fashion – Theatre Press

In war time, love, laughter and loss are all the fashion…

A colourful new cabaret debuts at The Butterfly Club this month – and it all began with a little red dress.

Young dynamic Melbourne artist Jenny Patrone is still tapping her toes after winning the Popular Choice award for Short+Sweet Dance 2009 recently, but is now taking a walk in someone’s shoes with her own cabaret show of WWII-style songs, based on amazing real-life stories of women in wartimes.

When Jenny started the Creating Solo Cabaret course earlier this year, she began investigating a period of history and music that had always fascinated her. She soon uncovered real letters and private stories from the lives of British girls whose fun-loving, light-hearted teen years changed abruptly when their sweethearts, neighbours and brothers were called to enlist.

The Little Red Dress marks the moment when the world went back to war, and dance, song and laughter were needed to get daughters, sisters and lovers through long weeks of waiting by the wireless – hoping their boys come home soon, and fearing the worst every time a telegram arrived. Starring Jenny Partrone, accompanied by Adrian Portell, guest-starring Adam Nunn and directed by Kim Edwards, The Little Red Dress opens at The Butterfly Club on Thursday November 26 until November 29.