Lash Out at Lotterywest De Parel Spiegeltent at The Pleasure Garden
Wednesday, February 11, 2026
Making its Western Australia debut, all-female circus extravaganza Lash Out was brought to Fringe World this season by Melbourne’s multi-award-winning Head First Acrobats. Crammed with talent both from Perth and across the country, this was a wonderful hour that wholeheartedly celebrated acrobats, carnies, and sideshow acts.
The evening, literally drowned in glitter, rhinestones, and sparkles, was hosted by Melburnian Sian Brigid, who, when she was not instructing the audience in Burlesque Reactions 101 or using an actual Michael as a living, breathing microphone stand, was nonchalantly swallowing swords.
Queenslander Chelsea Angell brought two different acts with two sizes of hula hoops. The more challenging of these was the set only slightly wider than her hips that she somehow contorted around various combinations of limbs and body, as if an old-school Las Vegas magician caught in a variety of locks and chains.
Local delight Sugar Du Joure provided the world-class burlesque expected for this variety show, costumed as a delicious cupcake while she ate whipped cream straight from the can—the more one pondered that, the more it seemed like some weird sugary form of cannibalism. As Du Joure gradually, gracefully, and artistically untangled herself from her clothing, the reigning Mx Burlesque Masters titleholder captured every eye and retained every scrap of audience attention across the venue.
All performers were spectacular in what they brought to the stage, but acrobat Jessica Robbins elevated the wow factor to somewhere well above the Spiegeltent roof. Robbins combined fine artistry with innate musicality, first with a trapeze act that featured hot pink leopard print to Missy Elliott’s Pass That Dutch, and subsequently her second routine, also superb, that utilised an aerial net.
Near the midpoint of the show, the team came together for a combined act—as Brigid observed, “everyone loves a group number”—and what came to the stage was a cavalcade of song snippets, movie lines, and glorious dance, as if a set of live-action memes and gifs related to the travails of modern women, from Kath and Kim, through Shania Twain, to even Anchorman. Well-constructed and fabulously executed, this piece alone would be worth multiple rewatches to collect all the references missed the first or second time around.
Lash Out was a high-quality evening full of amazing talent, with a music playlist full of bangers. Even though the performance didn’t blatantly state out loud, Annie Lennox-style, that Sisters Are Doin’ It for Themselves, the all-women nature of the cast and the more than comfortable professionalism showcased by all ensured the underlying context could be left unsaid.
With the 2026 festival season in Perth filled to almost overflowing with many other highly regarded circuses, Lash Out shot its hand up immediately and fervently as a troupe worthy of one’s time, attention, and attendance.
PAUL MEEK
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