Review: Spike Heels

Spike Heels
Q44 and Crazy Chair
29 August 2014
Chapel off Chapel
to 14 September
q44.com.au

Q44 launched as a company earlier in the year and Theresa Rebeck's 1992 play Spike Heels is their third production, this time in conjunction with Crazy Chair Productions and at Chapel off Chapel instead of their cosy home in a Richmond warehouse.

As a company of actors, they produce the plays they want to perform – kind of like Red Stitch. And so far, they love late 20th century North American naturalism where there are lots of terrific works to choose from.

Spike Heels was Rebeck's first full-length play and she's gone on to write many more and establish a career as a successful television and film writer. Set in an upper east-cost US city in the late 1980s, the story starts with the friendship between 20/30-something uni professor Andrew (Anthony Scundi) and  his 20-something upstairs neighbour, Georgie (Nicole Melloy), who is as rough and loud as her Bronx accent. He gives her books to read, found her a job with a lawyer friend of his, Edward (Michael Robins), and wants her to meet his posh girlfriend, Lydia (Lelda Kapis). But Edward's intentions towards Georgie are less than pure, Lydia used to date Edward, and why would Andrew be learning-up the hot woman if he didn't fancy her.

Directed by company founder Gabriella Rose-Carter, it's tight and real and reflects on how too little  changes in sexual politics. The four actors bring honesty and technique to the stage, but I'd love to see them bring a bit more of themselves to the characters. All are memorable and exciting actors, but there's a shadow of distance between actors and characters – especially in the comedy – that reminds us that we're watching a game of make believe.

Q44 have already made confident ripples in Melbourne's independent theatre scene and are finding their unique niche and a loyal and happy audience, and showing us wonderful plays that we may never have otherwise seen.

This was on AussieTheatre.com.

Last chance

What to see on the weekend? Here's Friday, Saturday and Sunday night covered.

The Von Muiznieks Family Hoedown
The Butterfly Club
Facebook
Last show tonight

The Melbourne Cabaret Festival is in it's second week and The Butterfly Club is always a favourite place for a show and a drink at the hoarders-dream bar; clutter can be art.

Karin, Simon and Emma (von) Muiznieks are from Essendon, the heart of bluegrass. And as Lativan sibling bluegrass and country pop-cover bands go, there's no one like them.

If you missed that, they're a Lativan sibling bluegrass and country pop-cover band from Essendon. For reals. Beat that von Trapps, Osmonds, Jacksons and von Brady Bunch singers, who aren't real siblings so they don't count.

Singing bluegrass and country classics by the likes of Lorde, Brittney, Adele, Rhianna and Tom (Jones) with mandolin, autoharp and bass ukulele, their hoedown is so much more fun than prancing around a fountain in clothes made from curtains.  Yee-ha!

The von Muiznieks have created a niche that only they can fill and are filling it with great singing, terrific playing and stories that I'd never imagined.

There's development to go but the von Muiznieks are on their way to being something that will sell out Spiegeltents. I loved them so much that I'm ready to chew me some hay, call myself a hoe and wear gingham.


Orphans
Q44
Q44 theatre in Burnley
q44.com.au
Last show on Sunday

Q44 are a new company working in an amazing converted warehouse in Richmond, which is also home to visual artists and a very old white cat.

Like Red Stitch the early years, they are an ensemble of actors working to produce the plays they want to perform.

Their second production is the 1983 play Orphans by American playwright/director/actor Lyle Kessler. The orphans are adult brothers, Phillip and Treat, living in an abandoned council flat in Philadelphia. Treat is a petty criminal and Phillip is housebound due to allergies and trusting that his brother. The fairy Godfather is Harold, a drunk with a briefcase full of stocks and bonds, who's kidnapped by Treat.

It's a bit Freud 101, but the three characters make up for any obviousness in the plot. And see it for the exceptional performances.

With a realism technique that fits the work, Ashley McKenzie (Treat), Mark Davis (Phillip) and Gareth Reeves (Harold) immerse themselves so deeply in the characters that the technique all but disappears. Engaging and real, they each create genuine fear for their character and overcome the awareness of being watched.

Keep an eye on this company.

Kevin Turner's review.

Hypertxt Festival
MKA
On the grace of officials
The defence
Sugar, sugar
Thank you, thank you love
The Tuxedo Cat
mka.org.au
last shows on Saturday

Maverick favourites MKA have taken over the Tuxedo Cat in the city and four new shows finish on Saturday.

All are a bit angry and are preaching to the converted, but if you're not angry about how we're treating refugees, how women are portrayed on stage and screen, and how young women can't see their own beauty then you need to see more theatre made by people who are.

I haven't seen Thank you, thank you yet, but will take an hour off from a party on Saturday night to see it.

James Jackson's reviews.

The defence

Thank you, thank you love

Sugar, sugar

Last chance: The Safe House and Dolores

I caught a couple of late-season shows this week that finish this weekend. You can still see both: The Safe House tonight and Dolores tomorrow afternoon.

Dolores
Q44 Theatre Company
14 May 2014
550 Swan Street, Burnley
to 18 May
q44.com.au

Dolores is from new company Q44, an ensemble of nine actors.

They've created a wonderful new theatre space on Swan Street in Burnley and are letting Melbourne know they are here with a work by New York writer Edward Allan Baker.

Set in Brooklyn in the 1970s, it's the story of two sisters whose lives have always been controlled by violence. It's an actor's dream to play parts like this, and Nicole Melloy and Gabriella Rose-Carter embrace its intense naturalism with the kind of understanding and heart that let's us be flies on the wall in the kitchen.

The Safe House
3rd Room Theatrical
16 May 2014
Owl and the Pussycat
to 17 May
3rdroomtheatrical.com

Another newish company is 3rd Room Theatrical who are performing The Safe House, down the road from Dolores, at the gorgeous Owl and the Pussycat in Richmond.

This new work by Tim Wotherspoon, who performs it with Lily Constantine and Rhys McConnochie, is a low-tech sci fi, lost-in-time mystery-comedy that makes it's audience think and re-think their theories and conclusions every minute.

We're in a room with Josie, Alan and Sid. They might be spies or time travellers or sick. Sid might be or might have been a her. It might be the 1980s or the future or today. And no one knows if it's safe. With tone-perfect performances, The Safe House is mind-fuckingly funny and always a step ahead of its audience.

They've had some intimate audiences, so it would be amazing to see them adding in extra seats and filling up tonight.