Pelican Magazine Review ★★★★
Dreamworks’ 2001 animated film Shrek has seen many iterations, in both arts and internet culture, including the five-star Broadway adaptation currently running in Sydney. Thanks to Trigger Happy productions, there now exists a Burlesque parody: Shreklesque. It seems to have filled a meme-themed fringe show niche, having sold out all three performances before the show even premiered in Perth.
Structured very loosely around the story of the first Shrek movie, Shreklesque presents a series of Burlesque acts performed by eight well-known Shrek characters. It maintains traditional Burlesque elements whilst leaning heavily on the parodic nature of the show, exhibiting everyone’s favourite many-layered ogre and his friends as you’ve (hopefully) never seen them before. Many of the songs used (either from the movies or thematically related) were lip-synched, but there were a number of excellent live vocal performances from Dee Dee Luscious (Princess Fiona) and Aria Scarlett (Fairy Godmother).