Cabaret Archives - Matilda Marseillaise

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A Night to Baguette made its Australian debut at Adelaide Fringe last week and we saw it on its final presentation on 15 March 2023.

The show was described as an absurdist tragi-comedy by Louise McCabe in our interview with her. A Night to Baguette takes place in Nazi-occupied Paris in 1941 and revolves around Lulu Ledoux, a fictional character developed and played by Louise McCabe. She introduces herself as both the victim and the investigator of her own death. She dies before she is able to perform The Greatest French Song Ever Written. She tells us that there are 3 suspects, the killer will be revealed, and that the show will include real and imagined French chanson.

In fact, there are songs in both French and English. Songs are interspersed throughout the story being told by Lulu. The show opens with the familiar tune of non, je ne regrette rien on piano.

The band wear berets and Lulu speaks with a strong faux French accent. The violinist Ingrid Homburg also plays the role of one of the suspects, Lulu’s rich landlady. The drummer, Dylan Warren, announces the various scenes of the story while holding large cards with the same words on them. The pianist Deborah Brennan performed beautifully.

The other cast members are Denise Boyland as another cabaret singer and Lulu’s rival, and Jimmy Vine who plays Lulu’s lover, Gerard. Both perform their roles convincingly and at times amusingly.

A Night to Baguette has a simple set – the band on one side of the stage on piano, drums and violin, plus two microphones on stands. On the other side of the stage there is a table, two chairs, a black handbag, a baguette, and a perfume bottle.

The absurdist element, which is quite French in itself, is seen with a wonderful baguette fighting scene and the exaggerated, amusing competition between Lulu and the other singer.

The story is so engaging and full of twists and turns that we almost forgot The Greatest French Song Ever Written. You’re sure to be surprised, as we were, when you discover what that song is.

A night to Baguette reveals Louise McCabe as a skilled singer in both English and in French. Her 20 years of cabaret experience and training is evident. The way in which she has developed the characters of Lulu, the landlady, the rival cabaret singer and Gerard her lover, and written the story around her death, and the investigation of it, is brilliant.

5 CROISSANTS

Matilda Marseillaise was a guest of Adelaide Fringe.

The Adelaide Fringe season of A Night to Baguette has concluded. If it tours your city, we strongly recommend you go to see it. To keep updated on this and other shows by Guilty Pleasures Shows, check out their website.

For more Adelaide Fringe content, check out the below articles:

Adelaide Fringe 2023: 23 shows with French and francophone links to see

Love on the Left Bank is a show of French chanson like no other

Bourgeois & Maurice: Pleasure Seekers is satirical fun at Adelaide Fringe

Bourgeois & Maurice: an extra-terrestrial sibling duo comes to Adelaide Fringe 2023

A Night at the Musicals 3: Summer Lovin’ Tour with Le Gateau Chocolat and Jonny Woo is a must-see this Adelaide Fringe

Les Commandos Percu Silence! is a must-see show this Adelaide Fringe – last chance tonight

Les Fleurs du Mal (The Flowers of Evil) based on the poetry of Baudelaire is a new dance show coming to Adelaide Fringe

Les Commandos Percus bring their show Silence! to Adelaide Fringe 2023

The Party, the new show from Strut & Fret, is no Blanc de Blanc

For other events with French and Francophone links happening in Australia this month, check out our What’s on in March article.

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Colourful zany costumes, satirical songs sung in harmony, interpretative dance moves, and a night of fun is what you’ll find at Bourgeois & Maurice: Pleasure Seekers at Adelaide Fringe 2023.

Bourgeois and Maurice call themselves “strange singing siblings, from another dimension”. Georgeois Bourgeois is the fictional brother to his fictional sister Maurice Maurice. They told us in an interview that they live by the maxim “more is more… and then add more” and Pleasure Seekers proves that they truly are. Their makeup is bright and is a mash-up of 80s colours and shapes reminiscent of bird plumage, Kiss and Bowie. And just as the make-up is exaggerated so too are the wonderfully weird costumes which are revealed throughout Pleasure Seekers. These are bright, colourful and OTT. Maurice Maurice’s bouffant is dizzyingly high.

Having had too many bad meals and watched too much bad TV during England’s long COVID-19 lockdown, Georgeois Bourgeois tells us he started to experience the life of a heterosexual. Now that lockdowns are over and borders are open, Bourgeois and Maurice are on a quest for pleasure and they’re taking you with them.

Pleasure Seekers takes us on a journey of songs about topics such as wanting some meat after “swallowing the same old aubergine too long” when going vegan, starting a war on babies “we can’t keep accepting immigrants from the womb”, consumerism and the evil of Amazon. They also explore the metaverse, what they’d each do in an alternative life and a more existential questioning of the point of their lives.

Bourgeois & Maurice have written almost all of the songs performed in Pleasure Seekers and they are extremely witty, sharp satire addressing some of life’s issues. They’re great ear worms and you’ll find yourself singing the choruses well after the show. While the songs from the Pleasure Seekers show haven’t yet been released, you can listen to the back catalogue of their past 15 years of shows on their website and your preferred music streaming platform.

Bourgeois & Maurice Pleasure Seekers was also awarded the Week 3 Best Cabaret Award at Adelaide Fringe 2023 and we can see why. A hidden gem, away from the larger Fringe venues. You’ll find them at the Empire Cabaret Theatre at the Wonderland Festival Hub in Hindmarsh Square. Only 4 shows remain: at 8:15pm tonight, Thursday, and tomorrow, Friday, and 10pm Saturday and Sunday.