Cabaret
De Parel Spiegeltent
February 4th 

The Tina of Tina Del Twist waltzes onstage in a haze of alcohol and past glories. She barely seems to know why she’s there, until she starts to sing. As her voice soars over the audience, the glamour and the stardom she still remembers comes alive once more.

Tina (Wes Snelling) is a singer long past her youth, but still living in a world where she is a star, singing to stadiums and traveling the world. Tina’s both immense, yet mellow voice, and her guitarist Twist’s (Stephen Weir) twangy playing merge into music more powerful than one instrument and one set of vocal chords would suggest. From song to song the duo transform the Spiegeltent from a smoky, dark bar during a blues ballad, to an outback hoedown where we felt like we should push away the chairs and kick up our heels during a country rendition of ‘Waltzing Matilda’. There were laughs aplenty during her banter with Twist and her audience interaction: wanting to “meet her fans” and blatantly asking us to adore her. But she didn’t need to ask, as all eyes were fixated upon her presence; heads swivelling on necks when she made several excursions around the tent and one to the bar.

When she spoke, in between swigs of vodka, Tina became a tragic figure to be pitied. But when she sang, she became a tragic figure to be reckoned with, her voice expertly soaring and falling, forceful and beautiful; the glamour and star she so desperately wanted us to see was suddenly right there on the stage in front of us.

Tina Del Twist runs until Sunday the 8th of February and tickets can be found here.