LASHINGS OF WHIPPED CREAM

Basement Theatre, Lower Greys Ave, Auckland

11/02/2014 - 15/02/2014

Centrepoint, Palmerston North

12/10/2018 - 12/10/2018

BATS Theatre (Out-Of-Site) Cnr Cuba & Dixon, Wellington

18/09/2014 - 27/09/2014

Palmy Fringe 2018

Auckland Pride Festival 2014

Production Details



TEENAGE BRAZILIAN DRAG QUEEN DOMINATRIX TELLS HER SECRETS 

Sold out at the Sydney Opera House, Rhubarb Rouge is back! 

For a very special hour, the theatre becomes a Bondage and Discipline dungeon, and the audience a block of prospective clients as ‘Mistress Dominique’ shares the dirty secrets of her profession. Hilarious, sexy and surprisingly tender, Lashings of Whipped Cream is a theatrical close encounter. 

“Beirao shows a direct and wonderful honesty in his performance and you cannot help but feel privileged to be invited to share in it” – Uther Dean, Salient 

Performed by Brazilian drag diva Rhubarb Rouge (the alter ego of performance artist Ricky Beirao), Lashings of Whipped Cream is an intimate and poignant confessional of one (wo)man’s dreams and demons.  

Rhubarb Rouge wowed sell-out crowds of Confessions of a Drag Queen at the Sydney Opera House, and won Miss Drag NZ in 2009.  

“… has potential but in its current guise it is less than ept, although a number of young women sitting near me seemed to find it novel, shocking and therefore shriekingly entertaining.” – John Smythe, Theatreview 

Lashings of Whipped Cream was written by New Zealand Playwright Fiona Samuel (winner of the 2010 NZ Writer’s Guild Awards and the 1993 Women’s Suffrage Playwrighting Award). While the play has been performed from New York to New Zealand, this will be the first time the role of ‘Mistress Dominique’ will be played cross-gendered. 

“Fiona Samuel’s writing is so easy to digest – on one hand hilarious and bold, yet honest and insightful” – Kate Ward-Smythe, Theatreview 

Lashings is directed by Geoff Pinfield, who will soon be directing at the Sydney Opera House, Queensland Performing Arts Centre and the Adelaide Festival Centre with his award-winning show ‘Magic Chicken‘. Pinfield specializes in comic and satirical works, his original shows are known for being subversive, insightful and entertaining. 

“Geoff Pinfield struck gold. Absurd. Brilliant. Delightful” – Anna Chinn 

Lashings of Whipped Cream: A Session with a teenage Dominatrix is written by Fiona Samuel, Directed by Geoff Pinfield and produced and performed by Ricky Beirao.
It will be playing in
Melbourne from the 29th January to the 1st of February 2014
at Revolt Artspace as Part of Midsumma Festival,
Auckland at the Basement Theatre 11th – 15th of February 2014
as part of the Auckland Pride Festival and
Sydney at the Phoenix Bar from the 25th – 28th Feb 2014
as part of the Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras  Festival.

For tickets and more information please visit Rhubarb’s website www.rhubarbrouge.com

“Ricky has an on-stage charm that many hard-working actors lack. He is an act, rather than an actor.”  Tony Richardson – Gay NZ.Com 

Lashings of Whipped Cream: A Session with a teenage Dominatrix
will be running for an exclusive season from the
18th – 27th September (no show Sunday and Monday), 8:30pm
BATS Theatre: on the corner of Cuba and Dixon Streets.
Tickets are $20 /$15 /$14 groups of 6 and more.

Palmy Fringe 2018 

After selling out at the Sydney Opera House and throughout Australia & New Zealand, Rhubarb Rouge is ready to dominate the Manawatu for ONE NIGHT ONLY!

For a very special hour, Centrepoint Theatre becomes a Bondage and Discipline dungeon, and the audience a block of prospective clients as ‘Mistress Dominique’ shares the dirty secrets of her profession. Hilarious, sexy and surprisingly tender, Lashings of Whipped Cream is a theatrical close encounter.

A Show not to miss!

“The convincing appearance was met equally by her brilliant performance complemented by direction from Geoff Pinfield.. Rouge interpreted the script’s delicate mix of funny, eye-opening, and moving imagery perfectly.” — India Hendrikse – KeepingupwithNZ.com

CENTREPOINT THEATRE
Friday 12th October 2018
8:45pm
$20 Full, $15 Concession
BOOK HERE



Theatre ,


Ecstatically fun and provocatively engaging

Review by Adam Dodd 13th Oct 2018

Originally written and performed by Fiona Samuel in 1993, Lashing of Whipped Cream remains enduringly modern. Society’s increased familiarity with BDSM and alternative sexual mores does undercut the illicit fascination that would have originally sensationalised the material, but sexuality never really gets old and Samuel’s writing is a potent blend of titillation, gutsy humour and honest humanity.

Through darkened doors and beyond the leather-clad usher, a ready supply of bindings, whips and clamps in various sizes awaits, setting the scene with ample suggestion of what might go on here. I have to admit this isn’t my first or even second time in Mistress Dominique’s parlour – different Mistresses in different parlours – and the accoutrements of restraint and release don’t pique my interest in quite the way they might otherwise. It’s Dominique herself that intrigues.

Performed by Rhubarb Rouge, the alter ego of producer Ricky Beirao and previous winner of Miss Drag NZ, Mistress Dominique quickly captivates us, her all too eager audience, leaving more than a few squirming in their seats. Conversational, provocative and rife with physical humour, Rouge’s unabashed approach to the role is a revelation. With agile expressiveness and the ability to shift naturally between a professional / personal demeanour, Rouge’s Dominique is all the more vital and gregariously human.

It’s this humanity that makes the performance.  Lashings of Whipped Cream strips away the exterior facade of the sex industry to reveal familiar comforts, a fundamental human drive for intimacy and the need to sate appetites of all kinds. The humour still celebrates a degree of overt sexuality, and Rouge works her audience with a confident hand and husky unyielding command.

Ecstatically fun and provocatively engaging, this is a great show for a somewhat adult night out.

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Renders the extraordinary intriguingly ordinary

Review by John Smythe 19th Sep 2014

Having seen the original version by writer/performer Fiona Samuel 21 years ago, the Sara Wiseman in the role nine years ago, I had some misgivings about ‘Mistress Dominique’, the supposedly teenage dominatrix, being played by a drag queen. But Ricky Beirao’s ‘Rhubarb Rouge’ makes it work.

Our visit to this B&D chamber may not seem as naughty or titillating these days as it once did, to a jaded old fart like me, although there are some young men in this audience whose laughter is clearly tinged by a delighted nervousness, especially when she ventures into the audience.

Having bid farewell to Jim (“no last names here”), Dominique is initially stymied at the sight of this unexpected group booking but it turns out her wanting to have a chat and our not wanting pain and humiliation – because that would cost us a great deal more than we’ve paid – is a mutually satisfactory situation.

Our session is fitted in between Jim, who likes his discipline heavy, and the expected arrival of Neil, her fiancé, with fish ’n’ chips, to be followed by Jeffrey, who likes his bondage tight. So what with the risk of RSI and the unlikelihood of compassion from ACC, our ‘tour group’ status suits her fine.

A cuppa, a whiskey and something to nibble abet her chatty insights into her world and those of her clients. We do get a taste of how it might be to visit the dungeon one-on-one and some amusing surprises emerge from her fur-topped box of tricks. I have said before it’s a great first act that needs to go further to pay off what’s been set up but somehow this version works just fine as it stands.

Samuel’s colloquial Kiwi text blends with Rouge’s Brazilian accent and pleasantly relaxed persona to render the extraordinary intriguingly ordinary. There are no hints of, let alone revelations into, a sordid childhood or dysfunctional relationship with Neil to reassure us this lifestyle is other than ‘normal’. So in the end it makes perfect sense for her warn us – as she has Jim – to take care, as we leave, because “there are some real strange people out there.”  

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Kinky fun

Review by Jacqui Stanford 12th Feb 2014

It may have been a one wo-man show but Rhubarb Rouge, by herself, almost has too much personality to fit on one stage. Lashings of Whipped Cream, like its star, is outrageous!

Written by New Zealand’s Fiona Samuel, Lashings of Whipped Cream is a wonderfully penned play where a ‘teen’ dominatrix spills all to a captive audience. Lines are blurred between whether you are an audience member or a client, as Rouge (the alter ego of performance artist Ricky Beirao) plays with the spectators. [More]

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Delicate mix of funny, eye-opening, and moving

Review by India Hendrikse 12th Feb 2014

Tentatively walking into the The Basement to see Fiona Samuel’s Lashings ofWhipped Cream: a session with a teenage dominatrix, the butterflies in the pit of my stomach were well in flight.

The nerves didn’t cease when I was greeted with a set like nothing I’d ever seen in theatre before. Surrounding what I imagined to be a ‘toy’ box in the middle of the room were all kinds of bondage and dominatrix toys. An assortment of terrifying sexual fixtures hung from the ceiling, including a cross, floggers, whips, and cuffs. Mistress Dominique, performed by Rhubarb Rouge, is no less frightening (or sexually arousing, depending on your preference) than the equipment she uses. The audience became her block booking of prospective clients, and she teases A LOT… [More

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An energetic and entertaining performance

Review by Johnny Givins 12th Feb 2014

Something really strange is happening in the upstairs space at Basement this week. Enter the world of a dominatrix’s working dungeon. There are a range of whips, paddles, riding crops, ropes, gruesome clips and even a special hot water bottle.  It is the working space of Mistress Dominique who shares the secrets of her Bondage and Discipline profession in an hour of intimate stories, confessions and hilarious audience interactions.

Originally penned by Fiona Samuel some years ago, Lashings of Whipped Cream was an outrageous ‘feminist’ performance by a teenage woman dominatrix revealing, with humour and sensitivity, insights into the secrets and fantasies of the heterosexual male.  It played internationally to acclaim and shocked audiences with its revelations. 

It is now revived with a twist.  Mistress Dominique is cross gender and played by Rhubarb Rouge: the drag persona of performance artist Brazilian Ricky Beirao.  Dressed in PVC pants, a very tight corset and high black lace up boots, the performance is full of energy, vocal gymnastics and confrontations. 

Rhubarb Rouge is a true drag queen working the theatre and the dungeon as she entices the audience to face their sexual fantasies. The best moments are the stories of her own life and her exploration of attitudes to sex, humiliation and fantasy: “Sex is a luxury and a necessity.” 

Originally the script was an eye opener to many audiences who screamed with delight at its outrageousness. Now it seems a little bit dated; the four ‘food groups’ (fantasies) – Camisole, Leather, School Uniform and Nurse – seem from last century.

Mistress Dominatrix has a colourful relationship with her male partner. Ricky as Rhubarb takes on both parts: the ‘real life’ husband and wife. Although the scenes are understandable it is a bit of an imaginative leap for the audience to see a male playing a female convincingly. Perhaps more use could be made of the male-to-male relationship Mistress Dominatrix could be having outside the dungeon. 

As part of the Pride Festival a drag queen playing a dominatrix seems like a great idea to have in the programme.  However the content leaves me a bit distant from the involvement that was expected. It’s all far too “heterosexual”.  I was expecting a new twist as the Mistress Dominatrix’s dungeon was brought into the present. 

Still a good night out as part of the Pride Festival and certainly Rhubarb Rouge gives an energetic and entertaining performance.  I just wanted it to go further, be more ‘dangerous’ and more revealing of the heart and soul of the teenage dominatrix.  Lashings of Whipped Cream is a scratch on the surface not a stinging bite to remember.

Lashings of Whipped Cream is on tour having played the Midsumma Festival in Melbourne and will be appearing at the Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras Festival late February.

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