It’s cabaret time!

• Published date: 14 June 2023
• Author: Ilona Hanne
• Publication title: Stratford Press

She’s organised illegal rave parties in 90s Europe and was the lead aerialist for Australia’s Weber Bros Circus. Through Sugar High Productions, the creative side of her company Fantail Creative, Emma is now performance director for a range of events including the popular Splore festival. Editor Ilona Hanne caught up with Emma for a chat about Absolutely! Cabaret, coming to Taranaki as part of this year’s Right Royal Cabaret Festival

Let’s begin at the beginning, where were you born and where did you spend your formative years?

I was born in London but instantly whisked back to the rural West Country. Aged 12, I was sent to boarding school that didn’t consider art a subject worth mentioning. I loathed it, wrote dark poems, had The Rocky Horror Show on repeat on my Sony Walkman and counted the days until I could “start my life”.

So when did life “start” so to speak, presumably not at that school?

I did my final year of school in London where I was out most nights at clubs in Soho and was taken under the wings of the drag queens at a revue bar called Madame Jo-Jo’s. I fell off my chair, asleep, in class one day, because I’d been up with them til 5am.

After boarding school you went on to circus school — had you always wanted to be an aerialist? Were you the type of child who loved climbing trees and...