‘Lesbian Love Stories: Volume 2’ // The Local Lesbians

‘Lesbian Love Stories: Volume 2’ was hilarious.

‘Lesbian Love Stories: Volume 2’ from The Local Lesbians performed to a sold-out crowd at the stunning new Pleasuredome at Brisbane Powerhouse as part of MELT – a festival celebrating queer art, artists and makers. Following a sold-out season in 2021, the girls are back with Volume 2.

A cabaret verbatim piece, the work featured three lesbian performers and a band consisting of keyboardist Luke Volker, bassist Annie Silva and drummer Libby Scott, and mixed tales of lady love with popular songs of the pop, rock, jazz and musical theatre genres.

Reflecting on the show afterwards I was struck by the fact that I don’t think I’ve seen a work quite like this before – it’s still sadly rare to see shows about, for and by queer women. Some of the stories were sad, some delightful, some happy, some all too relatable; and all tied together by the fact that they were all true stories.

I enjoyed the choice made by the artists to tell these stories in their own voices. Rather than putting these tales – pulled from submissions from the general public, so not necessarily the artists’ own words – into the third person, they told all these tales in the first person, using their own voices. This allowed the audience to connect deeply with these striking stories.

The work was primarily written by Natasha Verselinovic and Chloe Rose Taylor (who both also performed) alongside performer Ruby Clark. The three had delicious chemistry on stage, taking the audience effortlessly from beat to beat and guiding them emotionally as they traversed challenging content interspersed with some classic bangers. The audience were vocal in their appreciation.

This was the first show I’ve seen in the Pleasuredome – which recently opened at the Powerhouse. It utilised glitteringly colourful lighting to fill the space, while still maintaining the open, airy, cabaret feel. Sound mixing, at times, made it a little difficult to clearly hear each artist’s voice – a minor gripe that may iron out with time.

An enjoyable experience mixing potent queer storytelling with comedy and songs made for a thrilling evening of cabaret and reminded me of the importance of queer storytelling and queer arts.

‘Lesbian Love Stories: Volume 2’ performed on the 20th of November at BRISBANE POWERHOUSE. For more information visit BRISBANE POWERHOUSE’s website.