IRISH TIMES Ed Power (Fringe Festival) Oct 2001

Lost Songs

A heady camp aesthetic informed Camille O’Sullivan’s insouciant cabaret travelogue.

Billed a celebration of the oeuvre’s forgotten classics, the show oozed satiric allure. Many in attendance lapped up her vampish twirls with tongues lodged squarely in cheek.

Flitting between languorous music hall decadence and toffy-accented vaudeville, O’Sullivan breathed astonishing vigour into her dusty material. She is a riotously physical performer, wielding feather boa, flapper hat and microphone with dazzling poise. O’Sullivan inhabits her songs, acquiring the bawdy manner of a Weimar fraulein or the waggish strut of a home countries debutante as appropriate.

Lesser-known pieces from Jacques Brel, Kurt Weill, Piaf and Dietrich dominated a set by turns bewitching, hyper kinetic and bewildering. A teasing reading of Friedrich Hollaender’s The Kleptomaniac underscored O’Sullivan’s comedic flair.

The burgeoning popularity of Brel tribute artist Jack L suggests cabaret is acquiring a widening fan base. O’Sullivan can count herself among the foremost exponents of this intoxicating vanquished art.