BURLESQUE
Written by Jocelyn Ahlf, Belinda Cornish, and Celina Stachow
Panties Productions
Directed by Ashley Wright
Featuring Jocelyn Ahlf, Belinda Cornish, Jesse Gervais, and Davina Stewart
Jan 9 — 25, Tue — Sat, 8 pm; Sat 2 pm
Azimuth Theatre (11315-106 Ave)
Tickets: $15, $12 Students/Seniors/Equity; Sat matinees Pay What You Dare; Tue Two-for-One; 454-0583.

Edmonton’s Panties Productions is warming a chilly January with some old-style titillation in the retro-flavoured Burlesque, based on the life of Lydia Thompson, a legendary 19th century British performer credited with the importation of the burlesque form to North America. Burlesque, an over-the-top theatrical form known for its broad, often topical humour, bawdy skits, jokes, songs, dance, and risqué performance styles–including gender-bending—dates back to the 16th century.

"She (Thompson) was an amazing woman who lived an extraordinary life. Everything about her was perfect (for a stage biography) and didn’t need much artistic license," says production co-writer and performer Belinda Cornish.

"Thompson did all these outrageous things where people would think we made it up. Like the time after a bad review in Chicago (at the tail end of an American tour) she publicly horsewhipped the writer. She had a huge impact at the time even if she’s not well known today," says Cornish, sharing writing credits with Jocelyn Ahlf and Celina Stachow, and stage time with Ahlf, Jesse Gervais, and Davina Stewart.

Invited to America by famous circus, museum, and theatre impresario, P.T. Barnum, Thompson and her "British Blonds" troop first performed their hit Ixion for New York audiences in 1868. Among other attractions (including politically-oriented spoof songs riffing off of popular hits of the day) this production included a mythological spoof that featured women in revealing tights playing men's roles. This staged cross-dressing was a great shock to audiences used to only seeing women on stage when they were hidden behind voluminous bustles, hoops and frills.

Thompson and her "Blonds" subsequently toured America for six years and had quite the impact on both the theatre scene and American women, says Cornish.

"She was quite the icon for women, who even started bleaching their hair to look like her. It was a real big turning point," she says, noting that Thompson’s biggest fans were women.

Cornish is saddened that the burlesque form has devolved into the modern strip show (underlining that even in the 19th century the form relied on a certain level of titillation) lacking the more entertaining and witty aspects of the art form.

"This show is so much fun to do because of the nature of burlesque. What other show would allow us to do fun dances like the cancan," Cornish explains, adding that the company has gone out of their way to make sure their contemporary audiences will be able to relate to all aspects of the art form and Thompson’s life.

For director Ashley Wright, the dimensions of the relatively small Azimuth Theatre are his biggest staging challenge.

"The show demands the feel of a very big area, with visions of these big Moulin Rouge dance numbers coming to mind, but I love work that calls for adapting to spaces and playing with perspective," he says. "Also, the script lends itself to this task. It’s an intimate piece about a big subject matter."

Wright says the play not only mirrors the burlesque structure, the four actors in the show get to do a lot of gender-bending as they are called upon to develop 40 characters.