Sometimes Melbourne Theatre Talk

Review: Girls Do Gertrude!

2012-01-31T15:43:00.001+11:00

Girls Do Gertrude!
Black Apple Theatre
24 January 2011
Northcote Town Hall
to 29 January
midsumma.org.au

Forty women spent six days in Falls Creek with Gertrude Stein. The result is Midsumma's in Girls Do Gertrude! at the Northcote Town Hall.

I haven't read any Gertrude Stein, but I saw Midnight in Paris at the flicks and read Alice B Toklas's recipe for dope brownies (that she didn't write), which both leave me wanting to be in Paris in the 20s trading wit and boho style tips with the cool artists. Although I suspect I'd want to slap Hemingway.

The Gerty done by the girls is two of her plays; neither of which left me wanting to read more Stein. Her language is much easier to appreciate on a page and written for readers as remarkable and well-read as Stein herself. What makes Girls So Gertrude! so lovely is that both directors create ways to make the text utterly enjoyable to an audience without forcing understanding.

A Circular Play is a storyless collection of music-like texts written for an ensemble of voices. Director Cheyney Caddy places it in a pastel 20s salon complete with paper lanterns, chaise lounges, overflowing greenery, a goldfish and a bunny. With live music and in the too-perfect deco hall, 11 women sing, dance, recite and chat in circles about circles. It's all style and plenty of substance that's best enjoyed as an atmospheric indulgence rather than a literary appreciation. And Debra Hallum's ridiculously beautiful frocks ensure that every woman is drop-dead gorgeous.

Three Sisters Who Are Not Sisters was described by Stein as a melodrama and written when she was hiding out in Vichy with her Jewish wife as war ravaged their beloved Paris. Three sisters, who are not sisters, and twin boys are bored and "play a play" of murder in their pjs. Its repetition underlines the impact of repeated behaviour and questions the lines between play and reality, but it's really a lot of fun. Director Yvonne Virsik finds this humour, adds some more and lets her cast play with the play without losing the delicacy of the text.

Girls Do Gertrude! brings Stein dancing into the now and will leave you wanting to charleston the night away with an enticing girl in a pastel, drop waist gown. Just try to get a seat in the front row if you're not blessed with height.

This review appeared on AussieTheatre.com

Review: The Year of Magical Wanking

2012-01-31T15:43:00.000+11:00

Midsumma 2012
The Year of Magical Wanking
Theatre Works
17 January 2012
Theatre Works, St Kilda
to 29 January
theatreworks.org.au

Neil Watkins's The Year of Magical Wanking perfects Theatre Works Men at Work glorious Midsumma threesome with a bold and moving verse monologue that confronts his addiction to the painful, anonymous sex that Watkins let "fist my soul" and left him wondering about his relationship with Jesus.

If you expect anything different from the title, remember it's a homage Joan Didion's painful and serious The Year of Magical Thinking. Unlike Didion, Watkins didn't lose a partner and child, but his year of self-reflection confronts the shame that left him craving intimacy but terrified to find it because it hurt too much to feel.

Growing up Catholic in Ireland, Watkins identified as one of the last gay ashamed: men who grey up hiding their sexuality and taking lonely comfort in anonymous sex. We still have a way to move as a society, but we're on the right track and hopefully the words gay and shame will never be connected for future generations.

With irresistible alliteration like "addicted to my dick" and the discovery that the anagram of his name perfect (you can figure it out), Wanking's poetry is funny and confronting, and his reflections about intimacy and fear are so real that you don't need you're own cock to recognise the hurt or grasp onto the hope.

Have no shame in watching Watkins self indulgence; it's only awkward for a moment and you'll leave feeling all the better for it.

This review appeared on AussieThearte.com

January review previews

2012-01-26T13:23:00.001+11:00

The full reviews appear on the new-look AussieTheatre.com and will be published here in a few days.

26 Jan

Girls Do Gertrude!

Black Apple Theatre

24 January 2011

Northcote Town Hall

to 29 January

midsumma.org.au

Forty women spent six days in Falls Creek with Gertrude Stein. The result is Midsumma's in Girls Do Gertrude! at the Northcote Town Hall.

...

21 Jan

Negative Energy Inc is on Sunday and Monday. Go. And do the double with Mother/SON or The Year of Magical Wanking.

Midsumma 2012

The Year of Magical Wanking

Theatre Works

17 January 2012

Theatre Works, St Kilda

to 29 January

theatreworks.org.au

Neil Watkins's The Year of Magical Wanking perfects Theatre Works Men at Work glorious Midsumma threesome with a bold and moving verse monologue that confronts his addiction to the painful, anonymous sex that Watkins let "fist my soul" and left him wondering about his relationship with Jesus.

....

With irresistible alliteration like "addicted to my dick" and the discovery that the anagram of his name perfect (you can figure it out), Wanking's poetry is funny and confronting, and his reflections about intimacy and fear are so real that you don't need your own cock to recognise the hurt or grasp onto the hope.

Have no shame in watching Watkins self indulgence; it's only awkward for a moment and you'll leave feeling all the better for it.

Midsumma 2012

Negative Energy Inc

Theatre Works

15 January 2012

Theatre Works

to 4 February

theatreworks.org.au

Negative Energy Inc started when Ash's boyfriend Daniel told him about The Secret. That's not some Midsumma-boy thing, I mean that book rich white women (and Oprah) love that's all about vision boards and controlling your life with a few nice thoughts. I hated it from the time a yoga teacher got into it and said that the only thing stopping me from holding standing bow for ever was my thoughts. She didn't put on 30 kg and grow a scabby trunk from her third eye, so I guess my thoughts still aren't good enough.

.....

Ash creates an stab-in-the-heart antidote to harmlessly dull theatre as this laugh cos-it-hurts-to-cry show tickles your brain 'til you're squealing and makes you want to share a bunk with him at Christian camp.

Ash is also very sensible (there's your quotable) and performing only on Sundays and Mondays; those nights when other shows (and theatre restaurants) have nights off, leaving us stuck with telly or thinking about going to the tennis – so there's no reason not to get yourself to St Kilda and dose up on his misery.

17 Jan

They are in the works, but rent-paying work blah, blah, blah...

But if you're considering a Midsumma fling, get to Theatre Works for any and all of the Men at Work series.

Mother/SON is lovely
Negative Energy Inc is better than the first season. Opening night had people stamping and hollering in the good way.
and I'm seeing The Year of Magical Wanking tonight. There's no way that a show called The Year of Magical Wanking could be anything but satisfying.

On the less penis-themed side of town, Summer of the Seventeenth Doll opened last night at the MTC. Ray Lawler and John Sumner were there to see it and I've never been part of such a loving and genuine ovation. It's always been one of my favourite plays and remains so. It's so worth seeing. I'd happily go again.

Summer of the Seventeenth Doll

MTC presents the Belvoir production

16 January 2012

Arts Centre Melbourne, Playhouse

to 18 February 2012

mtc.com.au

...

Urban Display Suite

Ross Mollison International

MTC Theatre, Lawler Studio

14 January 2012

to 21 January 2012

mtc.com.au

Midsumma 2012

Mother/SON

Jeffrey Solomon and Theatre Works

11 January 2012

Theatre Works

to 21 January

theatreworks.org.au

Theatre Works's Men at Work Midsumma season kicked off on an unseasonal chilly night with a warming tale of family love and the question of why anyone would answer the phone if their mum rang while they were having sex.

Mother/SON has toured the US and the UK and been seen in the Phillipines and Sri Lanka. Written and performed by Jeffrey Solomon, it's a mostly autobiographical story of his coming out to his mother and how both learnt to accept the other's imperfections and continue to love each other regardless. Solomon plays both roles.

.....

Take your mum.

more

Review: Negative Energy Inc 2

2012-01-26T12:20:00.000+11:00

Midsumma 2012
Negative Energy Inc
Theatre Works
15 January 2012
Theatre Works
to 4 February
theatreworks.org.au

Being a white boy from Brighton is so damn hard that it's left Ash Flanders in a foul mood for 30-odd years. Like me, Ash generally hates things and people and is only happy when he's sharing the pain with a long rant and an obscure show tune. Negative Energy Inc is the stand up story of why he draws his mandala in black and it rightly left the opening night crowd stomping and cheering.

Negative Energy Inc started when Ash's boyfriend Daniel told him about The Secret. That's not some Midsumma-boy thing, I mean that book rich white women (and Oprah) love that's all about vision boards and controlling your life with a few nice thoughts. I hated it from the time a yoga teacher got into it and said that the only thing stopping me from holding standing bow for ever was my thoughts. She didn't put on 30 kg and grow a scabby trunk from her third eye, so I guess my thoughts still aren't good enough.

Ash's hate of The Secret made him think hard about why his acting career wasn't perfect – despite the love of every critic – and why he wasn't doing sold-out, critically acclaimed shows in festivals...

Shut up ... There's no way that's The Secret in action. Surely it would have happened if he hadn't thought about it.

The first season of Negative Energy Inc did sell out, I raved and his performance as the Horse Woman from Judge Judy became legend.

As Theatre Works insisted that it come to Midsumma, Stephen Nicolazzo came on board as director and helped shape the story to bring out its darker nature and bravely camp up accompanist Dave Barclay.

Ash creates an stab-in-the-heart antidote to harmlessly dull theatre as this laugh cos-it-hurts-to-cry show tickles your brain 'til you're squealing and makes you want to share a bunk with him at Christian camp.

Ash is also very sensible (there's your quotable) and performing only on Sundays and Mondays; those nights when other shows (and theatre restaurants) have nights off, leaving us stuck with telly or thinking about going to the tennis – so there's no reason not to get yourself to St Kilda and dose up on his misery.

This review appeared on AussieThearte.com.

Photo by ISKA Photography

Review: Summer of the Seventeenth Doll

2012-01-22T09:00:00.001+11:00

Summer of the Seventeenth Doll
MTC presents the Belvoir production
16 January 2012
Arts Centre Melbourne, Playhouse
to 18 February 2012
mtc.com.au

Sometime in the 70s, the ABC filmed the MTC production of Summer of the Seventeenth Doll; my grandmother made me watch it with her. I didn't really get it, but I liked it, especially as 1950s Melbourne and 1970s Adelaide weren't that far apart. Years later in high school, The Doll was an English text and I aspired to be Bubba; I still didn't really get. Now that I'm older than Pearl and Olive, I get it, and the opening night ovation for this production and for writer Ray Lawler confirmed that it's still one of the best plays out there and a piece of Australian theatre history that should be compulsory.

Does Summer of the Seventeenth Doll really need an introduction? If you've been to high school in Australia, you must have read it. It's the one set in Carlton in the 50s, where two cane-cutters arrive to spend their 17th five-month lay off with their Melbourne barmaid girlfriends, but one of the women left to get married, the cane season brought trouble and all are confronted with not being 30 anymore.

It's a brilliant story that forces painful change as each character faces the chasm between what they want to be seen as and who they are, and it's a masterclass in the power of a three-act structure.

Director Neil Armfield lets Lawler's writing lead and he guides his cast to find a depth and a rawness to their characters that brings a freshness and new understanding to those familiar with the text.

Steve Le Marquand (Roo), Travis McMahon (Barney) and TJ Power (Johnny) each reject comfort for the need to be masculine, but this production is about the women.

Eloise Winestock shows how much Bubba wants to be a better version of Olive. While Alison Whyte lets Olive be the young woman who flouted convention and ages in moments as she's offered a salvation that means she's lost everything.

Robyn Nevin is unforgettable as Olive's caustic mother Emma, who sees the truth and can't help her daughter. But Helen Thomson's Pearl is the performance to see. Too often Pearl is a prude, but Thomson lets us see why Olive chose her in the first place – she's a hoot – still she knows that reputation is all that she has and can't let herself be swept into Olive's life. Choosing an un-married and openly sexual life in the 40s and 50s was a choice that few women willingly made and Olive's explanation to Pearl about decency depending on people can't dull the sting of having other women feel sorry for you.

This Summer of the Seventeeth Doll confirmed it as one of my favourite plays. Lawler ensures that we understand why every choice is made, but we long for every one to choose differently and find a way back to happiness and love. Its honesty is as true now as ever and its world is still so close to ours. I'm sure I’m not alone in admitting that I'd bluff happiness rather than have anyone feel sorry for me.

If you love Australian theatre, if you love theatre, you have no excuse to miss see this Doll.

This review appeared on AussieThearte.com

Photo by Jeff Busby

Review: Mother/SON

2012-01-20T17:29:00.000+11:00

Midsumma 2012

Mother/SON

Jeffrey Solomon and Theatre Works

11 January 2012

Theatre Works

to 21 January

theatreworks.org.au

Set in the 90s, it's a time of phones with cords and answering machines, when a kd lang CD was compulsory for any date and a skin lesion terrified the sexually active. Only-child Bradly moved to LA to write for a sit-com and has many phone conversations with his over-loving Jewish mother in Long Island. Having provided neither a wedding nor grandchildren and not wanting the home-shopping channel gifts she gets him, he finally tells her the truth: that he's "that kind of gay".

Filled with sharp wit and delicate observation, this story is much more than a coming out drama and its heart is Solomon's understanding of his mother's initial difficulty in accepting her gay son, and his honest portrayal of a middle age, bridge-playing woman who's scared of the holes she was born with and knows that Jews must never laugh at people who are different.

While their parent-child bond is closer than comfortable for some of us, it's a story about why parents should always show their children that they love them, no matter how grown up they are or what the neighbours think.

Take your mum.

This review originally appeared on AussieThearte.com

Review: Urban Display Suite

2012-01-20T09:00:00.008+11:00

Urban Display Suite
Ross Mollison International
MTC Theatre, Lawler Studio
14 January 2012
to 21 January 2012
mtc.com.au

The zeitgeist bought its three-bedroom deco flat in St Kilda before the boom and has never left. Property prices: you're either smiling as you sip Moet or googling "sell my kidney" and realising that, even with the first home buyers grant, you need another 25 body parts to get a deposit. Michael Dalley's real estate musical satire Urban Display Suite returns for its third season with a sharp wit that leaves its audiences grinning and ready to buy.

With music co-written with the ever-wonderful John Thorn and joined by the delightfully slimy Lyall Brooks, Gabrielle Quin and Sharon Davis, Dalley continues his astute observations of middle class suburbia with a nearly-too-close-for-comfort review about our obsession with property.

As a renter, even the sight of four pretend real estate agents walking into the theatre is enough to evoke fear and loathing. Fortunately, cabaret favourite Dalley has seen many of them himself and softens the terror with an opening song about the type of people who get that Cert IV in real estate and believe that their jobs are important.

Dividing property owners into bogans and wankers, the rest of us are safe to LOL at post-Federation-Square architecture and spot-on gorgeous songs about McMansion facades and shit art of the Mornington Peninsula. But expect to blush if you're counting on your parents leaving their house to you, and don't be surprised if your inner-apiring-home-owner-bogan agrees that you don't need a personality or a ten-inch penis if you bought before the boom.

Urban Display Suite has extended its season for another week and is a must if you spend your weekend reading Domain.

This review appeared on AussieTheatre.com.

Ray Lawler on What I Wrote

2012-01-16T18:50:00.000+11:00

Before heading to the MTC to see Summer of the Seventeenth Doll, here's some of an interview with writer Ray Lawler from the What I Wrote series.

What I Wrote is a series of interviews with Australian playwrights by Dr Tess Brady. It's been shown on the ABC and on DVD . There's also terrific notes (as a pdf) for teachers and students (and theatre goers).

Trailer

Lawler's hints for writers

What I Loved 2011

2011-12-17T22:32:00.002+11:00

December really did sneak up this year. I still think it's August.

But the urge to make chocolate truffles and eat fruitcake tells me it's time for the What-I-Liked Awards.

Now in their fourth year, there's still no red carpet or sparkly statue, but feel free to put on your best frock and assume that you were nominated.

I've seen over a hundred shows this year, reviewed most of them and loved watching others without the critical hat.

As ever, most of my reviews are also written for the national site AussieTheatre.com, which welcomed new editors and owners Erin and Matt in July. Already they've increased hits by thousands and readers can look forward to a whole new look in 2012.

And please keep reading every other site and blog that reviews, comments or raves. Without them, we may not have had David W's magnificent hissy over nasty reviewers or Site Unseen may not have started a debate about the value of community cultural development.

My criteria for the What-I-Likeds is: how much I liked it. The shows I remember (yes some are forgotten) are the ones that respect audiences enough to know that we watch theatre with our uncontrollable emotions. Even if our oh-so-clever heads appreciate a practitioner, get the joke or the reference and admire the structure, if our hearts and guts don't care, there's not much point in even being there.

For the first time, there's only one non-Melbourne show among the winners and most of this year's winners are independent companies and artists.

Outstanding Artists 2011

WRITING
Angus Cerini for Save for Crying

Special Mention
Patricia Cornelius for Slut in Tenderness, Platform Youth Theatre

DESIGN
David Samuel for MKA's season 1 (Sleepyhead, 22 Short Plays, The Horror Face, J.A.T.O)

Special mention
Gabriela Tylesova for the shoes in Love Never Dies

LIGHTING DESIGN
Paul Jackson for Little Match Girl

PERFORMANCE
The cast of Aftermath

DIRECTION
Daniel Schlusser for The Dollhouse

EVERYTHING THEY DO ROCKS
Tobias, Glynn and everyone from MKA.

Outstanding Productions 2011

CABARET
Miles O Neil's World Around Us 11
with bonus points to be shared with the rest of The Suitcase Royale for the Xmas song at The Last Tuesday Society's Occupy Xmas.

Smoke and Mirrors

COMMERCIAL SHOW
Clybourne Park, MTC

MUSICAL
Next to Normal, MTC
and
Flowerchildren, Magnormos

Special mention
Spring Awakening, MUST

COMEDY
Sweet Child of Mine, Bron, Jim and Linda Batten

Special mention
Negative Energy Inc, Ash Flanders

Best of the best
Namatjira, Malthouse Theatre and Big hART

and

I know there's a lot of noise outside but you have to close your eyes, I'm Trying To Kiss You

This extraordinary show never made it past a review preview, which said sucked in to anyone who missed it. Played in the crowded downstairs room of a Fitzroy terrace, word of mouth ensured that this Fringe gem sold out (and maybe pushed some overcrowding regulations).

I'm Trying To Kiss You are Allison Wiltshire, Anna McCarthy and Zoey Dawson. Remember those names. Deeply personal, I know etc is a confronting and intimate revelation of young women's thoughts. Unafraid of gender, language and sex, the creators crafted a story of confusion, awkwardness and bravado that was willing to be honest.

It's development took 18-months and was assisted by the Melbourne Fringe Festival and Full Tilt Outside Eye mentor program.

I heard it described as confronting and scary; a friend of mine thought it was sad and lonely. I thought it was beautiful – and that includes its glorious bitchiness, darkness and anger. Without being obvious, this work gently grabbed me by the heart and reminded me what it was like to be 20ish.

My favourite show of 2011

Ganesh Versus the Third Reich, Back to Back Theatre, Malthouse Theatre and MIAF

2010 Favourites
2009 Favourites
2008 Favourites

The Classic Tale of Faust

2011-12-16T18:06:00.002+11:00

The Classic Tale of Faust
RAG Theatre and the City of Port Phillip
16 December
Latvian House, 3 Dickens St, St Kilda
to 17 December (1.30 and 7.30)
Facebook page

No more reviews for 2011, but you don't need a review to be convinced to see RAG Theatre's The Classic Tale of Faust.

RAG Theatre is supported by the City of Port Phillip and creates opportunities for people who experience barriers to arts participation. In other words, this is theatre created by folk who aren't stuffy theatre people – and they want to have fun.

So drop all arty pretentiousness and get ready to enjoy yourself. And you get to play in the too-wonderful Latvian House in St Kilda with its mosaics, hand-carved wooden chandeliers and brown 70s decor (it's cooler than the Lithuanian Club).

Here, you're greeted by the suave and serious members of the company (who accepted me even though I'd worn orange Crocs) and you're free to chat about art and writing and sophisticated cultural shit before the main show.

But there are troubles backstage and the actor playing Mephistopheles has sent a replacement who doesn't know his lines. Luckily, there's a cafe where we can wait, the cast and crew can be convinced to share their festive acts and the Lativan Women's Group have left fresh pirags and vodka.

With acts including a maths quiz (finally!), poetry and delightfully atrocious Christmas sketches, each performer hints at the Faustian theme of soul bearing by letting us see the bits of their selves that they want to share.

Director Scott Gooding helped the RAG cast create their Faust in workshops and each have developed characters that are true their skills, confidence and personalities. Everyone's performance starts with their heart, hints at secrets and shows us just how redemptive a wicked sense of humour really is.

And just when you think you know what's going on, there's twists that surprise and remind us that there's more to everyone's stories than what we think we know.

There's only three shows left, so if you can't go tonight, there's 1.30 or 7.30 tomorrow.

Review: Musical Works

2011-12-14T21:21:00.002+11:00

Musical Works:
Give My Regards to Broady
and
Housewarming
Theatreworks
2 December
to 10 December
www.theatreworks.org.au

Hooray for Theatre Works. Along with their ongoing support of independent artists, they are supporting the development of new Australian musicals with the inaugural Musical Works season. Two developing shows were selected and working under the artistic mentorship of Aaron Joyner, from Magnormos, they have a season in St Kilda.

Give My Regards to Broady is about four friends, a Fitzroy share house and the dream to get off the couch and stay away from Broadmeadows – and break into the arts. It's been around for four years. I saw an early version. There were some terrific songs, but it lacked a cohesive story, was a wee bit self indulgent and its characters were inseparable from the performers. I wasn't keen to see it in the same form again.

But it's rare for a great musical to be a corker on its first or second outing. Until an audience react, it's hard to know what bits need to go. Lucky for us, Karin Muiznieks (writer, composer, producer) and James Simpson (composer) were happy to dump the "let's put on a show" tone and set about re-creating.

And what a change! With a snappy new cast (Claire Healy, Lauren Murtah, Leigh Jay Booth and Joe Kosky), the characters have developed the dimension that leaves them memorable, and helped by some solid direction by Scott Gooding, the story's getting some stakes and now ends on a well-earned punchline. Some old songs have gone, the best ones stayed (like "North Vs South") and new songs have appeared ("Snackulas" was a favourite), which all feel like they belong and generally add to the story.

Placed so firmly in Melbourne, with songs like "Half-built Ferris Wheel", it may not find a worldwide audience, but there are four million people in Melbourne who can potentially love it and can happily indulge in Muiznieks witty and clever lyrics.

If you've seen Give My Regards to Broady, it's so worth a new visit. There's still room for work, but it's well on its way to becoming a quintessential Melbourne theatre experience.

The second Musical Works piece is House Warming by William Hannagan-McKinna and Belinda Jenkin, which is earlier in its development.

This time we're in a share house in St Kilda, but without reference or relevance to place, it could be anywhere. Tommy (Daniel Benge) is home after a backpack around Europe, his granddad died and left him a house, and five friends (Rachel Rai, Elle Richards, Belinda Jenkin, Dave Barclay and Drew Collet) are moving in with their compulsory sexual tension, comparison of crap parents and revelation of secrets.

Musically, the six strong voices create a rich sound and dramatically, the six interacting characters allow for conflict and intrigue. The story's there, but its telling and plotting need work. It feels like it's establishing characters and their problems then jumping to the end. There's room for a lot more guts, more wrong turns and an extra act.

Too many shows never get past their first productions. Which means our theatre industry misses out on some awesome stuff. Like first drafts, first sex and first anything – shows need more experience, emotional distance and a bit of help to get it right. With the support of Theatre Works, both of these musicals are well on their way.

This review originally appeared on AussieTheatre.com.

Review: The Economist

2011-12-11T20:47:00.002+11:00

The Economist
MKA
3 December 2011
MKA Pop Up Theatre, Abbotsfod
to 16 December

The channel 10 news and the Herald Scum declared MKA totally out of line for presenting a play about Anders Breivik, the man who killed 92 people in Norway on July 22 this year. Goodness knows we don't want angry youngsters questioning and confronting a world that allows for such depravity. What if a Melbourne hipster was inspired and got a similar idea? On behalf of us with half a brain, I toast a "Fuck You" to news reporters who chase controversy.

Unlike many journos, writer (and MKA Artistic Director) Tobias Manderson-Galvin read Breivik's diaries, manifesto and blog. He braved conservative writings and looked beyond the media image of the lone Aryan nutter. Until I saw The Economist, I passively went along with the terrorist kook theory. What am I saying, I'd forgotten about the attack a week after it happened and couldn't have named Breivik without the help of Google. But I know the name Martin Bryant, and an hour with MKA left me understanding and questioning so much more than any media report had.

The Economist is the fictional story of Andrew Berwick, whose life in Norway is remarkably similar to the other AB. He was a teased teenager who tagged and found steroids and the painless violence of World of Warcraft. As he got older there was facial plastic surgery, gun clubs and "racist fox hats", misunderstood white pride folk music, sexless sex with prostitutes and a farmhouse filled with the ingredients for explosives. And he wrote and read the likes of John Howard. Yes, our Little Johnny.

Now there is nothing as dull as lefty preachy theatre. Be assured, there's nothing dull about this show and there's no hint of a sermon. Director Van Badham (whose writing I am so going read) subverts expectations starting with Zoey Dawson as Berwick. Clad in hideous beige trousers and red windcheaters, the cast set the uneasy tone and give us permission to laugh at a story that we know ends in unexplainable pain.

It's a complex story but Manderson-Galvin finds the moments that develop the full picture without forcing meaning and lets his audience enjoy the kind of mind fuck that leaves you wobbly and wanting more.

Great news is that the season has been extended.

This review originally appeared on AussieThearte.com

Review: The Story of Mary Maclane By Herself

2011-12-11T20:47:00.000+11:00

The Story of Mary Maclane By Herself
Malthouse Theatre and Ride on Theatre
1 December 2011
Beckett Theatre, The Malthouse
to 11 December

Mary Maclane would be the kind of Facebook friend you'd be tempted to block in case she tried to chat, but you couldn't do it because her bi-hourly updates about her cleverness and despair were too funny.

Born in 1881, teenage Maclane moved from Canada to New York and at 19 she'd sold over 100,000 copies of her first memoir, The Story of Mary Maclane. It was mostly read by young women, who also wanted to marry the Devil, and was criticised by those who were not. She continued writing, but worked in advertising as her dreams of literary fame were shattered as her subsequent works were not as popular.

When Bojana Novakovic discovered this writing, which wasn't republished until 1993, she fell a bit in love with a lost voice that wouldn't feel out of time were she were an angry young blogger in the fallout of instant fame. And as her company, Ride On Theatre, were the Malthouse company in residence, she and director Tanya Goldberg saddled up You Am I's Tim Rogers as Mary's gentleman musician and composer and harnessed Mary's passion.

The Story of Mary Maclane By Herself is fashioned from Maclane's writings and her musings are musically embellished by Rogers with Andy Baylor and Dan Witton in Anna Cordingly's lush saloon-bar-cum-empty-courtroom design. Here Mary's pretence of self belief is immediately recogniseable, especially by anyone who also begs to understand why someone as clever and emotionally empathetic as they are cannot touch the happiness that stupid and ugly people find so easily.

Mary's appeal is her conceit of genius and Novakovic lets her be confident but approaches her with a compassion that makes her unlikeability likeable. And with a meta nod to the miserable genius of young artists, she even lets Mary finds her portrayer's diary. There was room for more blurring of character and actor, but it's doubtful that Mary would have allowed her creators such an indulgence.

Ride On Theatre refuse to be dull and have created a unique and compelling story that Maclane herself might even have found a moment of happiness in watching it.

This review originally appeared on AussieTheatre.com.

For bonus reading, please head to Cameron and Alison's wonderful discussion on Theatre Notes.

Photo by Jeff Busby.

Remembering David Branson

2011-12-05T10:24:00.003+11:00

On Sunday 11 December, The Street Theatre in Canberra is hosting an afternoon to celebrate David Branson's memory.

It's been ten years since David died in a car accident in Canberra.

I met the unforgettable David in 2001 when I was working in Canberra as the Manager of FoCA5, the fifth Festival of Contemporary Art. As I was new to the city, it took David about a second to decide that he was to be my guide to independent artists in and from our capital.

Over the next weeks, he spent a lot of time in my Gorman House office or at the cafe telling me how wonderful everyone was. He was usually right and without his passion, his personal and professional support, and his active contribution, FoCA5 would have been a far less interesting event and I may not have smiled so much in the lead up.

For all his performances, my favourite remains a Saturday at the Gorman House Markets when he was busking with the newly formed Mikelangelo and the Black Sea Gentlemen. A group gathered on the grass as three besuited gents (it was just David, Mikel and Phil that day) charmed gold coins from us and hinted at just how wonderful this group would become.

I also remember being in my kitchen and hearing on the TV news that there was a car accident on Anzac Parade and deciding not to look. I wonder if I'd have recognised the green Tarago? Early the next morning, I heard that it was David's life that was lost and Canberra's shaken arts community gravitated to The Street in disbelief.

It doesn't seem like ten years. I'm still friends with artists I met through David and have followed the careers of many others whose work he insisted that I see.

The Street is putting on a barbeque and there will be performances, stories and music to remember this remarkable man. It will be followed by a very special performance by Mikelangelo and the Black Sea Gentlemen and I have no doubt that Senor Handsome will have his violin and join in.

David, I only knew you for a few months, but I still miss you and am proud to have been your friend.

Photo by 'pling

December review previews

2011-12-04T21:29:00.000+11:00

The full reviews are on AussieTheatre.com and will be published here in a few days.

Musical Works:

Give My Regards to Broady

and

Housewarming

Theatreworks

2 December

to 10 December

www.theatreworks.org.au

Give My Regards to Broady is about four friends, a Fitzroy share house and the dream to get off the couch and stay away from Broadmeadows – and break into the arts. It's been around for four years. I saw an early version. There were some terrific songs, but it lacked a cohesive story, was a wee bit self indulgent and its characters were inseparable from the performers. I wasn't keen to see it in the same form again.

But it's rare for a great musical to be a corker on its first or second outing. Until an audience react, it's hard to know what bits need to go. Lucky for us, Karin Muiznieks (writer, composer, producer) and James Simpson (composer) were happy to dump the "let's put on a show" tone and set about re-creating.

And what a change!

...

The second Musical Works piece is House Warming by William Hannagan-McKinna and Belinda Jenkin, which is earlier in its development.

This time we're in a share house in St Kilda, but without reference or relevance to place, it could be anywhere. Tommy (Daniel Benge) is home after a backpack around Europe, his granddad died and left him a house, and five friends (Rachel Rai, Elle Richards, Belinda Jenkin, Dave Barclay and Drew Collet) are moving in with their compulsory sexual tension, comparison of crap parents and revelation of secrets.

...

The Story of Mary Maclane By Herself

Malthouse Theatre and Ride on Theatre

1 December 2011

Beckett Theatre, The Malthouse

to 11 December

...

Ride On Theatre refuse to be dull and have created a unique and compelling story that Maclane herself might even have found a moment of happiness in watching it.

More

The Economist

MKA

3 December 2011

MKA Pop Up Theatre, Abbotsfod

to 16 December

Unlike many journos, writer (and MKA Artistic Director) Tobias Manderson-Galvin read Breivik's diaries, manifesto and blog. He braved conservative writings and looked beyond the media image of the lone Aryan nutter. Until I saw The Economist, I passively went along with the terrorist kook theory. What am I saying, I'd forgotten about the attack a week after it happened and couldn't have named Breivik without the help of Google. But I know the name Martin Bryant, and an hour with MKA left me understanding and questioning so much more than any media report had.

...

It's a complex story but Manderson-Galvin finds the moments that develop the full picture without forcing meaning and lets his audience enjoy the kind of mind fuck that leaves you wobbly and wanting more.

Great news is that the season has been extended.

More

Outland preview

2011-12-02T12:24:00.006+11:00

Writer John Richards has been a guest reviewer on SM, but what's he been up to of late?

He's been spending time with the lovely folk at Princess Pictures and made a TV show that will on ABC 1 in February.

Outland has already been seen at the Seattle Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, where it won a people's choice award and John got a showbag.

Melbourne's movers, shakers and tweeters hit Gordon St for a preview screening on Wednesday night.

Melbourne's cultural movers and shakers.

Outland is about a group of queer sci fi fans who are terrified of coming out of the nerd closet.

Richards's co-writer is Adam Richard (no relation; John has the plural surname), who also stars with Christine Anu, Ben Gerrard, Paul Ireland (The Slap), and Toby Truslove (Laid). It's directed by Kevin Carlin (Newstopia, BoyTown, The Extra) and produced by Princess Pictures (Angry Boys, Summer Heights High, We Can Be Heroes, John Safran's Race Relations).

Adam Richard and John Richards telling the throng to love Outland.

I love this show. I laughed myself sick during every episode. That's all I can say.

Please Like away at the Facey page.

And tweet your excitement at #Outlandtv

The first fan-made fan site is Where's Outland?

And for the nerds who want to see where it all started out, the original short film is on YouTube.

Part one.
Part two.
Part three.

Review: Grey Gardens

2011-12-01T22:44:00.000+11:00

Grey Gardens
The Production Company
24 November 2011
The Playhouse, the Arts Centre
to 4 December

The cult fascination with Big and Little Edie Beale doesn't resonate as it does in the US, but it doesn't leave this pair any less fascinating. The Production Company present the Australian premier of the 2007 Tony-winning musical and with Pamela Rabe and Nancye Hayes cast, expectations were high.

The recluse and impoverished Beales were revealed in a 1975 documentary about the mother and daughter living in their filthy East Hampton mansion with raccoons, 50-plus cats, a metre high pile of empty cat food tins and endless fleas. Being the aunt and cousin of Jackie Kennedy-Onassis added to their notoriety and cousin Jackie soon paid for the cleaning of her relatives' house.

The original documentary is still uncomfortably irresistible in its welcomed exploitation, so the decision to re-tell it as a musical could be odd. Why re-tell a story that has already been told perfectly? But such eccentricity and dark sadness must be shared and Grey Gardens creates complexity by including a first act. Set 1941, Act 1 is a fictional afternoon leading up to Little Edie's (Liz Stiles) engagement party to Joe Kennedy (Alex Rathgeber where, cousin Jackie (Ariel Kaplan) runs about, Edie's daddy shows his colours and Big Edie (Rabe) sings and decides her daughter's fate.

For all the genuine affection of Act 1, its ending is played from the beginning, leaving little to draw the audience beyond the veneer of their world. As it's known that Joe died in WW2, that Jackie nabs his little brother and how the Edie's end up, this act could filled with unfulfilled hope or be so dark that every note is a cruel stab at Act 2.

But it matters little, as Act 2 is what everyone wants to see. Taken directly from the documentary, Big (now Hayes) and Little (now Rabe) are as they will always be remembered. The music is forgettable, but their songs allow the subtext of the documentary to literally sing.

Hayes and Rabe are two of the best around and they surpass all expectations as the Edies bicker and fight for attention and try to find love in their bitterness and regret. It's easy to laugh at the quirks of old-lady eccentricity, but their story isn't easy to laugh with, as it's too close for anyone with parent problems or aging issues or a belief that two cats isn't enough. It's the honesty that Rabe and Hayes find that makes their Edies their own and so much more than remembered images from a tv screen.

With tiny budgets and short rehearsals, The Production Company always create something so much more than expected. Grey Gardens doesn't always grasp the tone and cultural impact of this story, but it's still a great night out and you'll not see better than Hayes and Rabe.

This review originally appeared on AussieTheatre.com

Last Tuesday's Poet Laureate is Live on Air

2011-11-30T16:49:00.000+11:00

It was bloody hot last night, but the hottest spot in town was The Last Tuesday Society's Occupy Xmas: their fourth Christmas spectacular.

If anyone wants to wipe out Melbourne's indie theatre scene, poison the pear cider and gluten-free ale at a Last Tuesday gig. As it's here that hosts and founders Richard Higgins and Bron Batten assemble the most ridiculously talented (and the most ridiculous) folk around and make them perform for Melbourne's hipsters*.

Everything at the Xmas gig was new material. Some will fade into legend, like:

The Suitcase Royale's "Merry Christmas You Cunts" song
Bron's attempt to get snogged
Max Gilles as Lord Mayor Doyle
The Sisters Grimm's delicate re-telling of Jack and the Beanstalk.

While others were glimpses of new shows, like:

Live on Air with Poet Laureate Telia Neville

Last night, Telia warmed my heart with a death metal ode to the apostrope. Typos can be forgiven but if you ever write it's and think it's possessive, you'll never have sex with a writer.

Live on Air is on for four shows the Butterfly Club from Thursday to Sunday. The Poet Laureate's gorgeous world is subtle, intricate and so damn funny that you'll leave in love with words for ever.

* in the original sense of the word and the more recent sense

Review: Day One. A Hotel, Evening

2011-11-29T09:22:00.000+11:00

Day One. A Hotel, Evening
Red Stitch
20 November 2011
Red Stitch
to 17 December

The only thing that over shadows Joanna Murray-Smith's complex plot and labyrinth structure is her delicious and quotable wit. Back in a small theatre and with Red Stitch's boutique creators, the world premiere of Day One. A Hotel, Evening delivers a world so familiar that it could hurt to watch, if it weren't so damn funny.

There are two 40-something couples (Kate Cole, Dion Mills, Sarah Sutherland and John Adam) who are attempting to "build a postcode" and develop an outer-city suburb that they would never visit. They're wealthy enough to still need to be good looking, bored enough to drift from any middle class notions of fidelity and hurt enough to contemplate revenge. Throw in a promiscuous and pretty 22-year-old actor (Anna Sampson) and her philosophising hit-man husband, and there's a made-in-Melbourne farce that's guaranteed to please – unless it's meant to be a dark comedy.

In farce, we can laugh 'til we cry at hurting characters because we don't love them enough to care (like Basil Fawlty or anyone in The Importance of Being Earnest), but in dark comedy, we see their broken souls and the laughter comes at the cost of feeling their pain (like David Brent or the likes of Who's Afraid Of Virginia Wolf ). All are as witty as a wit in a wit competition with a superior wit, but the freedom of farce allows the pain and confusion to create bigger and heartier laughs without the cost of empathy.

Murray-Smith's clever jokes, satire and mirror recognition bring easy laughs, made easier by the gorgeous performances, but the tone skates and slips without control. Sutherland's aggressive aggressive (it's easier than passive aggressive) Stella delights in her over-the-topness, then Hayward's Ray makes us want a happy ending, and for all the brilliant banter between Mills and Adam (can "fuck plagiarist" please enter our vernacular), I have no idea what they were hoping we would feel or if we were meant to feel anything other than admiration.

I'll remember "Love is not a guinea pig", but I've already forgotten the names of the characters and, I suspect that I'll quickly forget the ending because I didn't know if I was meant to fall off my chair in crying shock about the cost of love, or laughingly wet myself at its inevitability.

Photo by Jodie Hutcinson

This review originally appeared on AussieTheatre.com

DON'T MISS Dickens

2011-11-28T13:12:00.000+11:00

Charles Dickens Performs A Christmas Carol has four nights at the Atheneum next week. It's still one of the best stories ever told.

If you've seen it, you know you have to bring your extended family this year, and if you haven't, this show is the kind of holiday tradition that makes up for the socks and undies from Nanna.

Starting off in community halls in 2003, it was impossible to get tickets for seasons at The Courthouse and Spiegeltent, but the Atheneum has room for everyone.

I first saw it in 2006 and Phil Zachariah's performance was one of my favourites of 2010.

Dickens gave the first public reading of his story in 1853 and over the next 16 years, his readings attracted thousands in Britain, the US and Europe.

Zachariah and director James Adler fell have embraced the tradition and remind is how bloody gorgeous a night of storytelling should be.

After the short Melbourne season, they're is off to Germany for New Year and SM has been told the list of European dates is about to explode.

Review preview: Grey Gardens

2011-11-26T18:39:00.002+11:00

Grey Gardens

The Production Company

24 November 2011

The Playhouse, the Arts Centre

to 4 December

...

Hayes and Rabe are two of the best around and they surpass all expectations as the Edies bicker and fight for attention and try to find love in their bitterness and regret. It's easy to laugh at the quirks of old-lady eccentricity, but their story isn't easy to laugh with, as it's too close for anyone with parent problems or aging issues or a belief that two cats isn't enough. It's the honesty that Rabe and Hayes find that makes their Edies their own and so much more than remembered images from a screen.

With tiny budgets and short rehearsals, The Production Company always create something so much more than expected. Grey Gardens doesn't always grasp the tone and cultural impact of this story, but it's still a great night out and you'll not see better than Hayes and Rabe.

The full review appears on AussieTheatre.com

It's Last Tuesday week!

2011-11-26T14:30:00.003+11:00

OMG, OMG, OMG!

Jim is going to be at The Last Tuesday Society's Xmas show! Too excited.

Jim Batten: the undisputed star of the 2011 Melbourne Fringe.

Review: Coranderrk: We Will Show the Country

2011-11-26T14:29:00.001+11:00

Coranderrk: We Will Show the Country
Ilbijerri, the Minutes of Evidence Project and La Mama
18 November 2011
La Mama Courthouse Theatre
to 27 November
www.lamama.com.au

Coranderrk: We Will Show the Country lets passed voices be heard as Ilbijerri and La Mama continue to tell stories that we need to know and to share.

Telling a story that is so important to many Victorians, and with Liz Jones, Melodie Reynolds, Jack Charles, Greg Fryer, Jim Daly, Peter Finlay, Glenn Shea, Tom Long and Syd Brisbane as the cast, Coranderrk was sold out before it opened – but there's a waiting list and fortune favours those who take a chance.

Until now, I didn't know about Coranderrk. In 1863 near Healesville, the Coranderrk station was established as an 'Aboriginal Reserve' by the surviving members of displaced Kulin clans. Working with a European lay-preacher, John Green, Coranderrk developed into a self-supporting farm community and welcomed members of other displaced clans. By 1877, the land had become valuable to the surrounding farmers and Board for the Protection of Aborigines dismissed Green as manager.

With conditions deteriorating and the threat of being displaced again, the men and women of Coranderrk began a protest that included letter writing, petitions and deputations to see the Chief Minister in Melbourne. As a result, in 1881 a parliamentary inquiry was established.

Like My Name is Rachel Corrie (from the diary and emails of an American student killed at Gaza) and the recent MIAF Aftermath (from interviews with Iraqi refugees), verbatim theatre explores history and events by using the voices of those who were there. Coranderrk is a verbatim reading of the Minutes of Evidence of the inquiry.

Writers Andrea James and Giordano Nanni started with the 140-page document and present the evidence of 19 (of the 69) witnesses. The story is painful and hopeful, but its heart and power is hearing the lost voices of people like William Barack, Robert Wandon, Ann Fraser Bon and John Green. Sometimes our names are all we leaveThe final reading of the names signed on the original petition is one of the most moving moments of theatre this year.

Less than a re-creation and more than a reading, the characterisations confirm where our sympathies should lie. Given the honesty of the recorded words, there may be more strength is letting the audience make their own decisions. People who do things we find abhorrent believe that they are doing the right thing, and I would like to have seen more of the humanity in the choices if every character.

However, nothing can distract from this story and by letting it be told, Coranderrk and its people are taken out of forgotten history documents and become a living part of all our stories.

Get on the waiting list.

This review originally appeared on AussieThearte.com

Photo by Steven Rhall

Review preview: Day One. A Hotel, Evening

2011-11-24T17:22:00.001+11:00

Day One. A Hotel, Evening

Red Stitch

20 November 2011

Red Stitch

to 17 December

There are two 40-something couples (Kate Cole, Dion Mills, Sarah Sutherland and John Adam) who are attempting to "build a postcode" and develop an outer-city suburb that they would never visit. They're wealthy enough to still need to be good looking, bored enough to drift from any middle class notions of fidelity and hurt enough to contemplate revenge. Throw in a promiscuous and pretty 22-year-old actor (Anna Sampson) and her philosophising hit-man husband, and there's a made-in-Melbourne farce that's guaranteed to please – unless it's meant to be a dark comedy.

The full review is on AussieTheatre.com and will be published here in a few days.

Review: The Importance of Being Earnest

2011-11-24T13:07:00.000+11:00

The Importance of Being Earnest
MTC
17 November 2011
Sumner
to 14 January 2012
www.mtc.com.au

The Importance of Being Earnest is pretty much sold out. As Simon Phillips's original 1988 production is still talked about, tickets to its revival were swooped upon. And the promise of Geoffrey Rush as Lady Bracknell certainly helped. The good news is that standing room spots are being released. So is it worth some queuing and tired legs?

Yep.

It's gorgeous and fun and the joy of watching our Geoffrey is worth a leg cramp.

To round off his final season of plays about the perils of being wealthy and middle class, where else could Phillips go but back to Oscar Wilde's satire of Victorian sensibilities and the mask of manners. First produced in 1895, its ridiculous story is balanced by its wonderful plot and a love of language and wit that few have come near to matching. In other words, it's one of the funniest things ever written.

From the first sight of Tony Tripp's re-realised design, there's no doubt that this Earnest should please even the most cynical. His black and white pop-up book set has delicious hints of Victorian erotica that contrast with the feathers, lace and velvet of the frocks, umbrellas, hats, handkerchiefs and handbags. It's sparseness leaves space for the text, while the complexity of the costumes establishes the expectation of the characters so that the cast are free to let them be so much more than what's expected.

And none frock up more magnificently than Rush. Treating the text like music, he doesn't miss a beat or a grace note and his restrained and refreshingly straight Lady B lets her power comes from more than her age and position.

And he is among a Wilde-wet-dream cast: Patrick Bramwell (Algernon), Toby Schmitz (Jack), Christie Whelan (Gwendolyn) Emily Barclay (Cecily), Jane Menelaus (Miss Prism), Bob Honery (Lane and Merriman) and Tony Taylor (Chausable). Some are less comfortable with the language and there are moments when giving in to the rhythm of the text will free the laughs, but each surprise and bring something unexpected to the well-known characters.

As Simon Phillips's MTC swan song, Earnest soars above criticism, so keep your tickets safe or try for the rare spots left.

This review originally appeared on AussieThearte.com.

Review: She's a Little Finch

2011-11-22T15:02:00.004+11:00

She's a Little Finch
MKA
19 November 2011
MKA Pop-Up Theatre, Abbotsfod
to 26 November
www.mka.org.au

This year's indie darling company MKA have popped up in an about-to-be-gentrified Steiner school in Abbotsfod for their final 2011 season. Following the success of MKA's I Know the Writer season*, She's a Little Finch opens their short second season like a wake-up double espresso made by your favourite barista.

Josie's story is told in four chapters from different times, starting when she moves in with her uncle and his maybe-soon-wife, but she wants to see the lemon yellow paint for her bedroom and keep her zebra finch.

Melbourne writer Elise Hearst graduated from Creative Arts at Melbourne Uni, won the Monash University National Playwrights Competition and attended the Royal Court Theatre's Young Writer's Program in London. And her writing is beautifully dark, painfully funny and stays with you long after the play's end.

The best writers keep the truth of their story unwritten and ask unanswered questions. Her dialogue is fresh and sounds natural because – like real life – no one says what they mean but makes their feelings clear. Hearst's characters's talk about juice, swing dancing, room service and fresh cannolli builds a subtle tension and fear that is allowed to explode and gently reveal itself.

Supporting and understanding the script, director Jacquelin Low and designer Michael Parry create its atmosphere, and the cast (Kerith Manderson-Galvin, Alexandria Steffensen, Lauren Urquhart and Tom Dent) find the honesty and pain in her subtext.

Without MKA, too many writers' works would not have the chance to be seen and to develop. This is the company to see to discover the writers and creators who are going to blow us away in the next decades and prove that the great Australian playwrights are nothing like Williamson or Murray-Smith.

This review originally appeared on AussieTheatre.com

* 15 awesome readings of new work. I missed 14 of them, but Declan Greene's Eight Gigabytes of Hardcore Porn may be the best and meanest love story ever told.

Video: Emmanuel Jal at the Wheeler Centre

2011-11-22T13:12:00.001+11:00

Anyone who was lucky enough to be at the closing concert of MIAF Notes from the hard road and beyond can't forget Emmanuel Jal's wild dancing or the story of of how he was rescued from being a child soldier in Sudan.

He recently spoke at The Wheeler Centre.

Review: Little Match Girl

2011-11-22T13:00:00.001+11:00

Little Match Girl
Malthouse Theatre and Meow Meow Revolution
16 November 2011
Merlyn Theatre, The Malthouse
to 4 December
www.malthousetheatre.com.au

What haven't I already said about absolute wonderfulness of Meow Meow? She's at the Malthouse this month with Little Match Girl and her hoards of international fans are squirming with jealousy that Melbourne (and then Sydney) have such access to this must-be-experienced diva who shreds perceptions of performance art.

Meow has recently graced shows like The Burlesque Hour with her glitter-lipped self, but her last full-length local cabaret was Vamp at The Malthouse in 2008. That show was based on Wilde's Salome, while Little Match Girl starts with Hans Christian Anderson's 1845 story of a little girl who freezes to death rather than return penniless to a violent home. Yet even as Meow reminds us that little has changed in civilised society, she still craves a fairy tale ending and looks for her perfect match as her flames fade and burn.

Like any fine cat, she's aloof, rightfully sure of her exquisite beauty (from the right angle), has remarkably flexile legs and appears contentedly independent until she pounces and demands immediate attention and physical love. But never believe those purrs are for you, as there's always a more enticing lap, and she may have found her flame in just-as-sensational Mitchell Butel, her saviour and handbag.

Working again with the delightful Iain Grandage (musical director and composition), it's bliss to hear Meow with a band and there are super new songs by Grandage and Megan Washington, and a too-delightful Noel Coward number, a "The Book of Love" to bring tears and touches of Richard Wagner, Cole Porter and Laurie Anderson for bonus perfection.

Meow resents attention flowing from her, but Marion Potts (director), Anna Cordingley (design) and Paul Jackson (lighting) create a shiny world worthy of her presence – Jackson's creative lighting is especially stunning – although it's doubtful that Meow will ever let us applaud Melissa Madden Gray.

This review originally appeared on AussieTheatre.com

Photo by Jeff Busby

Review preview: Coranderrk

2011-11-20T14:25:00.002+11:00

Coranderrk: We Will Show the Country

Ilbijerri, the Minutes of Evidence Project and La Mama

18 November 2011

La Mama Courthouse Theatre

to 27 November

www.lamama.com.au

Coranderrk: We Will Show the Country lets passed voices be heard as Ilbijerri and La Mama continue to tell stories that we need to know and to share.

Telling a story that is so important to many Victorians, and with Liz Jones, Melodie Reynolds, Jack Charles, Greg Fryer, Jim Daly, Peter Finlay, Glenn Shea, Tom Long and Syd Brisbane as the cast, Coranderrk was sold out before it opened – but there's a waiting list and fortune favours those who take a chance.

The full review is on AussieTheatre.com and will be published here in a few days.

Review preview: The Importance of Being Earnest

2011-11-18T17:59:00.001+11:00

The Importance of Being Earnest

MTC

17 November 2011

Sumner

to 14 January 2012

www.mtc.com.au

"I am sick to death of cleverness. Everybody is clever nowadays. You can’t go anywhere without meeting clever people. The thing has become an absolute public nuisance. I wish to goodness we had a few fools left."

Oscar Wilde let his Jack say that in 1895; what would he say about the cleverness dribbling out of the internet.

Yep.

It's gorgeous and fun and the joy of watching our Geoffrey is worth a leg cramp.

The full review is on AussieTheatre.com and will be her in a few days.

Review preview: Little Match Girl

2011-11-17T16:24:00.001+11:00

Little Match Girl

Malthouse Theatre and Meow Meow Revolution

16 November 2011

Merlyn Theatre, The Malthouse

to 4 December

www.malthousetheatre.com.au

What haven't I already said about absolute wonderfulness of Meow Meow? She's at The Malthouse this month with Little Match Girl and her hoards of international fans are squirming with jealousy that Melbourne (and then Sydney) have such access to this must-be-experienced diva who shreds perceptions of performance art.

Meow has recently graced shows like The Burlesque Hour with her glitter-lipped self, but her last full-length local cabaret was Vamp at The Malthouse in 2008. That show was based on Wilde's Salome, while Little Match Girl starts with Hans Christian Anderson's 1845 story of a little girl who freezes to death rather than return penniless to a violent home. Yet even as Meow reminds us that little has changed in civilised society, she still craves a fairy tale ending and looks for her perfect match as her flames fade and burn.

The full review is on AussieTheatre.com and will be published here in a few days.

What's On: Mad Women Monologues

2011-11-17T14:57:00.001+11:00

Baggage Productions are presenting Mad Women Monologues, 23 short plays over three themed nights.

All the works are written by women, including Jane Miller , Kathryn Goldie, Christine Croydon, Christina Costigan, Bridgette Burton, Cerise de Gelder and Hannie Rayson.

Crime Night has finished, but there's still Crossroad on 20 November and Barflies on 22 November.

All the booking info is at www.madwomen.org.au.

Review: Return to Earth

2011-11-17T09:34:00.005+11:00

Return to Earth
MTC
9 November 2011
Fairfax, the Arts Theatre
to 17 December

As 2011 gave playwright Lally Katz new productions at Malthouse, Belvoir Street and now the MTC, she may not the darling of our indie set any more. And while it's exciting to see her wonderfully dark and funny writing widely loved and appreciated, Return to Earth was left in orbit.

Katz's first main-stage MTC show isn't as black as some of her previous works. Her displaced seaside town is recognisable, but its darkness is lit by the safety of family and love. There's still sadness and mystery, but without the discomfort that I've come to expect from Katz.

Alice (Eloise Mignon) is welcomed home by her parents (Julie Forsyth and Kym Gyngell) who can see how much she knows people from her answers to Bert's Family Feud but have to remind her how to set the table and that her name used to be Erica. Her widowed brother, ill niece, childless best friend and new mechanic beau are more suspicious of her return.

Katz continues to create worlds as delicate and intricate as a handmade lace doily, which has been attacked with a packet of Textas and used to wipe up the remains of a dead pet. For all their not-quite-rightness, her worlds make complete sense in their oddness. But while the cast, especially Forsyth and Gyngell, grasp her tone and rhythm, there's a sense that something is holding it back and keeping its dangers hidden.

This left it feeling less intimate than some of her other works; not tiny-stage intimacy, but the knowledge and connection with the characters that leaves us knowing them better than they know themselves. For all the spot-on performances, the characters felt like they were just being introduced to us and it was over before they had the chance to tell the stories they really wanted to tell.

This review appeared on AussieTheatre.com

MIAF review: The Rehearsal, Playing the Dane

2011-10-27T13:49:00.000+11:00

MIAF 2011

The Rehearsal, Playing the Dane

Pan Pan Theatre, APA, Melbourne Festival

18 October 2011

Merlyn Theatre, The Malthouse

to 22 October

Loving Hamlet, difficulties with language and dogs, The Rehearsal, Playing the Dane had me from Monash Uni's Sue Twegg's opening discussion about the instability of Shakespeare's language, accompanied by a very beautiful Great Dane.

However, if you don't know Hamlet – really know it, not just know that it's the Shakespeare one with the skull and "To be or not to be" – I have no idea if there's anything to connect to.

Ireland's Pan Pan Thearte perfectly describe it as "an irrelevant riff on Hamlet". Reveling in its meta-ness, the first half has academia, a live pun and an audition process that lets the audience get out of their seats to choose their Prince of Denmark.

Like a favourite album, the second half plays the sing-along choruses and well-known singles with highlights performed by Pan Pan and local Drama students from Trinity Grammar School. And the dog comes back. And a knowledge of Beckett lets you enjoy it even more.

With a Danish flag floor, Dane curtain and pillows, and silver garbage bins, its visual gorgeousness is easily mistaken for a sober symbolic design – if it didn't delight in its punny symbolism. The text too is treated with a fascinating mix of love and disdain, with moments of nerdy solemnity and audacious hilarity that were intriguing, if not engaging.

The emotional connection of the show is the understanding between the creators and the audience. We don't care for Hamlet and his family's sorid/solid/sallid tale, and don't care too much who gets cast, but we love them because we share the understanding of the play and the text and we get the jokes. Would Ophelia crawling out of a bin with garbage for remembrance be anything but odd without knowing the context?

This is theatre for theatre nerds and there's not much better than being in full theatre with the nerdiest.

This review first appeared on Aussietheatre.com

I know the writer

2011-10-26T15:24:00.001+11:00

The festivals are over, but there's no time to rest.

MKA's I know the writer 15-plays, 15-days season opens tonight at the new MKA pop-up theatre in Abbotsfod.

15 days of new writing from some of our best writers. Heart this company very much.

Ben Ellis Unrestless is tonight (so sorry that I can't make it).

And there's new work by SM favs Robert Reid, Zoey Dawson, Ross Meuller, David Finnigan and Glyn Roberts, and we'll get our first glimpse of Declan Greene's Eight Gigabytes of Hardcore Pornography.

Each play is on $7 at teh door, or $50 for the whole season.

Everything you need to know is here

The elephant of love

2011-10-23T14:45:00.000+11:00

The Site Unseen project now has a Tube channel that only welcomes love.

MIAF review: Foley

2011-10-23T13:26:00.002+11:00

MIAF 2011

Foley

Ilbijerri Theatre Company, Melbourne Festival and Sydney Festival

13 October 2011

Fairfax, the Arts Centre

to 15 October

I saw Foley surrounded by teenagers from Warrnambool.

At first I shhhed and glared at the rude boys who didn't know theatre etiquette, but listening to their commentary was as fascinating as the story Gary Foley told about his transformation from angry young to grumpy old man.

Like Jack Charles V The Crown, this year Ilbijerri and our arts festivals give the stage to activist, actor, academic and ratbag Gary Foley, who tells his story of becoming politicised and his experience of the Black Power political movement in Australia. Unlike Uncle Jack's story, we're left without getting close to the person, but his telling is compelling and angry and without a rainbow serpent in sight.

Wearing a Viva Fidel t-shirt and a black jacket with a glittery black-power fist, Foley begins his story in 1965 when he was the only black kid at school and living in a "redneck hellhole" where it never occurred to him that a segregated cinema wasn't normal.

Meanwhile, his history begins at the turn of the 20th century when Aboriginal water front workers were influenced by US black power movements and Fred Maynard formed the Australian Aboriginal Progress Association. Through his active involvement in Redfern, the Tent Embassy and early black theatre, Foley's history is not the one I learnt at school.

As us who were alive in the 70s saw missed parts of our history, chuckled at the recognition and despaired at the lost opportunities, my teenage theatre mates were so bored that they may get detention from their embarrassed teacher.

As a Qanda-watching, theatre-going, Greens-voting, pseudo-hippy liberal, I hung on every one of Foley's word. I laughed at every political reference (damn it, I remember believing in Labor), was fascinated by the Tent Embassy footage that I hadn't seen, had no idea that teen-hero Simon Townsend (Wonder World) was a journo and nearly wet myself at the "Welcome to colour TV" and white-mask sketches from the never-screened pilot for Basically Black from 1972.

These kids didn't. They didn't even get the obvious parallel between the mining industries current squillion dollar campaign to create fear and the one that turned Hawke. One didn't even know that Eddie Maguire used to be on The Footy Show.

Chatting with them after, I have a much better idea of the show through their eyes and despaired at an education system that doesn't seem to reflect on Australia's recent history or current affairs. These teenagers have no connection to any of the events.

Foley's ultimate message is that for all our Sorry t-shirts and the acceptance of Aboriginal theatre in our arts festivals, we really haven't made that much progress and he encourages his young audience to take up the fight. Not a chance of this happening with these kids.

But, that's not so bad. If I'd been told the same history when I was 13ish, I wouldn't have got it either. These kids said "no shit" when Foley showed the Aboriginal flag (and told us how it was really created), they giggled at the word "boong" because they thought it was "bong" – and they kept saying "bong" – and at "coon". They may not have studied Keating's Redfern speech – or know who Keating is or where Redfern is – but these are teens who have never uttered "boong" or even know about "coon" and they thought that no one could be so stupid as to not recognise the Aboriginal flag.

They didn't get the wordy show about our missed history, but they didn't see a black dude; they saw a boring dude. And if that's the colour-free attitude they're taking into life, that's a damn fine step in the right direction. They'll care about history as they become part of it

This review first appeared on AussieTheatre.com

MIAF review previews: the last week

2011-10-21T17:30:00.000+11:00

I slept through Hedda Gabler. Not in the bad, snoring way, but in the feeling queasy and had a nap in the afternoon and the next thing I knew my +1 was ringing and asking where I was cos it was 7.59. I hear it was pretty amazing though, so please read Alison's review.

MIAF 2011

The Rehearsal, Playing the Dane

Pan Pan Theatre, APA, Melbourne Festival

18 October 2011

Merlyn Theatre, The Malthouse

to 22 October

Loving Hamlet, difficulties with language and dogs, The Rehearsal, Playing the Dane had me from Monash Uni's Sue Twegg's opening discussion about the instability of Shakespeare's language, accompanied by a very beautiful Great Dane.

If you don't know Hamlet – really know it, not just know it's the Shakespeare one with the skull and "To be or not to be" – I have no idea if there's anything to connect to.

MIAF review: Aftermath

2011-10-18T23:32:00.001+11:00

MIAF 2011
Aftermath
The New York Theatre Workshop

12 October 2011

Merlyn Theatre, The Malthouse

Finally, I've seen an international piece in this festival that can and will influence our own theatre and storytelling. As the festival debate about appropriating and telling stories continues, The New York Theatre Workshop's Aftermath shows us that sometimes all you have to do is tell.

Created by Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen, Aftermath is described as documentary theatre, being created from interviews with Iraqi civilian refugees in Jordan in 2008. Workshopped with actors from the transcripts, nine stories were selected and shaped by the writers to place the tellers and their families in the context of the big-picture story and to re-tell the recent (his)story that we think we know.

Aftermath was written for a US audience, but was destined to speak to Australians, not just because of our military involvement, but because the interviews took place as Iraq played Australia in that World Cup qualifier and we re-live the scoring of that goal. Even die-hard Socceroos would cheer.

Their stories are harrowing and human and so far from media reports of collateral damage that I know I've glossed over when I'm watching the ABC. I have no idea what an exploding bomb sounds like; I don’t know the smell of flesh fused to a car seat or that of rotting bodies in the street. I do know that I would only flee my home, my family and my friends if there were choice. These people loved their lives and their homes, but and they had no choice but Jordan.

My only trivial comment is that the ownership of the stories transfers to the actors. Too often I see actors leading their characters and assuring the audience that it's all a game of pretendies. With actors this good, the acting disappears so much that the final gasping cheers were slightly distanced from the stories and I wonder if it would have been as or more affecting had the work taken a Brechtian step back from the emotion.

This may be theatre that's preaching to the liberal choir, but it left me shuddering. It humanises the Iraq war unlike any reporting I've seen and I'll be the first to donate to get it performed in our federal parliament.

This review first appeared on AussieTheatre.com

Erin James's interview with Jessica Blank

Adelaide Fringe registations and free show

2011-10-18T14:31:00.000+11:00

Registrations are also open for our biggest festival, the Adelaide Fringe.

To get in the mood and hear an overview of the festival, the Adelaide Fringe team will be at Federation Square from 10 to 1.30 this Thursday.

Hosted by Bob Downe ,who has been performing at Fringes since the 80s, there will be performances by the likes of Die Roten Punkte and Anna Lumb.

Melbourne Comedy Festival registrations open

2011-10-17T11:35:00.000+11:00

Thinking of performing in the 2012 Melbourne International Comedy Festival?

Well, time to stop thinking and start registering. Then the easy part is over.

MICF registrations open today and close on Wednesday 23 November.

If you're a MICF first-timer, there will be info sessions in Melbourne and one in Sydney. Keep an eye on www.comedyfestival.com.au for details.

MIAF: A reflection on Site Unseen

2011-10-16T18:21:00.005+11:00

I saw Site Unseen.

How could I not with such critical critical reviews and the deeply hurt response of some of the creators.

Supported by the City of Port Phillip and local groups that support marginalised residents, the MIAF production of Site Unseen is only one result of a Community Cultural Development (CCD) program that's been running for months.

I was hoping to talk about CCD and the importance of having your voice heard. I was hoping to compare it to the stunning documentary theatre of Aftermath, to the exquisite honesty and confrontation of Ganesh and The Third Reich and to other wonderful CCD shows I've seen developed and supported by the Port Phillip Council. I was hoping to talk about how it spoke to me.

Watching this from the Site Unseen website, I still had hope.

It's possibly best to read the website, support the program, scoff at the reviews and leave the show unseen.

I can't remember feeling so uncomfortable watching a piece of theatre – and my discomfort had nothing to do with the subject matter.

What I liked

The beautiful photo exhibition in the soupless kitchen of the Theatre Works foyer. Black and white photos of people with an object of importance.

The recorded voices of the people who helped make it.

The elephant, until it was explained. Oh, so the elephant in the room is the elephant in the room.

The piece of Chocolate Kugelhopf I had in Acland St after the show.

Knowing that people who have written about this show and the people who have spoken to me about it are not heartless arseholes for criticising that which deserves praise and large slices of Chocolate Kugelhopf.

I may have also liked Chris B's performance, but he wasn't on.

Whose story is it telling?

Very superficially, CCD uses the arts to enrich lives and communities by letting people share their stories. From intention to process and product, a CCD project always has its community participants at its core. Site Unseen is no exception, with a participant training and employment program as part of the project. All we are seeing is the developed performance.

However, unlike the Site Unseen project (and the above video), the live experience lacks the stories of real people. A very clean bloke pretending to be a bogan and saying "It's hard on the streets" isn't a story; it's a confirmation of a stereotype.

Of course the presented experiences of homelessness are true, but they are scraped off the surface of the real stories. Without detail, without context and without humanity, there's nothing to share that every person seeing Site Unseen doesn't know and see every day.

For me, the most moving story was the old woman being evicted with her cat, Rosie. This woman had a name (that I've forgotten) and her situation is so real to anyone who doesn't own their house. It really could be me. She was also a cardboard cutout in case our imaginations are so dead that we can't imagine what an old woman looks like.

To the creators and participants who are hurt by the response to this show, please tell us your stories because we want to hear them and they are what is unseen in Site Unseen.

Who is Site Unseen talking to?

Poor Felicity. Felicity is our guide and the chair of fictional WIMS (Walk In My Shoes). She's also living in fear of being stabbed by angry critics. If I were the kind of person who took a rhetorical knife to the theatre, she'd have been safe – because I would have self-harmed to get away.

Who is this woman meant to be? Is she the section of our society that this show wants to reach?

I get that it's meant to be satire, that's she's meant to represent the worst of silly rich middle-class ladies who take on charities to feel good about themselves and have no idea about who or what they are supporting. I've never met anyone like her though.

So Site Unseen isn't talking to us and we can happily sleep knowing that we've done our bit by turning up and politely clapping at the end.

Good satire makes us cringe at our own hypocritical ridiculousness. Felicity isn't any part of me or anyone I know, and I wonder if she's any part of anyone who chooses to see a show about homelessness as part of a respected arts festival. Does anyone really think that the people who want to see and support this show believe that the homeless are having a picnic and slumming it by buying non-vintage Moet with their food vouchers?

The tone of Site Unseen is that the audience are so ignorant and selfish that they need to be told the obvious.

Why doesn't this show confront me? Me, who lives in the Port Phillip (St Kilda) council and avoids walking down certain streets. Me, who has lied to Big Issue vendors saying that I already have a copy. Me, who writes about pretentious theatre and pretends to understand how homeless participants in a CCD project feel.

Homelessness in Rippon Lea

Last year during the storms, I wanted to put my car in my shed. My shed is filthy, falling apart and it leaks; it's not somewhere you'd want to spend more than a few seconds. It was late at night and opening the door I was confronted with a smell that I will never forget. I was terrified of finding a dead animal.

There was a body, but he was alive and in a sleeping bag in the one dry spot. He was also passed out. I shut the door. My car was fine. I had no idea what to do and was horrified at myself for being scared of someone who was so cold that my crappy shed was a good find. I didn't call the police like my neighbours suggested.

With a bit of googling and asking on facey, I put together a supermarket list and in the morning I filled an old backpack with museli bars, Milo, fruit cups, cheese sticks, Panadol, band aids, wet wipes, tissues and some chocolate. I left it in the shed, but he never came back. I know that I'd be humiliated if I'd been discovered sleeping in a run-down shed.

He left used tissues, rollie papers, some empty wine casks, a pair of boots, a pair of sandals and a rug that I wouldn't let my cats sleep on. He'd even managed a fire. I used thick rubber gloves to clean it all up. The smell took days to go.

(Dude, if your reading this. The food and stuff is still there and your shoes are in another bag in the corner of the shed.)

The homelessness of Site Unseen doesn't smell or confront or question. It may be based on real stories, but the final product is spotlessly clean and feels as authentic as a performance of "We're a couple of swells".

As such, it insults my intelligence, my empathy, my knowledge and my actions.

MIAF: The Incredible Blue blue

2011-10-15T13:06:00.003+11:00

I didn't think that Whiteley's Incredible Blue would cause the next critical blue.

Cameron tweeted that it was "as much fun as snorting nutmeg" and called it "awful and ugly" in The Age, while on Theatre Notes, Alison quoted Ezra Pound and showed me things that I missed.

Head to TN to read their D&M* exchange.

Jo Giles was also in the love camp.

* David and Margret.

Photo by Jeff Busby

MIAF review previews 3

2011-10-14T22:20:00.003+11:00

Today I saw Site Unseen and Whiteley's Incredible Blue.

Incredible Blue is selling out, but some extra shows have been added. It's stunning. It's incredible. I'd have happily stayed and watched the 10pm show as well. Barry Dickins's writing means nothing and everything, with a poetry as addictive as the heroin that Brett Whitely could never leave. And I'm now a little bit in love with Neil Pigot. His performance is with me forever.

I'm writing a more substantial response to Site Unseen, but I'm letting it sit for a day or so because it is difficult to write a negative response to a show where the critical response is causing real distress to the people who helped create it. In the meantime, I love this video from the Site Unseen website, and there's a response from the creative contributors in today's Age that's worth reading. Shame it's not in the online version.

But I understand Cameron's anger. I left angry.

FRINGE review: No Matter Where You Go...

2011-10-14T13:07:00.000+11:00

OMG, I forgot to publish this!

No Matter Where You Go, There You Are

RSVP, Jennifer Williams, Cathie Clinton, Yvonne Coughlan

2 October 2011

Clifton Creative Arts Centre, 314 Church St, Richmond

to 9 October

This year, my Melbourne Fringe highlights have been the artists who have shared their stories. Story is a complicated concept. You can spend years reading all the discussion about how to create one or you can realise that everybody has a story and that yours is just as important, interesting and moving as any other. No Matter Where You Go, There You Are is Jennifer's and Cathie's stories.

Jennifer Williams and Cathie Clinton haven't been in the same room yet. Jennifer moved from Sydney to Ireland last year and Cathie moved from Ireland to Melbourne, and with director Yvonne Coughlan they've created a night of intimate and personal theatre through email and Skype.

In a large Richmond gallery, Cathie directly shares her stories and we watch Jennifer's on screen, and Yvonne creates balance and an equally intimate atmosphere for each woman. The distance of performing to camera frees Jennifer to talk about the issues that really matter to her and her large screen presence creates genuine closeness. Meanwhile, Cathie is introduced from the far side of the room, so the same closeness is developed slowly.

For it's delicate theatricality and gorgeous use of space, what makes this experience so intimate is the honesty of the performers. This solitary nature of the original development process seems to have created the safety to dig deep and find those authentic moments of truth that resonate far beyond a common experience.

Their's nothing extraordinary about Cathie's and Jennifer's experiences of leaving home and travelling, their doubts about being an artist and the drug of audience approval, or their fears of wondering who would want to see two neurotic women talk about their fears – but it's the normality of their stories that makes their telling extraordinarily beautiful.

The next incarnation of this project will include actors in Portland, USA, and Adelaide

The night I saw No Matter Where You Go, There You Are, there were three people in the audience. This was disappointing, but brilliant because it intensified the intimacy and made our tiny group personally invested in making the experience supportive.

There's so much to see this last Fringe weekend, but this is on until Sunday if you can squeeze it in.

This review first appeared on AussieTheatre.com (luckily!)

Chasing Rainbows

2011-10-13T22:26:00.002+11:00

I took a break from the super-arty scene tonight to see Chasing Rainbows, the first play by emerging writer Tony Avard.

It's not arts-festival-ready, but the only way that writers can become great is by getting their work in front of people. So hooray for programs like RMIT Link that support student arts projects.

Chasing Rainbows is about Bailey who's trying to deal with the death of close friend, a boyfriend who actually loves him and the characters who live in his mind and do their best to look after him. Performed by actors who care about the messages they're sharing, it's passionate and full of love, pop culture and guts.

MIAF review previews 2

2011-10-13T16:51:00.009+11:00

For a few days, I've indulged in the joy of seeing shows without a notebook (thanks Carmen's Verandah).

Undisputed favourite was The Manganiyar Seduction. Pure joy that starts deep in your gut and ripples to the surface until it's impossible not to dance, or at least stand, cheer and whoop.

And how lovely to hear the director thank everyone at the festival, including the publicists. Tatia and Mary, if you weren't there, you were thanked and applauded.

I also loved The Magic Flute. If Mozart had marimbas, drums and tuned water bottles, he may have dumped those keyboards. The production suffered because the State Theatre is a sound-sucking beast for unamplified voices, but it didn't take away from the passionate performances. I haven't seen that kind of love for Mozart, or for opera, on a stage in a long time.

Josephine Giles's review

Was Assembly really a week ago? Moments of exquisite and moments of twee. Musically, I adored it, but was too concerned about the dancers to fully enjoy the choreography; especially as comments from later in the season were so much about, "We could see the blood and the bruises."

JG's review

The full reviews, and those by Josephine Giles, are on AussieTheatre.com and will be published here soon.

Aftermath

The New York Theatre Workshop

12 October 2011

Merlyn Theatre, The Malthouse

to 14 October

If you're joining the festival debate about appropriating and telling stories, Aftermath cannot be missed.

Based on interviews conducted with Iraqi civilian refugees in Jordan in 2008 and performed by The New York Theatre Workshop, it's created for all of us who have believed what politicians and the media tell us, for us who have no idea what an exploding bomb sounds like, for anyone who has used the term collateral damage, for anyone who thinks that anyone would flee their home if they had any choice.

....

It left me shuddering.

the rest

Foley
Ilbijerri Theatre Company
13 October 2011
Fairfax, the Arts Centre
to 15 October

I saw Foley surrounded by teenagers from Warrnambool.

At first I wanted to shhh and glare at the boys behind us who didn't know theatre etiquette, but listening to their comments was as fascinating as the story Gary Foley told.

As us who were alive in the 70s saw parts of our history that we missed, chuckled at the recognition and despaired at the lost opportunities, these teenagers were so bored that they may get a detention from their embarrassed teacher.

Chatting to them after, I has a much better idea of the show through their eyes and am now despairing about an education system that doesn't seem to reflect on Australia's recent history or current affairs. They had no connection to any of the events or stories being told.

However, I was quietly pleased to hear them giggle at the word "boong" because they thought it was "bong" – and they kept saying "bong". They may not have studied Keating's Redfern speech – or know who Keating is or where Redfern is – but these are teens who have never uttered "boong" or even know what it means. Perhaps, they're not so bad after all.

the rest

Rhinoceros in Love
National Theatre of China
7 October 2011
Playhouse, the Arts Centre
to 9 October
melbournefestival.com.au

Rhinoceros in Love stomps to MIAF with some mighty big footprints. First performed in 1999, it's considered China's most successful play and has been performed over 800 times to over a million people.

Visually striking in black, white, mirrors and water, the dream-like story's dark satire is balanced with moments of buffoonery and contrasted with the frustration and beautiful pain of being young and in love.

...

Because I'm a theatre nerd I'm so glad that I saw Rhinoceros in Love, but I'm left wondering if I'm an old fart who doesn't care about young obsessive love. I still love rhinoceroses though.

This review originally appeared on AussieTheatre.com.

MIAF review: Rhinoceros in Love

2011-10-13T12:01:00.003+11:00

MIAF 2011
Rhinoceros in Love

National Theatre of China

7 October 2011

Playhouse, the Arts Centre

to 9 October

melbournefestival.com.au

Visually striking in black, white, mirrors and water, the dream-like story's dark satire is balanced with moments of buffoonery and contrasted with the frustration and beautiful pain of being young and in love.

Ma Lu has sense of smell as good as the rhinoceros he looks after at the zoo, and he loves Mingming, his dream-girl neighbour who smells of lemon-flavoured gum and a photocopier. She's in love with man who doesn't love her and isn't prepared for the love of a man who tells her she's his warm gloves in winter and cold beer in summer, but doesn't think his poetry is good enough to even write on rhino hide.

The internet has helped me understand a lot more about the context of this work and I've taken heed that director Meng Jinghui thinks that critics who said it was difficult to understand were merely insulting themselves.

I understood it; although, my date for the evening and I disagreed if the Ma Lu and Mingming had had sex. This is very clear to its young fans who quote the text and the 200+ student drama companies who have performed it, and writer Liao Yimei says that she remembers "feeling almost embarrassed by the raw passion and lust". As her characters describe themselves as Generation A Y (angry youth), perhaps Rhinoceros is like The Rocky Horror Show was to me as a teenager.

Sitting next to young Chinese speakers, it was clear that Liao's writing screams so much more than the English translation allows. Mandarin is already a literal language and once it's translated, it loses all subtlety and its stilted poetry can leave an already-distracted surtitle reading audience wondering what they're missing.

Because I'm a theatre nerd I'm so glad that I saw Rhinoceros in Love, but I'm wondering if I'm an old fart who doesn't care about young obsessive love. I still love rhinoceroses though.

This review originally appeared on AussieTheatre.com.

Having an opinion

2011-10-10T23:23:00.006+11:00

I haven't seen Site Unseen, but Cameron Woodhead's review for The Age is leaving me tempted.

He didn't like it.

He's not alone. I've heard similar opinions about this show, but the difference is that they were whispered.

Cameron loves theatre, he sees more than I do and he writes reviews that I read. I don't give a toss if we agree or not.

I can't comment on the show, but I like this review. I'd rather read a passionate and honest opinion than a compromise written to please everyone.

He's also written a follow up on his blog.

Here's John Bailey's review.

And here are some other opinions from people who have seen it and loved it.

And the response from the creators in The Age.

FRINGE Awards

2011-10-10T14:33:00.001+11:00

The Melbourne Fringe Festival Awards were announced on Saturday night. Congratulations to everyone.

Professional Development Awards

Best Emerging Circus Performer, Supported by ACAPTA
Tilly Cobham-Hervey, Freefall

Tour Ready Award, supported by Adelaide Fringe
Uta Uber Kool Ya

Best Emerging Producer, suppoted by Auspicious Arts Award
Erin Voth from The American Astronaut

Outstanding Comedy Show Award, supported by Brisbane Powerhouse
Me Pregnant!

Innovation in Theatre Award, supported by Brisbane Powerhouse.
Bunny

Original New Circus, supported by Circux Oz Award
No Such Thing as Normal

Outstanding Indigenous Artist Award, supported by the Wilin Centre for Indigenous Arts
Vicki Kousins from Re: appropriate

Melbourne cabaret Festival Award for Excellence in Cabaret
The Unexpected Variety Show

Best Experimental Performance Award, supported by PACT Centre for Emerging Artists
Sweet Child of Mine

Best Original Australian Work, in Memoriam of Caz Howard, supported by Theatreworks
The Waiting Place

Best Emerging writer, supported by Victorian Writers Centre Award, in association with the Melbourne Theatre Company
Dan Giovannoni, Amelia Evans and Paige Rattray for Cut Snake

Innovation in Culturally Diverse Practice, supported by Kultour.
In Fact, This Crease in Your Trouser is Good My Friend

Category Awards

Best Circus
Freefall

Best Cabaret:
Pirate Rhapsody, Mermaid Requiem

Best Comedy
Lawrence Mooney in An Indecisive Bag of Donuts

Best Dance
Proximate Edifice

Best live Art
A Window in Mime

Best Music
Musical Thoughts for a Darkened Room
No Place Like Home

Best Performance
After All This

Best Venue
Revolt

Best Visual Arts
Rendered Bones

People’s Choice Award
Mercedes Benz…Awkwardly

MIAF review: Half-Real

2011-10-08T14:55:00.000+11:00

MIAF 2011
Half-Real
Malthouse Theatre, Melbourne Festival and The Border Project
29 September 2011
The Tower Theatre, The Malthouse
Sold Out

Drugs or pink pyjamas? Nervous tick or dead wife? It's your choice in The Border Project's Half-Real, a whodunnit choose-your-own-adventure.

The Border Project are from Adelaide and if you haven't hear of them, pretend that you have because they're getting talked about, in the good way.

With the help of a rather cool Wii-like controller and a whizz-bang, just-like-a-real-computer-game-but-bigger-and-smoother video projection, the audience vote about what happens next and who we think did the deed.

Performers David Heinrich, Alirio Zavarce and Amber McMahon present us with three intriguing suspects and the most frustrating element is choosing whose story we don't hear.

The premise of handing control over to the audience is too tempting to miss, but it doesn't take long to realise that our choice is as limited as the choose-your-own-adventure books the idea is based on, rather than on a narrative as sophisticated as a contemporary computer game. (As I once happily play Pong on a black and white telly, today's games continue to leave my jaw on the ground.)

Interacting with a controller is fun (and how I wish I had one for other shows*), but it was clear that our choices weren't based on the evidence presented, and post-show chat wasn't about the results of our choices, but about the choices made for us and if indeed there was any real choice.

Half-Real looks like a game with it's drop-dead design and super (non-pixillated) cast, but it feels like being a child playing a board game with an adult who's letting you keep up, even if they don't let you win.

* Should this 50ish couple written by David Williamson a) discuss how horrible their view of the harbour is, b) moan about their adult children or c) jump into the harbour?

Photo by Steve Tilling

This review originally appeared on AussieTheatre.com.

FRINGE review:Things I Learned in High School

2011-10-08T14:54:00.000+11:00

The Things I Learned in High School

Daniel Kilby with Trevor Jones

5 October 2011

Long Play

to 8 October

I was late for Daniel's show (damn you daylight savings), but running down the corridor I heard a lot of laughing and a song about fucking. Apparently, it's what everything is all about.

So I knew I was going to like it.

Daniel made it through catholic high school as the only gay boy (that he knew of), but getting through a music conservatorium education when he was into show tunes and art songs was another challenge altogether, even when he vipped out his Wagner.

But it took a few more years to kill those damn self-doubt vampires – thank you [title of show] – and realise that he so has a story to tell, that the best way to tell it is through slightly obscure show tunes and that people are going to want to hear it.

Like the best, Daniel has the help of a great pianist and he opens up his heart to tell some tales that he'd rarely shared. Good stories need truth and it's in those moments of honesty that performers and audiences bond. When storytellers are brave, we see how meaningless our superficial differences are. Who hasn't decided in seconds that the cutie we've said hi to is our happily-ever-after, and we all did things in year 10 that we didn't tell our families ... until our solo cabaret shows.

The Things I Learned in High School is on at Longplay in North Fitzroy until Saturday. Forget the Fringe hub for a night, grab a drink and a meal and share your love of song (and fucking) with Daniel.

FRINGE review: Fourplay

2011-10-07T13:06:00.000+11:00

Fourplay

Vicious Fish

2 October 2011

fortyfivedownstairs

to 9 October

As the fortyfivedownstairs program continues to bring us companies who know how important it is to tell our stories and are willing to take the kind of risks that create amazing theatre, Scott Gooding's happy ending for Vicious Fish's Belbel Project is a satisfying hour of Fourplay.

A long-term couple wanting change have a remarkably cool new bed. With crisp purple sheets and geek-perfect proportions, it's ready to break in – but they don't want to fuck with destiny, so he invites a hot young man and she invites a hot young woman...

Now, before anyone gets excited about watching bored middle-class swingers, know that Fourplay's far more interesting and that the only writer resorting to cheap puns is me.

Catalan-Spanish playwright Sergei Belbel wrote his first plays in the 80s and has been Artistic Director of The National Theatre of Catalonia since 2005. Vicious Fish is the champion of his work in Australia, having presented four of his translated works.

Form and structure are as much a part of Belbel's storytelling as character and plot. Fourplay's time line alternates and scenes repeat from different perspectives with new information. This forces the audience to actively play in the onstage games and to continually re-think what they believe is happening. There's no passive watching with Belbel.

And while I love how this makes us really engage with the text, the brilliance of the Jenga-winning structure can create distance from the stories of the characters (Gooding, Michael Argus, Kaitlyn Clare, Liza Dennis) and distract from the humour that pumps the heart of the work.

With four people wanting to use the bed for more than a nanna nap, there's potential for farce, but Belbel is far darker and tempers their play time with uncomfortable laughs that feel really good once you get used to them and accept just how reactionary tits can be.

I've recently seen a lot of very funny shows where audiences seem afraid to laugh in case it isn't meant to be funny. If you think it's funny, the people creating it probably do as well; so, please have a glass of wine if it helps and enjoy Fourplay.

This review originally appeared on AussieTheatre.com

MIAF review: Ganesh Versus the Third Reich

2011-10-07T13:05:00.001+11:00

MIAF 2011
Ganesh Versus the Third Reich
Malthouse There and Melbourne Festival and Back to Back Theatre
29 September 2011
Merlyn Theatre
to 9 October

Should we only tell our stories? Is it possible to balance the line between respect and offence? With a hullaballoo playing out in the media about how this show is offending some "Melbourne taxpayers", it's probably best to see Ganesh Versus the Third Reich to make up your own mind.

When the Back to Back ensemble conceived the "great conceit" of Ganesh travelling to nazi Germany to reclaim the swastika, they knew it was "morally fraught ... and too dangerous for a little theatre company from Geelong to appropriate Hindu gods and create a fairytale within the Holocaust."

Thankfully, they re-thought and created a story within a story that blurs reality and fiction as it confronts itself and manipulates its audience's assumptions.

Devised by Mark Deans, Marcia Ferguson, Bruce Gladwin, Simon Laherty, Sarah Mainwaring, Scott Price, Kate Sulan, Brian Tilley and David Woods, the telling takes us into the rehearsal room as the cast (Deans, Laherty, Price and Tilley) deal with a difficult director (Woods) and argue dilemmas like if it's ok to play a Jew if you're not a Jew or an Indian deity if you're not an India deity. And there's the issue of who's going to play the "good part" of Hitler.

Meanwhile, Ganesh arrives in a concentration camp in 1943, where his elephant-head draws the attention of Mengele, and he meets Levi, whose mental retardation has kept him alive.

If you're going to be offended this work, be offended by yourself as you realise that you came into the theatre with some pre-conceptions and ideas that are offensive to others.

Ganesh Versus the Third Reich is theatre that grabs us by our hearts, gives us permission to laugh, makes us cry, shakes some sense into us, then starts the process again. What an astonishing start to MIAF 2011.

Photo by Jeff Busby

This review originally appeared on AussieTheatre.com

FRINGE review: Spring Awakening

2011-10-07T13:04:00.000+11:00

Spring Awakening
Monash Uni Student Theatre and Monash University Academy of Performing Arts
1 October 2011
Alexander Theatre, Monash University
to 8 October
www.monash.edu/mapa/

With over 60 Monash Uni students and recent graduates involved in every element of this production, it would be tedious to mention everyone who helps make this Spring Awakening so memorable; so, you'll have to read the program – and the only way to do that is to see this show.

Spring Awakening won Tony Awards in 2007 and is credited with bringing young audiences back to Broadway with its heart-breaking characters and rock-infused score. Its story is from a 1892 German play that was banned for confronting taboos like masturbation, first-sex, homosexuality, incest and violence. We may write openly about these topics now, but for all our contemporary knowledge, the pain and confusion about confronting any of these is still as strong; so, the music is a juxtaposition of angry, hurting rock straight from the hearts of its young characters.

If the thought of a student-theatre musical leaves you shuddering, banish such fear. Monash Uni Student Theatre (MUST) continues to believe in young artists and creates a structure and atmosphere that lets them create productions that surprise and delight.

The core creative team – Yvonne Virsik, Cassandra Fumi, Tom Pitt, Kristen Adriaan, Jason Lehane (director, assistant director, musical director, choreographer, designer) – start with the skills of their artists to create a production that's led by emotion. What results is a musical that's as striking and moving as any Tony winner, but never tries to be Broadway.

Spring Awakening is one of my favourite musicals from recent years and MUST's production is – I have to say it – a must. You might see versions with slicker dance and more mature voices, but you won't catch one with more heart.

And, really, the Clayton campus is a 20-minute drive from the city and there's parking at the door. Don't use its distance as an excuse.

Photo by Sarah Walker.

This review originally appeared on AussieTheatre.com

The last FRINGE review previews

2011-10-05T16:22:00.002+11:00

Yep, the full versions are on AussieTheatre.com and will be here soon.

The Things I Learned in High School
Daniel Kilby with Trevor Jones
5 October 2011
Long Play
to 8 October

I was running late for Daniel's show (damn you daylight savings), but running down the corridor I heard a lot of laughing and a song about fucking. Apparently, it's what everything is all about.

So I knew I was going to like it.

Daniel made it through catholic high school as the only gay boy, but getting through a conservatorium education when he was into show tunes and art songs was another challenge altogether. It's taken him a few more years to kill those damn self-doubt vampires – thank you [title of show] – and realise that he so has a story to tell and that the best way to tell it is through slightly obscure show tunes.

Like the best, Daniel opens up his heart and tells some tales that he probably thought he'd keep quiet. This is the stuff that bonds performers and audiences. In those moments we know that most of our differences are meaningless, because we all did things in year 10 that we didn't tell our families ... until our solo cabaret shows.

The Things I Learned in High School is on at Longplay in North Fitzroy until Saturday. Forget the Fringe hub for a night, grab a drink and a meal and share your love of song (and fucking) with Daniel.

No Matter Where You Go, There You Are
RSVP, Jennifer Williams, Cathie Clinton, Yvonne Coughlan
2 October 2011
Clifton Creative Arts Centre, 314 Church St, Richmond
to 9 October

I just got in from this show and had the kind-of-brilliant and kind-of-disappointing experience of being in an audience of three. But I'm stressing the brilliant, because it's a night of storytelling that I really can't compare to anything else and I'm so glad that I went. (Watching Doctor Who so nearly won...)

So no matter what you're hoping to see this week, please make time for this.

I'll give it some more words tomorrow.

Spring Awakening

Monash Uni Student Theatre and Monash University Academy of Performing Arts

1 October 2011

Alexander Theatre, Monash University

to 8 October

www.monash.edu/mapa/

.....

And, really, the Clayton campus is a 20-minute drive from the city and there's parking at the door. Don't use its distance as an excuse.

the rest

And here's director Yvonne Virsik talking about directing it.

Fourplay

Vicious Fish

2 October 2011

fortyfivedownstairs

to 9 October

As the fortyfivedownstairs program continues to bring us companies and writers who know how important it is to tell our stories and are willing to take the kind of risks that create amazing theatre, Scott Gooding's happy ending for Vicious Fish's Belbel Project is a satisfying hour of Fourplay.

A long-term couple wanting change have a remarkably cool new bed. With crisp purple sheets and geek-perfect proportions, it's ready to break in – but they don't want to fuck with destiny, so he invites a hot young man and she invites a hot young woman...

Now, before anyone gets excited about watching bored middle-class swingers, know that Fourplay's far more interesting and the only writer resorting to cheap puns is me.

the rest

Benefit Performance for Sosina Wogayehu

2011-10-04T18:02:00.000+11:00

Benefit Performance for Sosina Wogayehu
Sunday 16 October
7.30pmCircus Oz
Melba Spiegeltent, Docklands

Featuring: Moira Finucane, Ruby Rowat, Sharon Grunert, Mozes and Sosina Wogayehu, traditional Ethiopian dance and coffee making ceremony, private hula hoops lessons and surprises!

Tickets @ www.trybooking.com
Donation @ www.mycause.com.au
Facebook page and details

Sosina Wogayehu, a generous, treasured and long term Circus Oz person, is raising money for her dad who fell very ill recently in Ethiopia.

So far, Sosi has raised the money and support to fly him from Ethiopia for major surgery in Melbourne. Half of the flight costs were raised by the cast and crew of The Burlesque Hour. Now he is in intensive care and extended hospital recovery. Because he is Ethiopian, not Australian, they must pay full price for his hospital stay.

It's Last Tuesday Tuesday

2011-10-04T01:00:00.000+11:00

Hooray!

Whatever you're doing tonight, know that the most fun will really be had at the Fringe Club as The Last Tuesday Society take over.

It's free and the theme of the night is "first times".

If you haven't popped your First Tuesday cherry, tonight is the night.

FRINGE review: Me Pregnant!

2011-10-02T11:50:00.000+11:00

MELBOURNE FRINGE 2011

Me Pregnant!

Nick Coyle

24 September 2011

Lithuanian Club, The Loft

to 30 September 2011

Love Emeline, love the monster, love the villagers and love Nick Coyle.

Me Pregnant! is a fucked-up fairy tail of a medieval village that followed nerdy Emeline into the forest to take revenge on a monster, but one of the monster's babies survived and really hates Emeline.

Modelling a peasant sack with bright tights, Nick is our tour guide and everyone else in the village, the forest and the dark undersea cave. His story telling is immaculate, if you like your stories snarky, bitter and whimsical. And I don't mean fluffy my-little-pony whimsy, this is whimsy that's mixing speed and acid and never wants to come down.

And I now so want an octopus to give me a makeover and a tiny wind-up Nick Coyle doll to tell me bedtime stories.

"Tell me a story." Shows that let their stories lead have audiences who love them. Me Pregnant! lets Nick show his terrific writing and prove that he's a performer who deserves to be cast in anything he wants, but the joy of the show is that he tells a brilliant story.

Nick's only on until Friday, so don't wait for the weekend to see him.

This review originally appeared on AussieTheatre.com

Review: Grammar Don't Matter on a First Date

2011-10-02T11:47:00.002+11:00

MELBOURNE FRINGE 2011

Grammar Don't Matter on a First Date

Mark Butler

24 September 2011

Portland Hotel

to 1 October 2011

Mark Butlers broked up with gfs; cos there gramma iz sheet.

In Grammar Don't Matter on a First Date, he asks his audience if they think he made the best choices.

Turns out that Saturday night's audiences were more pedantic than Mark and are lucky that many couples there have found a mate who agrees that it's impossible to eat in a restaurant that lists possessive nouns on the menu and that friends with RAS syndrome* have to be removed from their Christmas card list.

The rest of us, who may have used an its/it's argument as a contribution to a break up (yes, I have), were able to feel justified.

For the single grammar slobs, who were dragged along by their friends, Mark offers grammatically-correct dating hints. Singles, if you are on RSVP, this could help: There is a happy couple. They're holding hands and sipping their merlot. From experience, Mark (and his enthusiastically agreeing audience) assures you that your lack of basic spelling and grammar knowledge is stopping the smart hot folk from dating you.

Yes, we (the hot smart folk) judge you by your grammar. And (it IS acceptable to start a sentence with a conjunction) we judge you by your spelling, punctuation and syntax. I'm more accepting than Mark is about LOL, but I have serious En dash and hyphen issues. THEY ARE NOT INTERCHANGEABLE!

As a writer, an editor and a hot smart person, I think Mark's show should be compulsory. The Style manual and the Macquarie Dictionary Fifth Edition aren't in every family bookshelf (hell, they aren't even in every writer's bookshelf), so we need people like Mark to spread the word(s) by making us laugh.

And grammar slob or snob, Mark has everyone laughing. His audience–performer bond is instant, but he's talking about grammar, sex and puns – what's not to bond over!

So, of course, grammar matters as much as Grandpa does. And to all the glorious pedants at Mark’s show: I'd date youse all.

*RASS: Redundant acronym syndrome syndrome. "I'll grab some cash from the ATM machine."

This review first appeared on AussieTheatre.com.

FRINGE review: 4's KIN

2011-10-02T11:47:00.001+11:00

MELBOURNE FRINGE 2011

4's KIN

Dil Ruk, Morven Smith, Jay E Manne and Tim Clark (with guest Ben Lawrence)

24 September 2011

Portland Hotel

to 8 October 2011

Most new stand ups don't have a show's worth of material, but they do have a few minutes of terrific stuff, and what better way to get your Fringe legs than to share the stage with friends.

4's KIN give us their best 12 minutes and there's enough laughs and likeability to know that we'll soon be seeing much more of Dil Ruk, Morven Smith, Jay E Manne, Tim Clark and (guest) Ben Lawrence.

Each are developing a stage character and working with observational jokes, and all brought an original twist to the worlds around them and showed us just how twisted their brains really are.

I think being a stand up comic has to be one of the bravest performance choices. Great stand up is about sharing your most personal and embarrassing secrets with strangers and friends. The best (the ones we go back to see as much as possible) are the ones who dig deep, show us their hearts and help us realise that being a bit fucked up is perfectly normal.

This first appeared on AussieTheatre.com

MIAF review previews

2011-10-01T18:37:00.002+10:00

Grand final and the start of the crossover Fringe/MIAF week. And we lose an hour of sleep for daylight savings! #whitewhine.

Head to AussieTheatre.com for the full reviews, and they'll be up here a few days later.

MIAF 2011

Ganesh Versus the Third Reich

Malthouse There and Melbourne Festival and Back to Back Theatre

29 September 2011

Merlyn Theatre

to 9 October

When the Back to Back ensemble conceived the "great conceit" of Ganesh travelling to nazi Germany to reclaim the swastika, they knew it was "morally fraught ... and too dangerous for a little theatre company from Geelong to appropriate Hindu gods and create a fairytale within the Holocaust."

Thankfully, they re-thought and created a story within a story that blurs reality and fiction as it confronts itself and manipulates its audience's assumptions.

...

Photo by Jeff Busby

Go Cats!

2011-10-01T14:13:00.005+10:00

I'm trying to write about the astonishing Ganesh Versus the Third Reich and its confronting exploration of perceptions and story appropriation...

But the TV is on and leather-clad bikies are riding onto the MCG and Meatloaf has opened with "Hot Patootie" from The RH Picture Show.

Grand Final jewellery by ali alexander "Anyone But Collingwood"," Every Cloud Has a Silver Lining" and the Mighty Roos

As Fringe and MIAF artists try to hold that critical mirror up to our society, there is no better reflection than Melbourne's AFL Grand Final. (I don't care about the rugby.)

It's sold out in minutes and watched by millions. The result will divide families and friends. Strangers will fight or kiss on the streets. Virginities will be lost as teenagers discover the thrill of being on the winning side, or the consolation of being runner up. Children will be conceived and a child will have to grow up with the name Malthouse (which has nothing to do with the theatre company or venue).

Meanwhile, no one is writing offended letters to the council questioning why an old American is chosen as the cultural representative of the day or why he opens with a song from a musical about a transvestite.

And now the MSO (Melbourne Symphony Orchestra) Chorus are singing the team anthems.

Today, the poshest and artiest of us leap off our lofty towers to freely appropriate the stories of one of these once working-class teams and become punters instead of audience.

Love or loathe sport, the Grand Final evokes mass passion in ways that theatre can only dream of.

The characters are flawed, the stakes couldn't be higher, the ending is unknown and there's nothing gay about good-looking men hugging each other.

They're about to toss the coin...

We can care about art again tonight.

2010 Saints V Pies

and more FRINGE profiles

2011-10-01T13:00:00.005+10:00

There are still more Melbourne Fringe artists profiles on AussieThearte.com this week including:

Anna Lumb, who I first saw hoop twirling at a Last Tuesday Society gig in Fitzroy, and who brings so much more than mere skill to her performances. See I HEART Jack with World Around Us II for a pretty brilliant Fringe double feature.

Dan Kilby, whose first ever Fringe show opens on Tuesday and who gave my favourite answer on all the profiles: If you had access to the TARDIS, what performance would you see first? Carrie on Broadway, because I am a gay. I'm now adding Carrie to my TARDIS wish list, because I'm a hag.

Spencer Bignall, whom I'm going to see perform for the first time tonight at Spring Awakening.

and wonderfully wrong and simply wonderful Wau Wau Sisters

FRINGE review: X

2011-09-30T12:32:00.000+10:00

MELBOURNE FRINGE 2011

Terrible Comfort and Barking Spider Visual Theatre

27 September 2011

Lithuanian Club, Son of Loft

to 8 October

When a narrator has a swirly red skirt that I covet and fur the exact purple that I've been trying to dye my hair, I know I'm in safe hands.

Puppet-friendly companies Terrible Comfort and Barking Spider lashed themselves to the same mast to ride out the not-so-perfect storm of developing a new show. X marks the spot and names this gorgeous (I mean terrifying) new romp.

Robert Reid's story is even more fun than his recent MTC show, especially because this one's full of pirate stereotypes that have been forced to walk the plank for being outdated and dull, and been replaced with a rollicking adventure that's simply the best pirate-seazombie-steampunk-robot-monster-ghost story ever.

The design is as lush as a posh opera's and the monsters (created by Sayraphim Lothian) are so gorgeous you'll want to take them home to cuddle. I mean, Lily and Mike (and their companions Penelope Bartlau and David Rosenblatt) are brave tough monsters who aren't at all cute and will haunt my nightmares.

And Danny Diesendorf and Hanna Camilleri will probably never want to be cast as anything other than pirates from now on.

X makes the tiny Son of Loft room feel bigger than a galleon, so it HAS to move on to bigger theatres, but don't miss the fun of being so close that the temptation to reach out and pat tummies is almost irresistible.

Take your kids and your friend's kids and your friends. This is theatre for children that lets children be smart and lets grown ups be kids.

FRINGE review: Sweet Child of Mine

2011-09-30T00:02:00.004+10:00

Sweet Child of Mine

Bron, Jim and Linda Batten

and The Last Tuesday Society

28 September 2011

Studio 246, Brunswick

to 1 October 2011

I've seen some great shows this Fringe, but I haven't loved any quite as much as Sweet Child of Mine. My heart is still grinning from this show that's made from love – and there's only a couple chances left to for you to be able to say that you there when Jim told his dad jokes.

Jim and Linda Batten have six children; one, Bron, left their Warrnambool home to study contemporary dance and drama.

Jim and Linda love their daughter Bron. Melbourne's independent-cool-arty-farty hipsters (and arty-farty bloggers) love Bron's hilarious and subversive art. Jim and Linda like beautiful art that makes sense and doesn't have nudity or bad language. So what do they make of a daughter who understands post structuralism, danced a chicken abortion in an empty swimming pool and has spent a lot of time in a blue sleeping bag pretending to be a whale?

They perform this show together, on film and on stage.

Jim Batten is the star of this Melbourne Fringe. As scantily-clad Bron swirls around in symbolic white chiffon smock and practical Bonds underwear, Jim tells us what it's like to be the dad of an artist and, on film, Bron asks Jim and Linda to tell her what they think she does.
Apparently contemporary art isn't clear to everyone and artists are known to have unreliable incomes.

Linda and Jim Batten like art that has some emotional kick to it, that's uplifting, that is understood and makes an impression.

So they're pretty lucky to be in a show that ticks every single box. And it has obscure references, a beaver, bad language and blue paint for the rest of us!

Sweet Child of Mine is for anyone whose parents don't understand what they do (yes Mum, I'm still doing some writing) and for parents who don't know why their artist offspring don't want a steady job.

But is it art?

Fuck* yes!

(*Sorry Linda.)

PS. Jim and Linda, I'm a bit older than Bron and still supplement my income with that govt arts payment and am heading towards spinsterhood...

A version of this review appears on AussieThearte.com

MELBOURNE FRINGE HINT 11

2011-09-29T22:00:00.000+10:00

The Wau Wau Sisters' Last Supper
GH Hotel and Daniel Clarke
GH Hotel, 1 Brighton Rd St Kilda
to 9 October

The wow wow Wau Wau sisters are back!

If you missed them earlier this year, get on your knees and (while you're down there) thank the theatre gods for their return and don't you dare displease them by not worshipping at Wau Wau temple at the re-vamped GH Hotel (that we will always call the Grey Hound).

I saw The Wau Wau Sisters' Last Supper not long ago.

And am still looking for a pair of Fuck Yeah undies...

FRINGE review: I HEART JACK

2011-09-29T17:32:00.002+10:00

MELBOURNE FRINGE 2011
I Heart Jack
Anna Lumb23
September 2011
Fringe Hub, Rehearsal Room

to 8 October 2011

I HEART Jack is totally heartable.

Anna Lumb has worked with by DJ Lazer Ferrari and fringe/circus/everything legends Maude and Anni Davey to create a boutique circus of cult, wit, regret and broken hearts.

From en pointe balancing on bottles to making the tiny stage seem like a roller rink, Anna introduces three new characters, who are based on cult legends, and who share one sad event.

The narrative links could tighten up a bit, but it really doesn't matter because the combination of circus trick, monologue, music and live dance magnifies the emotion of each story and shows us people who try to keep their secrets but can't help but show their hearts.

And you get to watch Anna perform. She fearlessly shows us the hidden hurt of people who rely on their image, she lets us laugh and does the freakiest Hockey Pockey ever.

As other independent arts festivals grow and welcome commercial shows, the Melbourne Fringe still lets brand new work like this find its place and lets us share the kind of art performers really want to create.

This originally appeared on AussieTheatre.com

FRINGE review: World Around Us II

2011-09-29T17:31:00.003+10:00

MELBOURNE FRINGE 2011

Miles O'Neil's World Around Us II

23 September 2011

Fringe Hub, Rehearsal Room

to 8 October 2011

World Around Us was one of my favourite of last year's Fringe, and this year's part II is just as gorgeous. Intimate, gentle and so fucking beautiful, it's impossible to watch without crushing on Miles O'Neil.

Everybody seems to have a story – and that's brilliant!

So says Miles, as he shares some unlikely cans of VB. His cream brocade jacket and pink-rose tie defines Melbourne op-shop hipster chic, but there's nothing ironic about his nostalgic collection of stories, found 8mm (and super 8) film and original songs. This year, they're about love.

There's stories like Bob's. He's the Jetstar lost property delivery dude who was once "6 inches away" from asking a girl to marry him and delighted in watching the sun set over a power pole. There's a 1950s film of a nanna watching her grandchildren, who may now be grandparents themselves. There are backyard pools, animals, Neil Diamond (thank you for bringing him back) and blue V Dub that will never leave your heart.

Miles makes these stories of day-to-day life so irresistible and joyful by finding the unexpected beauty and love in each one. Love isn't about grand gestures and contrived events; it's really quite simple and sometimes it takes a taxi driver or a family watching performing seals to remind us just how beautiful our lives and our loves are.

Miles O'Neil's World Around Us II is on late each night at the Fringe hub. It's too beautiful to miss.

This review originally appeared on AussieTheatre.com

I missed this a couple years back...

More FRINGE review previews

2011-09-28T23:22:00.002+10:00

MELBOURNE FRINGE 2011

I haven't seen a dud Fringe show this year, but the three I've seen so far this week have been especially awesome. Just see them, except the one that's sold out.

The full reviews will be on AussieTheatre.com soon (when I've had some sleep and the keyboard doesn't look like a blur) and will be published here in a few days.

Sweet Child of Mine

Bron, Jim and Linda Batten

and The Last Tuesday Society

28 September 2011

Studio 246, Brunswick

to 1 October 2011

I've seen some great shows this Fringe, but I haven't loved any quite as much as this and my heart is still grinning. There's only three chances left to see it.

Jim and Linda have six children; one left their Warrnambool home to study contemporary dance and drama.

Jim and Linda love their daughter Bron. Melbourne's independent-cool-arty-farty-hipsters (and bloggers) love Bron's art. Jim and Linda like beautiful art that makes sense and doesn't have bad language. So what do they make of a daughter who understands post structuralism, danced a chicken abortion in an empty swimming pool and has spent a lot of time in a blue sleeping bag pretending to be a whale?

They perform this show together.

This for anyone whose parents don't understand what they do (yes Mum, I'm still doing some writing) and for parents who don't know why their artist children don't want a steady job.

But is is art?

Fuck* yes!

(*Sorry Linda.)

X
Terrible Comfort and Barking Spider Visual Theatre
27 September 2011
Lithuanian Club, Son of Loft
to 8 October

When a narrator has a swirly red skirt that I covet and fur the exact purple that I've been trying to dye my hair, I know I'm in safe hands.

Robert Reid's story is full of pirate stereotypes that he's forced to walk the plank for being outdated and dull, and they've been replaced with a rollicking story that's simply the best pirate-seazombie-steampunk-robot-monster-ghost story ever.

The design is as lush as a posh opera's and the monsters are so gorgeous you'll want to take them home to cuddle. Sorry, I mean, that Lily and Mike are brave tough monsters who aren't at all cute and will leave me with nightmares.

Take your kids and your friend's kids and your friends. This is theatre for children that lets children be smart and lets grown ups be kids.

I Know There's A Lot Of Noise Outside But You Have To Close Your Eyes
I'm Trying to Kiss You
26 September 2011
137 Greeves St, Fitzroy

The last show was tonight and they were sold out anyway.

So if you missed this one and all I can say is "Sucked in" and next time I'm Trying To Kiss You do a show, buy your tickets early because you don't want to miss theatre that's this confronting, beautiful, and slightly scary.

FRINGE review: Who, Me

2011-09-28T12:14:00.002+10:00

MELBOURNE FRINGE 2011
Who, Me
Vicious Fish and MILKE
23 September 2011
Fringe Hub, Meeting Room
to 8 October 2011

In 1999, Rob Lloyd saw THAT Star Wars film more than once. This kind of honesty deserves admiration, but can I still respect him? (Even if he does look like David Tennant.)

David Tennant is MY Doctor. Jon Pertwee is Rob's. Who, Me is about Rob's obsession with sci fi, particularly Doctor Who (which is the name of the TV show; never the name of the character – except that once).

Directed and co-created by Scott Gooding (still going with Peter Davison?), it takes us into the-bigger-on-the inside mind of a passionate obsessive as his alter ego fracks with the wibbly wobbly and forces Rob to put his love on trial. Would Rob have a better life had he not donned a velvet jacket in the 90s and put his devious-and-too-honest VHS-stealing plans to more a more productive purpose?

The uber-meta time-travel/brain/trial story is the structure, but the double-heart of the night is Rob's story. His confessions of his fan behaviour create wonderful squirming recognition, including a moment when you can pick how many people in the audience had their first kiss when they were well out of high school.

Still, by trying to find a balance between in-jokes and references for the fans and still making it fun for the non-fans (although I don't understand how anyone could NOT love Doctor Who*), the show’s spending some time in the void between the 'verses.

I'd love to see the references turned up to 11. Name those companions, show us the tower of Target books, throw in the really obscure stuff and go as close to the copyright breach as you dare. At the same time, the less-nerdy viewers need a clearer peek into the uber-nerd world they don't understand. The description of the Trek V Wars 90s is as good as stealing a vortex manipulator and mixing at a 90's sci fi party with your theory that Starbuck would have been much better as a woman. But pics from a convention are not enough to even hint at the jaw-dropping nerdiness of these events**.

But fan or not, it's impossible not to adore Rob as he unzips his normal suit and lets his nerd out to frolic with an atrocious stand up routine and a final vignette that hurts to watch (it makes Wesley's unaired dance in "Waiting in the Wings" – I know you have the DVDs and have watched the extras – seem cool), but it hurts even more to realise that you understand it.

For all its meta wankiness and TARDIS/penis jokes, Who, Me is a love story. The genuine passion and embarrassingly affectionate love we have for these fictional creations has got so many of us through bad times. And, like all loves, it's so much better when it's shared.

Rob and Scott share their passion to assure us that there's nothing wrong with knowing more about a tv show than our own family. And would Rob's life have been better with the Doctor? I'll leave that answer to a TARDIS birthday cake.

Doctor Who fans, don’t you dare miss Who, Me. Non-fans – what’s wrong with you!? See it anyway and you can catch up with the box sets after the Fringe.

* On Sundays, I gather in a secret location with a group of people old enough to have watched it on the ABC every week night and old enough to not be embarrassed when someone brings along a new dolly for show and tell. The tiny Jammie Dodger with the first Matt Smith doctor action figure was my favourite.

** Of course I know that from experience. I went a Buffy etc convention. There was a Firefly preview leaflet, I saw Spike and Giles and discovered that my fandom barely rated on the geek scale. Mixing with these nerds, I felt cooler than Pinky Tuscadero when she was dating Fonzie.

This review originally appeared on AussieTheatre.com

A good Dickens

2011-09-27T17:16:00.000+10:00

Eagles Nest Theatre's production of Charles Dickens performs 'A Christmas Carol' is back at the Atheneum in December.

Here's the new promo vid or go to charlesdickensperforms.com.

2006 review
2010 favourite award