Review: Africa

Africa
Malthouse Theatre and My Darling Patricia
14 November 2009
Tower Theatre, CUB Malthouse

When a show opens with a baby’s head in a microwave oven, you know you have to keep watching.

My Darling Patricia use puppets, design and performance to create the most evocative and original images of Australian urban existence. They see the epic in the most mundane and leave us unsure if the world they expose is beautiful or horrific.

The Tower theatre is draped in children’s linen, covered with characters and colour and faded by love. I didn’t see my washed-til-it-was bare Paddington Bear quilt cover, but there was a pink Pierrot with a frill that I would have coveted at seven.

This Africa isn’t savannas and safaris, but filled with things that we hope define and protect childhood: toys, games and the consistent belief that life is already good and going to get better, despite the horrendous bumps that happen along the way.

Inspired by a true incident, it’s the story of a Courtney, her best friend Cheety and her little sister (played by puppets). On a not unusual night, when they are given a packet of chips and the TV while her mum goes out with her latest man (real adults), the kids discover Africa and plan to escape.

Under the veil of whimsy and nostalgia, My Darling Patricia reveal the murky reality and desperate yearning hidden in the back rooms and porches of our suburbs. Although we don’t approve, we accept a bit of drunken promiscuity and lax supervision from a young mum who hasn’t had the best life, but our hearts break when she finally sees the violence of her boyfriend; not because she is alone, but because she won’t let him give the kids his Christmas presents (even a drunken, skinny bogan Santa can bring great presents). If there were a hat to whip around the audience at that point, the collection would have bought Courtney the best karaoke machine on the market.

Africa was developed in a Malthouse Tower Theatre residency. I can’t say enough good about this program that lets independent companies develop and perform to a larger and receptive audience.

This review appeared on AussieTheatre.com.

Night Garden

Night Garden
My Darling Patricia
24 March 2009
Meat Market

Visually intricate, deliberately complex, and never dull, My Darling Patricia awakens our subconscious in their Night Garden dreamscape.

University-trained psychiatrists and weekend-market tarot readers believe that dreams reveal our deepest fears and secrets with obscure images; Jungians reveal universal connection through the shared symbolism of our dreams; and Freudians insist that we dream about our parents and our formative sexual experiences. All must approve of My Darling Patricia.

Night Garden is a tale for the theatre, where performance, puppetry and installation combine to explore the relationship of a mother and son in 1980s urban Australia. The iconic Aussie backyard images support the archetypal characters and evoke a sense of familiarity and comfort within the ominous darkness. Like our sleep-time stories, a delicate and blurred narrative symbolically exposes the disturbing truth of the soothing scenes, and the final moments force a re-assessment of all that went before it.

This is complex, intelligent theatrical story telling which allows the imaginations of its audience to fill in the gaps and create their own interpretations of the story. Vividly original images infuse the story with a life beyond its theme and if, like me, you yearn to explore our hidden and intricate shadows, a visit to the Night Garden can leave you shuddering with satisfaction, but its multiple paths can work against it by alienating and confusing those who prefer clear direction.


This review originally 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.