MELBOURNE FRINGE: Suburbia

Suburbia
26 September 2015
Fringe Hub, in a Honda Jazz
to 3 October
melbournefringe.com.au

From genuinely unnerving to simply gorgeous, Suburbia was one of my favourite experiences at the Fringe.

It's also been sold out for days.

The audience of three – the other two with me were on a date; I hope they stay together for ever and always remember this night – get into the back seat of a Honda Jazz and a silent driver presses play on the CD player and takes off around the lanes, back streets and glad-to-be-in-a-car dead ends.

Along the way we see parts of street scenes of violence, love, comfort and Christmas puddings. Drivers change, we taken to parts of the area that I didn't know existed, and we're eventually asked to get out the car...

I'd have loved to see more of link between the vignettes but part of the experience is imagining the story that might be going on, especially as some the most wonderful moments were when real life intruded: a train going past, a dog on a leash pooing, a balcony of people filming with their phones.

MELBOURNE FRINGE: The Audience Dies at the End

The Audience Dies At The End
28 September 2015
Tuxedo Cat
to 4 October
melbournefringe.com.au

This one runs until Sunday and it's on at the gorgeous new Tuxedo Cat.

Review in SMH/Age.

MELBOURNE FRINGE: 6 Degrees of Ned Kelly

6 Degrees of Ned Kelly
1 October 2015
The 86
to 4 October
melbournefringe.com.au/

Melita Rowston's paternal grandfather told the story of how he nicked Ned Kelly's bones from the Old Melbourne Gaol in 1929. Her maternal great great great grandmother ran a pub in Wangaratta and refused entry to Ned and co. Melita wanted to find out the truth of her family stories. The result is part mystery, part travelogue and a fascinating and funny exploration of Australia's fascination with Kelly.

She uncovers facts like Kelly’s bones were nicked in 1929 and, even though the coffins had been filled with lime and should have been squish, Kelly’s skeleton missed out. And she finds records in Wangaratta hotels from the time. You have to go along to find out more. And that’s before she explores stories like Steve Hart and Dan Kelly surviving the Glenrowan fire that declared them dead.

As she visits historical Kelly gang towns, she shares the wonderfully bizarre memorials – log art and robots – and meets equally wonderful people who are certain that they have less than 6 degrees of separation to Ned Kelly.

If any of these stories are correct, then Melita’s degrees of separation could be as close as two. If you want to get your degrees of separation closer to Kelly, you know you have to see her show.

This was on AussieTheatre.com .

MELBOURNE FRINGE: Hersteria

Hersteria
Hotel Now
29 September 2015
Sokol Melbourne (next to Fringe Hub)
to 2 October 2015
melbournefringe.com.au

Simone French and Cait Spiker are 2014 VCA acting graduates and have created an hilarious, high-res, super-colour look at being a young woman.

There's men and sex in their astro-turf and blow-up pool-toy world but this is an exploration of how women get competitive and how so much of the high-maintenance Barbie-sweet or slut-fierce behaviour is often more about being better than your friends.

And there are free lollies in the foyer!

MELBOURNE FRINGE: Sad Digger Mad Mary

Sad Digger Mad Mary
Hotel Now
29 September2015
Fringe Hub, Parlour Room
to 3 October 2015
melbournefringe.com.au

Would you like some Mary Poppins with your queer deconstruction of the Anzac myth? Hell yes!

Tom Halls is Sad Digger. He's on a beach on Anzac Cove when Mad Mary popper-popping Poppins (also Halls) flies down to give him a spoonful of tough love and perspective.

A bit drag, a bit rant, a bit homage, and a bit WTF, Sad Digger Mad Mary explores how the memories of good Aussie boys fighting for god and country are as far from the truth as Mad Mary's arrival in Anzac Cove.

I'd like to see a bit more reflection on the First World War part of the show, especially as it's made by a man in his 20s, who, even with skinny legs and frizzy hair, would have been sent to fight. And I want to see it developed further.

Here's James Jackson's review on AussieTheatre.com.

MELBOURNE FRINGE: Ghost Machine

Laura Davis, Ghost Machine
26 September 2015
Fringe Hub, Son of Loft
to 3 October
melbournefringe.com.au

If you haven't seen Laura Davis before, she's the real deal and then some.

Ghost Machine is stand up that's theatre and story and everything that makes stand up soul-on-stage amazing.

There were times when I didn't know whether to laugh myself sick or get up and hug her.

MELBOURNE FRINGE: Exit Everything

Exit Everything

Workers Club, Fitzroy
to 3 October
melbournefringe.com.au

I saw this before the Fringe started in a guitar shop in Frankston.

Singing to Nirvana among guitars at the end of suburbia. It reminded me how important music – and rock – used to be to me.

Here's Keith Gow's review on AussieTheatre.com. 

MELBOURNE FRINGE: Lovely Lady Lump

Lovely Lady Lump
26 September 2015
Fringe Hub, Upstairs at Errol's
to 3 October
melbournefringe.com.au

Fuck cancer and that horrible pale pink. Lana Schwartz was diagnosed with breast cancer last year and assures her audience that she makes it through the show and is alive at the end of her story.

This is an hilariously honest hour about cancer: making jokes in radiotherapy; getting used to strangers look at your boobs; wanting to give the "gift" back; and looking ok on the outside but being constantly exhausted, sore, tender and numb.

And there are boob puppets.

I'm in my 40s and it's frightening how breast cancer becomes a thing that everyone has some direct or indirect experience of. So if you're over 40, please book a mammogram when you book your tickets.

MELBOURNE FRINGE: Welcome to Nowhere

Welcome to Nowhere
25 September 2015
Coopers Malthouse, Tower Theatre
to 3 October
melbournefringe.com.au

Five incredible writers (Angus Cerini, Zoey Dawson, Daniel Keene, Fleur Kilpatrick and Morgan Rose), one fantabulous director (Emma Valente) and a heap of amazing students from Monash Uni.

If you have to choose one show this weekend, this is it.

Morgan Rose's piece is the highlight. Up to now, I've been unsure of her work but now I totally get her.

Fleur's is all alieny and full of gentle magical realism and heart, Zoey's is loud and mad, Daniel's is about families and dealing with the death of a father who broke his own family, and Angus's is violent and confronting. What more could you want in a night at the theatre!

Working with incredible students who perform, designed and operate, Emma has made these disparate writings come together as a work that speaks even louder than its parts.

Here's Myf Clark's review on Aussie Theatre.

MELBOURNE FRINGE: Isabel and Rachel in Prime!

Isabel and Rachel in Prime!
26 September 2015
Fringe Hub, Upstairs at Errol's
to 3 October
melbournefringe.com.au

The fear sets in when the pre-show music is Enya. What if it's a feminist performance-art trigger-warning sacred-vagina dance?

It is. With cloaks, poetry and a sperm mime performed by the Sisters of the Moon.

But Rachel Davis and Isabel Angus are under those cloaks…

Isabel and Rachel are finding their fresh, unique and insanely hilarious voice as a straight-stooge duo that welcomes new characters each show.

In PRIME!, Deborah (Rachel) has been abandoned by her fellow sister performer so has asked Jono, her 14-year old son (Isabel), to fill in. There’s a Vienetta in the fridge at home if he’s learnt his lines and doesn’t display his “ignorance of female autonomy”. But he wants to do the Jono Show, where a bit is funny because he’s a guy pretending to be a chick.

Their commentary on gender issues, especially that of how young women are perceived compared to young men, is painfully spot on, but it’s the misunderstanding, love and acceptance between the Deborah and Jono that takes it to the next level.


This was on AussieTheatre.com.

MELBOURNE FRINGE: Poet Vs. Pageant

Poet Vs. Pageant
26 September 2015
Fringe Hub, Son of Loft
to 3 October
melbournefringe.com.au

Another one that I really loved and am really looking forward to seeing how it develops.

Review in The Age.

And back in 2012, The Poet Laureate still let me write my favourite review ever.

MELBOURNE FRINGE: Barbaroi

Barbaroi
23 September 2015
Gasworks
to 3 October
melbournefringe.com.au

The Boardwalk Republic is rocking as a south-side mini Fringe hub at Gasworks.

Review in The Age.

MELBOURNE FRINGE: Hart

HART
She Said Theatre
20 September 2015
Fringe Hub, Parlour Room
to 3 October
melbournefringe.com.au

HART is beautiful, heartbreaking and liberating storytelling.

With old checkerboard lino, faded damask wallpaper and a wooden table, the tiny stage in the Fringe hub Parlour Room looks like a farm kitchen from anytime in the last 200 years. A place where people yarn and gossip and share their stories.  It’s here that Ian Michael tells the stories – including his own – of four Noongar men from, what we call, south-west Western Australia.

From interviews with writers (Senna van Helten and Michael) and testimonies told to the Stolen Germinations’ Testimonies Foundation, the four stories are told in the first person. With Michael keeping the same persona, it’s not always clear who’s story is being told, and it’s this technique that makes it such an extraordinary telling.

Each is so personal – it’s easy to dismiss a generalisation, but much harder to ignore one person’s experience – but their similarities and the discussion of generational trauma and forgiveness make it a story about us and now.

HART opens with sound grabs from our politicians. While there are moments of relief and pride, too many cannot see the shame and ignorance in their statements. What do we have to do to get them to see work – “excellent” art – like this?

It continues with photos of people whose stories could also be told. The photos flash by so quickly that it’s impossible to really see them. This is frustrating but painfully cries out that there are so many stories that have already been lost.

Once told, stories cannot be lost and we have to keep telling them until everyone listens.



The was on AussieTheatre.com.

MELBOURNE FRINGE: Bock Kills Her Father

Bock Kills Her Father
20 September 2015
La Mama
to 27 September
melbournefringe.com.au

Written by Adam JA Cass as part of his Masters in Playwriting at VCA Bock Kills Her Father is a frighteningly powerful exploration of the space between the pain and comfort of violence.

Stephanie Bock arrives in a small town to find the father she never met. When she meets three local young women, they take her to his house where his new girlfriend – younger than the women and probably as old as Bock's mum when she got pregnant – answers the door and says he's not home.

With a cast who never let the tension drop and hold onto their characters' secrets for as long as possible, allegiances change and it's easy to understand – if not support – why these women believe that violence and pain are the only choices.

MELBOURNE FRINGE: We May Have to Choose

We May Have To Choose
18 September 2015
Fringe Hub, Parlour Room
to 3 October
melbournefringe.com.au

Another favourite.

Review in The Age/SMH.

MELBOURNE FRINGE: Christopher Doesn't Live Here Anymore

Christopher Doesn't Live Here Anymore
18 September 2015
Fringe Hub, Parlour Room
EXTENDED until to 3 October
melbournefringe.com.au

The great news is that the short season of Christopher Doesn't Live Here Anymore has been extended. It's that lovely!

My review is in The Age.

MELBOURNE FRINGE: Mummy Matters

Libbi Gore: Mummy Matters
20 September 2015
Fringe Hub, Lithuania Club
to 20 September 2015
melbournefringe.com.au

Libbi Gore's Mummy Matters has some excellent advice about how to deals with mummies (who hasn't given a toddler chocolate and said "don't tell Mummy"), but it's more about how she survived the semi-super-tv-stardom of being Elle McFeast in the 1990s and found herself being remarkably normal with two kids in the suburbs.

And she's thrilled to be there. (And be on the radio.)

Libbi still has all of Elle's intelligence, wit & unashamed filth, but now there's no character to hide behind. I loved 90s Elle, but Libbi is welcoming and honest and much more fun to be with.

She talks about being a mum, dealing with Spanx, and being a Cinderella-Greer: us who were caught growing up with the image of a prince to save us but the understanding and anger that as women we should demand so much more.

And I loved being at a Fringe show with a room full of people my own age. I hope we see more of Libbi on our stages very soon.

MELBOURNE FRINGE: Backwards

Backwards
19 September 2015
Fringe Hub, Son of Loft
to 25 September
melbournefringe.com.au

Melbourne's Emily Taylor worked with primary school students to create the characters, opinions and ideas for Backwards.

In her show about understanding life backwards and living it forward, but ultimately about motherhood, she plays every character. This includes 8-year-old bffs Mia and Mia (pronounced differently) and their classmates; Maureen, Terry and their 30+ son who’s living with them at a retirement village; and a frustrated primary-school philosophy teacher.


Her character transitions are seamless and everyone is recognisable and unique in story that builds its stakes carefully and makes the most unexpected characters its heroes. The narrative could be developed, but this is a show about people and Taylor’s wonderful performance is unforgettable and the ending guarantees grins that hurt your jaw.


This was on AussieTheatre.com.

MELBOURNE FRINGE: Fag/Stag

The Last Great Hunt Presents: Fag/Stag
19 September 2015
Fringe Hub, Rehearsal Room
to 3 October
melbournefringe.com.au

Fag/Stag is written and performed by Jeffrey Jay Fowler and Chris Isaacs, from Perth company The Last Great Hunt, and is already one of the unmissable shows of this year's Fringe.

Corgan and Jimmy are best friends and tell the story of the weeks leading up to a wedding (of Corgan's ex and the only woman Jimmy kissed) from their own perspectives.

Its complex and authentic exploration of masculinity, male friendship, misogyny and internalised homophobia is at times debilitating and heartbreaking and still hilarious and heartwarming.

With remarkable performances and immaculate writing, it finds the deepest secrets and motivations of its characters and left me understanding a little bit more about young men and their friendships.

Here's Keith Gow's review on AussieTheatre.com.

MELBOURNE FRINGE: Gorilla, lovely Gorilla

Gorilla, lovely Gorilla
18 September 2015
Fringe Hub, Upstairs at Errol's
to 25 September
melbournefringe.com.au

Michelle Nussey had me at "I like cats", but Gorilla, Lovely Gorilla isn't about cat ladies. Hussey works at the Melbourne Zoo and uses her experiences to reflect on how humans see animals.

My review is in The Age.