Introspective and defying boundaries of expectation, Le Gateau Chocolate brought raw, witty stylings to the songs that made them. From Frozen to Whitney Houston, The Embassy at Perth Town Hall on the 27th of February had tears and laughter jerked from them in equal part as they were taken through the formative hardships and more light hearted moments of the performer’s story. Accompanied by Pavan Kumar Hari across a range of instruments, Gateau presented song, drama and conversation in an intimate cabaret setting.
The staging for this show was quite simple: One performer, one musician and a living room of props used almost adlib throughout the show. The music was not dissimilar with pared down arrangements leaving ample space for Gateau’s voice. The sound quality of the music was at times distractingly poor with stock MIDI tracks and live instruments mic’d in such a way they were almost indiscernible from those digital renderings. This certainly did its best to detract from the power of the performance but still Gateau shone through with the soft, delicate style of his bass adding emotional complexity in places he could just as easily provide bold, virtuosic and powerful projection (characteristics we also saw throughout the show). There is no doubt of the emotional intelligence deployed during the writing of his work touched and challenged each member of the audience throughout the evening.
The choice to have the piece narrated by a quasi-radio presenter created a new kind of conversational dynamic between Gateau and the audience. Rather than the usual dialogue which unfolds simply between speaker and listener, this addition of a third party allowed Gateau to act not only as speaker but as listener themselves. This dynamic humanised him, placing him within the same audience as those viewing from offstage. Although this new mode of delivery added space for non-verbal communication and received plenty of laughs as Gateau seemingly went about his day, it posed some challenges in keeping up with the arc of the story as the disjointed interjections came and disappeared so quickly.
While this performance of Raw Cacao may have lacked some polish, it was honest, intimate, witty, and connected with audiences on a personal level. I can safely say those of us in the audience had a fantastic evening and I would happily see Le Gateau Chocolat again were he to return to Australia.