Review: Invisible Atom

Invisible Atom
Full Tilt presents 2b theatre company's production
5 February 2011
Fairfax, the Arts Centre

Invisible Atom has toured widely since 2004 and had  its 100th performance in Melbourne, on the day when it rained a lot.  Canadian company 2b from Nova Scotia say that their work reflects the urban intellectual climate of their city with five universities, so it's no wonder that Atom was instantly at home in Melbourne in the Full Tilt program.

Atom (as in bomb, not apple) is at an apex; he has to fall. Looking as undistinguished as any suited office worker, he tells his story of the wealth, love and success that suited folk generally aspire to. When a bomb destroys his workplace, he explores his past to discover he's at the end of long line of bastards, that include Adam Smith and Issac Newton, and is given a way to regain success. He jumps at the chance and, of course, there's an unmeasurable moment until he plummets.

Anthony Black wrote and performs Atoms's tale,  developed with Christian Barry and Ann-Marie Kerr.  As a story about an over-educated wealthy man in a brown suit, he's not an instantly sympathetic character, as he talks about physics and economics with no doubt that we understand him. Yet, in a timeless box of light, he deftly draws us into his world and makes us hope that he makes one good decision and that search and fall will end happily.

Written and explored intellectually, 2b transform their process to a piece of theatre that almost transcends their process. It takes knowledge of Smith and Newton to understand the details, but anyone with a heart will understand the story and wish they could change the laws of physics to help Atom stay in his unmeasurable moment.

This review appears on AussieTheatre.com

Review: Carnegie 18 part 2

Carnegie 18
Curtains and Contact
Full Tilt
22 January 2011
to 25 January
theartscentre.com.au

Carnegie 18 is four music theatre projects given the opportunity to develop by the Arts Centre's wonderful Full Tilt program. I missed the two program one shows, and if they were anywhere near as creative, original and bloody awesome as program two, I missed out.

Curtains (produced by Maakan Productions) offers the fantasy-come-true cast of Meow Meow, Mikelangelo, Yana Alana and Tina del Twist. Don't expect Melissa, Mikel, Sarah* and Wes; the twisted concept of David Chisholm's creation is delusional characters playing delusional characters.

Telling the somewhat irrelevant story of the 30th anniversary revival concert of the musical Revival with an understudy,  a faded diva and a murder, the characters get to play characters and sing well out of their usual scope. Highlights include Tina singing the torch song intended for Meow (who had to phone and video in her performance; disappointing, but there are few others who are so good that even a video is worth going to see), Yana singing about being famous (and her ongoing reactions to Tina),  Mikelangelo playing Billy Shakepeare singing about The Empty Space and Mikelangelo and Tina's duet as executioners.

The joy of this show lies in knowing the characters who are playing the Curtains characters and at times it's difficult to see the line between the written and the somewhat improvised work. In the post-show Q and A Chisholm said that he hopes to see many different casts, like a UK version with characters from Tracey Ullman and Julia Davies.

Curtains is the third in a cycle of five long form works that Chisholm aims to be completed and presented by the end of 2013 and presented in its entirety.

Contact is Angus Grant's chamber opera about netball, composed for eight sopranos and guy called Bevan.

I'm sure people raised their eyebrows at the idea of a ballroom dancing show that NIDA students developed in the 80s. Strictly Ballroom went to bigger stages and film, becoming an Australian cultural signpost. And who didn't love it!

Contact should be heading on the same zeitgeist-defining path.

The Rangers netball team are from "a suburb not far away" and their finals chances are looking dim as their Goal Shooter has left the team, maybe because "nice boys have sperm too". All isn't lost because  alternative Daisy has moved out from the inner city and her shooting is as cool as her look, but there's no trophy yet as coach Bev is having issues with her past and with her Wing Defence daughter Wendy and Wendy's twin Bevan is dating Goal Attack Gayle.

With a libretto (by Grant and Kate Schmitt) that lets suburban vernacular like "quick sticks" and "I was in with a shot" sound like poetry, a score that will  make school kids pin pictures of sopranos on their lockers, and choreography (by Julia Sutherland) that captures the boredom of drills and the precision of a match without ever looking like a drill or a match, this is a show that bends all the rules to make the a definitive Aussie chamber opera.

And the young cast are no less than perfect.

Contact captures our unique obsession with netball (it's not just women) with plenty of implied jokes for players who understand that it sucks to be WD and that GAs and GSs bitch like first and second sopranos, but the humour is never limited for those in the know.  It's a tale of passion, sport, family, rejection, secrets, love and life in the suburbs that grabbed the hearts and imaginations of everyone in the audience.

Contact has only played a quarter and it will be an unforgivable obstruction if we don't see the full match.


Talk was that program 2 was sold out, but there are limited seats available for the last show on 25 January.


Applications for the 2012 Carnegie 18 series close on 27 May.


* I've seen Sarah's stuff, but never in a review capacity. Sista She were brilliant and Yana Alana and her Parana's should not be missed.

This review appears on AussieThearte.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.

Review: Donna and Damo

MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL COMEDY FESTIVAL 2010
Donna and Damo
Full Tilt
25 March 2010
Blackbox, the Arts Centre

I adore Donna and Damo so much that it’s hard to write anything that doesn’t make me sound like a potential stalker.

Sarah Collins and Justin Kennedy’s utter gem first appeared at the 2009 Melbourne Fringe (I used words like irresistible and exquisite) and it didn’t take long for it to sell out (in the good way). The Arts Centre Full Tilt programmers knew that many more people deserve to see this adorable show, so put it in their Comedy Festival line up in the Black Box.

Neither Donna nor Damo quite fit into their world. Donna thinks she’s found happiness with Trevor, a film blogging critique who declares Zoolander his favourite film, rather than something really deep like The Butterfly Effect; Damo tries to fix people with no obligation spell checks and he isn’t looking for a girlfriend, boyfriend or icky lover to make his world right.

Their story is beautiful, but stories without heart are just words. Even the broadest comedy needs to grab our hearts and make us care. Donna and Damo is jaw-aching funny, but we’re never laughing at these misfit lovers. We see our own imperfections in them and long for them to find love and happiness, as much as we long for the same ourselves.

Director Jason Lehane ensures the balance of poignancy, comedy and gut-felt emotion, so that even the quirks of horrible boyfriend Trevor tweak enough self-recognition to make him as real as our best, or worst, friend.

The new season brings new characters and jokes and the bigger venue allows for a so-needed disco ball and for Damien Scott BPA’s live animation to almost steal the show. Scott’s work is the Avatar of live theatre (except there’s a story and characters who you believe and care about).

Knowing the story doesn’t harm a second viewing, and allows the chance to indulge in the Matt Dillon jokes, remember the grammar tips and covet the Johnny Depp blanky. (Also new is Justin appearing clad only in a red cowboy hat and very special blanket.)

Donna and Damo is the kind of theatre that I love and I dare any other Comedy Festival show to be this good.

This review appeared on AussieTheatre.com

2009 review of  Donna and Damo.
 

  Damian Scott BPA

Death in White Linen

Death in White Linen
Full Tilt and High Performance Company
19 November 2008
Fairfax Studio, the Arts Centre

The Full Tilt program finds the best independent theatre makers and lets them lose in the Arts Centre, so more people can see the wondrous works created in tiny venues across the country.

Death in White Linen was developed in 2003 at VCA and performed at La Mama earlier this year. Writer/performer Michael Dalley insists it’s all about “how you tell your story” and fortunately, he’s a compelling and very funny story teller.

In a balanced mix of sketch, narrative and song, Dalley plays all of the characters in a story that follows three generations of a family from post-war working class Liverpool to the pre-financial crisis property boom in Melbourne’s outer suburbs. He insists that it isn’t autobiographical, but there’s no doubt that it is his story.

As the likes of Barry Humphries prove, the snobbery and pretention of our suburban middle class is wonderful comic fodder, and each of Dalley’s characters has an authentic familiarity that is instantly recognised by anyone still coming to terms with their nouveau-posh suburban upbringing and schooling dominated by more class barriers than Marx ever dreamt of.

With stand outs like the “Mating habits of the bourgeoisie” song, the jolly undergraduate review, and his recollection of Melbourne at a time of ‘Einstein on the Beach, Kennet, colonic irrigation, South Bank and John Hewson’s fight back, Death in White Linen is on its way to even greater things.

Structurally and thematically, the work does need some shaping and a good script editor to help the narrative flow smoothly, take the “sketch show” feel away from it, tighten some of the characters and convincingly incorporate the title theme of death.

A decision also needs to be made about the role of the pianist. John Thorn is his standard fabulous self, but needs to be fully incorporated into the story, given a clear character or taken off-stage. As a semi-character and practical assistant, he was distracting, rather than enhancing. (And the time he got out a biro and wrote notes on the music when he thought no one was looking...If you are on the stage, someone is looking at you!)

Michael Dalley’s a total hoot and Death in White Linen is ready to be enjoyed with a brandy crusta or vermouth and dry; it just needs some development before it’s ready for its next big step.

This review appeared on AussieTheatre.com

Politely Savage

MELBOURNE FRINGE 2006
Politely Savage
My Darling Patricia
FULL TILT
27 September 2006
Fairfax Studio,The Arts Centre

Frock up in your party favourite, but wear your flat shoes, because we’re going for a walk into the depths of our unconscious.

There’s no sitting around. This is a cocktail party (complete with champagne and food on toothpicks), there are only 40 guests and your hostesses are immaculate.

Politely Savage by My Darling Patricia combines interactive performance, installation, puppetry, film and performance art. It’s like a dream. Not a comforting and lovely daydream, but one of those dreams when you wake up clammy and spend the rest of the day trying to decipher it.

My Darling Patricia take the familiar and send it to that very dark place in the back of our minds. Their images are archetypal and sometimes obvious, but they work so very well.

Cecily Hardy is tantalising as our guide. She is mother/housekeeper/nanny – forever hovering between comforting and confronting, safe and foreboding. She convinces us to leave the party and follow her down into the world that was hidden by the pretty taffeta dresses. She takes us somewhere deep and unsettling, but we have to trust her to guide us out safely. Be prepared to walk.

This was my first show for the Melbourne Fringe and a perfect example of the unique and authentic work that can be created when artists are unrestrained by demographics, budgets and policy. Politely Savage is now polished and perfected, having already had two sell out seasons in Sydney. The Arts Centre is presenting it as part of the FULL TILT program, which supports the development and redevelopment of independent works.

Politely Savage finishes on Saturday. With only 40 people per show, this is one you really should book for.


This review originally appeared on AussieTheatre.com.