Guest review: Pisca

Melbourne Cabaret Festival
Pisca
2 July 2017
Chapel Off Chapelmelbournecabaret.com
to 2 July

Guest reviewer: Jack Beeby

Picsa

Cameron Taylor is Pisca, a hapless gosling with a golden voice who has been charming the pants off Chapel Off Chapel as part of this year’s Melbourne Cabaret Festival shows in development series.

Pisca is the whimsical tale of a freshly hatched baby bird (Taylor) who, suddenly finding themself alone and must navigate a brand new and unfamiliar world. On their adventures, they discover the strange world of night time, revel in the colourful brilliance of spring, learn to fend for and feed themself, attempt (with varying success) to make friends, and evade the persistent looming threat of an unseen hunter.

Though Pisca is largely mute, save for an occasional plaintive quack, at the turn of a beat they croon and warble their way through a thoughtful selection of pop songs and jazz standards that lend a contemporary relatability to the narrative.

The relatively straightforward plot is nicely embellished with a few well-chosen and wittily executed side narratives, including the backstory of Pisca’s ill-fated parents (told through some less-than-conventional sock puppetry) and Pisca’s very physical encounter with a mightily formidable drop of water.

Stripped of spoken text, Taylor’s use of clowning and physical comedy is well crafted and captivating to behold. Their talent for conveying story without verbal language is strong and Pisca’s central character quickly impresses on the audience and proves to be heart-wrenchingly endearing.

Throughout the show, Taylor extends a number of gentle invitations for audience participation, from warbling a rendition of The Beatles’s "Black Bird", from the seating bank in pitch darkness, to literally fishing an audience member from the crowd and preparing them to be cooked and eaten.

The show’s design (also by Taylor) situates us in the simplistically evocative and playful world of storybook nostalgia. The set pieces – a nest, a tree and an awful lot of flowers – are largely used as conceptual signposts, and most of the actual world building is done through Taylor’s thoughtful gesture and clever lighting.

Almost every element is perfectly blended to create a whimsical world of simplistic beauty and charm. Taylor’s command and subversion of theatrical convention, along with the creation of a character that I’m sure will prove timelessly endearing, make Pisca a gorgeously entertaining show.

CABARET FESTIVAL: Playing to Win

MELBOURNE CABARET FESTIVAL
Ash Flanders: Playing to Win
15 June 2016
Chapel off Chapel
to 19 June
melbournecabaret.com

Ash Flanders

It's nearly 10 years since I wrote one of my first reviews about a Fringe show with a young graduate called Ash Flanders.

And look where we are now!

My review is on The Age/SMH.

What I loved in 2014: The Best of Melbourne Theatre

I saw over 230 shows this year, closer to 250 if I count all the Live Art performances.

These are the ones that I loved the most.

And I still missed too many. (When all the 'best of' lists are put together at the end of the year, remember that great shows might have not been seen.)

Along with writing, there's been judging, mentoring, editing and teaching this year – and I'm mostly looking forward to doing more teaching and mentoring next year because we need more arts writers, thinker, arguers and advocates.

Outstanding Artists 2014

WRITING

Jesse Cox for Wael Zuaiter: Unknown, Creative Nonfiction and Theatre Works at Next Wave.

Jesss Cox in Wael Zuaiter: Unknown. Photo by Sarah Walker

Special mentions

Tim Wothersooon for The Safe House, 3rd Room Theatrical at The Owl and the Pussycat.

Fleur Kilpatrick for The City They Burned, Attic Erratic at Melbourne FringeMelbourne

DESIGN

Dale Ferguson (set) for Night on Bald Mountain, Malthouse

Paul Jackson (lighting) for Night on Bald Mountain, Malthouse

Night on Bald Mountain

Harriet Oxley (costume) for Into the Woods, Victoria Opera

Chloe Greaves (costume) for The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant, Dirty Pretty Theatre and Theatre Works

PERFORMANCE

Kate Cole for Grounded, Red Stitch

Kate Cole in Grounded

Angus Cerini for Resplendence, MTC NEON

Special mentions

Maria Mercedes for Masterclass, fortyfivedownstairs

Aliro Zavarce for The Book of Loco, Malthouse

Kate Cole, Brett Cousins and Emily Milledge for Out of the Water, Red Stitch

DIRECTION

Declan Greene for Calpurnia Descending, Sisters Grimm Malthouse

Calpurnia Descending

Special mentions

Danny Delahunty for The City They Burned, Attic Erratic at Melbourne Fringe

Daniel Lammin for Masterclass, fortyfivedownstairs

Outstanding Productions 2014

CABARET

The Von Muiznieks Family Hoedown for Melbourne Cabaret Festival at The Butterfly Club

The Von Muiznieks Family Hoedown

Special mention

Sunglasses at night: The 80s apocalypse sing along cabaret, Geraldine Quinn for Melbourne Cabaret Festival at Chapel off Chapel


COMMERCIAL SHOW

Once, Melbourne Theatre Company & John Frost, Barbara Broccoli, John N Hart Jr, Patrick Milling Smith, Frederick Zollo

MUSICAL

Into the Woods, Victoria Opera

Into the Woods

COMEDY

Dr Professor Neal Portenza Performs his Own Autopsy Live on Stage. One Night Only. (Obviously). Josh Ladgrove at Melbourne International Comedy Festival at Tuxedo Cat

Dr Professor Neal Portenza Performs his Own Autopsy Live on Stage. One Night Only. (Obviously).

More Tape, The Boy With Tape On His Face at Melbourne International Comedy Festival

Special mentions

Single White Slut, Tim Key at Melbourne International Comedy Festival

After Ever After, Rama Nicholas at Melbourne Fringe


OPERA

The Riders, Victorian Opera & Malthouse Theatre

The Riders. Photo by Jeff Busby

CIRCUS

S, Circa for Darebin Arts Speakeasy

Special mentions

The Long Pigs, fortyfivedownstairs

Carrousel Des Moutons, D'irque & Fen, Explosive Media at Melbourne Festival


LIVE ART

A moment in yarn, Sayraphim Lothian at Craft Victoria's Craft Cubed festival

Very special mention

Sayraphim and Rob's wedding at The Village

A wedding. Photo by Sarah Walker

BEST OF THE BEST

The Worst of Scottee, Theatre Works at Midsumma

Sex Idiot, Bryony Kimmings, Theatre Works at Melbourne International Comedy Festival

The City They Burned, Attic Erratic at Melbourne Fringe

The City They Burned. Photo by Sarah Walker

The Bookbinder, Trick of the Light Theatre at Melbourne Fringe

Have I No Mouth, Brokentalkers at Melbourne Festival

Have I No Moith

MY FAVOURITE SHOW OF 2014

Credible Likeable Superstar Role Model, Bryony Kimmings, Theatre Works

Bryony and Taylor in Credible Likeable Superstar Role Model

2013

2012

2011 

2010 

2009 

2008 

2007 

Review: Sunglasses at night

MELBOURNE CABARET FESTIVAL
Sunglasses at night: The 80s apocalypse sing along cabaret
Geraldine Quinn
27 June 2014
Chapel off Chapel
to 28 June
melbournecabaret.com

"We are young

Heartache to heartache 

we stand"

If you're now singing and frightened that you remember those dance moves but can't remember how to unlock your phone, you need to get to Geraldine Quinn's Sunglasses at night: The 80s apocalypse sing along cabaret. Sadly, she's only doing two performances at the Melbourne Cabaret Festival – last one TONIGHT – but it will be back. It has to be back because there are too many people who were teenagers in the 1980s who need to see this and sing along.

SING ALONG! Not sing under your breath and annoy the people near you, but loudly and proudly and in fear of a microphone being put in your face if you don't.

In an 80s shoulder-padded dress, which could only be improved if it were colbolt blue, and patterned tights that flatter no leg, Geraldine sings the songs I know. I think I could have done most of it without the words on the screen. And it's not karaoke I-can't-read-that tiny type. It's neatishly hand written, I-can-read-that-without-my-glasses PowerPoint slides, decorated with coloured pens and doodles, and scattered with mondegreens that pose a genuine sing-or-laugh dilemma.

Born in 1975 (it's ok, she says that in the show), Geraldine's view of 80s pop is different from that of us born earlier. I remember intense and pretty singers with their social conscience on their sleeve, a huge brooch on their lapel, beautiful make up, gel sculptured hair, and hips that wore a jacket perfectly – and if anyone thinks for a second that I'm talking about woman, you weren't there.

Geraldine saw these artists and their music as intense, poncy and overly concerned with the cold war and nuclear destruction. And with a couple pics of Midge Ure for reference, it all comes flooding back.

It really does answer a lot about us who grew up with this music. But, to be fair, it wasn't all ponce and destruction; there was the positivity of Wham and their Choose Life t-shirts – who am I kidding, they were poncier than Ultravox and Spandau Ballet.

If you remember injuring yourself trying to Kohl pencil a perfect Cleopatra eye and bought blue mascara from the Body Shop, make sure the silicon chip inside your head's not switched to overload, turn around (bright eyes) and sing for Gold (gold) with Geraldine.

This was on AussieTheatre.com.

Review: Between the Cracks

MELBOURNE CABARET FESTIVAL
Between the Cracks
Yana Alana
6 July 2013
45downstairs
to 7 July

How could Between the Cracks slip through my review cracks?! Perhaps because I adored it so much that words are irrelevant. Or because its story is so important that it needs more than a dull quotable about hilarious, positive and sexy politics or how gorgeous the performer is.

Yana Alana started grabbing attention at the 2007 Melbourne Fringe when her outraged feminist poetry and show Bite Me won Best Cabaret and went on to snare some Green Room Awards, rave reviews and sold out shows.

Between the Cracks, which has the best song ever written about anal sex, was first seen at the Midsumma festival and this Cabaret Festival season quickly sold out.  

Yana has dumped her backing band of Pirana's and taken her over-sexed self-involvement to a level that ensures that no one, not even her creator Sarah Ward, can share the attention. Even if the magnificent voice and I-dare-you-to-not-want-to-fuck-me body belong to Sarah, Yana's determined to take every bit of credit and adoring love from her audience.

Naked, except for colbalt blue body paint and a spectacular bedazzling of gems, Yana insists on unblinking attention. Her sexuality is all about her and there's never a question that she'd ever doubt her sexual power.

Yana's nakedness isn't about approval or a statement about body size that doesn't conform to an impossible Barbie shape; it's all about Yana and, for all her negativity, Yana's all about positive sexuality. Even grumpy people can and should have plenty of great sex.

Director Anni Davey, who also directed Maude Davey's My Life in the Nude, gives Yana plenty of space, while ensuring she doesn't lose the love of her adoring fans by keeping the pain behind Yana's anger in reach. Not that she ever lets anyone feel sorry for Yana, because Yana would never allow such condescension.

Yana's fans are so on her side that there's little she can say that isn't supported and cheered. There's little chance of her getting the Bolt, Sanderland and Jones supporters that troll any woman who speaks her mind along to her show, but if you're a woman who's ever wasted too much of her day worried about your body or a judging gaze, or given in and silenced your opinion because you've been accused of playing the gender card or put in the ugly ranting feminist box, Yana will remind you that it's all bullshit and that every woman should believe in a world where they can walk around naked, blue and bedazzled.

Maybe it's this kind of queer eye for the straight girl that's going to help change attitudes that create the need for more and more work like this.

I saw Between the Cracks on its last Saturday night and it was so sold out that reviews were meaningless, but you there are four more chances to see Sarah and Yana in Finucane and Smith's dead-set-wonder Glory Box Paradise. Her next and last performances are 1–4 August. I feel sorry for anyone who misses it.

Photo by Peter Leslie

Review: Everybody's got something to hide

MELBOURNE CABARET FESTIVAL
Everybody's got something to hide (except for me and my monkey)
Melissa Langton, Libby O'Donovan and Mark Jones
5 July 2013
Village Melbourne, Ormond Hall
to 5 July

An art deco dance hall, red wine, hot chips and music by The Beatles performed by three uber-delightful cabaret performers: it doesn't get much better. And I finally got to some of Melbourne's Cabaret Festival.

Melissa Langton, Libby O'Donovan and Mark Jones are three of Australia's favourites with a diversity of experience between them that ranges from innumerable sold-out shows to music theatre stages and composing and musical direction. They're pretty cool.

Melbourne only got one chance to see the show they've been touring around they country: Everybody's got something to hide (except for me and my monkey): The Lennon & McCartney Songbook.

And got to see it in the divine deco Ormond Hall with its iron lace balcony railing, gold and lush brown velvet curtains and a mood that makes it feel like it's 1946 and we're about to start booming some babies. Shame that it's not used for more shows.

Their show's all music by The Beatles, so it's pretty hard to go wrong and there's no one in the audience who doesn't know every song they perform and every song in the huge (and read by Libby) list of missed ones. Although in a remote town they upset a local who stormed out declaring "this isn't rock and roll!". It's not. It's a cabaret-style medley of the songs arranged in unexpected, witty and just-plain-gorgeous ways – and a yodelling version of "Ob la di, Ob la da".

All of which is still a bit odd for music that was pure anti-establishment rebellion from young men in their 20s. Their 20s! John Lennon and Paul McCartney wrote music that's still loved, covered and worshipped 50-odd years later when they in their 20s! (And I look forward to the Nirvana and Nine Inch Nails cabaret lounge shows.)

There was a year in the 70s when ABBA were the most popular thing in Australia. I was 8–9 and nothing could convince me that they weren't the best band in the history of all bands and of all future bands. And given my record collection consisted of some stories on tape, Mark Holden, ONJ and some nursery rhymes, who could dare argue with me. So my father gave me his double cassettes (in a cardboard box case) of the Blue and Red albums (I wasn't allowed to touch the records). I listened to these tapes endlessly and changed my mind about ABBA. My father didn't give me much, but he gave me The Beatles and that's pretty cool.

What's missing from Everybody's got something to hide is personal connections to the music and the band. The closest it gets is Mark saying that they wrote great music, but none tell us why they love this music, why they chose the songs, who their favourite Beatle is (better than any psyc test for explaining personality: I'm John) or why they've loved taking this show and this music to venues all over Australia – and do they care that it's not rock and roll. The show's as adorable as a labradoodle and a kitten snoozing in the sun, but there's an empty space begging for their stories about The Beatles; otherwise – for all its musical prowess – it's kind of reducing this music to the lounge music that it was never written to be.

This was on AussieTheatre.com.