Review: Tower Suites

Tower Suites 
Arts House and Ros Warby
25 February 2012
North Melbourne Town Hall
to 26 February

The Arts House 2012 season begins with Tower Suites, the new work by Ros Warby, Margie Medlin and Helen Mountfort.

Arts House is the City of Melbourne's contemporary arts initiative, which "values arts and culture that help create a world where people are actively engaged, aware and empowered to participate, politically and culturally, to make positive change". This results in a supported program of local and international art that encourages risk taking and can too easily be missed in Melbourne's never-stop arts calendar. Rule of thumb, if it's in the Arts House program, it's worth giving a go.


Despite awards and critical love, dancer Warby is better known overseas than in her home town of Melbourne. She's been working for 20 years with designer/film maker Medlin and composer/cellist Montfort (best known for her work with the unforgettable Not Drowning Waving and My Friend the Chocolate Cake).

Their interplay between disciplines continues to create work that makes it almost impossible to separate one from the other. For Tower Suites, they're joined by vocalist Ria Soemardjo with the the balanced trio becoming a stable quartet in a piece, possibly, about finding balance and stability in our relationships with each other and our worlds.

It's not open to an easy reading, but its fluidity and delicate humour reflect the trust and subtlety that develops over such long-time creative relationship.  And it's a simple joy to watch a work that it beautiful for and in itself, without reason or reading, and to be part of an experience that comes from the hearts and minds of its creators without compromise or any sense of censorship.

This review appeared on AussieTheatre.com

Green Room Awards 2007

Green Room Awards 2007
1 April 2007

I’ve just come from an afternoon of Green Room Awards. Congratulations to everyone. The ceremony was fun, Julia Zemiro was a much better host that Ellen at the Oscars, Suzanne Johnson and Helen Noonan showed us that opera singers are much wittier and funnier than often thought and everyone paid tribute to the outstanding plethora of artists and companies in this amazing city of Melbourne.

“It really is just an honour to be nominated”...but it’s true. The list of Green Room award nominations show how even the most dedicated of theatre, dance, music, cabaret, opera or musical theatre devotees can barely skim the surface of the arts scene in this town. I see more my fair share of shows, but there were nominated names, companies and shows that I hadn’t seen, some I hadn’t heard of. Debt was the tied winner of Best New Australian Play, but was only seen by 270 people. I think the lesson is – see as much as you can, because you never know when a gem is going to appear.

Dance was an especially strong category this year. Lucy Guerin summed up the feeling among Melbourne’s dancers, by acknowledging the strong sense of community and the involvement of everyone. This was supported by Ros Warby, whose award for Monumental was especially welcomed.

Tim Minchin was my favourite winner of the day. Not only did he win Original Songs, beat a phenomenal group of nominees for Cabaret Artiste, but then scored the award for Outstanding Cabaret Show, beating the Famous Speigeltent and the Melbourne Theatre Company. This continues to prove that the best shows are often created by independent artists and found in non-commercial venues. Tim is “so fucking rock” and so fucking deserved each and every award.

“If you get a job you like – you never have to work a day on your life. Maria Frendo from, the fabulous venue, Dantes reminded everyone of this when she collected her award for her Contribution to Cabaret. When you do what you love, it will always shine through in your work. Every nominee and winner today has proven that they love what they do.

This originally appeared on AussieTheatre.com.