THIS AWARD-WINNING SHOW VISITS COOMA ON SATURDAY JULY 16, 7.30pm, BEFORE HEADING TO SYDNEY IN AUGUST. DON’T LET IT SLIP BY!!

Come and join Madame Bijou and her bar pianist Alain, in the ‘bar de bonnehomme de neige’ translated as The Snowman Bar, within the walls of the cosy Cooma Little Theatre! Bijou will spin a colourful tale and Alain will play some divine music.

You’re transported to a café-bar in Paris 1933. A wine, a chat; the music plays… there’s a new face in the crowd. A ravaged figure enters, dressed in faded finery and fake pearls and the evening takes an unexpected turn. ‘Bijou’, former Queen of the Demi-Monde, unleashes a cascade of intimate, colourful memories, taking us backwards in time to the shadows of her youth.

Bijou survives a hard world by constantly reinventing herself. A young ingénue on the stage of the Paris Varietees, a high-class Courtesan, the hard-bitten Madame of a highly imaginative house of joy, a vulnerable child at the mercy of the adults around her, Bijou emerges triumphant after taking us on a rollicking journey.

This sumptuous, funny, poignant cabaret peeps into the private, sensual world of a riveting Parisienne d’un certain age. Music of Satie, Weill, Hollander, Bruant and others, accompanies her stories and songs.

Chrissie Shaw, award-winning theatre veteran, is a Canberra-based performing artist and writer. She has produced eight of her own shows, winning Critics’ Circle and Greenroom Awards, has visited Cooma Little Theatre with Women On A Shoestring’s “At the Cossroads” and Cooma Library with her children’s shows “Gran’s Bag” and “Flotsam and Jetsam”. “Bijou” is her latest work, which had two successful seasons at The Street Theatre in Canberra, and has toured to regional NSW, Sydney and most recently a very successful season in Melbourne’s La Mama Courthouse Theatre.

Chrissie is joined by leading accompanist Alan Hicks as the long-suffering bar pianist. Alan is a pianist and vocal coach, currently at the Opera Unit, Sydney Conservatorium of Music, and Director of the University of Canberra Chorale. He appears regularly with the Canberra Symphony Orchestra, and the Australian Flute Festival, and has accompanied national and international singers and instrumentalists. Alan received a Canberra Critics’ Circle Award in 2014 for his contribution to the musical life of the ACT and region.

DETAILS:

Date: Saturday July 16

Time: 7.30 pm. Duration of show: 90 minutes with 15 minute interval

Venue: Cooma Little Theatre Monaro Avenue COOMA

Ticket prices: Full price $28. Concession $22.

Bookings: www.clt.org.au OR Cooma Visitor Information Centre

Contact: chrissieshaw@apex.net.au   Mobile: 0407 079 748