Melbourne Recital Centre
December 16, 2017

There was definite promise of a naughty kind of nice about this Christmas cabaret show. Strange Bedfellows, the cabaret side project of opera singers Kanen Breen and Jacqui Dark, has a reputation for bawdy, irreverent entertainment, and the Melbourne Recital Centre’s intimate Salon was set up cabaret-style – including a bar should anyone become parched during the hour-long performance. It’s a thirsty time of year.

Kanen Breen and Jacqui Dark. Photograph: supplied

Just in case anyone had missed the naughty memo, Prancer & Vixen charged out of the stables with the C-word. Several times, in fact, as Bedfellows musical director and piano accompanist Daryl Wallis, dressed in jeans, tawdry reindeer Tshirt and elf-eared Santa hat, sang Don’t be a c*** this Christmas. Breen and Dark then appeared in revealing, artfully dishevelled costumes of black fishnets, corsets and lace with touches of colourful Christmas glitter, topped off with plush reindeer: the front half of the beast, strapped to their torsos. This goofy addition was probably surplus to requirements, as Breen and Dark clearly personified Prancer and...