Written by Sarah Vincent
At The Continental Cafe for Midsumma Festival, Jan 1996
Reviewer: Kate Herbert - reviewed around 26 Jan 1996
"It costs a lot to look this cheap!" - most quotable comment on the hot new all-gay soap opera, The Sun Also Sizzles, on at The Continental Cafe for Midsumma Festival.
Sizzle, as it is fondly called, is Dynasty meets Julian Clary. It is set in a town where everybody is gay, everybody loves somebody who loves somebody else, they all have a dark secret and talk in platitudes spiced with meaningful gazes.
They posture, hunt for the spotlight, make fabulous entrances, melodramatic exits and speak monologues direct to "camera".
Writer, Sarah Vincent, writes a great gag and director, Sioban Tuke, knows how to stage them.
In Sun Valley there's a drag queen, her sister the leather-clad cop, an ex-nun she loves, the rich bitch she loves, a hunky orphan who never does his shirt up, a scientist who's an alien, a nice-as-pie doctor with a broken heart and a dirt-diggin', scum-bag journo. Oh, and an unknown poisoner. They're dropping like flies. Just like Neighbours really!
The crowd (standing room only on opening) roared, cheered and hooted at lines like "You're a rough diamond Trix – or should I say 'diamante'?" Or at Dr. Ken whose lover left him for a woman. "I like women but... it's just (gasp)...not natural (splutter).
Go see it. You get a re-cap of the story each week. It's a scream - and it's Pure Trash.
By Kate Herbert