Naked Clowns

New York's bawdily feminist The Wau Wau Sisters, regular visitors, were spurred to develop a unique cabaret show by their haters. Death Threats (And Other Forms Of Flattery) follows their provocative The Last Supper, which attracted just that.

Half-sisters Tanya Gagné and Adrienne Truscott – they share the same dad – conceived their Wau Wau (pronounced 'Vow Vow') project 15 years ago. They mash up burlesque, live music, performance art, vaudeville, circus skills and, yes, stripping, all in the spirit of political transgression and audience interaction. The Wau Waus even conduct interviews together. “We are one entity,” Gagné says.

They're currently rehearsing Death Threats, a meta-parody inspired by warnings made when they staged The Last Supper at 2012's Brisbane Festival. “We received a few different death threats for doing this show, I think because of the nature of the show and the nature of who we are and how we do things,” Gagné laughs. The Wau Waus were upgraded to a five-star hotel – and given police escorts. Patrons were subjected to metal detectors – and frisked. Ironically, the controversy ensured the show was an even hotter ticket. However, as Gagné admits, the siblings weren't so sanguine then. “We were not amused at the time at all, to be honest – it's taken us a-year-and-a-half of some serious reflection and anger. Now it is time to make fun of it and light of it and celebrate what we do and comment on what happened, actually, 'cause it was a pretty awful experience. But we weren't gonna let some harebrained, psycho, sick person prevent us from doing our show and our work. That was an option, to cancel the show, but the show must go on. We are good showgirls.

“We thought we were from the most conservative, puritanical, crazy place on the planet and, as it turned out, there's crazy people everywhere!”. The Last Supper also drew protesters to a Sydney Opera House run, Truscott chimes in. The postmodern production wasn't meant to offend, she suggests today, but rather comically challenge boundaries, The Wau Waus' message one of inclusion – and freedom. “We're like funny naked clowns.” And, Truscott stresses, they do have supporters in Queensland. “We have a lot of friends – really dear, wonderful, amazing freaks of friends – from Brisbane – and they were mortified. We sort of said, 'Don't worry, we're from America, for God's sake!'… [But] people do not like when chicks say what they want and do what they want and express their sexuality – and that seems to be an international standard.”