Melbourne Fringe: La Petit Mort

Neo Radio delivers a slick and exceptionally silly film-noir-detective-thriller-jukebox-musical-romp in La Petite Mort.

With flavours of classic 1940s noir by way of The Goon Show, the whole adventure is exceedingly camp and ridiculous, and rendered with a perfect blend of smokey sex appeal and cheeky liveliness by a stunning vocal cast.

Sam Qualtrough is affable and charming as the persistently incompetent Dick Maxwell PI; Yvette Hearn smoulders as the archetypal Brazilian-French femme fatale; Suzanne Barton lends great comic flexibility as (among others) Maxwell’s long-suffering apprentice; and Paul David-Goddard provides the perfect foil as the delightfully dry and despondent narrator, armed with a modest but impressive box of foley tricks.

Musical Director Aaron Searle draws everything together, reimagining an impressive array of contemporary rock, pop and hip-hop classics as sumptuous and swinging jazz numbers with an anachronistic musicality that is simply delicious.