Bimbos in Space from Femmepire Theatre is currently playing at Factory Theatre as part of Summerworks.  It’s the first play I’ve seen where the content warnings included BDSM and cannibalism! It’s billed as a homage to sex workers and trans people and riffs off every cliché of the B sci-fi horror genre.

There is a plot (sort of). Mindeaters are taking over the galaxy. Two ships from rival rebel factions confront them.  SS Virago is crewed by Captain Jezerley Renegade (Claud Spadafora); a wannabee rodeo rider, Moratoria Lastname (Kindrey Kroll); a bureaucrat, Jeffrey Shakespeare (Mykola Paskaruk); a loquacious descendant of the bard, and the head of Elon Musk in a jar.  SS Slutbucket is crewed by three women who have had narrow escapes from the Mindeaters.  The captain; Imperator Shadowban (Kit Simmons – who also directed), has in fact lost their entire brain which has been replaced by some kind of empathetic goo.  There’s also technician Vulva (Tarah Ahmad); a disciple of the Tampon of Eternity, and Trix the Dominatrix (Catherine Allen).

Each ship sets out to confront the evil represented by SESTA and FOSTA who register on sensors as a galactic scale pair of breasts.  The ships collide just as Jez is returning from brunch at the Galactic Pines Country Club where they have just polished off the remaining cellular parts of Jeff Bezos.  This sets the scene for various interactions between the two crews about what “social justice” means in an intergalactic (or any other ) context.

The script (Claud Spadafora) is pretty sharp.  Some of the jokes are obvious (which is rather the point) but they are still funny.  The merciless guying of corporate bureaucracy, tech bros and academic verbal flatulence is quite effective.  There’s some interesting meta theatre involving the characters and the narrator (Brendan Green).  The cast ;many playing multiple roles, are very good.  The projections and sound design are pretty cool for a fringe show.  All in all it’s an hour and a half of raucous fun with some serious messages buried within.

There’s one more show today (Thursday) at 7.30pm.

Photo: Teryn Lawson