Around The World In 80 Bars
Catherine Campbell & Matthew Carey

Queens Arms Hotel - The Annex
Sun 25 March
season closed


They may still be thirtysomethings but Catherine Campbell and Matthew Carey are cabaret veterans, having premiered several different shows at the Fringe and particularly the Cabaret Festival. In the last two years, they have spread their wings and premiered shows overseas and had many adventures in doing so- and it is those adventures embellished with a liberal dose of poetic licence which form the basis of 'Around The World In 80 Bars'.

Opening with a medley of aerial songs, Catherine's tour commenced in the city that never sleeps (Movin' Right Along -not the Muppets' version) and the lonely search for a date in a world of vain dysfunctional men. However, it was the women that Catherine met in bars from New Haven to Beijing that had stories to tell, including a Mexican spitfire lamenting the genital herpes she got from a dirty gaucho.

Unfortunately, excuse the bad pun, but this show didn't have the lift off that I've come to expect from these two seasoned performers. The thread or glue holding the material together was elusive and I got the impression that this show was a leftover cobbled around songs rather than a main event piece.

Catherine covered thousand of kilometers and several countries, but the barflies she met were expatriates and sounded remarkably similar. Campbell's vocals were solid particularly on Look Mom, No Hands and You Don't Have To Say You Love Me, and I would have appreciated more singing and less prattle. Carey too seemed to get left behind after New York and disappeared further into the background.

Mal Byrne