“Thank you for trusting us with your pleasure!”
The Dancing Bears strip club is on life support. Ten customers on a Saturday night. One booking next week. Meanwhile, the new place down the road is pulling crowds with a slick, high-octane show that’s leaving them in the dust.
Then the boss’s daughter walks in — and it’s clear they’re going to need more than a few tweaks to stay alive.
From the ★★★★★ Tambo & Bones powerhouse duo — writer Dave Harris and director Matthew Xia — Tender is loud, raw and unapologetically bold. Set inside a failing strip club, it tears into the performance of masculinity, exposing the cracks beneath the bravado and the cost of living up to the role.
Part cabaret, part confrontation, the show blends sweat, humour and sharp social commentary to ask what happens when the act stops working — and who you are when there’s nothing left to hide.
Provocative, playful and unflinching, Tender is a show about bodies, power and the risk of change.