Review: Bright and Bold: Memoirs of a Desk Goblin at The Blue Room Theatre
Bright and Bold: Memoirs of a Desk Goblin at The Blue Room Theatre
Friday, February 10, 2023
7.5/10
As they sashayed onto the stage of The Blue Room Theatre, the audiences’ immediate impression of performance artist Dureshawar Khan was, despite all the marketing, how surprisingly un-goblin-like they were. Touting a gravity-defying, heart-shaped fringe, an adorable black and red pin-up outfit, and intricate tattoos across both of their arms and legs, they were more akin to a walking aesthetic dream. While the audience certainly saw more goblin-like moments of mischief throughout the show, Khan’s overwhelming sense of style and confident stage presence was certainly the overwhelming takeaway.
Bright and Bold: Memoirs of a Desk Goblin, a self-described “one woman homage to the colourful history of tattooing,” was a delightful combination of personal anecdotes and feminist history lessons. Illustrated with images and photographs, the comedy, drama rollercoaster was packaged as a coming-of-age story about the liberating and empowering, though occasionally fraught and challenging, tattoo industry.
Not a tattooist themself, but instead a tattoo shop receptionist, or rather a ‘Desk Goblin’ (owing to the hilarious chaotic demands of such a unique role), Dureshawar Khan traced their journey through the industry, from accidentally hired struggling student to confident ‘Boss Lady.’ Using the metaphor of the ‘goblin’ to represent their own empowerment and control over their identity as a young woman, this motif was well-conceived throughout the show, complementing the strongly celebratory feminist undertones of the work. Punctuating their own sincere observations, or hilarious situations, with stories of women who pioneered the role of women in Australia’s tattoo industry, Khan’s piece read most articulately as a love letter to these historically excluded and under-represented gender trailblazers.
Another powerful element of the story was Khan’s integration of storytelling about varying cultural tattooing practices and traditions. Reflecting on their childhood in Peshawar, Pakistan and its influences on their tattoos as an adult, a sense of cultural interconnectedness was clear, where tattooing had a become conduit for the linking and honouring of Khan’s multifaceted and intersectional identity.
In one of the most quietly affecting moments of the show, Khan describes their decision to have their face tattooed, in the culturally significant style of Sheen Khal, which is often undertaken by Pakistani women preceding marriage. Marking a moment of significant non-marital transition into Khan’s adult life, and performed by a beloved non-Pakistani tattooing colleague, this story’s blending of culture and connection was the perfect encapsulation of a show which masterfully blended and interwove ideas of identity, and representation throughout.
Khan’s witty dialogue, and moments of unscripted interaction with the audience was well suited to the tiny space of the Blue Room Theatre, which complemented the candidness and sincerity of their stories, creating an air of intimacy as though they were tales shared over tea, or in the throes of a long tattoo session. While there were a couple of moments where Khan’s delivery of the show felt noticeably scripted, in its being slightly over-performed and lacking the more natural ease of the memoir show as a structure, it was a highly enjoyable piece of theatre and storytelling which gripped audiences with moments of hilarity, horror and honesty.
Bright and Bold: Memoirs of a Desk Goblin was a fantastic, and excitingly new addition to this year’s Summer Nights programming at the Blue Room Theatre, and a must-see, tell-all about the colourful and quirky world of the Australian tattoo industry, and the women who made it.
BEC WELDON
Photo by Kat Wild