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Kristelle Zibara was ready to put acting aside - then she found a perfect fit, playing plus-sized beauty Queen Fatima
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FriFriday 15
JanJanuary 2021 at 3:06am
Zibara trained at comedy institutions Second City, Groundlings and Upright Citizens Brigade, whose alumni include Amy Poehler, Catherine O Hara and Melissa McCarthy.
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The first time audiences see Kristelle Zibara, she s wearing leggings with pink underwear on top and dancing up a bedroom storm to Britney Spears.
She has the charisma to pull it off.
Zibara is playing a Britney-loving bakery worker and first-time pageant contender, in the anti-romantic comedy Queen Fatima, making its world premiere at Parramatta s Riverside Theatres as part of Sydney Festival.
Reviewed January 9
James Elazzi is torn. He s keen to share the merry absurdities he finds in Australian-Lebanese culture, and equally keen that we care about his characters and their challenges. The two are far from irreconcilable, of course, but he is still acquiring the expertise required to flick the right switches at the right moments.
Fayssal Bazzi, Kristelle Zibara and Neveen Hanna in Queen Fatima.
Credit:Noni Carroll
Queen Fatima is closer than his 2020 play,
Lady Tabouli (also given its world premiere by the National Theatre of Parramatta). This is partly because here he s opted for making us laugh having clear primacy over making us care – and Elazzi can certainly write funny lines, although several that don t quite work escaped editing.