Madame Tango

one of the Sydney Fringe events , here's what I said on artshub
http://www.artshub.com.au/au/news-article/reviews/performing-arts/madame-tango-185878?sc=1
This steamy and spicy work, presented by new Australian performance group Three2Tango as part of the Sydney Fringe, offers a great chance to see some fabulous tango dancing integrated with a pointe solo, an acrobatic aerialist solo, and a ‘burlesque’ style fan dance solo; a marvellous mix of slinky tangos mixed with elements of Evita, Chicago and Gypsy.
Created and choreographed by William Centurion, Madame TANGO fuses various performance forms with a striking soundtrack (including the ubiquitous Piazolla); rewriting the rules of tango using live theatre and tango’s passionate rhythm to stamp their mark on its accepted traditional style.
The plot of the show concerns a young girl who, Evita-like, seeks to escape her dreary monotonous life in the country by seeking a bright new life in Buenos Aires. On her journey she is introduced to the tango – a forbidden pleasure – and is consumed by its fiery passion. As her later life unfolds a series of events occur, Chicago-like, that spiral out of her control and she comes to realise that men are not what they seem.
The production design’s dominant colour is red: for blood, for passion. All the Madame Tangos wear slinky red costumes that are subtly different in cut. The three younger Madames have short or bobbed hair (continuing the Chicago link).The older Madame Tango (television star Tina Bursill) acts as narrator, and is tres chic and elegant in a long flowing red and black gown. She tells the story of her life with a heavy, and at times hard to understand Spanish accent.
All the male characters are played by tattooed Latin hunk William Centurion, whose various roles are delineated by a different hat, shirt or prop.
As in Chicago, Madame Tango’s first love is killed as he accidentally runs onto a knife she is holding (it really is self defense). There is a steamy, slithery tango pas de deux here, including some very acrobatic lifts, and a yearning, grieving solo in the style of ‘Pillar of Fire’ or ‘Las Hermanas’.
For Madame Tango’s next younger self, the aerialist (Paige Walker) there is a wonderful solo with a hoop where Madame Tango drapes herself over it/through it/hangs from it/curls inside it (excellent work by Walker).
Madame Tango is fortunate to find love again – a far more hesitant and wary hot tango here, that heats up drastically – however, she flees to keep him safe and when he receives her letter, kills himself.
As the final version of Madame Tango’s younger self, the burlesque artiste (Natalie Somerville) has a wonderful, short feathery Firebird-like costume and a huge white fan. A very sultry and exotic performance leads into more hot tango dancing. A steamy same-sex tango is also included, with one of the cast cross-dressing as a male for the scene.
An exciting evening with some luscious, slithery tango, fabulously danced.
Rating: Four stars
Madame TANGO
Director: Grace Barnes
Choreographer: Will Centurion
Writers: Will Centurion and Grace Barnes
Additional Choreography: Mariana Baltodano, Paige Walker and Natalie Somerville
Lighting Design: Tom Davies
Costumes: Adriana Demichelis
Cast: Tina Bursill, Mariana Baltodano, Paige Walker, Natalie Somerville and William Centurion
Running Time: 50 minutes (approx) no interval
New Theatre, Newtown
September 26 – 30