With Halloween festivities drawing to a close and the outfits being packed up for another year, there left only one Halloween event to play us out, performed by the mysterious Steel City Sirens. I went to their Halloween burlesque show Death Becomes Them for an exciting end to the Halloween season.
Death Becomes Them was the Halloween showcase of the Steel City Sirens, the burlesque society of the University of Sheffield. Presented by Rosie, this two-part extravaganza featured performances from new and seasoned burlesque performers, each performing their own set or group number showing off their skills and sexy dancing. These were interspersed with a range of stories from both the performers and audience about previous sexual encounters and a higher or lower gameshow, ranking the appeal of various cartoon characters.
This was the first burlesque show I have ever been to and had not heard about this society until a few people I knew got involved with the Sirens. But after seeing the skill, the talent and the sexiness of the performances, it definitely will not be my last! The entire group of performers have immense talent and are able to hold the room onto their every move. The strength, confidence and charisma of each and every performance was no less than deeply empowering, inspiring such excitement and body confidence in everyone who got to watch the show, me especially.
The comedy of the performers, particularly the presenter and host Rosie, is captivating, keeping transitions between performances fun. They didn’t feel like they were filling time at all, with the stories and comedy often lasting longer than the transitions themselves were! As with many shows of this variety, there is a level of audience interaction throughout which bought an entirely new dynamic to the show, but the Sirens are particularly receptive to the audience members they engage with, so any people who may be nervous about being called on or being involved at all can rest assured that they will only involve you in the comedy if you want to be a part of it!
Death Becomes Them was an exciting, fun and incredibly sexy showcase of the talented performers at our university and the inherent beauty of the human body. The skill of the Steel City Sirens is incredible and their performances were deeply empowering and inspired a new level of confidence in its audience, especially with me. I cannot wait to see them again for their Christmas showcase later this semester!
Rating: ★★★★☆
Death Becomes Them was performed in Raynor Lounge at Bar One. For future shows from The Steel City Sirens, see @steelcitysirens on Instagram
