Melody Rachel is a magnetic performer, and ‘I Wanna Be Mark Wahlberg’ gives her an opportunity to flex her muscles both literally and figuratively. There’s space within this show for movement, words, hair-flips and perfectly timed smirks to explore masculinity with a light touch and perfectly placed pair of Calvin Klein briefs.
By her own admission, this show changes every time Melody performs it, and this particular iteration for Qtopia’s Pride Fest 2025 is striking and fun. Between feats of endurance and the interplay of body and shadow, there’s stark observations and crushing moments of vulnerability.
Some of the most moving moments come from the exploration of physical expressions of gender; femininity as performance particularly has real pain, especially in contrast to the moments of comedy drawn out in the pre-show and intro investigating how men move. There’s real subtlety in this show; small movements tell us a lot, and provide both their own arc and the bedrock for the retelling of people’s reactions and assumptions (both in queer spaces and outside of them).
The intimacy of the Substation theatre space helps the energy of this show to hit straight to the heart. There’s a vulnerability for both performer and audience to be in such close proximity, and this show does crackle with energy because of this. Qtopia has fitted their spaces with precision; it’s one of the most exciting spaces to see theatre in the inner Sydney buffet. The rest of Pride Fest this June offers a collection of opportunities to see new works here. The raw walls and high ceilings allow for Melody’s use of shadow and light to feel cinematic and huge, despite the intimacy of the place.
To march so directly into the breach of navigating maleness and masculinity, femaleness, femininity and everything in between is only possible in the hands of a performer willing to put their neck on the line, which Melody does. There’s real stakes here, real laughs, real tension and a whole lot of interesting questions.
Unfortunately, this show has closed after a limited number of performances at Pride Fest this year, but should the opportunity to step into Melody Rachel’s world arise in another context, this reviewer would recommend that you do so.
