MICF: Glittergrass – Fringe Wive Club

MICF
Glittergrass
Fringe Wives Club
31 March 2019
Malthouse – Beckett Theatre
to 21 April
comedyfestival.com.au

Fringe Wives Club

I'd been calling Glittergrass "Clittergrass" – both work.

The Fringe Wives Club have been touring to festivals with pink and purple sequins, clothes with pockets, and a positive and unrelenting feminist attitude for over two years. They're making women, and anyone identifying as female, feel good about themselves by telling stories about amazing women, reminding the I'm-not-a-feminists that you can have a dick without being a dick, and acknowledging the privilege of being able to make many song-and-dances about being a woman.

To increase the power of the club, the original trio (Victoria Falconer, Tessa Waters and Rowena Hutson) have welcomed brilliant new wives Laura Frew and Sharnema Nougar. The new show also has a live band of wives, and everyone who sees and loves them can consider themselves a wife. (It's the only time I'd call myself a wife.)

Does sparkle, song, dance and purple hair change the world? If only it were that easy. But a show that addresses anger, frustration and shame with love, pride and positivity is many steps in the right direction.

And they ain't finished yet. Today I read this story in the Guardian. Our federal government doesn't believe the professional advice about domestic violence and thinks it's better for women and children to stay in abusive relationships because "family". If you think counselling will help, have a watch of this episode of You Can't Ask That on iView. We ain't finished yet.

Being a wife is about way more than pockets, awesome hair and confidence. It's being someone who supports and is supported. It's about creating a world where everyone can feel and be safe. It's about standing up for people who can't stand up for themselves. It's about making equality the bottom line of what we accept in life, rather than something we reach for.

Jessie Hickman: the bushranger no one makes a musical about

Video: Feminist Fuckboi

Fringe Wives Club
Feminist Fuckboi

Fringe Wives Club. Tessa Waters, Victoria Falconer-Pritchard, Rowena Hutson

The Fringe Wives are at the Adelaide Fringe and will be back in Melbourne for MICF.

Enjoy.

Review: Clittery Glittery

MICF
Fringe Wives Club
Clittery Glittery
31 March 2017
Greek Centre, Parthenon
to 22 April
comedyfestival.com.au

Fringe Wives Club. Clittery Glittery

Loved this so much that I'm knitting them a #pussyhat each.

My review is on The Age/SMH.

FRINGE part 3

Some solo shows

Jono Wants a Wife

19  September 2014

Fringe Hub, Rehearsal Room

to 4 October

melbournefringe.com.au

I might have found Jono Wants a Wife so funny because I've dated him. Not him, but I recognised his 20 and 30-something hims and may have laughed away a couple of demons.

Jono's 35 and he'll have a list of potential wives by the end of the Fringe. It's a bit like an indie theatre version of The Bachelor and future girlfriends have to know that they'll be in his next show.

He's finally hit that stage of life that he knows what he wants in the relationship realm, so shares the painfully honest truth about how he got to be 35 and living alone in a mouldy dark flat.

That painful and honest truth involves masturbation stories – do you ever recover from being caught by your nanna? – and relationships with women who treated him far better than he treated them. Sure, it's funny now – funny enough to make a show about – but his story works so well because sometimes the only way to get through that kind of hurt is to laugh about it or be laughed at.

This is charming and well-crafted story telling that reminds that gut-aching funny comes from gut-wrenching honesty.

A Four-Eyed Guide to the Galaxy

20 September 2014

Fringe Hub, Rehearsal Room

to 4 October 

melbournefringe.com.au

Being weightless with a broken heart and a sausage dog can be wonderful.

Space rocks! Having recently heard astronaut Chris Hadfield (the guy who sang Bowie on the International Space Station) at the Melbourne Writers Festival and having read his book, my space knowledge is the best its been. And Rowena Hutson's into space far more than I am.

Her solo show, A Four-Eyed Guide to the Galaxy, is set in a future that might not be very far away. Here Buzz – who's parents were astronauts – is stuck on earth with only her sausage dog best friend but wants to blast off to the stars to escape the pain that she doesn't want to acknowledge.

It's super-sweet storytelling that's made gorgeous with really bad props and a hope that lights the dark void of space.

The Bookbinder

20 September 2014

Fringe Hub, Son of Loft

to 4 October

melbournefringe.com.au

The Bookbinder won Best of the New Zealand Fringe and it's going to sell out in Melbourne. Being in the intimate Son of Loft room, there's no room for extra seats, so there's no time to wait.

Trick of the Light Theatre are from New Zealand and were founded by Hannah Smith (director) and Ralph McCubbin Howell (performer and writer). 

From a time when books were valuable and stories were precious, it starts when a bookbinder needs an apprentice. Told with puppetry and paper art, it's a deliciously dark story about books, getting lost and how fixing a story can change a life.

From every moment of the performance to the writing and the design full of secrets and wonders, this is exquisite storytelling and the only reason I'm not going again is because I don't want to deprive anyone else the feels of seeing it.

Some of these are on AussieTheatre.com.