New work falls short despite fine performances and flashes of brilliance.

A decade after her alleged suicide, Beverly Dumont is back on the Broadway stage. The resurrection of the faded diva is not the only controversy though, what with the appearance of another new girl on the block. Violet St Clair is starry-eyed and short of a few quid, but she is also dangerously devious and will stop at nothing to steal the limelight.

After last year’s Little Mercy, Melbourne-based Sisters Grimm returns to the wharf with Calpurnia Descending. The play embodies everything audiences have come to expect of the young artists (Declan Greene and Ash Flanders): witty, absurd, glam-grunge, queer theatre.

Calpurnia is a generally well-written but undemanding tale, with the characteristics of a quality melodrama. The play relies heavily on Jed Palmer’s histrionic score, and on isolated lines in order to maintain the audience’s engagement. “Ophelia. She’s a great character from a play called Monologues for Women Volume 8”, “Anyone with two lips and a pulse can drink”, and “Stay out of my fucking light, bitch” are sharp, unexpected and genuinely hilarious. Some of the most successful moments of the text are organically apropos, reminiscent of...