Review: Carrie, The Musical

Carrie: The Musical
Ghost Light in association with Moving Light
25 September 2014
Chapel off Chapel
to 12 October
chapeloffchapel.com.au

New Melbourne company Ghost Light have made a loud and proud declaration by debuting with the infamous flop Carrie: The Musical. And given that we haven't seen a production of it in Melbourne, it's a clever choice. Who doesn't want to see a show that's known as one of the worst musicals to open on Broadway?

The Royal Shakespeare Company premiered Carrie: The Musical in 1988; Les Miserables had been such a success for them that another musical was an obvious choice. It didn't do well. But it was Carrie and being based on the well-known 1976 film, which was based on Stephen King's runaway success debut novel, it got a lot of financial support and opened on Broadway in 1988. It didn't do well, closing after five performances. However, it has gone on to earn a cult status for being atrocious.

Carrie is a teenager who has been abused by her over-loving and god-fearing mother. She's an outsider at high school and her school life goes to hell when she freaks out about getting her first period and thinking that she's dying. Her mum makes things worse, but a teacher helps out and Carrie finds out that she has a friend among the mean girls. But she doesn't count on one particularly mean girl's need for revenge and the mean girl doesn't know about Carrie's trauma-induced telekinesis.

It's known as a horror story that explores the damage caused by fundamentalist religion and questions the power of young women and the existence of the fundamentalist god.

The musical's about finding friends, standing up to bullies and being yourself. Which is great – in High School Musical.

It's a dud. Musically dull, lyrically bland, Carrie feels like it was created by people who have seen musicals and replicated the outline without any detail. It's superficial and doesn't try to explore the guts and horror that created the story.

No wonder it's so popular! It's fun to watch something really bad and laugh at it.

But this production doesn't invite the laughs. It's played so straight that the opening night audience didn't have permission to laugh. It opens with earnest performances and cheesy choreography, which nails the tone that would free up the giggles, but the earnestness seems genuine. I hope that the floating Jesus picture on a string and the magical slamming locker doors are meant to be funny in their tacky obviousness, but I'm more afraid that they are serious.

But don't stop yourself from seeing it. After all, how often do you get the chance to see of Carrie: The Musical. And it has Chelsea Gibb as Carrie's mum and Emily Milledge as Carrie.

When these two are on the stage, the story comes alive.

Gibb plays the mother as a deeply traumatised women and creates an empathy and genuine feeling that overcomes her inane lyrics and the past images of the mother as a one-dimensional sadistic bitch.

And there's Emily Milledge. In an astonishing performance, she finds more in Carrie than this musical deserves. From the moment she opens her mouth, there's no doubt that she's going to bring us through the horror. As she's shown in her work with independent theatre The Rabble (Story of O, Room of Regret and Frankenstein), a can't-stop-watching performance comes from within the performer and has little to do with the words and story they are given. She shows us Carrie's inner hell and makes us dread the pig blood rather than looking forward to the most famous and gruesome scene in the story.

Without these two, it's just a confusingly straight production of an outrageously bad work, but the combination ensures that it's going to do well.

This was on AussieTheatre.com.

Review: The Riders

The Riders
Victorian Opera & Malthouse Theatre
23 September 2014
Merlyn Theatre, Coopers Malthouse
to 4 October
malthousetheatre.com.au

Photo by Jeff Busby

Victorian Opera and Malthouse Theatre have created a new mainstage Australian opera. How exciting! And it's an adaption of Tim Winton's The Riders, a dream-fit for opera. This is worth being excited about.

The Riders is a personal and affecting story with a scope that's beyond the reach of its characters. Aussie bloke-man Scully yearns for hot sandy beaches but searches his past in Europe for something more than what he wants. As the line between imagery and reality is blurred, it's never clear if it's all happening in Scully's head or if he's lost in the mythology of the horses and riders who follow him.

Scully is renovating a cottage in Ireland for his pregnant wife, Jennifer, and daughter, Billie, who went back to Freemantle to sell their house. When Billie arrives at the airport alone and traumatised into silence, Scully takes his child and searches for Jennifer in the places they recently stayed in Europe.

Alison Croggon (libretto) and Iain Grandage (music) haven't translated the book for the stage – which belongs in the pages it was written for – but have found a vision of the story that condenses Scully's arc, gives a voice and presence to the book-invisible Jennifer, and leaves only three minor characters for the chorus of three.

Croggon's libretto combines grabs of the poetic text and so-Winton symbolism of the book with a poetry of her own that muses on Winton's subtext and, by having Jennifer on stage and letting the audience know more than Scully, lets the drive of the work be Scully's anguish and his spiralling down rather than about the unanswered questions of Jennifer's disappearance.

Grandage's music lives in the emotions of the characters. From hints of liturgical music to bird songs, galloping riders and the ever-building storm, we can hear their hearts and are drawn into the psyches of people who make dissonant decisions on their quest for harmony. And Richard Mills (conductor) creates a sound balance between stage and pit that lets the singers shine and fills the space in ways that question why we don't see more opera in the Merlyn.

Marion Potts's direction focuses on Scully's immediate story. Working with Dale Ferguson's design of manly wooden saw horses that contrast with Jennifer's world of clean light and soulless airports, it allows for a powerful connection to Scully and Billie, but it also lets Scully's journey to hell feel safe and controlled and there isn't a palpable fear for the child he drags down with him.

In being so connected to Scully, it also seems to underplay its epic and the mythological elements. I could see The Riders in the libretto but despite the constant "horses", The Riders presence isn't clear on the stage. In a similar way, a sense of place is missing. For an Australian story that's set in Ireland, Greece and Paris, the sounds and heat of Fremantle are what make the northern hemisphere ruins and cathedrals so foreign to Scully.

Barry Ryan (Nixon in last year's wonderful Nixon in China) is Scully. He's not as young and scruffy as the Scully readers might expect, but any expectations disappear in moments as he shows the contradictions and torment of man who has to lose everything before he can begin to see a future. The broken-family trio is completed with Jessica Aszodi, Jennifer, and Isabela Calderon, Billie, who bring an honesty to their characters that creates a hope that everyone can be happy, even though we know that their time together has to end.

Jerzy Kozlowski, David Rogers-Smith and Dimity Shepherd are the remarkable chorus who let Grandage play with a trio of voices that demand to be listened to while they watch and comment and become the people Scully needs to find.

The Riders is an exciting and important new piece of Australian opera and theatre. It's grand and intimate and positions Australian opera as something that's uniquely ours without letting go of the traditions and cultures that have brought us to this point. I'd love to see it in a major festival and hope that it returns with new interpretations from opera companies in Australia and all over the world.

This was on AussieTheatre.com.

FRINGE part 6

Bucket's List

20 September 2014

Fringe Hub, Rehearsal Room

to 4 October

melbournefringe.com.au

With wedding song two-steps, a surly possum, dried apricots & words that sound like bucket, don't even think about missing this. Bucket's List is Sarah Collins fourth major work and the first one that she hasn't written for herself.

She wrote it for comedian Justin Kennedy, who is a writer for The Project, co-wrote and performed the very successful Donna and Damo with her, and proposed to Collins on stage during the 2010 Melbourne Comedy Festival season of D & D.

Bucket loved his work at the bucket factory for 19 years and 364 days and was happy to stay for the next 20 years, but bucket peak has been reached. He finds a new job as a wedding DJ, realises  that he's never had his own wedding dance and, with the help of his neighbours and a sexed-up and cynical possum, he goes looking for love.

It's a sweet and loving story that has its dark and weird moments but doesn't descend into the same unexpected bleakness that Choir Girl did, and, while she lets hero Bucket be the hero he needs to be, the foreshadowed ending isn't a surprise.

Kennedy's adorable performance makes it easy to love Bucket and maybe want him as a sweet and odd friend, but he barely utters a word. The performance is all physical (like Mr Bean, but nothing like the Mr Bean character) while recorded narrator, Felix Nobis, tells the story, with Rhys Auteri providing a live guitar score and doubling as the possum who finds noisy love before Bucket finds his own hope of a girlfriend.

Director by Yvonne Virsik (who directed Collins's first work Nothing Extraordinary Ever Happens in Toowoomba (Ever)) ensures that there's guts and humanity in the more twee moments, and Jason Lehane (who directed D & D) created a bucket puppet who may be remembered as the woman who made too many people cry this Fringe.

Collins writing continues to stand out as work that could only be hers. Hers is writing that shows that if you trust your voice and don't try to sound like anyone else, you'll find the people who love your work.

PS.  It started as when Sarah met a wedding DJ who used to be a bucket salesperson.

Richard 11
MKA
25 September 2014
Northcote Town Hall, Studio 2
to 28 September
melbournefringe.com.au

Mark Wilson and MKA made their unforgettable mark in last year's Fringe with UnSex Me, Wilson's penetrative riff on the Scottish play. This year, Wilson is joined by Olivia Monticciolo and they drag Richard 11 into the now to give the politics we seem to be accepting a good double dicking.

With Wilson as Richard and Monticciolo as his cousin Henry, they start as children playing and become adults playing at being Kings of Australia. With slabs of Shakespeare's text and plenty of their own, the story is re-cast as the Rudd and Gillard leadership debacle with numbers meaning everything and a de-crowned King who isn't afraid to do everything he can to undermine the woman who disposed him.

Here's theatre that's about now and us and isn't afraid to question and scream about gender and power and how we accept too much that shouldn't be accepted.

It's political, funny, cruel, honest & what-the-fuck-have-we-done brilliant. And Mark wears gold tights.

It's also sold out.

Bonus: Terrific conversation with random audience members on School for Birds.

Who Are You Supposed to Be?
26 September 2014
The Owl and the Pussycat
to 5 October
melbournefringe.com.au

One of the loveliest parts of Who Are You Supposed to Be? was being in an audience who were squeeing with joy as they recognised themselves, their world and every geeky sci-fi reference. And there are many geeky sci-fi references.

I know that because I got most of them. And maybe squee'ed at 5 and 10 and the mourning of the passing of Firefly.

Keith Gow is a Doctor Who fan and wrote a play set at a convention where a con-famous podcaster (Rob Lloyd) meets someone he only knows from Twitter (Jennifer Lusk, who also played this part in the UK) and attacks her for daring to dress as the fifth Doctor.

With enough Doctor Who references to thrill even the most obsessed, it looks beyond the obvious nerd jokes to explore gender issues, sexism and the place of non-cannonical breasts in geek culture.

It is a work for Doctor Who fans and sci-fi obsessives. There's enough for non-fans to enjoy, but it's safe to assume that the people who go to a play about Doctor Who fans are going to get the Blink jokes.

Some of these are on AussieTheatre.com.

FRINGE part 5

Nick: An Accidental Hero
24 September 2014
Fringe Hub, Meeting Room
to 26 September
melbournefringe.com.au

Renee Lyons is another wonderful creator from New Zealand. She tells the story of Nick Chisholm who survived a serious head injury but has locked-in syndrome, where his brain is active but the only thing he can control are his eyes.

Playing all the characters – two unsuspecting-hero mates, Nick's mum, a Korean orderly who got to know Nick in the hospital, and a woman he met online – Lyons shares a bunch of not-perfect people who never give up on Nick and unexpectedly catch you by the heart.

The unseen character is Nick, but she shows twisted and clenched hands and a body that can't move, which contradicts and questions the Nick we've come to know through the eyes of the people who love him.

This is strong, intelligent and beautiful story telling that leads with hope and leaves you knowing these people like you know your own family and friends.


All Out Of Pride

24 September 2014

Fringe Hub, Meeting Room

to 26 September

melbournefringe.com.au

Kill me.

I sang along to Barry Manilow's "Mandy". I sang along because I knew the words. I can barely remember the name of the shows I saw yesterday, but "Mandy, you came and you gave without taking" lodged itself in my brain in the 1980s and refuses to leave.

All Out Of Pride is about shame songs. The songs we are ashamed to sing. Songs that come out at late-night karaoke bars and even the hideously drunk know that there's something deeply wrong about them.

Geraldine Quinn and Michael de Grussa dress in Bee-Gees-video white with visible chest hair. Well Michael has the chest hair, but Geraldine wears culottes. Oh yes, she has a pair of off-white, mid-shin, linen culottes with gold buttons.

I have some pride in not knowing the words to some of the 90s horrors, but then there was an Air Supply and  – fuck you, Quinn and De Grussa – "I'm all out love, I'm so lost without you..."

The shame.


Rod Quantock: Invitation to a Revolution

24 September 2014

Fringe Hub, Lithuanian Club, Main Theatre

to 4 October

melbournefringe.com.au

I went to see Rod Quantock last night because I wanted to be in a room with people who also needed to share rage and tears about how our government is doing everything it can to undermine us, punish anyone who isn't in their gang, and create communities that are led by fear and hate.

I wasn't alone, and it was nice to see the entire Fringe demographic of 40-to-60-somethings in one room. We're ready to join Rod's revoltion. We have our orders and don't be surprised if we follow through, but we need some young blood. I know you're as angry as we are, so get off Twitter and get to Rod's show. 

He still greets everyone at the door (and checks in case there is anyone middle eastern looking and we need to dob on them for attending political theatre) and with his trademark blackboard, he talks about the IPA, Tony A... blugh (he can't say the name) and other lucky pricks. It's very like his comedy festival show from earlier in the year, but this time it's different.

This time it's harder to laugh. Not because Rod's not one of the funniest and smartest human beings ever, but because all those things we joked about earlier in the year have become reality. And it's worse than we imagined.

I still can't get it into my head that Victorian police shot a teenager this week. And I got home to read that Australia is signing an agreement to send refugees to Cambodia. I've been to Cambodia. I love Cambodia, but it's poor as hell, the government are openly corrupt and not dealing with issues like child sex tourism and the spread of AIDS, and it's country that's only just beginning to come to terms with its own living hell of the 1970s and 80s. Australia is rich, safe and huge, but we're going to send refugees – people who have lived a hell that Australians rarely have to face – to a place that can't offer them safety.

It's just not funny anymore.

#HeyASIO,  here's our plan for revolution

Some of these are on AussieTheatre.com.

FRINGE part 4

Motherfucker

La Mama

21 September 2014

La Mama Courthouse

to 28 September

melbournefringe.com.au

This director–writer team is one of my favourites and I'm sure that they are going to continue to be so in the future.

This one didn't work for me. If you're going to tell another Oedipus story, it has to come from a perspective that lets us see something new because we know the story. And if you call a play Motherfucker, there's so much expectation and assumption associated with the title that it really has to be about a real motherfucker rather than a sweet guy who has loving sex with his mum.

Dead Set

La Mama

21 September 2014

La Mama 

to 28 September

melbournefringe.com.au

Sue Giles and Ian Pidd first performed Dead Set 20 years ago, and their rom-com-cabaret about being stuck in boring teaching jobs but wanting to make the great Aussie musical has returned to La Mama.

It's a wonderful and hilarious look back at indie theatre in the 1990s and it made me feel like I was 20ish again and discovering alternative theatre. There are some dated references, but nothing could take away from the joy, fun and gorgeous songs. I'd so see Humping My Swag.

The Moon in Me

22 September 2014

The Tuxedo Cat

to 28 September

melbournefringe.com.au

Analysing astrology by reading the daily Herald Sun sun signs is like grabbing a pack of home brand paracetamol from the supermarket and analysing medicine.

There are some sweet and clever moments in this show and a couple of nice jokes, but it's over-written, under-researched and lacks focus; the links between the personal story and the reflection at how society loves a Sun sign column aren't strong.

I really want this performer to see Jono Wants a Wife.

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.

Melbourne Fringe

Melbourne Fringe Festival
17 September to 5 October 2014
melbournefringe.com.au

Let's tweet.

I'm not reviewing much this festival, but I am seeing lots of shows and am going to experiment with Twitter. Let's get #mFringe trending. And follow me @SometimesMelb.

The 32nd Melbourne Fringe 2014 is off and running with over 400 shows by over 5000 performers in over 150 venues.

Running from 17 September to 5 October, it’s a small festival compared to the Adelaide or Edinburgh juggernauts, but this makes it an event that you can  really sink your teeth into as a theatre goer and an event where the audiences are so much more than anonymous punters.

The Melbourne Fringe differs from other fringe festivals because it focuses on independent artists and on new and experimental work. There are shows that are returning or touring, but mostly this is the event where artists introduce new work out or try something different from anything they’ve done before.

Fringe festivals are not curated by an artistic director; anyone can register to be in the program. And remember that companies and artists who register are taking a financial, as well as an artistic, risk to be in the festival. The only money they get is from ticket sales, and that’s after they’ve paid for the venue hire, marketing and everything else.

This results in a range of quality and experience that isn’t seen in events that have an artistic guide.

The City They Burned. Photo by Sarah Walker

Not every show will be a winner. One might blow your mind, while another could leave you running to the bar to obliterate the experience from your memory. That’s what risk is about.

As arts audiences who love and support independent art and artists, the Melbourne Fringe is also a time for us to be as brave and experimental as the artists who are participating.

As audiences, this is the festival where we can take risks.

Tickets are about the cost of a movie and there are preview prices, cheap Tuesdays and all sorts of offers that pop up. Or, there are FREE events that will let you see artists and performances that you may never see anywhere else. You could have an exhausting and exhilarating Fringe by just going to the free Fringe Club at the North Melbourne Town Hall.

Take risks.

See genres you don’t know much about. If you don’t get contemporary dance, there are 20 affordable dance shows to choose from. Don’t know much about Visual Art, spend a day exploring the 22 exhibitions.

If you love a genre, what about trying to see every show in one category? If you see all 30 cabaret shows, you’ll be an expert on Melbourne’s emerging and independent cabaret artists.

Or pick a venue. Maybe North Melbourne Town Hall, Northcote Town Hall, Tuxedo Cat, Theatre Works or Gasworks. Or pick a suburb and find every hidden and pop-up venue.

Richard II. Photo by Sarah Walker

Don’t wait for reviews (reviewers, this is also a time for you to take risks as writers) and don’t believe all the quotes and star ratings you see on posters; those Five Stars could be from an artist’s nanna.

Taking a show to one of the huge festivals can be heartbreaking if it doesn’t take off, but being in the Melbourne Fringe lets artists share and show work to enthusiastic audiences so that they can see what audiences respond to and what needs to change. I’ve seen so many shows and artists at Fringe festivals that have gone on to long and magnificent runs and careers. Others learn more about performing and being in a festival than they could ever learn anywhere else.

Audiences are as much a part of the Fringe as the artists in the program. There’s no point in creating art if there’s no one to share it with.

So get involved by seeing shows and hanging out at the Fringe Club and in the foyers and bars.

If you love a show, tell the artists who made it and buy them a drink. Really. Hang around after the show and say “Hi”. Talk about what you’ve seen and what it means to you. Tweet, Instagram and Facebook to #mFringe. Be a part of the conversation and you’re a part of the Melbourne Fringe.

This was on AussieTheatre.com

Review: A lie of the mind

A lie of the mind
5 September 2014
The Grange pop up theatre
to 13 September
lieofthemind.com

With an ambitious and successful Pozible fundraising campaign, an empty amazing space in the CBD and the determination to move a class exercise to a professional production, A lie of the mind opens The Grange, a pop-up theatre and bar.

Firstly, who knew that there was a huge empty warehouse in the city of Melbourne! Hidden near Victoria and La Trobe streets, it shows its age but holds a bar and theatre that love the space and welcome its signs of disintegration.

The bar is warm with heaters, spicy hot drinks and welcoming staff. There are covered hay bales to sit on, tables for lengthy conversations and buttery popcorn for snacks. It's great.

The performance space in the opposite corner of the huge room is, which is sadly cold (but rugs provided) and has bum-numbing chairs. I'd love to see the spaces become one. It felt odd to have a traditional(ish) theatre space tucked in the corner of a room that was begging to be used and explored. (And multiple performance space would have solved some awkward scene changes.)

American Sam Shepard's play A lie of the mind was first seen off-Broadway in 1985 with a cast that included Harvey Keitel and Aidan Quinn. Set in the USA mid-west in the early 1980s, it's the story of two very broken families connected through a marriage that ends at the play's beginning when the husband bashes his wife to the point that he thinks she's dead. With a realism voice that slips into violent poetry and brushes the edges of magic realism, it's a powerful look at Shepherd's world and the American culture that will protect its own flag and the idea of America before looking at itself.

It's a wonderful play, but I don't know what this production is saying about us and now and how the world on the stage is reflecting on the people who come to share in it. There's a disconnect between production and space and between performers and audience, making it a story about "them" rather than a story about "us".

While some of the cast grasp the tone of the script better than others, every performance (Alex Duncan, Zack Anthony Curran, Lauren-Anne Kempster, Shayne Francis, Alice Cavanagh, Ashley McKenzie, Peter Hardy and Kaarin Fairfax) is heartfelt and excellent. Still there's a showcase feeling of actors trying so hard to give their best performance that the overall story also feels disconnected from the people telling it and there are some empty relationship spaces between the characters. All are actors who don't have to try to be astonishing and are never let down by their their characters.

Quibbles aside, these are creators and artists who want to make theatre and perform great plays, so they raised the money to create a wonderful space and perform a great play – and I'll be first in line for their for their next show.

A lie of the mind is on all next week and to make theatre accessible, Tuesday and Wednesday nights are "pay what you can" nights (hey, every other theatre and company in town, please give this a try) and if you look at their Facebook page, there might be some more rush ticket offers.

PS. If you want to go in spoiler-free, don't read the synopsis on the website.

This was on AussieTheatre.com.

Reveiw: The City They Burned

MELBOURNE FRINGE 2014
The City They Burned
Attic Erratic
6 September 2014
Cavern Table Performance Space
to 23 September
atticerratic.com

Photo by Sarah Walker

Attic Erratic's The City They Burned is a re-telling of the Genesis story of Lot and his family. I remember learning about godly Lot at my Anglican school: Lot is told by God and his angels to get out of town, Lot's selfish wife looks back at their town of Sodom and God turns her into a pillar of salt for questioning his will and valuing her materialistic life.

Like slabs of the Old Testament, the understanding of what makes a good person is subjective and bits of the stories are often missed in the telling. When I drew Bible story pictures at primary school, they didn't include gang rape, incest, incest-rape and God generally being a dick by destroying everyone, except Lot, with a rain of fire. And we didn't discuss how Sodom gave us the word sodomy.

This tale is from books – the story of Lot is also in the Quran and the Torah – that continue to control so many people's lives, morality and decisions. As long as these stories keep being told, we need to keep looking at them to try to understand and continue to question why they are still at the core of so much in our society.

Writer Fleur Kilpatrick says that she wants to question the concept of bad or evil. What did the people of the city of Sodom do to deserve being wiped off the face of God's good earth?

What would happen if God were removed from the story?

Is a godless world compassionless and devoid of hope? Is it any different from a God-loved world?

Photo by Sarah Walker

Welcome to Sodom, where Lot (Scott Gooding) and his wife Ado (Jessica Tanner) are our hosts at a party. Lot is the manager of the factory where the good men of Sodom (Brendan McCallum, Dave Lamb and Soren Jensen) work. No one has heard from anyone in nearby Gomorrah in the last hours and they are getting worried as the party is in the honour of two inspectors (Dushan Philips and Kane Felsinger) who have just left Gomorrah. These men are outsiders; they dress strangely and don't look like Sodomites; they don't drink and they have a power that no one really understands.

The theatre is a converted warehouse in Collingwood. The audience go into a large living room that's  op shop chic with touches of "I want that" and "the eyes are following me" (designed by Rob Sowinski). We're offered food on sticks and drinks – bring $5; you'll want a drink – and it takes a while to realise that the performance has started and that we're the guests at a party where there's no line between audience and stage.

Conversations take place concurrently or in corners that only some people can see. Some of the most telling action happens in reactions; don't feel bad for turning your back on an actor. The actors treat the audience like known friends or workmates and some people don't like their conversations being overheard.

At one point, I was the only person watching Thamma (Shoshannah Oks) and Pheine (Brianagh Curran), Lot and Ada's daughter's, and one gave me a look that made me look away. Not long after, Ada stood near me as the worst thing she could imagine was happening metres away and I wondered if I should comfort her.

Director Danny Delahunty ensures that the overall story is clear and keeps moving. The details are bonus secret moments that might only be shared between one person and an actor and may not happen at all in another performance.

As the mood of the party goes from fun to awkward to dangerous – the inspectors aren't there to do good –  the audience is made to feel more and more uncomfortable, and it takes faith to trust that we are safe and only watching a game of make believe.

Photo by Sarah Walker

The second half of the night takes place in an old attic that's been transformed into a more traditional theatre space. Here, the audience are allowed back into the safe role of unseen watchers, but the room is small and close and dark.

Lot and his family escaped to a cave that isn't dark enough to not see what happens in the blackness. There are worse things than being turned into a salty metaphor, and it asks: what would you do if you thought you were the only humans left on earth.

While the first half makes the audience feel complicit in the decisions made at the party (none of us objected), the second half makes the audience watch the unfolding consequences of those decisions.

It's not easy theatre to watch.

But it's theatre that questions how form and writing can work so closely that it's impossible to see where one ends and the other begins. Kilpatrick's writing is so beautiful and strong that it disappears and doesn't sound like writing because we're so immersed in the immediate experience of being in Sodom.

Meanwhile Delahunty's unseen control makes sure that the moments and connections that need to be seen aren't missed. In the cave, I kept remembering seeing Thamma hug her dad at every opportunity at the party.

And the cast are exceptional. There's no safely zone of a stage for them to hide in either.

The City They Burned declares Attic Erratic as the next independent company to make a mark so unforgettable that a hole would exist in Melbourne's theatre scene without them. In the last three years, they've developed from theatre graduates doing their thing (I called them vanilla) to theatre makers who are getting bolder and more unforgettable with each production.

The audience capacity for this show is very limited and is already selling out. Book now and don't wait until their Fringe season.

This was on AussieTheatre.com.

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.