Performers decide to bare their souls over review

Burlesque performers descended on the Scotsman office yesterday to protest about comments by reviewer Sally Stott.

Corseted, feathered and be-ribboned, they came to criticise what one performer called the "close minded" review.

Stott wrote that the Circus Burlesque show at the Assembly@George Street was depressing. She said of one performer that her expression was "somewhere between a crack addict and a blow-up sex doll" and labelled the show "anything but subversive, or even sexy."

Her comments riled the performers, some of whom are in the Circus Burlesque show.

In a letter they said they "enjoy their art form because it promotes the idea that a woman can be intelligent and powerful as well as expressing and enjoying her sexuality."

Show compere Tempest Rose said: "The article reads as someone who has a closed mind."

Hettie Heartache, 24, said: "My family read The Scotsman and have recently found out I'm doing burlesque stuff. For me to show my family what I'm doing and then for them to read that makes me feel disrespected."

Betsy Rose, 22, said: "We came here today to change people's views about burlesque. We thought the article portrayed it really badly and we wanted to get that across."