by **** (out of 5)
Inside you are two wolves, they say. More like a chimp vs a bonobo, Michelle Brasier says. She brought her more emotionally heavy “Average Bear” show to the Fringe last summer, but this time around, it’s only getting heavy if you’re talking about the bops she performs in this rock musical with her partner Tim Lancaster on guitar and Jordan White on the keys and drums. This is the mostly true story of Brasier’s attempt to buy a Pilates reformer machine online through Facebook Marketplace when the pandemic locked her down in Melbourne in 2020, and the man Michelle hopes to reform when her deal goes south from the jump. You may have heard her tell snippets of this story on podcasts or Aussie TV, but now you get all the dirty details, in both story and song. Is Brasier too much of a bonobo for trying to mother the man who’s potentially scamming her? Or is she too much of a chimp for using this chump as the material for her newest hit show? Either way, she’ll leave you laughing and bopping along.
Michelle Brasier: Reform runs through Aug. 27 at Gilded Balloon Teviot, Dining Room
