Sunday 16 March - Adelaide Fringe Festival - Serpentine cabaret
Wednesday 19 March - Brisbane - supporting Martha Davis and the Motels
Adelaide Fringe Festival - Serpentine cabaret
Having spent the last 3 years touring Europe and Australia and performing at festivals including the Edinburgh Fringe and Brisbane Festival, Bertie Page Clinic are bringing their “Serpentine” show to the Adelaide Fringe. The show is a cabaret rock opera that charts the evolution of the world’s most notorious undergarment, the corset. From humble beginnings as a means of support and protection from the elements, the boned bodice became a volatile, moral battleground reaching a fevered climax in the Victorian era. Today it lives on as a much sought after item of fetish and mainstream fashion, often misunderstood, always an object of awe. Serpentine opens this sartorial Pandora’s box with dark humour, sumptuous costuming and mind blowing classic rock style.
The band’s powerful lead singer Bertie Page draws upon three years of research from academic texts and primary sources; she has walked the halls of Versailles, trawled vintage fashion stores in Paris, Berlin and Edinburgh in search of girdles and perused the extensive historical, fashion collections at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. The result is an exquisite nightmare, a journey through the some of western culture’s most painful and bizarre customs. Yet there are two sides to every twisted tale, with great wit and vocal finesse Bertie shines a light on the corset in its role as a liberator, a bargaining chip and emancipator of the female sex.
Serpentine is an extraordinary cultural feast blending original rock songs with an unexpected nod to the works of Motown and Giuseppe Verdi. To top it all off the entire troupe are dressed in lavish, historically inspired designs by Sydney fashion house Gallery Serpentine.
Bertie Page Clinic perform Serpentine at the Gluttony precinct’s Bally room at 6.30 and 9.30pm on Sunday 16 March.
Tickets: http://
FB event: https://www.facebook.com/events/655593391171362
Brisbane - supporting Martha Davis and the Motels
Bertie Page Clinic have had a wild ride of late. Following a massive 2013 that featured a European tour, festival appearances and the release of album “Too Loud Too Naked”, they kicked off 2014 with a new single tour and shows at the Sydney Mardi Gras and Adelaide Fringe Festival. And now they’ve scored the Brisbane support for 80s rock icons Martha Davis and the Motels (Total Control, Don’t Tell Me The Time).
It’s a big coup for the band who cite Martha Davis as a big influence. According to guitarist and songwriter John Meyer, “Martha is one of the pivotal artists of my childhood, her alternative pop/rock style, strong lyrics and catchy melodies helped shape my writing. I was lucky enough to see the band at Expo 88 when I was getting around in my stone-washed denim!”
Lead singer Bertie Page says, “So few female artists have emerged on the music scene with such an influence as a writer and performer, and it’s an absolute privilege and honour to be sharing a stage with Martha Davis.”
Martha Davis and the Motels, with Bertie Page Clinic in support, play the New Globe Theatre on Wednesday 19 March. Tickets on sale at http://
FB event: https://www.facebook.com/events/1409839952602134/
