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Sometimes inspiration comes from unlikely places. For Natasha and Chloe, it was a deadline. Having just returned from working in overseas productions, they found that work was hard to come by. “People forget about you quickly,” Natasha admitted. With some of the harsher realities of showbiz coming back to bite, the two stumbled upon an advertisement regarding funding for a new show. The two came up with the idea of a collection of songs about Lesbian Love, and at 11:59pm, submitted their proposal. It was a shot in the dark.
Making connections across identities:
Fast forward a few years, Lesbian Love Stories is selling out shows across Australia and is making its return to Midsumma in 2024. The show itself is eclectic, mixing monologues, and music, amongst other things, telling true stories from by friends, strangers, and even a few personal ones. If there is one thing that Natasha hopes this show can do, is humanise not only lesbian women, but Queer folks in general. Lesbians, in Natasha’s words, are often limited to a deeply restrictive spectrum of “something sexy for men to look at” or “angry and boxed in”. Lesbian Love Stories breaks away from this by showing that, just like everyone else, lesbian women (and by extension, Queer folks) experience the ups and downs of human love as well.
The show itself has been on a roller-coaster journey of ups and downs, and at some points, looked unlikely to get off the ground. Firstly, when Chloe and Natasha tried to register their theatre company, The Local Lesbians, they were rejected. “It contained an undesirable word”, Natasha joked. The first show itself also didn’t go too smoothly. But it was the overwhelming support and positive feedback from Queer audiences that clued them onto the fact that maybe they had something good going.
“There’s not a lot of stuff that makes people realise we are the same”
“There’s not a lot of stuff that makes people realise we are the same,” Natasha said, reflecting on the often-missing sense of relatability between the Queer community and broader society, hoping the inspiring, funny, heartbreaking and even at times mundane stories in her and Chloe’s show can help change that a little.
These days, you can find The Local Lesbians touring their show across the country, as well as juggling other gigs. “You’ve either got nothing on, or are completely booked,” laughed Natasha, commenting on the nature of employment in showbiz. You can catch their show Lesbian Love Stories at Chapel Off Chapel, the duo’s second appearance at Midsumma, on January 27–28.
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