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Gazing sanguinely into the small dressing room mirror, Holly Gauthier-Frankel paints a glittery layer of deep red gloss onto her widely parted lips. A large poinsettia hairpiece pins back her lush black curls, revealing a set of smoky, thick lashes.

Removing the pearly white shawl from her shoulders, she twirls a snow-coloured feather boa through her fingertips, lays it across her waist, and drapes her voluptuous body — barely covered by a sheer lace bodice — tantalizingly across a tasselled antique ottoman.

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The 36-year-old Montreal actress is being considered for a role in George Bowser and Rick Blue’s play Last Night at the Gaytey, premièring at the Centaur Theatre in April. The musical comedy is set in 1950s Montreal, revisiting a racy time when police cracked down on vices of all types, eventually stifling the city’s vibrant burlesque scene.

Urban Expressions

A type of absurdist variety show that combines elements of theatre and striptease, burlesque saw its heyday in Prohibition-era Montreal. But the artform was all but wiped clean from the city’s streets by the mid-’50s. It enjoyed a revival throughout Canada about 10 years ago, while Gauthier-Frankel is credited with helping to bring back the new burlesque movement in Montreal.