THE STRANGE BEDFELLOWS
Multiple Helpmann and Green Room Award winners Jacqui Dark and Kanen Breen detonate across the footlights in a debauched and greasepaint-spattered riot of musical abandon as the Strange Bedfellows.
Having notched up impressive credentials between them including seasons on Broadway, the Barbican and Vienna State Opera, performances in Hong Kong, New Zealand and the Sydney Opera House and appearances in the Edinburgh, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Sydney Festivals, the Bedfellows are hurling their combined assets with shameless abandon at the kaleidoscopic world of cabaret.
Roll up for the dog and pony show as they dish the dirt, lay it on the line and lay waste to good taste in public displays of impropriety set to short-circuit the senses.
THE BEDFELLOWS:
Jacqueline Dark is a Helpmann and Green Room Award winning Australian mezzo-soprano, whose performance experience encompasses opera, music theatre, cabaret and concert performances. She recently won her second Helpmann Award for her performance as Fricka in Opera Australia’s Ring Cycle, sang as a soloist in the gala concert to open Melbourne’s Hamer Hall and created the cabaret duo Strange Bedfellows with her friend and colleague Kanen Breen.
She has appeared on television as a guest vocalist on So You Think You Can Dance for Channel 10 and as a guest panellist on the popular music quiz show Spicks and Specks for ABC Television.
Jacqueline’s performances as Marcellina (The Marriage of Figaro), Annina (Der Rosenkavalier), Katisha (The Mikado) and Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni) were filmed by CinemaLive and Opera Australia for international cinema and DVD release.
In 2014, Jacqueline performs Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni, Filipyevna in Eugene Onegin, Emilia in Otello and Meg in Falstaff for Opera Australia, Herodias in Salome for Opera Hong Kong, sings Rossini’s Stabat Mater for the West Australian Symphony Orchestra, a gala concert for Darwin Symphony Orchestra and Messiah for New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. She also performs for Opera Australia in Sydney Festival’s Opera in the Domain.
A multiple Helpmann and Green Room Award winner, Kanen Breen is one of Australia’s most sought-after tenors and is often dubbed ‘the clown prince of opera’.
He has performed in opera, music theatre, cabaret and concert for companies including Opera Australia, Victorian Opera, Opera Queensland, and Brisbane Festival, and he performed to high acclaim in the lead role of Rodolfo in Baz Luhrmann’s "La Boheme" on Broadway. He recently performed the role of Andy Warhol in Philip Glass’ "The Perfect American" for the Brisbane Festival.
Kanen premiered the role of The Swagman in Jonathan Mills’ "The Ghost Wife" at the Melbourne Festival, and made his international debut in this role at the Barbican Centre in London. He also premiered the role of Rory in Paul Grabowsky and Joanna Murray-Smith’s" Love in the Age Of Therapy" for the Melbourne and Sydney Festivals.
.
Upcoming performances include The Beadle in Sweeney Todd with Victorian Opera, performances of The Rabbits, written by Kate Miller-Heidke and Iain Grandage, and the creation of a new cabaret duo Strange Bedfellows with his long-time friend and colleague Jacqui Dark.
