Lashings of Ginger Beer Time @ Bongo Club

Queer, feminist and burlesque. How is this possible? Well, Lashings of Ginger Beer return to the Fringe with Lashings of Ginger Beer Time. They are here to dissolve the stereotype of being 'humourless feminists' with their array of comical sketches, re-written lyrics and strong - yet not strict - politics.

According to Annalytica, "comedy is used to expose the absurdities in the messages popular culture gives us about gender and sexuality, while burlesque is a really useful medium for raising questions about society’s expectations about how women should be, particularly with regard to how we express our sexuality." This is basically what Lashings of Ginger Beer do; they don't preach or lecture, but rather pleasantly discuss (or sing about) mind-boggling gender and sexuality issues through the art of Victorian burlesque, pantomime and comedy. 

For example, an issue that is raised during the show is the difficulty of coming out of the proverbial closet to people you trust, respect and care about. As many heterosexual people don't encounter or experience this in their life, the troupe have found a way of getting it across, since they know theiir audiences "are likely to include a good number of people who get it already, and those who don’t get it are more likely to listen in the 'safe' and less painfully personal context of a performance."

The particular issue is explained through inverting it in “Are you sure you’re straight?”. Each question posed is another stereotypical reaction to people coming out, yet with the word "queer" (gay, lesbian, transgendered, asexual, bisexual, and everything else in between) replaced with the word "straight".

Overall, the show is funny, and yet educational - it is bound to teach you to think outside the box (unless you are already!) and is a very good reminder that one does not have to be violent in order to enforce social change.