Mini review: Picnic

Picnic 
Kage
21 August 2015
fortyfivedownstairs
to 30 August
kage.com.au

Photo by Jeff Busby

Fortyfivedownstairs is dark and feels like it's underground even though the downstairs theatre is still at street level. It's here that dance-theatre company Kage invite us to co-founder Gerald Van Dyck's Picnic. 

It's a picnic with its own kind of darkness, but its more enticing than a bbq with burning onions and sizzling snags (he had me at vego sausages), and made with as much love as your aunt's potato salad.

Conceived, choreographed and performed by Van Dyck, it's impossible to leave without considering him a friend. With a script by Marieke Hardy and music by Alisdair Macindoe, he shares his picnic story with dance, a live video and a bit of magic.

As the audience are welcomed to join in – and a highlight of the show is created by the audience –  it's easy to forget that this delightfully affable man began this picnic alone.

The gentle charm of Picnic feels as familiar as its packet of posh chips, but its heart comes from keeping its secret close and letting the audience bring whatever they want, or need, to make the story and their picnic complete.

Our AWGIE winners

With the excitement and over-exhaustion of Melbourne Fringe opening weekend, some of us may have missed the announcement of the AWGIE winners.

The AWGIES are presented by the Australian Writers Guild and recognise the "integral role the story plays in film, television, radio, interactive media and theatre." They're a pretty good one to win.

And how cool to read a list of winners and want to do a happy dance because they are all such incredible writers.

Theatre for Young Audiences
Moth
Declan Greene

Dec was far too busy at FUGLY - the best night at the Melb Fringe Club ever - to even think of anything as tacky as an award ceremony. And he's prettier than me.

Major Award
Do Not Go Gentle
Patricia Cornelius

2011 KIT DENTON FELLOWSHIP
For Courage and Excellence in Performance Writing
Kate McCartney and Kate McLennan

(Kate was also too busy doing her Fringe show, Homeward Bound.)

And, because I love both of these writers so very much.

Comedy - Situation or Narrative
Laid: Episode 4
Marieke Hardy

2011 FRED PARSONS AWARD
For Outstanding Contribution to Australian Comedy
Chris Lilley

all the AWGIE winners

Tis the season to watch the telly

Tis the season to watch the telly, drink coloured drinks and eat all the sugar you daintily refuse throughout the year.

DVDs are brilliant for watching a whole season of Buffy in one sitting or weeping at the bliss of anything made by HBO, but it's not the same as turning on that box and finding something you love or hate and not being able to escape its clutches, as you scoff the box of Favourites you got for work Kris Kringle (with a K in case the religious meaning of our overeating festival offends) and thinking that perhaps you do a need space-wasting machine to get rid of your love handles, but luckily the phone is out of reach of the couch.

Even if telly is only the second most common source of on-our-own pleasure, when we watch broadcast programs, we are somehow connected with all the other people doing the same. Who hasn't watched an episode of their favourite program, complete with ads, even though the DVD of the series is right next to the TV. There's something about knowing that hundreds or thousands or millions (if you're watching Masterchef) of other people are sitting in their living room, wearing their underwear and eating straight out of the microwave dish, just like you.

But I don't want to do it anymore, cos telly has become so blah.

I kept watching so that I could  read the gorgeous and addictive commentry of Catherine Deveny (on Saturday) and Marieke Hardy (on Thursday) in The Age. Marieke made me proud to love Matt Preston, Catherine convinced me that Nigella's food porn is worth a watch and, I think, one of them made me watch an episode of Wife Swap.

But in one damned week, they both said goodbye.

Marieke's last Green Guide musings.
Catherine's last A2 hoorah that summed up what I was feeling far too well.

Ok, it's the wonderfully written abuse that I will miss. Who could forget Ms Hardy's "If I had to choose between sitting through another episode and having a threeway with the Two Ronnies I'd be stripping off and telling the world it was goodnight from me before sauntering back to the boudoir. And yes, I'm fully aware one of them is dead."

I'm going to miss you both.

Rich, white, straight-acting blokes

Rich, white, straight-acting blokes

One of the first things I saw on Facebook this morning was a link to The Age (I don't bother with the whole paper these days, just what my friends suggest I read) and this piece by the wonderful Catherine Deveny.

Like the person who posted it, I want to make copies and hand it out too many times each day. Not just to teenagers on trains calling everything gay (I too was a little shit in the teen years), but to the educated grown ups I meet every day.

Like the bloke who installed my oven and told me how they could rent this place to a dozen Indians because "they" don't care or the 20-something who gave a speech in class about how she understood the Israel-Palestine situation better than anyone or the EX bf who told me how women who work in strip clubs exploit men.

Like Catherine D, I work in the arts; a world known for its utopian equal opportunity; where men, women, straight, gay, old, young, god-fearing, atheist and every colour of the great big racial melting pot are treated exactly the same. And an industy full of all the stuff that white people like*. But us well-over-30 white chicks are still on the bandwagon.

And while I'm at is, here's what the also wonderful Marike Hardy had to say about the current John Safran hoo ha.

And an edited version of this letter appeared in The Age a few weeks ago in response to the MTC's 2010 season. It was written by actor and writer Dana Miltins on behalf of the Melbourne Worker's Theatre.

I'm not sure that a boycott is the answer (but then again I haven't actively eaten a Nestle product since the 80s), but it shows how deeply angry and frustrating it is when you are not  a "rich white straight-acting bloke who believes in God, or pretends to."

Over the past fortnight Australian main-stage theatre companies have been unveiling their 2010 seasons to a barrage of complaints and criticism about the lack of opportunities for women in key creative roles, especially directing. Last week the Melbourne Theatre Company followed suit by announcing that out of 12 productions only one is to be directed by a woman.

A recent article in your paper cites a letter sent by director Melanie Beddie on behalf of the Australian Women Directors’ Alliance to the MTC questioning their commitment to their equal opportunity policies. We understand there has been no reply. Derek Young, the MTC’s chair, said that the company does not feel it should be held responsible for gender equality; rather that it is an issue for the entire theatrical industry. He pointed out that Beddie had made a similar complaint in 2003 and that nothing had changed.

We, the current ensemble of the Melbourne Workers Theatre, wish to offer our thanks and support to Melanie Beddie and the Directors’ Alliance for bringing this issue to light. We would like to say to the MTC that to admit that nothing has changed since 2003 is to admit that the company is stagnant and out of touch with what is happening in theatre beyond its doors. The Women Directors’ Alliance comprises 60 members: a significant proportion of those members, Beddie included, have spent decades directing excellent, profound and mostly under-funded theatre in Melbourne and beyond. Our industry relies on these women’s efforts as mentors for cultivating writers, performers, designers and technicians, but in turn they are not rewarded with professional work that is commensurate with their experience and skills. If artistic director Simon Philips is suggesting that the MTC’s gender inequality is the result of a lack of experienced Victorian female directors then we would like to ask him: are you blind, or scared, or both? There is no shortage of female talent in Victoria, simply a lack of opportunity.

We understand that budgetary constraints limit the number of external directors that can be employed by the company. But, when the proportion of directors is always overwhelmingly male we are interested in finding out what your recruitment criteria are that so many experienced women continue to be overlooked. That said, if the cost of external directors is causing gender equality to remain grossly unbalanced then it would seem logical to include women in your salaried creative staff.

If the MTC is the flagship theatre company of this state then it, more than any other company, has a responsibility to set an example and act fairly when it comes to gender equality. To relinquish that responsibility and make excuses as to the current state of discrimination implies that the MTC does not hold this issue to be important and therefore does not intend to act to promote change.

The Melbourne Workers Theatre would like to entreat all theatre-goers to take a stand and boycott main-stage plays that are directed by men until the imbalance is addressed. Theatre is nothing without an audience and an audience is almost nothing without womeOver the past fortnight Australian main-stage theatre companies have been unveiling their 2010 seasons to a barrage of complaints and criticism about the lack of opportunities for women in key creative roles, especially directing. Last week the Melbourne Theatre Company followed suit by announcing that out of 12 productions only one is to be directed by a woman.
 
A recent article in your paper cites a letter sent by director Melanie Beddie on behalf of the Australian Women Directors’ Alliance to the MTC questioning their commitment to their equal opportunity policies. We understand there has been no reply. Derek Young, the MTC’s chair, said that the company does not feel it should be held responsible for gender equality; rather that it is an issue for the entire theatrical industry. He pointed out that Beddie had made a similar complaint in 2003 and that nothing had changed.

We, the current ensemble of the Melbourne Workers Theatre, wish to offer our thanks and support to Melanie Beddie and the Directors’ Alliance for bringing this issue to light. We would like to say to the MTC that to admit that nothing has changed since 2003 is to admit that the company is stagnant and out of touch with what is happening in theatre beyond its doors. The Women Directors’ Alliance comprises 60 members: a significant proportion of those members, Beddie included, have spent decades directing excellent, profound and mostly under-funded theatre in Melbourne and beyond. Our industry relies on these women’s efforts as mentors for cultivating writers, performers, designers and technicians, but in turn they are not rewarded with professional work that is commensurate with their experience and skills. If artistic director Simon Philips is suggesting that the MTC’s gender inequality is the result of a lack of experienced Victorian female directors then we would like to ask him: are you blind, or scared, or both? There is no shortage of female talent in Victoria, simply a lack of opportunity.

We understand that budgetary constraints limit the number of external directors that can be employed by the company. But, when the proportion of directors is always overwhelmingly male we are interested in finding out what your recruitment criteria are that so many experienced women continue to be overlooked. That said, if the cost of external directors is causing gender equality to remain grossly unbalanced then it would seem logical to include women in your salaried creative staff.

If the MTC is the flagship theatre company of this state then it, more than any other company, has a responsibility to set an example and act fairly when it comes to gender equality. To relinquish that responsibility and make excuses as to the current state of discrimination implies that the MTC does not hold this issue to be important and therefore does not intend to act to promote change.

The Melbourne Workers Theatre would like to entreat all theatre-goers to take a stand and boycott main-stage plays that are directed by men until the imbalance is addressed. Theatre is nothing without an audience and an audience is almost nothing without women.

by Dana Miltins

* Here's the version for Melbourne white folk.