Tommy Bradson - Pirate Rhapsody, Mermaid Requiem

10 Sep 2011-17 Sep 2011 ,

Variety

Critics' choice

The Time Out Comedy Award-winning performer returns with his take on The Little Mermaid

First published on 18 Aug 2011. Updated on 18 Sep 2011.

This event has finished

What's Pirate Rhapsody, Mermaid Requiem about?

The show is my own musical retelling of the cautionary childrens tale The Little Mermaid, originally penned by Hans Christian Andersen. It is a love story, of a woman who gives up her whole life for a man that does not love her in return, and still she fights for her love. And there are seven original songs written and arranged by the legendary John Thorn. I am also accompanied by graduates from [Adelaide University's] Elder Conservatorium.

So it's not to be confused with the Disney film, we assume?

That's right. Fuck Disney. They lied to us. Don't get me wrong: I love the shit outta the Disney version but theirs is so buttered up it'd give you creative cholesterol overdose if you knew the true story. It's really a violent and romantic and dirty and heart-wrenching story, but she’s still a hot ranga. I play both the sailor and the siren at the tail ends of this sordid and yet doomed and unrealised romance.

As a one-person show, does that make love scenes tricky?

No way. The first scene of love for any of us is usually with ourselves and why should this be any different? It's not tricky wearing a big freaking fishtail. It's not tricky trying to dance with one eye and a wooden leg. What is tricky and what I strive to achieve is some kind of suspension of disbelief... I know that I'm not really a mermaid, you know I'm not really a mermaid, but if I can lure you, just for a second, into this world and if you can believe for that second that somewhere out there, somewhere this girl exists, somewhere this guy swaggers and swears like a fishwife, somewhere someone just did something extraordinary… then the trick is pulled.

Should the front few rows be cautious?

The front row? In my shows... perhaps. I talk real fast, and I spit like a Shakespearian thespian, and I like to get close to my audience. That doesn't mean just the front row. I get close to everyone. So no matter where you sit, there'll be a surprise for everyone.

More comedy clubs, comedians and comedy festivals in Sydney? Sign up to our weekly newsletter

Words by Andrew P Street