Fairfax Studio, Melbourne Arts Centre, until April 20, 2014
Directed by Colin Batrouney
Stars: ****
Reviewer: Kate Herbert on March 30
Review also published in Herald Sun online March 31, 2014. KH
Funny mummy’s tales of woeful
births and dysfunctional parenting
After seeing Mummy Bare,
you’ll never again think of the miracle of birth without picturing Denise Scott
doing her comical Caesarian Crouch Crawl up the maternity ward.
Scottie’s wry, unembellished
delivery and relaxed demeanour make her wicked and self-deprecating material
seem even more outrageous.
She is absolutely
unembarrassable (Well, it’s a real word now!) so she can talk with alacrity
about her dodgy, heart-shaped uterus, her bosom squashed into a too-tight
evening gown, or her failed gig at Parramatta decades ago.
With just a crooked smile or a mischievous grin, she unashamedly admits to boozing and smoking while breast-feeding or secretly resenting her partner not pursuing his career as a doctor – correction – a rich doctor.
She mines her
dysfunctional parenting style for jokes that allow her to embarrass her
children, firstly as bright-eyed tiny tots, then disdainful teens and finally as
successful adults.
This is a comic who is
happily ageing disgracefully because it simply provides more raw material about
bodily functions, family and failure – and no one would be game to stop her.
From her first moments of
charming, waggish interaction, she has the audience is in the palm of her hand,
then she works them vigorously like the play-dough she made when her kids were
toddlers.
The crowd winces at her
droll stories of hospitalisation, gasps at her outlandish revelations, and
shrieks at her naughty, sexual tales.
The mothers (and some
dads) in the house hooted and clapped at Scottie’s uproarious descriptions of staying
awake all night to make tortuously complicated cakes from The Women’s Weekly
Children’s Birthday Cake Cookbook.
Denise Scott is a
consummate storyteller and comedienne who audaciously dredges up her past and
that of her family to produce comic gold for our pleasure. Thanks Scottie.
By Kate Herbert
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