REVIEW:Kathy Lette, The Berry Theatre, Hedge End

by Faith Eckersall

WOMEN are each other’s human wonder bras – uplifting, supportive and making each other look bigger and better.

That's the premise behind Girls Night Out, Aussie author and feminist Kathy's first comedy tour, and she certainly doesn't disappoint. What a fab-u-lous get for Hedge End's Berry Theatre although I'm not sure it'll ever be the same after going through Kathy's psychological strip tease - and her bush tucker challenge.

Sexist men, the surfer guys of her youth, sexism in Australia and Los Angeles, facial prejudice and what women do to correct it: "Skin sags upwards in LA!" and how she managed to turn down a date with George Clooney. Yes. THAT George Clooney.

She told us about her best-selling books, Puberty Blues, Mad Cows and walked us through the thinking behind her latest, Best Laid Plans, in which a mother is arrested for trying to hire a prostitute for her autistic son but manages to get an undercover policewoman instead.

I counted two blokes in the audience at The Berry Theatre - they were welcome but, you know… "You're going to be ovulating by the end of this," Kathy warned them before giving her delighted female audience a run-down of top male annoyances, most of which are too gloriously rude to put in this piece but did include 'fridge thermostat fiddling' and 'the hand'.

Like a good mate Kathy shared gossip, about her mates; Kylie, Ruby (Wax), Sandi (Toksvig), and Amal, and the time Julian Assange hid in her attic. (According to Kathy, who was married to a human rights barrister, 'I've had everyone in my attic.')

Following an interval she spoke movingly about being the mother of an autistic son before taking questions and then returning to the jokes.

She wanted the evening to be like 'the nights out you have with your mates'. Well, I was there with my best mate Sarah and it was just like that, although everyone there must have felt they'd made a new friend as Kathy bounced out to the foyer afterwards to thank us all for coming.