Mauve over orange, purple is the new black.

With a title like Purple Is The Gayest Colour, Alayne Dick is upfront, clear and honest about her intentions. Bouncing between different eras of her life, Alayne captivates her audience with stories of growth, absurdity and queerness and doesn’t let go for the whole hour.

There’s never a moment of disinterest when Alayne is on-stage. Whether it’s her ethereal and aloof energy, her hilarious digs at jeggings or just the way she stares into the audience, we’re always fixated on her and the purple haze she’s enveloped herself in. Her entire brand (which appears to have been stolen from Cadbury and used as a weapon of yasss destruction) is clear and a big reason why all of her shows sold out before her season even began.

The show mainly revolves around the queer experience in different cities of New Zealand, without ever feeling like she’s using her queerness as a crutch. The stories she tells are funny and authentic, with expertly timed jabs weaved into the fabric of her anecdotes. She’s always keeping us on her toes and never once does she falter or lose her place. It’s a solid hour of peak queer material.

She’s never afraid to engage the audience, although it does feel like, at times, the audience is afraid to engage with her. This is not a problem as she has no issue calling us out when it’s revealed that none of us work in customer service, and jabs at us without making us feel unsafe. Nobody leaves the theatre without a massive smile on their face.

By the time the show is over, I can’t believe that, not only has time flown by so quickly, but it went over and I didn’t even notice. There’s a fluidity to her delivery that makes you lose track of when you walked in and when it’s time to walk out, you really don’t want to. You want to hear more stories of her work at the library. More information on the gifts her dad’s bought her. More stories of her experience as a creepy child.

Purple Is The Gayest Colour is Alayne at her lesbian legend best. With this show, she redefines what Pride is. Zero notes. Her formula is so effective and addictive that it’s impossible to leave without wanting more content.

Dick is a revelation.

Purple Is The Gayest Colour is running from 7th of May to the 11th of May, 9pm at BATS Theatre. Tickets available from the New Zealand International Comedy Festival website.

Disclosure: As a somewhat active member of the Wellington performing arts community, I am quite familiar with a number of the performers in this show.
Having said that, I am not a liar, and there is zero bias in my reviews, shut up.