Tash York Winefulness @ Girls School
Wednesday, February 5, 2020
Tash York invites you to come and practice ‘Winefulness’ with her as she shares wine-related anecdotes relating to her life by way of witty quips and cleverly adapted songs in this wine-fuelled cabaret comedy at Girls School this FRINGE WORLD. And darlings, it is fabulous.
After a voice-over akin to a mindfulness app getting one ready for a session of guided meditation, instead, beglittered from head to toe, Tash bursts onto the stage and into our hearts instantly, with a warm, welcoming smile and an aura brimming with good vibes. Her outfit is incredible, she’s like a cross between a sparkly hula girl and a damn mermaid live onstage, and it is glorious. Accompanied live on stage for every number by musician Arthur, Tash opens with her rendition of Britney’s Oops!… I Did It Again, this version centred around, of course, Tash’s wine drinking habits. Personable as can be, she welcomes us to her show “celebrating the elixir of life that is wine and if you don’t drink wine, what the fuck are you doing here?”
Arthur does a brilliant job of creating the tunes to accompany Tash’s stunningly beautiful, musical theatre-trained voice with a small setup including acoustic guitar, loop station, and electric drum pad. As a performer and support to Tash, Arthur is ultra endearing. His kind, humouring glances up at Tash and the occasional back and forth between the two indicates a great relationship which translates beautifully onto the stage. Often, it’s the intimate little touches that help to set the mood and create the perfect atmosphere which are able to lift a show from good to great.
An extremely talented singer and performer, Tash does a wonderful job of cleverly adapting popular songs from various genres into her show about her three loves: wine, her cats, and yoga. The highlights of her set were definitely her rap songs. Eminem’s Lose Yourself was a firm crowd favourite, with Tash’s rap skills tight as fuck. And her improv..! With some audience interaction, there were a few times throughout the show that Tash showed off her considerable improv chops, the most impressive part of the show. One such occasion was with a ‘cat rap’, and her quick-wittedness alone really is worth the price of the ticket.
Tash talks about her life as a younger person getting comfortable in her own skin and finding her power away from wine. She touches on mental health and her life growing up in Queensland, playing ‘Goon of Fortune’, and hey wouldn’t you know it? She even has a mini clothesline with mini goon bags on stage so that we can have a little game of ‘Goon of Fortune’ during the show.
While the show was mostly light-hearted, there was a sudden shift in tone as she talked about her relationship with her dad followed by a sadder song, Everybody Hurts (R.E.M.), which felt like it came a bit out of the blue during the last 10 minutes and probably needed a bit more setting up for context. But then, perhaps in this show with no fourth-wall where Tash drinks on stage, this sudden change in direction is a comment on how, when we’ve had a few, we might actually get a bit more emotional suddenly and take the conversation into darker territory. We wine drinkers have certainly all been there!
Tash York is an exceptionally charismatic human, a beautiful singer and just a whole bunch of fun to sit and watch as you sing along to the songs. Her wine-skulling skills are as impressive as her performance skills, improv skills, and vocal range. Grab mum and/or your mates, a bottle of wine, and get in there!
MELISSA KRUGER
