20th Century Woman – The Compact Cabaret
‘intelligent and different cabaret’ (RemoteGoat) debuts at Brighton Festival Fringe
Remote Goat Review – 4 Stars
“versatile and powerful actress... multi-talented Miss Weston (she sings as well)...
an intelligent and different cabaret...
..both a thoroughly entertaining evening and an enlightening education in female achievement at the same time.
..males in the audience who had possibly attended under sufferance, were soon expressing their enjoyment through hearty guffaws in the funny bits.”
Time Out Reader Comment:
“The first performance of 20th Century Woman – The Compact Cabaret was huge fun. Lots of songs and readings and quite unexpected but entirely logical developments. Good to know that the show will be seen by many more people. Best things: the Lancashire lass doing her war work and the Marlene Dietrich impersonation.”
Fiona-Jane Weston’s extraordinary show, 20th Century Woman – The Compact Cabaret, is set to take place at The Temple on 8th and 9th March.
The one woman show brings together the words and music of some of our greatest writers and composers, to create an inspiring 90 minute whistle-stop tour that illustrates the journey taken by women during the last century and up to now.
The performance starts with the steely determination of the early suffrage movement and moves onto the tough world wars when women were used initially as recruiting sergeants in the music halls and then as munitions workers in the factories.
Tribute is paid to some of the century’s greatest writers including Dorothy Parker, George Bernard Shaw and Mrs Emmeline Pankhurst, as well as modern playwrights and poets. The production comes to dramatic climax in our own modern, but just as demanding and challenging time. The show also features wonderful songs, both comic and soulful, ranging from Victorian melodrama to ‘60’s protest numbers.
Fiona-Jane, said, “I have been lucky enough to work as an actress at the London Palladium, Westminster and Cochrane theatres, and the show has played to sell-out houses at The Pheasantry (the new Pizza on the Park), the Battersea Barge and at the Crystal Palace Festival, but I am delighted to be performing in Brighton as part of such a vibrant and exciting festival.”
She added, “Having always been interested in women’s history, 20th Century Woman – the Compact Cabaret is the culmination of my thoughts and feelings about the past, and where women stand today in our complicated modern society. The show brings together a number of judiciously chosen monologues, poems and songs within a well crafted piece of historical entertainment.”
Fiona-Jane Weston
070778 12025
Press tickets from the Brighton Fringe Office
The Temple, 121 Western Road, Brighton BN1 2AD
Show 6:30pm May 8th/9th, Tickets £6
www.brightonfestivalfringe.org.uk
