[CABARET/Comedy ~ VIC ~ SA PREMIERE]

The Chapel at the Courtyard of Curiosities at the Migration Museum, Sat 2 Mar, 2024.

Galah Galah was a nickname Gemma Caruana inherited from her family, and not for entirely complimentary reasons. In earlier times it was quite common in Australia to call someone a ‘stupid galah.’ But Gemma goes to some lengths to portray this Australian native bird in a more favourable light.

There are many interesting elements to this performance starting with the cute little home video to get things rolling. Caruana takes us though her struggles with anxiety and panic attacks with a combination of talk, original songs, and dance. Reading aloud from her childhood diaries was a nice touch, as was the video montage of people telling other people to shut up. (I think I spotted Judge Judy!)

More video of herself running around an oval trying to commune with galahs was amusing and the show has a surprise ending that no one saw coming.

Caruano worked hard to make her story entertaining.