A Review of Sunday's Show by Charlotte Grainger

A tall man in a striped shirt, a blue tie and a bowler hat walks on stage. He holds a plastic toy gun. As he does so and voice over begins to play. Fake smoke sweeps across the stage. He looks up at the audience and begins to mime to the booming voice.

“This girl has taken the whole state for every diamond they got. I gotta give it to her though – she's good at what she does - Why has she never done me?”

Duke O'Growl as 'The Detective'

The audience roar with laughter. The man puts down the toy gun and lifts his hands to his already bowed head.

“Sitting here waiting for the devil. And she’s on her way”

The music kicks in. A guitar rhythm. So loud that the sound of the audience’s cheers is almost drowned out completely. The man exists.

She walks on. Her curly black hair bounces as she waltzes up to the stage holding a slightly bigger toy gun. The symbolism is perfect. She is more man than him. She kisses it.

Once on the stage she drops her black fur coat to the floor. The audience scream as her purple corset and French knickers are revealed. Slowly she sheds her long black gloves. She reaches into her corset and produces a pearl necklace. Swings it – once, twice, three times. Throws it into the audience.

Deadly Nightshade as 'The Diamond Thief'

Next goes the corset. She makes sure she takes her time untying it. It looks intricate and she basks in the sound of the audience wooing her on. Once untied, she drops it to the floor. To reveal a jewelled bra beneath it. The audience once again goes wild and she beams. This is her moment and she is Deadly Nightshade.

“It’s not about the titillation of men. It is more for the women themselves really. I see it more as an art form” says Deadly Nightshade, real name Rachel Lightfoot.

At just 25 Rachel, from Rotherham, started the Secrets of the Boudoir Burlesque Show as an outlet for her and her friends who were interested in the scene.

“People used to say to me that my style was similar to Dita Von Teese's and ask if I’d ever been to a burlesque show. I thought why not?”

Deadly Nightshade a.k.a Rachel.

Three years later and her own show is still going strong. The success has meant that Rachel is able to ask some of the bigger names in burlesque to guest star at her nights which she organises quarterly.

Warren Peace enters the stage. He is a middle aged man with dark slicked back hair. He wears a suit jacket, shirt and tie. He also wears fishnet stockings and hot pants.  He stops. Strikes a pose for the audience. They cheer obediently. And begins singing “I can make you a man” from The Rocky Horror Show.

“I’ve been thinking about the next theme. I might do gorelesque [horror style burlesque].” says Rachel and then smiles. The idea to give each show a different theme came about when she was trying to set her show apart from similar acts.

“The girls will tell me they have an idea for a dance and it usually goes from there. I think of what theme I can put it into and that’s it.”

Secrets of the Boudoir Burlesque Goes to the Movies

Cleavage is everywhere. Not one of the girls, the audience included, has attempted to cover themselves. It is a pity there aren’t more men here. They don’t know what they’re missing. The men that are here dress in suits and most of them are accompanying a barely covered woman.

“Most people expect it to be an all men crowd but actually it is mainly women. We recently performed for the Women’s Institute and by the end of it we had got them all up dancing.” says Rachel.

When the question of the show being anti-feminist comes up she answers completely un-phased. “I see it as in a different category to strip tease – obviously it is that – but it is more about the show in general than turning people on.”

And finally the killer question, just how naked would she be willing to get on stage? “Personally, I would only go as far as getting down to my underwear. Some girls feel comfortable in nipple tassels, but I don’t.” Sorry guys.