It’s not naughty, but it is nice – the twilight world of Nu-Burlesque comes to The Lowry from Fri 31 October – Sun 2 November. Forget cheap titillation and strip shows, as four exceptional companies bring their own unique and darling styles to North West audiences.

Porl Cooper, Theatres Programmer, explains:
“Before its strip element was introduced in the mid 1800s, Burlesque was about something much more intelligent than that, involving poking fun at other classes, parody, lampoon, commedia dell’arte clowning and slapstick etc.

With this in mind, we went looking for new and emerging companies that incorporated those elements and presented it in a more sophisticated context. Our ‘Nu-Burlesque’ encompasses surreal satire, ‘dirty opera’, clever text, wordplay and unique visual styles, whilst simultaneously snaring the audience in a teasing manner.”
Ad Infinitum’s production of Behind the Mirror tells the tale of a bizarre love tryst between a man, his fiancée and his mutinous reflection. It’s a cartoon world of fast-paced, incisive and touching nonsense – a unique opportunity to see a rare type of exhilarating physical theatre comedy. They re-invent the great and the very ancient tradition of mime and clowning.

Pathway to the Red Sun, a futuristic love story about the search for innocence, unfolds via circus spectacle, poetry, live music, dance and acrobatics. Rogue Theatre’s richly imagined epic is inspired by Madama Butterfly. It also draws influences from Japanese horror, myth and legend, Kabuki theatre, Tim Burton, and films like Donnie Darko, Pan’s Labyrinth and Blade Runner.

1927’s multi-award-winning show, Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, is a dark and strangely beautiful blend of fractured fairytales and silent film. The show combines live music, performance and storytelling with film and animation to take the audience on a surreal journey through skewed and often sinister landscapes. Hapless cats, marauding gingerbread men and cross-dressing devils all make an appearance, not to mention the terrible twins.

Limelight and Lunacy from Marie-Louise Flexen uses a vaudevillian style to spin Victorian values on their heads and poke fun at their hypocritical middle class values. In a parlour game pastiche of Music Hall and speciality acts they explore the duality between what is ‘Proper’ and what is naughty. Highlights include mechanical Punch and Judy, a Big Brother reality slideshow and levitating teacakes!

To view the Nu Burlesque trailer, click here.

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