As Communications/Marketing Coordinator for Coleman Lemieux & Compagnie (CLC), I get to meet many tremendous artists who walk into The Citadel on a regular basis. One of the absolute killer performances that CLC hosted was the sold-out run of dancer/choreographer Sabina Perry’s FUNNY/FUNERAL.
Sabina is a Cologne, Germany-based artist who has the unique backstory of going to 51 auditions without any success. She was just about ready to return home to Canada, but she had to follow-through with her 52nd audition first. Breathe easy, because she got the gig and was able to continue developing abroad.
I managed to watch a preview of FUNNY/FUNERAL before it ran in April of this year. From the opening with Molly Johnson dancing to Morrissey’s “Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now,” to the rapid series of one-liners Perry tells near the end, the show was wildly entertaining.
The first half of the show is a dance performance with Johnson showing fine control in synchronization with a perfectly-chosen selection of songs. The second half is Sabina Perry giving a fiery monologue that delved into ex-boyfriends, murder fantasies, orgasms and other edgy topics.
What Perry & Johnson did was special in that they took their performance to the absolute limit. They opened up as artists to capture electrifying moments of their lives as they nudged past their 20’s. They did it with style, class, wit and candor, drawing rapt applause from an ecstatic audience.
This show gets five stars out of five. Hopefully they remount in Toronto in the near future.
Pound for Pound: 