VOICES CARRY
The Festival of Voices’ late-night hub Voicebox is back in the bootlegging business for 2018, reports Kane Young
THE Festival of Voices’ popular Voicebox cabaret club is harking back to the Roaring Twenties, transforming into an old-school speakeasy next week to host a series of soul, jazz, comedy and cabaret stars.
Former Festival of Voices director Kris Stewart started Voicebox as a cabaret club in 2012 and it has evolved constantly ever since, with a diverse array of acts performing over the past six years.
For this year, current festival director and Voicebox producer Peter Choraziak has changed things up again, taking Voicebox back to its roots by focusing on making it “a cabaret festival within a festival”.
The Hobart City Hall venue will again have a fresh layout, featuring a new “Whisper Lounge’’ and designed to create a warm, cosy and friendly atmosphere. Staff will also wear Prohibition-era outfits to fit in with the 1920s vibe.
Comedy cabaret star Dolly Diamond will be the Voicebox hostess throughout the packed seven-night program, which includes:
Former X Factor Australia finalist
Rochelle Pitt (July 6), a proud indigenous artist from Far North Queensland who will perform tracks from her latest EP, Soul Mumma. New Zealand national treasures The Topp Twins (July 6 and 7), who are crossing the ditch to deliver their trademark blend of country music and character comedy — complete with burlesque innuendo, audience participation and some damn fine yodelling.
Queensland performers Carole Williams, Harriet Jackson, Matthew Semple and Bonny Nonny will explore the truth beyond “happily ever after’’ in the “improper cabaret” Dismal Ever After (July 7), proving that sometimes the real thing is so much better than the fairytale.
Internationally acclaimed songstress Emma Dean will “revel in the messiness of what it means tot be human” as she explores heartbreak, healing, and unleashing your inner unicorn in BrokenB Romantics — A Unicorn’s Quest For Love (July 8).
The “Maori Ratpack”, the award-winning New Zealand act the Modern Maori Quartet (July 8 and 10), will return to the FoV to share more Maori stories through waiata (song) with their customary charm and tongue-incheek humour.
Cabaret’s cavorting princess of parody, Amelia Ryan, has taken a (surprise) turn towards the domestic — she got knocked up. Delighted and daunted, she’ll ponder the big questions facing any new mother-to-be in the relatable and revealing The Breast Is Yet To Come (July 10).
Tassie divas Jude Elliot, Di Richards, Meg Bignell and Alice Fiddyment will disarrange songs you thought you knew in Take the Spotlight and Run (July 11) and take them on an unconventional trip from Barbra Streisand to Britney Spears and back again.
Helpmann Award-winner Michael Griffiths and FoV favourite Amelia Ryan will celebrate the songs of Aussie icons Olivia Newton-John and Peter Allen in Livvy & Pete (July 11), going on a sequinned, jumpsuited journey from Tenterfield to Xanadu and beyond.
Melbourne singing comedienne Carita Farrer Spencer will unleash her two outrageous showbiz alter-egos — sexy showman Larry, and ageing show pony The Dame — in the one-woman hour of power Larry and The Dame (July 12).
Gender transcendent Melbourne cabaret artist and jazz singer Mama Alto will belt out beguiling ballads, fierce blues and poignant Torch Songs (July 12).
Award-winning jazz singer Kate Fuller and The Boys Club — Alana Dawes (double bass) and Kyrie Anderson (percussion) — will explore 1950s femininity by recreating classic swing-era tunes in the Voicebox finale, I Like Men (July 13).
After each night’s headline acts, Voicebox will transform into a free late-night supper club dance hall, featuring live music from local acts Uncle Gus and the Rimshots and The Matthew Ives Little Big Band.
“From 10pm you can get in for free and hang out at a really cool late-night supper club with good atmosphere, good booze and great music,” Choraziak said.
“Uncle Gus and Matt Ives both fit that late-night dance-hall vibe with their infectious swing and jive music. That’s very much the vibe we’re going for. It’s a little late-night club for grown-ups.”
The 2018 Festival of Voices begins tomorrow with a sold-out opening night gala event at Buckland, which kicks off the FoV Coastal series of events on the state’s East Coast this weekend.
Over the next 16 days, the festival will feature massed choirs, pub choirs, workshops, the popular annual Big Sing bonfire, and more than 40 free pop-up events in and around Hobart. For details and bookings go to www.festivalofvoices.com