More Orchid

The Orchid and The Crow
Salvador Dinosaur and Theatre Works
4 May 2016
Theatre Works
to 15 May
theatreworks.org.au
orchidandcrow.com

Daniel Tobias

The Orchid and The Crow was my favourite cabaret show of 2015.

2015 review.

Since then, it's toured to festivals around the UK, Canada and back home in Australia. It was nominated for a pile of awards and won a few. The original season also won a Melbourne Green Room Award for writing.

The wonderful people at Theatre Works have brought it back to Melbourne for a two-week season. It's really hard for a successful indie show to get another run, so make the most of this. And make sure that it's a huge success so that producers and venues will keep supporting amazing indie theatre.

At 29, Daniel Tobias was diagnosed with testicular cancer; it was bad – and even as he's singing and joking about it all 10+ years later, the genuine concern for his life remains. This show is about his wonderful family and about finding/losing/accepting/questioning faith, belief, culture and gods.

There's the big G god who has a thing for foreskins – yes, it is a weird thing to do to a baby – and the lesser gods and survivors like Lance Armstrong, who beat cancer and won a lot of Tour de Frances. Lance was still a god when Daniel read his book before he had his testicle removed and had chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Looking at what the big G does to non-believers, does it even matter that Lance's lancing of himself was eventually revealed?

The show's slicker after touring and found its structure and its bigger story, but it hasn't lost any of the honesty or personal truth that makes it so compelling.

It's might also be my favourite cabaret show of 2016.

MICF for Kids: Sunny Ray and The Magnificent Moon

Sunny Ray and The Magnificent Moon

Arena Theatre and Salvador Dinosaur 

7 April 2016

The Famous Spiegeltent, Arts Centre Melbourne

10 April 2016
comedyfestival.com.au

Sunny Ray and The Magnificent Moon 

Don’t forget that there’s plenty of brilliant comedy for kids at MICF.

From Arena Theatre and Claire Bartholomew and Daniel Tobias (who also created the glorious rock duo Die Roten Punkte), Sunny Ray and The Magnificent Moon is pure joy for the under-10s.

In her orange and yellow jumpsuit, sparklie eye shadow and yellow sun visor, Sunny sings “It’s a wonderful day” as she wakes up her the plants and warms up the world. She loves being the sun and loves the beginning and end of each day when she hangs out with her best friend, The Magnificent Moon. In an Elvis-inspired white and silver jumpsuit, the Moon knows how cool it is to sing and party all night with the stars. 

When Sunny decides that it could be fun to stay up late, the Moon welcomes her to the party, but she sleeps in and he isn’t sure how to wake up the world.

With original songs, lots of interactive fun, and extra naughtiness and love, Sunny Ray and the Magnificent Moon light up the Famous Spiegeltent and welcome children and their families to help make this gorgeous story about friendship and how it’s cool to be different.

This was on AussieTheatre.com.

Review: The Orchid & the Crow

The Orchid & the Crow
Button Eye Productions
13 February 2015
Tower Theatre, Malthouse Theatre
to 22 February
malthousetheatre.com.au

Daniel Tobias. Photo byAndrew Wuttke

Daniel Tobias is almost unrecognisable as Otto Rot of the endlessly wonderful comedy duo band Die Roten Punkte. There's no keytar and makeup in The Orchid & the Crow but there is rock, and rocks, in Dan's story of getting testicular cancer.

When I watched a too-young friend die from cancer, I couldn't watch or hear cancer stories for some time, but I think I would have loved this one. I certainly loved it last night. Loved it to bits.

Ten years ago Dan was 29 and feeling crook. He was asked the same questions by different doctors and was finally diagnosed with stage three testicular cancer, which had spread up to his neck. Yep, stage three (there's no stage five) and it and had spread through the lymph (that's not good). He doesn't have it anymore.

This isn't an earnest story about how to whip the big C. Mixing rock, cabaret and confessional, it's about faith and family, circumcision and being a yes-and-no Jew, and understanding what girls think about balls.

There's no preaching but he does reach out to a god. A god whom Dan found when a nurse handed him a book. A god who overcame the impossible and achieved the more impossible. A god who gave hope to the young man who was facing his very possible death. And if gods aren't for offering hope, what's the point of them?

Lance Armstrong was this god.

Athlete, cancer-beater, charity founder and winner of so many Tour de Frances that some people joked that the only way to do that was to artificially enhance oneself.

Dan's team – who are far more amazing and less injecty than Armstrong's – include Christian Leavesly (director); Casey Bennetto (dramaturg); David Quick (script consultant); and Clare (Astrid Rot) Barthlolomew, John Thorn and Jhereck Bischoff (music).

With such support, Dan's very personal story's been shaped to balance the personal with the distant, and the poignant with the piss-yourself funny, to tell a truth that reaches everyone who's sharing it.

It's gutsy, hilarious and honest. Or go for the song about God telling Abraham about the covenant about chopping bits of penis off.

It's a guaranteed ball.

This was on AussieTheatre.com.

Review: Kunst Rock

MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL COMEDY FESTIVAL 2010
Kunst Rock: Die Roten Punkte
Full Tilt and Button Eye Productions
8 April 2010
Fairfax Studio, the Arts Centre

It was almost too perfect to see Die Roten Punkte's  Kunst Rock on the same day that Malcolm McLaren left us to manage a great gig in the sky and have a quiet shandy with Sid and Nancy.

It's been said that punk is attitude, not art, but don't say that to McLaren fans and certainly not to fans of the greatest post-punk punk rock group from Berlin, M-Elbourne: Die Roten Punkte, who are back in "the artiest city in the world" with their new kunsty album and show.

One always asks why when brothers and sisters form a band, but Astrid and Otto Rot are no Karen and Richard. Their relationship is as co-dependant and dubious as a young Donnie and Marie, but their TV series song would be "I'm a little bit vegan, I'm a little bit drunken slut" and they sell albums to more than pre-teen girls (yes, I watched the D&M show) and post-senile nannas. And a lot of questions get answered about the Rot siblings upbringing in their 13-minute mini-rock opera.  If we could have live flames in the theatre, we would have been waving our cigarette lighters.

Like Hedwig and Spinal Tap, the creators behind the characters are invisible, as this rock prince and princess are too real to ever be doubted. They re-invent rock cliches so they almost feel new and play a night of parody so perfect that it's nearly impossible to not buy a banana house or a t-shirt in the foyer and slip your underwear to whichever member of the duo you fancy.

With their new ninja roadie and the most-awesome-ever inflatable,  Die Roten Punkte have moved from intimate venues to the artiness of the Arts Centre (thank you Full Tilt) and if they keep on like this, we may soon be resenting them for playing a sports arena.

Kunst Rock is for anyone with a punk soul or a hidden collection of Donnie and Marie albums... and Malcolm would have loved them.


This review appears on AussieTheatre.com.