Asking For It

If there’s one thing this year’s Golden Globes taught us, it’s that there is a right way of telling a rape joke. Adrienne Truscott (best known as one half of cabaret duo The Wau Wau Sisters) takes this one step further with her one-woman comedy show Asking For It – dressed only from the waist up, she subverts the ‘male comedian making edgy joke because free speech’ cliché with more wit and creativity than many of her peers, using absurd humour to highlight the absurdity of rape culture itself. What’s more, she does it so good-naturedly it’s hard to imagine anyone walking away offended.

Truscott uses her performance background to take the show beyond mere stand-up, with never-ending stripteases of jackets and blonde wigs, projections of male faces onto her torso and a finale using a rape whistle in a way that you’ve definitely never seen before (warning: you’ll never listen to Flo Rida’s Whistle the same way again). (AS)

Jan 14-18, Sound Lounge (Seymour Centre), 9pm and 11pm, Corner City Rd and Cleveland St, Chippendale, $35 (02) 9351 7940, www.sydneyfestival.org.au

By Anita Senaratna