Charlie Petch is a spoken word artist, published writer and musical saw player whose career, which started in Peterborough, has taken off across North America. Here Petch presents a new version of this solo show set in 1931, with new Vaudeville-era music created by Petch. It’s the last night for the Vagabond Theatre and Mel Malarkey can’t bear to tell the audience. She keeps up the show, introducing acts and being her bawdy charming self. In her backstage moments, she reads odes to her dearest loves and tells touching, comedic stories of owning her “Theatre of the Unrefined.”

Mel Malarkey Gets the Bum’s Rush is both a lament for a time gone by, when entertainment was a more personal and unrefined activity, and a love poem to past entertainers – like her hero Marlene Deitrich. Mature content of course.