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| Sarah Ward as Queen Kong Photo: Peter Leslie |
Kong is immortal and has already lived for millennia; born
from a dead ape and a volcanic eruption. Kong is taking us on a trip through
the universe and into the future, leading to exquisitie revelations and
existential crises.
Queen Kong is a new show from performer Sarah Ward, best known
for the character of Yana Alana. But this Queen of the Earth, singer of rock songs,
isn’t a simple character creation. It’s a creation myth. It’s as much about the
Big Bang – an orgy of male Gods, as it is about the music we have put out into
the universe.
Music is central, though. Queen Kong is the lead singer of a
band, the HOMOsapiens, and the show is a concert and cabaret and a strange kind
of storytelling. I was witness to a spectacle; a messy, lively, memorable
spectacle.
Sarah’s Kong is dressed in a sparkly leotard, silvery pubic
hair showing, a big fur coat wrapped around her. It’s a striking image birthed
onto the stage, sometimes running into the audience, sometimes up in the
balcony of the Fairfax Studio. A thrilling, memorable persona.
The audience is warned early on that things won’t always
make sense and this is reiterated throughout. The Legend wants to expose us to new ideas, radical concepts and
the unknowable forces of space and time – without getting bogged down by linear
narrative storytelling. For me, I would have rather the show push further in
either direction, giving us a little more story to hang onto – or to forget
story altogether and spend time crafting mind-blowing moments.
Accessibility for a deaf audience is built into the design
of the show; there’s a deaf performer on screen and all live text was signed in
Auslan by a character called The Interpreter. There were also surtitles on the
screen that explained the styles of music that was playing – but it wasn’t
merely informational, that text also had its own moments of levity.
The combination of a large video projection, the live band, Ward’s
always-astonishing singing created sequences that were hilarious and
occasionally touching. There wasn’t a very satisfying shape to the show, though.
There were times where it felt like things were wrapping up before the
performance leapt in another direction. The final song, a cover of Joni
Mitchell’s “Woodstock”, was beautiful rendered but it’s a pity the climax of
the show wasn’t composed by the creators at the heart of The Legend of Queen Kong.
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