (at one point a number of us were pulled up on-stage and ordered to play away at the piano - between Ms. A's legs - I nearly accidentally head-butted her which would not been a great ending to the set) and Ms. A was not backward in coming forward. All raunchy good-natured fun. The accompanying band was tight and efficient and all got a brief solo spot and a couple of contributions to the show in addition to their excellent playing. The show ended with a hugely energetic and dripping-with-double-entendre number about how she really didn't need anyone else to have a good time (basically it was about masturbation without ever mentioning the word) and then a touching final coda bringing the show full-circle by admitting no, it wasn't glitter on her cheeks ... but tears.
Really enjoyable show, and Ms. Anastasia was a tremendous, charismatic presence with a great voice and enormous musical talent, not to mention a stunning tall figure. She immediately joined the ranks of phenomenal cabaret performers and singers I've seen - joining the likes of Lili La Scala, Lady Rizo and Christina Branco. I shall certainly keep an eye out for more shows from her and if you like this sort of thing then you should seek her out. Highly recommended.
My enjoyment of the show was slightly hampered at about the three-quarter mark when a dark, lurking thought that I'd been suppressing all Fringe leaped unbidden (and had nothing to do with Ms. A - perhaps something had been said on stage which might have triggered it) into the frontal lobe, which really put me off my stride. Afterwards I had one further show to go to at the Grassmarket so hobbled down to there. However with more than an hour to go, the pubs all heaving and my feet, knees and back all shouting their discomfort I decided to skip it. Which was a shame - three execellent shows and a fairly good one is a pretty decent strike rate.
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