They might introduce themselves a “raging lesbians” but their show is more “sweet, funny lesbians” with added super cute and sassy bitch galore.  Ally Cockrell and Kimberley Greaves are a couple who seem to love being in each other’s company and it is highly infectious, whatever your inclination.  CHEEP NOODS is a deceptively, neatly crafted show which enjoys a pretty loose expression and a joyous envelopment of the audience.  It’s funny and disarmingly wise in places and presented by a couple who complement each other with an appealing presence and love of a good time.

They begin their intros and it’s such a shame that their pooch ‘Goose’ isn’t joining them.  This adoptee is an advocate for same sex parenting apparently and that would be worth seeing.  This is the first indication that these pair have a delicate and relevant view of the experience of growing up Queer in Australia, however comically they express it.  Later we will have an insight into what that label and the ever growing alphabet of Queer inclusivity means to Ally but we begin with a school bell and Barb and Trudy at the head of a sex ed class.

A very hetro-normative sex ed class.  Of course every experience is better, deeper and more accessible with interpretive dance and these pair know the way to subvert the hetro gaze with little adventures of the Yass Queen style.  Proving once again that I am really, really bloody old!  But I get it, I really do because Ally and Kim avoid any crudity or in-your-face nonsense, even when a grumpy female gonad appears in pissed off period mode.  They treat their audience with respect, their work is prepared, rehearsed and honed and they each have different skills and ways of engaging.

Ally is the quieter with a wry way of doing a double take and of pulling in the audience with a questioning comic face when she slyly peeps out from her specially grown mullet.  And she is a cracker guitar picker.  See there is a joke there that is never made and I think that is what I loved about the show, they don’t go for the obvious and the Lesbian references are personalised and sophisticated.  Kim sings with a very attractive voice, can rap very well, has quite a way with words and is such an open performer with a lovely way with audiences.  Her eye contact and warmth is engaging and honest … her share about the straight-looking curse is delightfully comically effective.

And the anti-label rant from Ally … it’s not a rant.  It’s a witty conversation from an artist with an expressive way of getting the point across and a laughing understanding of the nature of the personally politically humorous. There is a rant though, from a plebiscite-no, N Q bloke who has croc concerns about how the government isn’t doing … some shit that he obviously feels entitled to want!  A funny little sequence that flips the mood from the section before it which was a piece that was moving, advocating and beautifully expressed.

Then there was a dance off with the audience joining the women’s posse as the conclusion to a well written, well presented show with something for everyone and smile to take you out into your world.

CHEAP NOODS played September 6th and 8th as as part of The Sydney Fringe.  See more of their work and at their YouTube Channel or Facebook.