Thanks everyone for your feedback and critique - much appreciated.
I think the criticism of a lack of strip-tease (presumably, as people are used to seeing in burlesque clubs) is a good thing. Thanks to Athiel for bringing this up.
I feel this, because we intended to highlight that this show was
not part of the American burlesque striptease form. We are endeavoring to provide example that there are two very different forms of burlesque - traditional burlesque and burlesque striptease. They are a century and an a ocean apart in both style and purpose.
One has enjoyed a revival for several years now (the burlesque striptease) but the other, much older form has so far been ignored in favour of the Las Vegas glitz and Hollywood glam.
I have an article here on the history of the traditions.
Victorian Values has been written in tribute to the older form.
There was in actual fact, more striptease in the show than their 'technically' should have been as the original burlesques had nothing to do with striptease but instead relied on innuendo and bawdy physical gags at most.
With the striptease elements in VV, we were extending the bawdy content to go with a 21st century audience. As testimony to this, one could note that
none of the sketches which involved strip tease were actually focussed on the striptease itself. The characters were not trying to 'be sexy' - they each undressed for whatever reason their scene demanded making the strip contextually relevant to the scene.
If they happen to be sexy in doing so, then it's because they are sexy people.:YES:
Also, in having the sketches with nipple pasties, we were 'doffing' our caps to the modern scene and as Athiel has pointed out, FiFi La Bomb's vampyric strip down was indeed the most 'risque' in terms of the amount of flesh on show. However to others, and those enthusing of the original burlesque tradition, the amount of flesh on show is not necessarily what makes something risque ('Britannia and the Brigadier' were probably the most risque to many in terms of satirical suggestion).
Again, even with the Vampire strip off, FiFi was making a parody of striptease itself within a Gothic Horror sketch (her pasties were little Batman symbols and the court of Queen Victoria looked on in shock as she revealed them).
The British tradition is based on satire. The form we are celebrating here with VV is one in which 'a burlesque' is written as a full length theatre play with a historical narrative, plot, accurate costuming, satire, send up and spoof.
In Victorian Values, any time a character did strip off, it was done within the specific context of the set up (i.e. - Britannia strips off as she is an opium induced fantasy of an old Brigadier high on puff; Dashwood strips off because he 'gets off' on the shisha pipe's curves; in the Picadilly Prowler sketch, the lady strips off because she is desperately trying to attract the gentleman (not realising that he is inclined to ward his own sex), Queen Victoria strips off in despair as she goes through the stages of mourning and reveals her 'pret a morte' mourning wear already on underneath and the Vampire victim strips off as she is 'turned' in to a lusty vampire - in tribute to sexually predatory undertones of Gothic Horror.) These strips are not about revealing flesh, they are really about transformation of character.
It's good that the show in some ways didn't sit with your expectations Athiel, at least not to 100% as I think it shows that we have managed to get the balance right.
The two burlesque forms are totally different and people will naturally be more inclined to favour one over the other. We aimed to make a real distinction between the two forms not blur the edges and by splitting affections, it seems we achieved exactly that.
Some may love striptease but not have the inclination for satire, others will love satire and find striptease boring or self indulgent, others will love it all - that's all fine and dandy. Each to their own...
For us at MoB, It is our mission to have burlesque accessible to everyone and for our own British burlesque roots to be celebrated as much as the US form is. To do this we needed to provide distinctions and choice.
VV was a real first for the burlesque community and so we were expecting there to be some level of confusion and debate about why it is (or should be) different from other shows under the burlesque name.
It is just a case of us getting the word out that there is more to the history of burlesque than striptease and PR.
More and more of the the burly enthusiasts are coming to appreciate the wider spectrum of the genre and celebrate the different aspects of it's form - for many people, humour is an immensely exciting tease. Think 'Carry On'.
Hopefully people in general will be delighted to have a choice of burlesque style.
As for being appreciative of any show, it's all a matter of knowing which genre we are going to see when choosing a show. It is up to burlesque goers, performers and producers alike to make informed choices for their entertainment based on researched and nformed productions and marketing.
Many thanks to you all for coming and as Dashy has said, we will consider everyone's input when we next meet - we were indeed 'testing the water' as it were....
All comments are very much appreciated.
Victorian values
Linear Mode
