Bimbo review: Amelia Rooney’s feminist musical hits powerful notes

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Touching on a broad range of familiar topics, Bimbo tells the story of womanhood, femininity and finding your place in the world.

It references domestic violence, career versus family, religious teachings, sexuality, perfectionism, self-confidence and sexual assault.

The piece, performed at Murray Bridge Performing Arts and Function Centre on Saturday night, was a fast-paced journey through a landscape all too familiar to many of us.

Using song as a dramatic device isn’t new, but is usually a positive way of conveying the message.

Mixing a selection of hits such as I Kissed a Girl and Take Me to Church resonated with the mostly under-30s audience, but it was the not-so-well-known music that really made this reviewer take notice.

Each cast member shone in their moment and as a group they worked really well.

Florence and the Machine’s King, sung by Shanna Ransley, was a powerful testament to the choices faced by women around career versus family versus motherhood that are not generally the purview of most men.

The lyrics literally stop you in your tracks and get the grey matter cranking.

Just Keep Moving the Line, from the TV series Smash, sung by Ava-Rose Askew, was triumphant.

You have to have serious chops to pull this one off and Askew certainly did.

It’s a stark reminder that we are rarely the mistresses of our own destiny, regardless of how hard we try.

The cast version of I Kissed a Girl was well sung and cheekily choreographed.

Writer and director Amelia Rooney is certainly one to watch.

To pull off such an intense piece of theatre requires talent and skill, which this young woman has in spades.

My only criticism is that it probably tried to cover too much in its 50 minutes.

At times it moved along so fast that it missed opportunities for silence or space to give the audience time to catch up and reflect.

Bimbo is a timely reminder that constantly moving goal posts and expecting women to be everything, to everyone, all of the time, was never the answer.

Adding in narratives around finding your true sexuality and gender makes much of this search impossible and downright dangerous.

We can ill afford yet another generation of young women spending time wrangling with the same difficult choices their grandmothers had.

Bimbo will shift from Murray Bridge to the Goodwood Theatre and Studios for seven performances this week, beginning on Tuesday night and closing this Saturday.

• Tickets: $25/20 at adelaidefringe.com.au.

Disclosure: The author attended Saturday’s performance courtesy of Hannah Smith.

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