Mylie Cyrus: feminist icon or a disgrace to womanhood? This is the conundrum under investigation in Justin Nott and Danni Ray's Can't Be Tamed. To give it its dues, there's a surprisingly ample amount of dramatic meat on the bones of this concept.
To the casual observer, Cyrus comes across as a celebrity brat whose hedonism, gratuitous pelvic grinding and fuck-you attitude is nothing but a bad influence on impressionable tweens. Take a closer look, and Cyrus makes some pretty insightful observations about the relevance of her personal brand of femininity while commenting on how her upbringing, on a Disney soundstage, warped her adolescence.
While I was won over on the premise, the execution of this show never quite manages to make good on the subject matter's dramatic potential. Danni Ray as Cyrus is consistently too contrived - a tough thing to do with a figure as caricaturish as Mylie Cyrus - to make the subtle intelligence of this show communicate. Being enigmatic is a perfectly legitimate stage device when it's intentional, but this production seems to hopelessly grope for some kind of resolution without ever managing to grasp one.
Justin Nott presents Can't Be Tamed at Arts House to 23 Sept. Part of the 2016 Melbourne Fringe Festival.
