What Melbourne loved in 2014, part 8

It's an international edition as Karin Muiznieks, Alex da La Rambelje and Yvonne Virsik go travelling.

Karin Muiznieks
cabaret performer and songwriter

Karin: I was invited by a friend to be an extra in a "cabaret video" he was filming. Turns out it was the promotional trailer for the 2014 Adelaide Cabaret Festival. The trailer was being shot in Melbourne, using an entirely Melbourne cast,crew and scenery and heavily featuring artists who live and work in Melbourne. They said that Melbourne had "the right feel" for cabaret. It made me feel kinda triumphant and sad at the same time. It showed me that everybody secretly knows in their hearts that Melbourne is the true centre of cabaret in this country, and yet we are still scrambling to receive the funding and support that other states take for granted.

Why bother shipping out to Adelaide when the soul of cabaret is in Melbourne? I bust my arse to break even here, so I'm also shipping out. See you in 2015, Melbourne. Hopefully, the government and sponsoring bodies will realise what jewels they have in our local scene and not force performers out of town if they want to earn a living.

SM: The Von Muiznieks Family Hoedown was such a surprise. I don't know what I expected, but it surpassed all expectations and created new ones. I laughed myself sick, saw my first bass ukelele and can't believe that they're not being invited to perform everywhere.

Alex da La Rambelje

magician

Alex: My top five theatre experiences in 2014:

5. Max and Ivan, The Reunion (Melbourne International Comedy Festival)

Sharp, hilarious and rich with narrative complexities, Max and Ivan's follow up MICF show was my stand out pick from the festival this year. The guys inhabited a myriad of living and breathing characters, and managed to create some moments of genuine pathos at the end. It's always awesome seeing a high-concept theatre/comedy show at the Comedy Festival.

4. Matilda (RSC)

Joyous fun. It felt totally fresh. The musical numbers flowed organically from the narrative, and when the audience started cheering I realised I was watching damn good writing. Melbourne, just you wait.

3. Monsieur Butterfly (Edinburgh Fringe)

This high-concept stand up show had me standing up in anticipation at the final moment. Alex Horne constructed an intricately woven machine of a show that was embodied in the actual, impossibly complex, tangible machine he constructed on the stage. Using balloons, VHS tapes, pool cues, bowling balls, a potato on a zip-line and lots of other randomly drawn common-or-garden items, he created a machine just like the one he’d always wanted to create in his childhood. 

2. Elephant Room (Edinburgh Fringe)

I went to Edinburgh Fringe with the intention of seeing as many magic shows as I could (I clocked up over 10). This show was a standout – a surreal trip that brought magic and theatre together more seamlessly than I have ever seen. The world of the piece was the Elephant Room, a bizarre limbo land inhabited by three "shadows of magic personalities", who seemed to be reliving former glories that belonged to no particular set time or place. The show elevated common conjuring routines above the mundane and set them in a world that was able to frame the illusions as truly magical.

1. Derren Brown, Infamous (Glasgow Theatre)

I’ve spent the last ten years periodically pouring over every live recording, tv special and written word Derren Brown has offered. Seeing him live was a thrill. He truly commanded the stage. I realised how the skillful, dangerous and ballsy performance techniques I had perceived in his recorded work were in every way real. The man is a god.

SM: I watched him do close up card tricks determined to figure it it out. I couldn't. I know how it's done and I can't see him do it.

Yvonne Virsik
director, Artistic Director MUST

Yvonne: I was lucky enough to start the year in New York and saw loads of shows there, but except for Sleep No More and a great King Lear featuring Frank Langella at BAM – I don’t like the play much, but this was simply and exquisitely staged with a galloping pace – my highlights for 2014 have all been in Australia.

Tonelgroep Amsterdam's Roman Tragedies at The Adelaide Festival was a brilliant experience: three “Shakespeares”, extraordinary performances from powerful actors, a set you could move around on and order drinks from and tongue-in-cheek text via an LED screen announcing how long till the next major character died.

At the Melbourne Festival, I found Roslyn Oades’s Hello, Goodbye and Happy Birthday (Malthouse) playful, life-affirming and profoundly affecting, my only quibble the lack of diversity of expression in the 18 year old “stories” chosen.  And One Step at a Time like This’s Since I Suppose  was a rare and rich experience.

Opus from Circa left me enthralled when a lot of the circus pieces disappointed – not just the music and bodies doing extraordinary things, but the intimacy, humanness and moments of real meaning.

Red Stitch’s Grounded was remarkable in all elements. I found the style fascinating – a touch heightened and gestural – but somehow all the more real and engaging for it. Beautiful work from Kate Cole and Kirsten Von Bibra is surely one of our most underrated directors.

The Defence by Chris Dunstan at MKA’s HYPRTXT Festival was brilliant, bold and uncomfortable, playing with gender dynamics and abuse of power, as did Mark Wilson and Olivia Monticciolo’s Richard II (MKA at Melbourne Fringe) – immediacy to gasp for.

The Good Person of Szechuan at Malthouse Theatre was a delight – alive, cheeky, and chaotic, yet surprisingly clear.

Masterclass with Maria Mercedes at forttfivedownstairs was directed by Daniel Lammin with glorious clarity as was his work The Cutting Boys at La Mama.

In Thérèse Raquin at Theatre Works, Gary Abrahams orchestrated an inexorable build in tension. Some of my favourite moments were Thérèse struggling with her hoop skirt with increasing ferocity in the small apartment.

The City They Burned (Attic Erratic) by Fleur Kilpatrick and directed by Danny Delahunty was wonderfully shaped and horrifying. Violence begets violence has never been as palpably realised for me as when the daughters turned on their father in act two.

Other 2014 memorable theatrical moments include:

Bryony Kimmings handing around cups for people to discreetly trim their pubes into during Sex Idiot.

Realising I had learnt a lot about the experience of being on The Autism Spectrum from the student-created Them Aspies in the MUST Season, and having a bit of a cry at my immense pride in their achievement.

Lloyd Jones impassioned introduction and running amok in When the Cream Sinks to the Bottom at La Mama – “Did he really just do that?!”

Experiencing the beautiful, raw but caressing honesty of Jess Gonsalvez’s Naked at the MUST Container Festival.

The cheer when Sarah Hamilton and Justine Campbell‘s They Saw a Thylacine was announced as part of the 2015 Malthouse Season.

The hoot-inducing moments and technical acrobatics of Calpurnia Descending (Sisters Grimm at Malthouse).

Hanging out with the brilliant participants in The MTC Women Director’s Program.

That’s a fair bit, I know and there are heaps I haven’t mentioned. These are just some of my memorable moments and experiences from over 150 shows in 2014.

SM: Yvonne really tried to donate some pubes to Bryony but it was difficult in jeans. I'd forgotten about that; lucky she mentioned it.

I'm blown away every time I see a MUST (Monash University Student Theatre) show. Student unions are brilliant things and the thought of them disappearing as tertiary education becomes all about money is too depressing. My MUST highlight was getting to meet next year's lot at #NotDramaCamp. I'm excited about the theatre they are going to make.

2103 Favourites

2012 Favourites

What Melbourne loved in 2013, part 1

Last year, I asked a few SM friends what their favourite moment in theatre was for the year. The responses were wonderful and remain some of the most popular posts; so, of course we're doing it again.

This series isn't about what the critics or the award committees think, it's not about what had full houses or made money; it's about those shows, people and moments that make us love theatre. It's about those moments when we feel something real and can't imagine being anywhere else.

If you want to be involved, email me at sometimesmelbourne at hotmail dot com.

There's also a version running in December in Issimo magazine. (I'll link when they're up.)

I'm starting with Stephen Nicolazzo. In 2012 he said that his theatre experiences "have changed me and allowed me to find a platform to express myself without censorship or fear".  Without censorship or fear! And that's what he – and so many other artists and creators – have done this year, and they are the ones we will see over the next month.

And there's Angus Cereni and Alex da La Rambelje.

Stephen Nicolazzo
Director

STEPHEN: There were many moments in theatre this year that have stayed with me and inspired me so much.

The Rabble’s Story of O, in particular, stood out as a fearless, entertaining and bold expression of sexual politics that was both incredibly humorous and tragic at the same time. Though it sparked controversy and debate, I think the key reason this work resonated with me was its assured aesthetic and deconstruction of gender; one that was engaged with both its ideas and its audience. It felt connected. On an intellectual and visceral level, it was a deeply satisfying and invigorating theatrical experience that I don’t think anyone, whether they loved it or hated it could deny.

This is what theatre is inevitably all about.

Also, of course, my love and respect for Sisters Grimm’s numerous works this year still stands with The Sovereign Wife, Little Mercy (at STC) and the re-imagining of Summertime in the Garden of Eden. What was so inspiring with their work this year was its ambition in scale, style and design – taking the essence of their ethos to a new level of visual and theatrical possibility. Very exciting indeed.

Another work that I feel was so very beautiful was Matt Lutton and Van Badham’s version of The Bloody Chamber at Malthouse. It was lavish and stark at the same time, beautifully directed and performed, and the music by David Chisholm made me wet for classical in a way I never thought possible!

Also loved, loved, loved I’m Trying to Kiss You’s remount of I Know There’s a lot of noise outside… at La Mama as it contained a performance that totally blew my mind by Anna McCarthy. I was crying with laughter and then crying from the tragedy of it all, all guided by that siren’s voice. 


This was also a big year in my own career. The success of Psycho Beach Party from Sydney to Melbourne and to the Brisbane Festival left me full of delight and gratitude. This was a work I never thought would touch anybody, and to see its effect on so many audiences over the course of 2013 has been so rewarding and exciting.

It, and my work with Malthouse on Salome, a production that I am deeply proud of like nothing else I have ever worked on, has solidified a key group of artists whom I simply could not create theatre without.

I would like to take the opportunity here to say thank you to all of the people I have had the pleasure of working with this year, as at the end of the day, those relationships and the work we have brought to the stage are my most memorable moments of 2013.  It seems that 2013 was another year of fearless theatre-making from the independent and main stage, and that is a friggen triumph indeed.

What Stephen is looking forward to in 2014 at issimomag.com.

SM: What I love most about Stephen's work is that he show us what it's like to be Stephen Nicolazzo. It's like tripping around his mind and soul and seeing the world as he wants it to be. It sometimes frightens me that that world is a bit too much like my mid-80s teen brain, but I turned out OK.

As a director, he also creates a sense of purpose and love on the stage. It's so clear that all of his performers and designers love being in these worlds as much as he loves creating them. And he celebrates and supports a notion of queer that's embracing and welcoming; one that doesn't exclude because you don't quite fit in with those who think they don't fit in. He lets us find what makes every one of us queer and opens the door to the party with no questions asked.

Angus Cerini
Actor, playwright

Photo from Melbourne Writers Festival

ANGUS: That's easy! It was the completely mixed up MTC foyer during the NEON season.  To see that building buzzing and alive with all sorts was about time.  Long may it continue!!!

SM: Angus's writing gives me shivers – both good and terrifying. We didn't get a new work from him this year, but I'm one of the many who are very excited that he's in NEON for 2014!

As for a favourite moment. All I can say is that it involved a discussion about why he prefers to see genitals hidden by underwear.


Alex da la Rambelje
Magician

Alex (C) with Luke and Vyrom from A Modern Deception

ALEX: My favourite theatre moment started with a performance workshop run by Derek Scott, who plays the lead clown in Slava's Snow Show. He showed me the power of breaking rhythms and having lucid thoughts on stage; it has changed each and every show I've done since.

I saw him on stage in Slava's Snow Show this year, after having seen him in the show ten years ago. Watching him with the new knowledge of how he works was one of those rare experiences of constant realisation and clarity of thought.

SM: I'll never get tired of having no idea how Alex does things with cards. It bloody must be magic.

I had great fun taking a four-year-old to see Alex and Luke in How to Make Your Parents Disappear, but my favourite moment has to be Sh!t Tecoma People Say (and how good is Penelope the cat).



Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Part 9
Part 10
Part 11
Part 12
Part 13
Part 14
Part 15

Part 16

Part 17

2012 part 1, with links to the rest

Magic Festival reviews

In 2008, The Australian Institute of Magic founded The Melbourne Magic Festival. There are 40 shows at this year's festival, at the Northcote Town Hall, and many are sold out.

Who doesn't love magic and I've never seen this town hall so crowded with happy punters.

During the day, there are plenty of school-holiday shows and at night there are family shows and ones just for adults.

The full program is at melbournemagicfestival.com.

(And yes, some serious wand waving needs to be done to make the website easier to use.)


Beat the Cheat
Nicholas J Johnson and Ben McKenzie
11 July
Northcote Town Hall
to 13 July



Giant dice, a community chest full of secrets and a board game big enough to walk on! Cool.

BUT to win, you have to beat Nicholas J Johnson, Australia's honest conman, magician and self-confessed dirty rotten cheat. It's not as impossible as it seems, especially as host Ben Mackenzie (who can quote the Dungeon and Dragons rule books) might be on your side.

The audience is split into two (I was on the Not Red team) and individuals play for the team (I would have volunteered if Scrabble, Mastermind or Mousetrap had come up). There are dozens of games that are chosen by the air toss of giant dice and Nick knows the rules for every one – and how to bend them.

With magic, games and nerdiness, Beat the Cheat is more fun than Star Wars Angry Birds or a Hungry Hungry Hippos marathon. And it reminds us that games are so much better when you play with real people instead of a screen. Who wants to come around and play Monopoly?

PS. The Not Red team lost by one point because a Red team member realised that it would be ridiculous to not cheat.


In Dreams
Tim Ellis
11 July
Northcote Town Hall
to 13 July

Magic shows are often put in their own category that brings up images of RSL clubs, kids parties and men in capes with awkward young women in sequins. A trip to the Melbourne Magic Festival will banish such regressive and dull thoughts (or at least restricted them to RSL clubs), because this festival is full of magicians and artists who are letting the hat rabbits run free and taking illusion to far more interesting places.

Tim Ellis is the Artistic Director of the Melbourne Magic Festival, he's won prestigious magic awards and is presenting two of his own shows at the festival.

If you're s a grown up who's stopped believing in magic, his 9 pm show, In Dreams, could change your mind.

In Dreams is about unrequited love and never giving up. Ellis is silent and bare foot as he tells a simple and heartwarming story about being in love and losing that love. He uses the same tricks that are seen in most shows, but adds original twists and their place in the story is more important than the illusion.

The result is a personal and moving story of heartbreak and hope told though flawless magic and the kind of love that defies illusion.

Make your parents disappear

Luke Hocking and Alex da la Rambelje

9 July 2013

Northcote Town Hall

to 12 July

It's tough to argue with a 5-year-old, but I have no reason to disagree with my theatre companion, Ella, who thought the best bit of Make your parents disappear was when they "went outside for no reason", but generally thought it was "really good".

So good that she convinced her mum that she needed their magic book so she could learn some tricks at home and impressed me all afternoon by pulling a plastic pink ring out of my ear.

Magic rocks! Luke and Alex are best-known for their adult shows as two thirds of A Modern Deception, but once they were in grade 5 and grade 3 at magic school and didn't want to go to bed when their mum told them to. They know some tricks, but need something spectacular to keep them out of bed. Luckily the audience suggest that they could make their parents disappear!

As the kids (3–10) sit on the ground and the groan ups sit on chairs, Alex and Luke need help from the audience to do their tricks – and they tend to attract an extremely talented audience – without forgetting that those up the back need to be entertained and are usually determined to see how a trick is done. With these two, they might start believing that it really is magic.

Make your parents disappear is super fun and magictacular. I'd go so far to disagree with Ella and say that it's "really, really good".

The Lucian Swift Chronicles: A tale of magic in Melbourne
Barking Spider Visual Theatre
6 July 2013
Northcote Town Hall
to 6 July

The Flinders Street Station lost and found room used to be in the clock tower. Here collected bags, boxes, brollies and cases that were lost by travellers coming to and leaving Melbourne. Some were united with their owners and some were left to collect dust, unable to tell their story because their person was missing.

A young woman looks through the lost and found treaures. We don't know if she's looking for something she lost, but she finds an old case that belonged to Lucian Swift, the Gentleman Trickster. Trying on his tails and top hat, she discovers his secrets and releases some of his stories that were lost and hidden for so many years.

With alchemy akin to ice cream and sprinkles, magician Jo Clyne worked with director Penelope Bartlau and members of Barking Spider to create this captivating show that combines magic with story and sends love back though Melbourne's history.

It's festival run was short, but let's hope that we see it again – and how amazing would it be to see it performed in Flinders Street Station.

PS. Until seeing this show, it hadn't occurred to me just how many magicians are men and was told how difficult it is to buy magic props for women. Hmmm.  To help fix this balance, I've already taken a 5-year-old girl to see a show and she's promised to show me a trick the next time I see her.

Lucien photos by Sarah Walker

Quick MICF: A Modern Deception

MICF 2013
A Modern Deception: Live to Air
15 April 2013
Comedy on Collins
to 21 April
comedyfestival.com.au

Who wouldn't want to watch a sitcom about three magicians who live together and practice law? Somehow Alex, Luke and Vyom's show gets cancelled, but as luck would have it, the morning TV hosts have died and Magic Mornings is going Live to Air and even I'd consider getting up in the morning to watch a breakfast show hosted by these three.

A Modern Deception have gone through various incarnations in recent years and with director Danny Delahunty on board, they've found the extra magic of story, tightened up their stage characters and created a show that welcomes all ages and doesn't skimp on jokes for grown ups. (I loved the Waleed Aly joke.)

And there's magic. Card tricks, levitating and I-have-no-idea-how-they-do-that magic. It's mind blowingly awesome.

By the nature of magic, magicians have to be obsessive and nerdy as it's an art that should never show the skill it takes to perform it. This sometimes makes magic stage shows a bit odd, but these guys are putting the magic back into the magic of theatre by letting us be genuinely surprised and thrilled by things that our brains tell us shouldn't be real and by making sure that the story around the magic is nearly as good as their tricks (nearly because the tricks are that good).

With only a few more days of MICF left, find time for A Modern Deception's Live to Air. And take a crowd because it's the kind of show that kids are loving it as much as anyone. And karmic intervention has taken them out of noisy pubs into the stained glass glory of the Scots' Church hall in Collins St, where the Clean Comedy program is sparkling with some of the funniest festival shows that welcome everyone without fear of embarrassment.

Review: A Modern Deception

MICF 2011

A Modern Deception

1 April 2011

The Bull and Bear Tavern

to 23 April

www.comedyfestival.com.au

If there's a prize for conquering the worst venue of the Comedy Festival, Vyom, Alex and Luke from A Modern Deception have to win it.

I don't care if it's sleight of hand, illusion or magic, I love a good trick. The deception men are as debonair as their geeky souls allow and they infuse an old-school trick show with enough originality to make it seem brand new. A Modern Deception is a comic cabaret with class, wit and nerdiness that's worthy of a far better venue.

It's not The Bull.... Tavern's fault that the sight lines are so dud that it was a struggle to see many of the tricks, but the ambient noise from the kitchen and staff was so distracting (ie: fucking loud) that I spent too long worrying about the orders at table 17 and whether the Trevally ever made it out of the kitchen. The only people who didn't seem to want to make the noise disappear were the men on the stage and they drew even the most annoyed audience member back to the show.

A Modern Deception is well on it's way to being awesome. I'd love to see the onstage characters developed further (don't worry about being loveable; be odd and extreme and you'll still be adored). Stay your gorgeous selves for corporate gigs, but for this type of cabaret, you'll go to a new level with even more story and conflict among the characters.

Apparently the ending is brilliant, but – due to a late start – I had to run or miss my next show.  If it was going the way I think it was, I'm sure I missed something spectacular. 

And to the owners and management of The Bull and Bear Tavern:

How wonderful it must be to have over hundreds of people who have never been into your venue, flock in during the laugh fest, willingly give you money in exchange for alcohol and be so impressed that they come back with tables full of their friends to try your food and soak in The Bear ....ing in the Woods ambiance.

How likely are they to come back when your kitchen starts sizzling food about 30 seconds into the show because "they're hungry now", and the sizzle continues with plate clanking, order yelling, phone answering ("There's the comedy on") and general staff discussion using their outside voices?

I'm guessing... none. 

It would be nice if you respected the artists, but even nicer if you respected the paying punters – and not just the dude who wanted Trevally.


This review appears on AussieThearte.com