Overfired is making it’s grand return to the Project Arts Centre with a show packed full of campy and heartfelt renderings of classic pop songs. 

The exceptionally talented duo, Lady K and Stefan Fae, are back with their award-winning show and it is better than ever. After the success of their shows initial run, they have spent the time refining and re-imagining Overfired.

From December 2-7, the pair will be unleashing an amazing cabaret act that blends the ideas of revolution, camp aesthetic, and queer history. 

Lady K has just collaborated with Veda for a stunning coming out album and co-produced UnderCURRENT Seriously Camp Cabaret. Stefan Fae co-founded Spicebag in rebellion to, what he saw as, a homogenous queer nightlife. Together they form a powerhouse of talent that will leave the audience breathless and invigorated. 

Speaking to the two co-producers, they detail how Overfired came about, the theme of revolution, and the role of cabaret in Ireland. 

What is Overfired?

Lady K: I saw Stefan at [a] night called Glitterhole. But we used to perform back in the day about ten years ago at the Bunny’s “the Hutch” in Panti’s Bar in the basement. We used to do the same shows back then. And I saw Stefan a couple years since we started doing this –

Stefan: About two years now.

Lady K: – At a night called Glitterhole and I was like oh we should do a bit of a collaboration. So [Stefan] came around and we had a bit of a jam, and we started working on some songs. And then we were like ‘oh that sounds pretty good.’ We kept adding more and more songs and trying to make it more dramatic. 

Stefan: We had been workshopping the songs at Glitterhole and at Spicebag and at UnderCURRENT. So I had the idea that we would put it in for the Fringe. But also there was an artist residency programme that we put in for. We were working with a mentor in this really beautiful house in the countryside, and the person that mentored us was Peaches.

Lady K: So we spent a week in the snow with Peaches. Kind of surreal cause it was when we had the snowpocalypse a couple of years back. She gave us a lot of good advice. She was like you need to put one of your own songs in there. So we wrote a song based on her advice and that song is the closing of the song now. She was a huge influence on it. 

Stefan: Most of the songs in the show are kind of ’80s, ’90s, but we tear them all apart and put them back together again. 

Lady K: The lyrics for the songs are basically continuing the stories that we’re telling when we’re on stage. There is a full script for this kind of show. It’s like a theatrical piece with elements of improv in there. It’s serious in places, but it’s quite bawdy and cabaret esque in other places. It’s kind of a hybrid thing really. 

We did it for the Fringe in the Complex, and we were very fortunate to win. We got to bring it to Belfast off the back of that which was lovely. The crowds up there are amazing.

What was the reason for bringing Overfired back to the stage?

Stefan: We wanted to do it again for more people to see it and find out more about the work. This version is a rebooted version of the original. So it is tighter and some tweaked material. We would ultimately like to take it on the road. Maybe do a small tour in the UK or where ever will have us. 

We have a great team of people. I think it is a great show, it’s a very fun show. It’s a fun, gas, campy night out with a little bit of heart. 

On the Project Arts Centre page, the description talks about revolution. How does that come into play?

Lady K: There is a line at the start of it and it is our opening line of the show and it’s ‘we were led to believe.’ It’s quite a haunting little guitar bit, and Stefan sings over it. The notion with that is we in this country were led like sheep by the politicians, by the Church, by all the establishment back in the day. 

This is about examining that and then going the world has completely changed now. What we are trying to do is to get people to go okay fuck it, go out there, do something, make something, really just take charge. 

We are examining the past and then looking to the future and going what does it mean now in post-marriage equality, post-gender recognition, post Repeal the 8th. What does it now mean to be queer now that it is all grand? Is it? Maybe not so much but there is hope, and that is what revolution is. 

Stefan: There is kind of a generational interplay. I’m very interested in legacy and passing of the torch and in folklore and the hidden history of the community that there seems to be a renewed interest in.

I think it’s fantastic the leaps and bounds we have made politically, socially, sexually but I also think we have a way to go. There are outer margins where people still feel like they didn’t benefit from the culture of respectability that went hand in hand with the marriage referendum in some corners. 

From your experiences, what role does cabaret play in Ireland?

Stefan: Panti is obviously an icon and I would see Panti as a cabaret artist and drag as one form of cabaret. 

Because [cabaret] is live, because it’s bawdy because it’s fun and entertaining and camp, but also the capacity to make a kind of statement.

Lady K: To poke fun and ask questions, I think that’s what any good cabaret should do. You entertai,n but you inform and ask the questions of those in power and offer your audience as well, what do you really feel about this stuff? 

And I think that’s what we are trying to do with this show is to maybe make people remember a bit about the past but also think about what they want this country to look like? And it’s using up tempo pop songs and repurposing other songs. We take some songs that you would never think would work in a slower setting or a moving setting and we use them. 

That’s what a lot of this is about, it’s about taking stuff you thought you knew and then kind of twisting it and changing it. 

For the chance to catch Lady K and Stefan performing the enthralling Overfired, you can get tickets over on the Project Arts Centre page.