Performed by Uma Dobia and Isabel Cameron. Directed by Bronny Lane
An introduction to Opera, whilst exploring its transcendence into Pop. Popera is good, interactive fun
Reviewed by Rachael Vassallo
The Motley Bauhaus – Theatrette
Until 20th April, 2025
Tickets: https://www.comedyfestival.com.au/browse-shows/popera-sex-death-politics/
Type: Gameshow, historic, interactive
If You Liked: Queenie van de Zandt, Choose your own Adventure, Hard Quiz, Marina and the Diamonds
4 STARS
Popera: Sex, Death, and Politics (pronounced pop-era) is about the connection between pop music and opera; both seem far cousins in today’s music industry. Billed as a game show, it is a performance in its own right with multiple opportunities for audience participation. Most popheads could not care less about opera and most opera tragics are not “with it” with pop. Directed by Bronny Lane and performed by prima-donna Uma Dobia, it is more than just pop performed like opera and opera performed by pop. It is the interrelationship, the historical connection and the eerily similar culture that connects the two. Popera is a feminist work that explores the role of women in both.
I have never reviewed an opera until today. Opera just doesn’t have the stronghold on our society as it once did. I can’t even count the amount of pop concerts I have been to; it could reach into the hundreds. But there was a time when opera was at the centre of our stages. Opera also has had an endearing influence on our society, much of which was explored in Popera.
The audience entered into the larger theatre space in the Motley Bauhaus, a large room reminiscent of those used to film game shows. It suited Popera very well. Dobia plays the overzealous prima donna, she is rude, overly emotional and self-important. Her ego is integral to understanding her spoilt nature. Her assistant, performed Isabel Cameron is victim to much of her tirade. Soon we unravel the human behind the façade, a hilarious and passionate lover of both classic and contemporary music. A scholar and an academic and most importantly a very talented singer.
Popera deconstructs the stereotype of the diva in popmusic and prima donna in opera. Much of Uma’s behaviour is present through her separation from her partner Trevor. Audience members who have gone through any stressful experience prior to going on stage will easily relate to her struggles and with her stress, seeing the person behind the brattiness.
Popera then delves deep into the rather debauched world of opera. We learn the truth about the deified Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Giacomo Puccini and find they were not good people. Mozart was a womaniser and Puccini was a misogynist. Opera is greatly gender disproportionate and female characters are subject to horrific abuses. It is clear that opera is a man’s world and not a safe space for women. We find that opera is also a dead desert for older women, with few characters over the age of 30, this means that female singers are essentially forced to retire young.
Over time opera evolved from the stage into the iPod with Popera exploring this in a very clever game show. What made it so was that it was not really a competition, no score was kept, so we were essentially free to write our own show and rule our own destiny. We garner a strong understanding of how inequality impacts the opera world and subsequently how the pop world has challenged this through three categories: sex, death and politics. We see how the star evolved from Maria Callas to Mariah Carey. We explore how the prima donna became the diva. Many of our pop stars of today were once the opera stars gracing the stages back then.
Popera is, by the end, a lot of fun. It will bring joy to the lives of those who want an interactive night at the theatre and those who want to sit down and relax in front of a performance. It is certainly an enjoyable night for those who like opera and are looking for a fun night.
Theatre Thought: How do you picture influence?
Book tickets to the Melbourne International Comedy Festival 2025 here.
