What Melbourne Loved in 2018, part 12

Latecomers are welcome.

Eugyeene Teh
Theatre Maker and Designer

Eugyeene Teh with fake cat because the real cat didn't feel like a photo sesh.

Favourite moments in 2018
The Bachelor Season 17 Episode 5. Completely mind-blowing, subverted, lots of fun and unsuspectingly profound. Created/written by Morgan Rose. I cancelled a ticket to another show and got the last ticket to this sold-out show – so glad I did!

The Fall at Arts Centre Melbourne. Race politics at its most piercing!

Going Down. I had so much fun at this crazy magnificent show! Catherine Davies was out of control as Natalie Yang, loosely based on playwright Michele Lee. I screamed (on the inside, of course,) at how much I related to this character. Finally! Also a bonus to see director Leticia Cáceres step in to play Naomi Rukavina’s role the night she was ill.

Gloria. Cleverly written, punch-in-the-gut subject matter and very sophisticated.

Moral Panic. Magical!

Kill All Adults. A reading of the shortened version of the epic 8+-hour show about everything right now, by Jean Tong, of course.

Looking forward to in 2019
The Golden Shield. So excited about this show, written by hot new favourite Anchuli Felicia King. Australia is starting to explore the intricacies and wonder of the new world superpower, and it will be scintillating!

SM: The maueve fringe dress (and bag) in Suddenly Last Summer. All the costumes in Suddenly Last Summer. Everything we needed to know about each character.  Just glorious.


Myf Clark
Reviewer, arts administrator, Co-director of Girls on Film

Myf Clark

Favourite moments in 2018
While I didn't see as much theatre as I would've liked to this year (but thank you to Anne-Marie and Keith for offering me tickets!), my fave show was actually seen in Sydney (but  coming back to Melbourne). Two words: Calamity Jane. This show bought me so much joy and happiness and Virginia Gay is an absolute goddess and perfect for this role. I had the joy of sitting on stage for the show and even got to become a character, which I absolutely loved (unlike my sister, who tried to hide herself from the performers). If you haven't seen it yet, get on it now – it's filled with love and laughs.

Looking forward to in 2019
I'm so devastated that I missed Romeo Is Not The Only Fruit yet again, so I'm hoping all the babes do something together again soon! I also loved seeing more female playwrights on stage (and I expect this to continue!) and I can't wait to see my beloved La Mama theatre back up and running again!

SM: I can vouch that she was devastated at missing Romeo Is Not The Only Fruit  – again. She will love this show when she finally sees it. I hope the theatre stars align for Myf and she sees everything she wants to see. (And maybe starts writing again.)

Kerith Manderson-Galvin
Performance maker

Kerith Manderson-Galvin

Favourite moments in 2018
Lydia Lunch. I think I had her as best of another year and she was back this year. I went twice and then got her signature tattooed on me. She's clearly left an impression. (hahaha).

Lisa Salvo's remarkable performance at the recent "On Diamond" single launch. I find her astonishing to watch – delicate and unstoppable.

Carrion by Justin Shoulder at Arts House.

My parents get best actors of the year for their performances in A Public Reading of an Unproduced Screenplay About the Death of Walt Disney.

Skye Gellman's End Grain. Definitely my favourite for the year. This one comes with a little lesson for reviewers - it received a horrible review which not only misgendered Skye but centred the whole review around that misgendering. Hurtful and lazy and I wish that it had followed with an acknowledgment and an apology. (SM: Damn right there should be an apology!)

And I'd rather talk about the show. Which I loved. I took notes with the plan to write a review so I'm glad I can share them. Notes in my phone say: breathtaking, intelligent, humble. Skye is one of a kind. They perform with sensitivity and humour. Being let in on the magic makes it all the more magical. Attempts at art and life. The possibilities of transformation. Dangerous like life is dangerous. For a moment Skye seems so small and the world seems so large and the whole thing is impossible. Skye is swinging around in mid air, barely holding on but somehow making it through. A human show.

Looking forward to in 2019
I haven't bought tickets but I'd like to go see The Prodigy. They put on a great show. And everything at Dance Massive looks incredible. And MECHA: Festival of Experimental Art.

SM: I didn't see Kerith in 2018. But I love that each year they talk about an artist or two that I didn't know and often see in the next year or so. And they chose photos that capture so much. I'd also like to see a new play by them, soon.

How to Fringe 2017: Myf Clark

Myf Clark
Marketing, admin, production management, stage management, directing, performing, board management and arts journalism
Co-director for the Girls on Film Festival

SM: Myf is another loved member of our #IndieMedia community. We met through Twitter.

Myf Clark. Selfie

The Melbourne Fringe in three words.
Dynamic, eclectic and FUN!

A favourite Melbourne Fringe memory.
Oh geez, where do I even start?!? I think many of my fave memories come from the Fringe Club - I've learnt how to dance to the Backstreet Boys and N'Sync, I've had bartenders throw condoms at me, I've danced my shoes off, I've scammed free drinks, I've become besties with people in the toilet and I've stolen a lot of show posters from said toilets to decorate my bedroom. And most importantly, I've had oodles of fun there and created so many fond memories. (Yes, even when people knock my drink into my face while I stupidly attempt to dance to Madonna while holding said drink...)

Your experience as an independent artist being part of the Melbourne Fringe?
My first experience in Fringe was as a performer in 2004 for Platform Youth Theatre's Faith, Hope and Surveillance (written by Ben Ellis and directed by John Britton). It was possibly one of the largest casts I've worked with and the most diverse. Saying that, it was probably also one of the shows filled with the most divas, dramas and hook ups (yes, myself included) that I have ever worked on... However I would never give that experience up and I feel like I learned so much from it. Since then, I've stepped behind the scenes and production managed/promoted a few shows.

What makes the Melbourne Fringe unique?
What I love about Melbourne Fringe is I never know what to expect or who to meet – even when I see shows by myself, I feel like I make new friends just by striking up a conversation with the stranger next to me. Melbourne Fringe is a place where I feel safe and happy and open to new experiences all at once and it is these feelings that make me feel proud to be a part of the Melbourne arts scene.

Your advice for choosing what to see in the Melbourne Fringe?
Like many audience members, I will go see many shows because I know people in them. But then I feel like I miss out on so many new potential talents. I actually find Facebook handy during Fringe as I can see what other people plan to see and I find it often opens me up to seeing artists I wouldn't have even considered.

Also, please remember that there are shows on beyond the Fringe Hub area. Some of my fave shows have been Northcote-based (I'm not biased at all!) but I feel that being outside the Hub allows for some greater experimentation. One particular highlight involved a Black Lung show which only took six audience members where we met outside the Northcote Town Hall, got blindfolded and driven to a mystery location, ate dinner amongst the performers, got blindfolded and put back in a car again, and then got dropped off on a side street in Northcote still blindfolded while the cast drove off.

Don't be afraid to take a risk!

Do you think there’s a better system than star ratings for reviews?
Having worked as a reviewer, both with and without star ratings, I have mixed feelings about them. I know that artists love them and they look great on promo material, but I know I personally wouldn't go see a show just because they received a high star rating. Can we start reviewing in emojis instead – that would be an interesting challenge...

Five shows/events that you will not miss at the 2017 Melbourne Fringe.
Grrl Power with Anna Gogo and Michelle Brasier
Estrella Wing, Showgirl by Margot Tanjutco
Crimson Tide
Let’s get Practical! Live. Presented by The Very Good Looking Initiative
Spice! A Singalong

What Melbourne loved in 2016, part 12

Today's wonderful people – Bron Batten, John Kachoyan and Myf Clark – are published a bit late today because of many amazing moments at Finucane and Smith's cocktail fundraiser last night. One being, Moira reminding a room full of very generous people that "Art does change culture and it does change lives". Let's remember that.

Bron Batten
theatre-maker, performer, producer, Grand Designs enthusiast

Bron Batten. Photo by Theresa Harrison

BB's favourite moments in Melbourne theatre in 2016: Can I say something I was involved in? Oh well, I'm going to anyway! Working with 90-plus women of all sizes and ages on Nic Green and Laura Bradshaw's production of Trilogy at Arts House was a wonderful honour. Experiencing the openness, trust, tears and humour we shared whilst exposing ourselves (literally and metaphorically) was breathtaking and a total privilege, as was working with Nic and Laura. Plus I'm pretty sure that everyone I've ever known or worked with in Melbourne has now seen me naked so that dream where you go to work in the nude now holds no terror.

Backstage in Biscuit Land generated some really difficult discussions about inclusion and cultural access that I thought were really important and made me question my own attitudes towards who and what dictates those terms. Jess's spontaneous tics were the kind of brilliant, inherent improvisational element that is the reason why I go to live performance.

Of course Zoe Coombs Marr's brilliant and disgusting creation Dave should get a mention and I know it was in Sydney but The Listies Hamlet: Prince of Skidmark was loaded with ridiculous jokes and completely amazing in its ability to get tiny children screaming with excitement about Shakespeare.

What BB is looking forward to in 2017: I think The Malthouse has some really interesting programming and I'm sure the whole Dance Massive program will have me inspired whilst at the same time moaning about my complete loss of flexibility.

SM: I knew that Bron's work in Trilogy was my favourite moment* of hers before I read this. It's a show that changes lives by making the bit of our brain that-believes-all-the-controlling-bullshit-about-how-women-should-look realise that it's bullshit. (I still sing Jerusalem when I'm naked.)

* Even though her Onstage Dating may well be one of my favourite shows of all time. I saw it twice and would happily have seen it every time.

John Kachoyan

director,  dad

John Kachoyan

JK's favourite moments in Melbourne theatre in 2016:  Duncan Macmillan’s Every Brilliant Thing; a piece I’ve seen grow from a little showing in London. I really loved Edward II at Malthouse, Jane Montgomery Griffiths heartbreaking, towering and utterly brilliant performance in Wit, and Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour was my Melbourne Festival highlight.

Outside of shows,  some of the small moments of community have been amazing for me. Chats in foyers, excitement over works to come and celebrating success in others – a maturity and calm in the face of such crisis. And it's more a movement than a moment, but the rise and rise of amazing creative women into positions of influence, care and creativity in all aspects of our theatre landscape; long may it continue.

And the birth of my son August, who's made me ask more than ever "Who do I make work for?".

Things I wish I saw and hope to see again; Mark Wilson rounding out his Shakespearean trilogy with Anti-Hamlet, Picnic At Hanging Rock and LabKelpie's A Prudent Man by Katy Warner with the gorgeous Lyall Brooks.

What JK is looking forward to in 2017: So many shows! Desert by Morgan Rose at Red Stitch - Morgan is a brilliant writer and I cant wait to see her next play, Daniel Lammin’s Awakening remount at fortyfivedownstairs, Fraught Outfit’s The Book of Exodus - Part I and Part II (a double treat after the mesmeric, challenging Bacchae), Christopher Hampton’s version of Florian Zeller’s The Father at MTC and Kate Mulvany’s Richard III for Bell Shakespeare is sure to be stunning.

Also! Go and see The Listies Ruin Xmas. (SM: At Malthouse: finishes this weekend. I'm going tomorrow.)

SM: On Facebook, one of John's friends quoted him talking about his awe and love for his partner after she gave birth. That was cool. And his direction of Elegy: he let the audience feel safe until they realised they were so involved with the story that it was almost personal.

Myf Clark
reviewer, arts worker, co-director of Girls on Film festival

Myf Clarke

MC's favourite moments in Melbourne theatre in 2016:  Highlights for me were either supremely intimate and/or made me cry.

On the intimate side, I was completely taken by Dion and Menage (both in Melbourne Fringe). I ended up being the only audience member for Dion the night I went, as the other two didn't show up, and it was a truly breathtaking and eerie experience. While Menage (performed in a cafe and bedroom for an audience of two) was one of the most thought-provoking shows I saw this year.

Meanwhile, I ended up in tears watching Blaaq Catt by Maurial Spearim and 186,000 by Kerith Manderson-Galvin within 10 minutes of each show starting. (SM: 186,000 finishes tomorrow, 17 December.) Both shows broke my heart and made me think in different ways and I am so glad that I can now carry these shows in my heart.

On a lighter note, I discovered the joy that is artists like Maeve Marsden and Tom Dickens. Between Jagged Little Singalong and Romeo and Juliet, I relived two of my all-time favourite albums and left with the biggest grin on my face and the sorest of throats from singing along to every single song (I really am a 90's child!).

I also discovered this year that I actually quite like stand-up comedy (as long as it's not performed by a famous male comedian). Lauren Bok, Grant Buse and Tegan Higginbotham were my first shows of MICF this year and all three left me on an absolute high!

What MC is looking forward to in 2017: The funding cuts of this past year were incredibly devastating, notably for me in regards to Platform Youth Theatre (which I joined at the tender age of 17 as a performer and then worked for years later) shutting down. I'm hoping that 2017 sees new and emerging talent step up and make their art known by all, no matter what our funding bodies put us and them through.

I'm also incredibly excited to see what La Mama Theatre puts on (as I am every year), while the Theatre Works program for next year has really caught my attention. I also honestly believe that Patricia Cornelius should have a show in every season of every theatre company all of the time.

SM: I've loved reading Myf's reviews this year, especially when I read one and instantly wanted to see the show.

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part 9
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part 11
2014
2013
2012

What Melbourne loved in 2014, part 5

Today, we're hearing from other reviewers: Jane Howard, Myf Clark and Kevin Turner, and Jane gives us the three words that all reviewers should have o a sticky note stuck on their computer "passionate, detailed, intelligent".

Jane Howard

reviewer

Self portrait with dog by Jane Howard

Jane: Since this blog is filled with moments in the theatre, I’ve picked one that came after the theatre. Jordan Beth Vincent’s review of HEX for DanceTabs is the sort of criticism I aspire to write: passionate, detailed, intelligent.

It’s impossible to succinctly summarise her review. She looks at the difficulty galleries and art critics had confronting work about HIV/AIDS in the late 80s and early 90s; she makes us consider how different contemporary dance would be today if so many dancers and choreographers hadn’t died from the disease; she looks over the history Welsby and his collaborators used to create the work; she shows incredible knowledge of the independent dance scene in Melbourne; and, of course, she takes us through the piece itself with a precise dance vocabulary.

I’m very lucky to be constantly learning from and inspired by other critics in Australia and internationally, but it’s the Melbourne critics I keep coming back too. Through their work, I am given an understanding of a cultural scene I am all to often watching from afar, but most importantly I learn more about my craft – while having wonderful friends in them, too.

This piece, in particular, inspired me to work harder. Jordan had a much larger word-count than I did for the production, but even then I couldn’t have begun to write a review as detailed and knowledgeable as hers. One day, I will. In the meantime, I’m very glad there are critics like her I can look up to.

SM: We have a pretty fine group of arts writers and critics in Melbourne and I'm not the only one who considers Jane one of ours. She's passionate and articulate and she cares, and she reads reviews from all over the place. She showed me this review site, which makes me smile so much that the only reason I didn't steal the idea is that it's one of the first review sites I show students and emerging writers when we talk about finding your voice. As for a favourite moment: It was in Adelaide where we had brunch at Lucias and I almost forgot that I haven't known Jane for years.

Myf Clark
reviewer

Myf: My favourite show of the year was definitely Bucket’s List in Melbourne Fringe. Written by Sarah Collins and directed by Yvonne Virsik, this beautiful and touching production had me run through the gamut of emotions and I was definitely struggling to hold back tears by the end of the show. I honestly can’t wait to see what Sarah creates next.

The MTC Neon season once again was a highlight of the year. Seeing so many people I know be involved made my day, especially Kerith Manderson-Galvin. I will see everything Kerith is in because she is amazing. A particular image stuck in my mind was the breathtaking sight of Nicola Gunn slowly coming down from the tower of mattresses in the terrific Green Screen, while it was fantastic to see Angus Cerini on the stage again, after so many years, in Resplendence.

Workwise, I loved watching the first year students from my work perform in their end of year showcase With You, Alone at Theatre Works. The last scene was just a sublime and magical moment filled with blue lights, slow dancing and a beautiful rendition of Nat King Cole’s “Smile”. Simple and stunning

Other highlights of the year included experiencing Adelaide Fringe for the first time, seeing Juliette Burton’s wonderful When I Grow Up twice at MICF (because once just wasn’t enough!), having a gleeful squeal at the Buffy references in Keith Gow’s terrific Who Are You Supposed to Be?, feeling incredibly proud of Sarah Hamilton and Justine Campbell’s They Saw a Thylacine (my 2013 theatre highlight!) being programmed into the 2015 Malthouse program.

And finally getting to put many faces to names of people I’ve previously only know from online, include Anne-Marie herself! To sum up, 2014 gave me some of the most beautiful and touching pieces of theatre that I’ve ever seen (and many hilarious nights out). Bring on 2015!

SM: Myf and I had followed each other on Twitter and finally met during the Fringe, I think it was after a conversation about the ever wonderfulness of Buffy and our love of Bucket's List. 

Kevin Turner
reviewer, theatre maker

Kevin: I really had no idea what to say when I asked myself what my favourite moments of 2014 theatre were. But when I thought about it, moments started to clarify. They centred around getting caught up in the action. Audiences sweeping the performance up and carting it to heights it could never have otherwise achieved.

The first occurred during True Romans All, a pervasive street game inspired by Julius Caesar. Pop-Up Playground, Melbourne's resident makers of awesome situations, worked in conjunction with Bell Shakespeare to bring the Romans of Shakespeare's play to the streets of Melbourne.

I was lucky enough to be one of the facilitators assisting the company in making sure that the players had the best possible experience. Three quarters of the way through every run through, there came the point where the members of the audience I supervised were brought to meet the man himself: Julius Caesar. No matter the group, high school students or adults, the moment became charged with power, and from that moment on even the least interested audience member got caught up in the action.

From that moment onwards there was no controlling the audience. They made their way to Treasury Gardens with a sense of desperation. They made up chants like "Spqr we know who our leaders are hail Ceasar" and "Hey Caesar your so fine, your so fine you blow my mind. Hail Ceasar". In that moment every actor got caught up in the flow, even as the objective facilitator I was positive we were going to win and Caesar would survive. It was magical and it was powerful and it was terrifying. It was exactly the awesome situation Pop-Up promise to deliver.

The second moment of audiences sweeping a performance away came earlier in the year during the Fresh Air Festival. Pop-Up Playground and Serious Business together created one of the flagship games of the festival: Spirits Walk. Players travelled around Melbourne communing with "Spirits" and acquiring tokens that were used to create a mask that let them infiltrate and take part in the spirits walk. A parade through Federation Square, where we hollered and hooted, danced and jigged. It was one of the most magical moments I have ever been a part of. Helped also by it being the first Pop-Up Playground game I got to play not having had anything to do with its creation.

On the main stage my love was split between two shows. The Good Person of Szechwan at the Malthouse was batshit, bugfuck insane and gave no apologies for the madness we witnessed on stage. It was refreshing and joyous. I sat there with a giggle on my lips and a grin on my face.

Finally I got to see Once, one of my favourite stories/movies to come out of my home country. My response to this was simple, I was so happy I cried. I think that say's it all.

SM: As Kevin's review editor, I've had the joy of seeing his writing and his critical eye develop over the last year as he's found his voice. And he puts up with me telling him to use less words, kill adjectives and trust his subtext. As for a moment: him showing me what he did to Rob and Sayraphim's (from Pop up Playground) car after their wedding/performance/live-art/celebration.

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