“Ellen Morning and Naomi Klemens are electric as Noa and Jolene in HUSTLEPUSS”
3/5 megaphones
Ellen Morning and Naomi Klemens are electric as Noa and Jolene in HUSTLEPUSS. The two CEOs of WHOA WHAM are getting ready for a media appearance, in complete denial of the dispassionate attitudes of their employees and the less than regular way that they conduct business. Morning and Klemens present an entertaining satire of businesswomen living for the image of themselves.
Big expressions and vacant eyes, these businesswomen live for the grind. Megaphones in hand, they demand success and live for the admiration of successful business moguls. We get the feel they expect nothing but optimum performance from employees, but with missed phone calls and blank computer screens their actual roles remain unclear. When they get the chance to be interviewed as CEOs, their facade proves so pressurised it can do naught but combust and they take the unwitting journalists down a road of alcohol and drug use, violence, and even what seemed like cultic practises. Noa and Jolene don’t stop, and neither does this show.
Big, bold, and a little bonkers, the short and sharp show sits nicely in the fringe warm up. Hannah Malarksi’s direction takes full advantage of the absurd characters living in the corporate hubbub. The show feels like a ladder, with the rungs leading us upwards towards an increasingly farcical display. Despite all of this, it seems no less ridiculous than the drudgery of the reality of 9 to 5.
HUSTLEPUSS is available on Melbourne Fringe digital until November 29.
