REVIEW: Hemlines, Moon Bureau, Prague Fringe 2025 ★★★★☆

In a linen-lined purgatory, three seamstresses stitch together the dresses that will define women’s pasts, presents, and future. This beautifully original piece of musical theatre by Australian company Moon Bureau examines the unseen, often unappreciated work of women spanning across centuries, nay millennia.

As we enter, our performers are weaving a series of fabrics around a maypole-esque structure that later becomes the clothing rail on which they display their work. The show blends moments of physical comedy, dance, musical theatre, and character-driven narrative to create something wholly unique.

Flossy, played by Lana Filies, is the newest addition to a trio of seamstresses who work down the eye of a mystical needle in a sort of purgatorial realm making garments for all women in history. Though she’s been trapped here for two centuries now, she insists she’s still “unpacking her bags”. It’s clear for the other two, Alice Badger’s Eleanor and Madison Chippendale’s Doris, that her arrival has ruffled more than a few feathers.

Flossy isn’t as careful nor as interested in her work as the other two, and this drives a wedge between them that bares itself in a series of arguments over a lost dress and how Flossy ended up here in the first place. While the piece contains a lot of exciting devised devices, it follows a quite traditional storytelling style that allows us to connect with each of the characters dutifully. Filies’ flamboyant and unrepentant Flossy is a treat to watch, while Chippendale’s Irish jigging as Doris adds a light, frenetic touch.

The exploration of sisterhood, solidarity, and female empowerment is all done with a light touch, offering just enough time to get to know these women while situating their struggle against a rich tapestry of the history of women’s places in societies across the world. It’s all strung together by the central relationships between the three women, which boil over in a series of musical numbers. Given the trio are stuck in this purgatory, they are completely lacking any semblance of a work-life balance, thusly the story gives due weight to make sure we understand each character’s complex relationship to the garments they’ve created, and the ups and downs of spending an eternity with just two other people.

The songs themselves are often come to find themselves more as embellishments to the story rather than specific story moments themselves, which works fine given the piece does not bill itself as a musical. The voices on display are powerful, refined, and the songs offered up neat moments of reflection that added a contemplative edge to the piece which I enjoyed. Sometimes the transition from story to song felt like it could do with some polishing, as songs sometimes rose with long intros leaving moments of silence without intention.

In places the sound mixing could do with a little more balancing work, though it should be noted there were some unavoidable technical difficulties that the company had to deal within the venue during our performance. It sometimes feels like the voices of the performers are squashed a little by the soundtrack. This may be down to the fact that this piece has travelled to a new venue with different acoustics, but I sometimes wished I had more of a chance to appreciate the great voices on display.

Costume and set contribute to creating this bizarre through-the-looking-glass world that our characters find themselves in – white hearts drawn around their facial features, and flowy white outfits evoking an exploration of femininity, purity, and also restriction and suppression – our seamstresses are destined never to don the clothes they stitch together, leaving you feeling nothing but compassion for the bizarre Sisyphean world they are forced to inhabit.

Original, unabashed, and above all deeply sincere – this is an evocative devised piece that asks us to question our relationship to the garments we don, the big moments in our lives, and the contributions of women to history. Moon Bureau’s highly distinct voice uplifts the voices of the women in the history of our civilisation and asks us to ask ourselves to look deeper into the fabric of family, femininity, and identity.

Recommended Drink: Pair this show with a Hugo Spritz – bubbly, refreshing and delicate on the surface, with a potent bite underneath.

Catch Hemlines until Saturday 31st May at A Studio Rubín at various times (60mins). Tickets are available through the Prague Fringe Online Box Office.

Image Credit: Amelia Gilday