With The Beast Stuart Bowden brings a barking, dark-eyed, nervous energy to the tale of a creature/monster/beast that lives on the outskirts of town. Bowden’s beast is a frenetic, dancing absurdity, and the artist himself a consummate storyteller-flanuer, expressing a Shaun Tan-esque millennial pre-occupation with suburban magical realism. The show is placed firmly in contemporary parlance, using a ukelele and looping as the main method of constructing twee, yet touching, ditties. Whether intentional or not, Bowden revels in the fuckups, shortcomings, and ridiculousness of the method. As a cabaretesqueish performance, Bowden’s vocal performance and lyricism make it a prococious masterclass in smoothly navigating the thematic highs-and-lows of such tragicomic cabaret (prick ears, iOTA !).

Words by Nick Morlet

Stuart Bowden’s “A series of Portraits” runs at the Blue Room Theatre until February 11th.

By Pelican Magazine

Pelican Magazine acknowledges the Whadjuk Noongar people as the Traditional Custodians of the land—Whadjuk Boodja—on which we live, write, and work. We pay our respects to Elders past and present. // Pelican is the second-oldest student publication in Australia and the only independent paper at UWA. If you like having opinions, writing, drawing, and/or free tickets to local events, then Pelican is the place for you! We print SIX themed issues a year, and run a stream of online content. // Email your 2024 Editors (Abbey Wheeler and Jack Cross) here: [email protected] // Where to find us: Upstairs in Guild Village. Address: M300, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley 6009 WA // Pelican Magazine of the UWA Student Guild & The University of Western Australia.

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