What Melbourne Loved in 2019, part 10

Today Kerith, Sarah and Zoey talk about deep-gut feelings that stay around long after the show has finished. And Kerith talks about how working on something you love has nothing to do with quotes and stars: "I guess it's so special because it feels very powerful to become a part of a community and accomplish something together. And help each other and cheer each other."


Kerith Manderson-Galvin
Artist

Kerith Manderson-Galvin. Photo by Cam Matheson

Favourite moment of 2019.
Last year I loved Skye Gellman's End Grain and this year I loved the exhibition they curated for Sidesault Festival, Subjective Spectacle. It was elegant and clever and still a bit funny, and a really interesting way to spend an hour. Beautifully curated as an event with multiple performances and one that also worked as one larger performance. I loved it. It was an honour to be there.

My other favourite: Tenfingerz and Famous Artist Sebastian Berto's Fast Fashun. It is probably one of my favourite things I've ever been to really. A tonne of clothing waste was refashioned by participants into outfits for runway shows. You could watch the shows or be a part of it. It was like being on Project Runway, but actually it was so much more than that. Tenfingerz's events are unique. Maybe people say this all time about other people – and it's possible I've said this about Tenfingerz in another year's what I loved – but I don't think there is anyone else that does what Tenfingerz does.

And this event was really special. I guess it's so special because it feels very powerful to become a part of a community and accomplish something together. And help each other and cheer each other. Gee, the more I think about it, the more impressive it was. And the fun! I had so much fun! It's SO. FUCKING. NICE. TO. HAVE. FUN. Also, I made a skirt out of a handbag and felt like a genius, which is also very nice. And I discovered my love of the bonnet. AND I have used skills that I learned at Fast Fashun after it ended, which maybe matters more. It affected the way I live my life.

Incredible.

Oh also. Mecha – Festival of Experimental Art was such a joy.

Looking forward to in 2020.
Fast Fashun 2.0.
Lydia Lunch: Retrovirus (again).
Ruby Jones's album launch that I have decided will happen next year.
Next Wave festival –  probably. I just went to their website and it was hard to navigate.
Are You Ready To Take The Law Into Your Own Hands. I won't actually be around to see but I would have been looking forward to it.

SM: I saw Kerith perform in A Normal Child by Disability Slapstick Plan and MUST's The Bacchae by Rob Reid at La Mama. Both shows I loved but wasn't able to write about. My moments with Kerith were a couple of hours in The Bacchae when their character was sitting on the side of the Courthouse stage and watching. They was so absorbed that I kept drifting back to watch them watching and listening, which made me even more aware of what they was watching and listening.

Sarah Collins
Writer, photographer, performer

"I’m not sure if this is an ok photo, but considering my other favourite theatre moment this year was getting to photograph Alison Bell and compare facial features at long last, it’s probably appropriate."
AB, Sarah Collins. Photo by John Leary.

Favourite moment of 2019.
Far and away the best thing I saw this year was a show by Amritha Dhaliwal and Gemma Soldati called The Living Room at The Butterfly Club, which came out from LA for the Melbourne Fringe.

I’ve never watched two clowns take an audience from hysterical laughter to fighting back tears in the blink of an eye quite so skilfully.

I’ve also never seen an audience taken on a ride quite so (unexpectedly) necessary.

This show stayed with me for weeks. It was so seamlessly performed that when reflecting back upon it I couldn’t even piece together how they’d pulled it off; I simply had these delightfully nutty, indescribably sad, and utterly joyous images in my head as keepsakes.

Incredible.

Looking forward to in 2020.
The Living Room! They’re coming back for MICF. Beg, borrow or steal a ticket. (SM: Or buy one.)

SM: Sarah's been working on a YA novel this year; I can't wait to read it. But my favourite moment was when we realised we'd both seen The Living Room. And her child's kinder photo that will haunt the families of her classmates.

PS: Sad to see that YouTube/Target have removed her boob ad from an earlier year.

Zoey Dawson
Writer etc

Zoey Dawson

Favourite moments of 2019.
WAISTD and EQUINOX (their opening to the Castlemaine State Festival) by Deep Soulful Sweats,  Poopie Tum Tums by The Very Good Looking Initiative, Barbara and the Camp Dogs at Malthouse, Unwoman by The Rabble, Wake in Fright at Malthouse, Subliminal Massage by Marcus McKenzie and Club Greg at Melbourne Fringe, Mullygrubs by Leah Filley and Harry Thompson at Melbourne Fringe.

So many other shows I didn't get to see! I was a woeful theatre goer this year and vow to better next year. But  the moments I most remember this year were all the stand out performances! So I am going to make a wee dedication to those, because fuck we have a talented city of THESPIANS:

Ursula Yovich in Barbara and the Camp Dogs. I was very sad to hear that Ursula is retiring from the stage, but also unsurprised after seeing this performance that came absolutely from the pit of her gut, and that's where I felt it. I feel so lucky to have seen her play the exquisite, damaged and hilarious Barbara and I won't soon forget it. And that voice; hooley dooley.

Jennifer Vuletic in The Rabble's My Dearworthy Darling at Malthouse. An actor at the absolute height of her powers, completely in and of her body and with a gravitas that makes you tingle from the inside out. I felt this performance was just for me, as I'm sure every other person in the theatre did. I had to have a lie down afterwards.

Yumi Umiumare, Dana Miltins and Mary Helen Sassman in Unwoman. I am such a fangirl of Mary Helen and Dana as an acting duo. I think they've been working together, what? Since they were born? And it was such a delight to see them smash it out of the park in the second act of The Rabble's incredible show.  This whole company is bloody soaring at the moment. My top draft pick for 2020. Full credit to the girls. Anyway, back to the ACTING.  I think I levitated with joy watching Dana and Mary Helen devour this visceral, graphic and hilarious material, and watching Dana describe her first poo after giving birth was absolutely my theatre highlight of 2019. Then Yumi Umiumare came along and did something that brought me back down to earth and made it cave in. Torturous, unending, beautiful; a profound physical performance that communicated something unspeakable.

Lou Wall as Satan in Oh No! Satan Stole my Pineal Gland!. Iconic. Masterfully underplayed, impeccable comic timing and deeply disturbing. I know she's basically still a teenager but can someone plz give Lou a major state funded theatre company to run and her own talk show immediately?

Charles Purcell as an anxious camel come drag-cassowary in Mad as a Cute Snake at Theatre Works was something very special to behold. Charles is always a beautiful performer, but this was like watching him emerge from his chrysalis as his very own, fully formed spirit animal. I wept. Are you supposed to do that in children's drag theatre?

The incomparable Zahra Newman in Wake in Fright. What even...? How does she...? How will we ever, as a city, be truly worthy of Zahra's talent? After seeing her obliterate canonical roles on the mainstage for years it was SO SATISFYING seeing her play a version of herself and tell us (some of) what she really thinks.

Marcus McKenzie in Subliminal Massage. Marcus is by far the most stone cold weirdo I know, as well as one of the most talented. I loved seeing him orchestrate this surreal beast that somehow condensed all of his bonkers energy into a sneakily very-moving show. He is such a generous and uncompromising and effortless performer and I can't wait to see what he does next.

Looking forward to in 2020.
Pretty much everything everyone else has said, as well as following around the above performers and makers to see what they do next. Can't wait for basically everything at the Malthouse; what a great season! And I am peeing my pants excited to see Declan Greene direct Nick Coyle's Feather In The Web at Red Stitch; a very very funny sicko play that made me lol so much when I read it. And Stephen Nicolazzo's Orlando with the criminally talented Chanella Macri! What else?? Everything! Asia TOPA! Next Wave! Artshouse! Western Edge Youth Arts! Probably heaps more things made in carparks and public toilets now that arts funding is in the bin! But I've happy to put on my warm coat. I just hope we keep making stuff.

SM: Another easy one. Zoey wrote Australian Realness. I don't think I've ever used this cliche, but what a journey! From the opening scenes and wondering if she really had written a very funny and very nice middle-class play to having no flipping idea where it was going to go and loving every twist, even when it was twisting and turning that bloody reality mirror in front of us middle class theatre goers. And watching an audience go from having comfortable expectations about a nice safe play to the walls falling down and having all those expectations shattered. More please.

Review: Australian Realness

Australian Realness
Malthouse Theatre
22 August 2019
Merlyn Theatre
to 8 September

"Australian Realness" Photo by Pia Johnson

In 2011, someone* told me to see a play in a terrace in Fitzroy during the Melbourne Fringe and I was blown away at the original voices and capture of what it was like to be 20ish woman. One of the creators of I know there's a lot of noise outside but you have to close your eyes was Zoey Dawson. I think I've seen all of her significant plays since then; some (like Conviction and The Unspoken Word is Joe) have blown me away at their original voice and capture of what it's like to a theatre person in Melbourne.

Australian Realness is Dawson's first mainstage show at Malthouse. It begins as the kind of lets-laugh-very-gently-at-our-middle-class-selves-without-being-mean naturalistic comedy. It's set in 1997 and the blue-checked couch, Country Road dress, box of Moet, artichokes and hand-made wind chimes (design by Romanie Harper) are so recognisable that many of the audience will be pricing it in their heads and don't need the references to know it's in North Fitzroy. Goodness, it's so silly-us-in-the-90s-with-our-lovely-houses-reading-that-Tim-Winton-book-about-the-disabled-boy that it could be in that bigger theatre down the road.

But it's not that kind of play.

The family are mum, Linda Cropper; dad, Greg Stone; pregnant daughter, Emily Goddard; coke-head investor son, Andre De Vanny; and daughter's girlfriend from Coburg who is about to lose her job at the wharfs, Chanella Marci. The constant sound (James Paul sound design) of building new apartments next door threatens to ruin family Christmas, but there are secrets that are more dangerous.

It's really not this kind of play.

One secret is that the family money is running out, because no one is buying books or seeing puppet shows any more, and that the shed has been leased to a family of people from the suburbs; doubled by three of the cast. This fag-smoking mum wears a glitter reindeer t-shirt from K-Mart and this dad bonds with wharfy girlfriend because they are the only people who get that the blissful "I can hear the cockies at Merri Creek" silence from the building work stopping next door means that people have lost their jobs.

Bogans V what-Yuppies-grew-into. Australian cities and class. Did people living in huge-houses-near-good-schools know what was happening at the Melbourne wharfs in the late 90s and early 2000s?

When the classes clash, the so-familiar comedy twists into an Aussie sitcom complete with laugh track, talking to the audience and characters that are easy to laugh at because they are not us. And "they" don't go to the theatre, so they won't see it. It's easier to laugh than admit to fear.

And it's not that play either.

It's a what-if terrified imagining that the working class revolution happened. Or a dystopic time-shifting fantasy. Or a blood-soaked urban gothic horror dream. Or a jolt into now with a consensual live-art exhibition and cereal-milk pannacotta Masterchef jokes.

Last week, I was unsure about another play by a young writer on a mainstage because it tried to be too many things at one. This is similar, but is more successful because it changes tones tightly and every genre within the genre would be great by itself. Director Janice Muller ensures that the absurdly outrageous shifts in tone and story are surprising but feel so right in the theatre. The walls can come down in the theatre; we never have to imagine that we are really there. And Goddard remains the same character who was asleep on the couch at the beginning, ensuring there's always someone to consistently care about.

Australian Realness is far more than a safe poke at those who go to the theatre and make fun of bogans. It's a far sharper poke and no one knows the safe word to make it stop.

* Possibly Declan Greene, who has since worked with Zoey as a director and as dramaturg on Australian Realness. UPDATE: Yep, it was Dec.

Review: Conviction

Conviction
The Zoey Louise Moonbeam Dawson Shakespeare Company
Darebin Arts Speakeasy
24 July 2016
Northcote Town Hall
to 6 August
darebinarts.com.au

Ruby Hughes, Caroline Lee, Troy Reid. Conviction. Photo by Pia Johnson

There's a point in self indulgence that's so personal that is becomes universal.

Writer (often director) Zoey Dawson and director (often writer) Declan Greene (The Unspoken Word is "Joe") are back together for Conviction.

Dawson said in her writer's notes:

"When I went to VCA to do my Masters, I was genuinely ready to embrace the real play and stop writing plays about myself. Partly out of concern for my financial future, partly because I thought I was doing theatre "wrong". But mainly because every time I wrote a play about myself, it really seemed to piss people off."

Fortunately, she didn't listen to herself. And has hopefully stopped listening to the pissed-off voices because there are a lot of voices who want to hear her voice – even when it's raw and indulgent, and especially when she's mouthy about women being pushed into the background.

Ruby Hughes. Conviction. Photo by Pia Johnson

Dawson's work is personal and it's the connection to the writer that's the pumping heart of her work. I remember seeing I know there's a lot of noise outside but you have to close your eyes in 2011 with another no-where-near-20-something friend, and we spent the rest of the night talking about how much the show made us remember being in our 20s and having a lot of sex.

Conviction was mostly funded by a Pozible campaign with donations – mostly reflections of how much theatre makers earn – from some of those not-pissed-off voices.

Funded by Melbourne's indie theatre community, Conviction's meta is meta.

Which means...

If you know what it means, I don't need to explain it. If you don't know what it means, it doesn't matter; it's still hilarious – except when it's confronting or scary. If you miss the theatre in-jokes or dark feminist satire, there are plenty of back-up laughs.

In an attempt to not write about herself, Dawson writes an Aussie settler drama-mystery with Caroline Lee, Dushan Phillips and Troy Reid and Ruby Hughes, who's a young woman who thinks she can write a story about herself as a young woman.

It doesn't work: the not writing about herself or the settler drama-mystery. Neither does the contemporary drama or the dystopian future horror. Is there any time when young women write about themselves?

Conviction. Photo by Pia Johnson

As genres smash into each other like some fringe theatre nightmare – made more real by the design by Romanie Harper (design) and Amelia Lever-Davidson (lighting) that reveals its own jokes and surprises – , we get closer to Dawson. Or maybe to Lee, Hughes, Phillips and Reid. We know she's over being expected to write "real" theatre, and also that she has a Gorman top that she never wears and that she once only slept with men with girlfriends.

And as it spirals into being more about Dawson, Conviction gets closer to its audience. Somewhere in her confessions there must be something everyone has done or felt, even if it's just having an endless inner-voice that we wish would shut up.

Greene's direction lets the inner voices run wild, until he yanks them back. The tone-perfect control in the chaos shapes the work into something that reflects the community and city that it made in and promises to reach beyond.

Sounds like real theatre.

MELBOURNE FRINGE: Welcome to Nowhere

Welcome to Nowhere
25 September 2015
Coopers Malthouse, Tower Theatre
to 3 October
melbournefringe.com.au

Five incredible writers (Angus Cerini, Zoey Dawson, Daniel Keene, Fleur Kilpatrick and Morgan Rose), one fantabulous director (Emma Valente) and a heap of amazing students from Monash Uni.

If you have to choose one show this weekend, this is it.

Morgan Rose's piece is the highlight. Up to now, I've been unsure of her work but now I totally get her.

Fleur's is all alieny and full of gentle magical realism and heart, Zoey's is loud and mad, Daniel's is about families and dealing with the death of a father who broke his own family, and Angus's is violent and confronting. What more could you want in a night at the theatre!

Working with incredible students who perform, designed and operate, Emma has made these disparate writings come together as a work that speaks even louder than its parts.

Here's Myf Clark's review on Aussie Theatre.

What I loved 2012: the best of Melbourne theatre

Now that 33 of Melbourne's creators have shared their favourite moments, shows and artists of 2012, it's time for the annual What I Loved awards.

It was a tough choice this year, especially in writing and performance. The short lists were far too long to publish and many wonderful moments didn't make the finals.  But it comes down to my strict criteria: How much did I love it?

With a few exceptions, most of the Loves have already been raved about by the 32 other creators. I smiled a lot every time one was mentioned. It's pretty great to know that these artists really are reaching the hearts of their audiences and sharing something memorable.

The Loves still don't have a statuette or show bag for the nominees, but maybe one day... (In the meantime, if anyone wants to design a certificate, I'm sure the winners would print it and put it on their fridge until it disappears under takeaway menus.)

You can also see these on AussieTheatre.com with a different discussion.

Outstanding Artists 2012

WRITING

Louris Van De Geer: Tuesday, MKA

and

Robert Reid: On the production of monsters, Melbourne Theatre Company
and 
Zoey Dawson: The unspoken word is "Joe", MKA, La Mama

The unspoken word is 'Joe'. Photo by Sarah Walker.

DESIGN

Eugyeene Teh: Tuesday, MKA; sex.violence.blood.gore, MKA; Triangle, MKA; 
The unspoken word is "Joe", MKA
and
Anna Tregloan and Paul Jackson: Wild Surmise, Malthouse Theatre

sex.violence.blood.gore Photo by Sarah Walker

PERFORMANCE

Dana Miltins: Orlando, The Rabble, Malthouse Theatre, Melbourne Festival
(and Golden Dragon, MTC)

Special mention
Nilaja Sun: No Child, Theatre Works, Brisbane Festival, Melbourne Festival
and
Brigid Gallacher: The Most Excellent and Lamentable Tragedy of  Romeo and Juliet

Dana Miltins in Orlando. Photo by Sarah Walker

DIRECTION

Suzanne Chaundy: Beyond the Neck: A Quartet on Loss and Violence, Red Stitch
and 
Stephen Nicolazzo: sex.violence.blood.gore, MKA

Beyond the Neck: A Quartet on Loss and Violence

EVERYTHING THEY DO ROCKS

Daniel Clarke
The Creative Producer of Theatre Works (to be shared with everyone at Theatre Works) for making Theatre Works a venue that we want to go to, for creating a community of artistic experimentation and discussion, and for increasing audiences by an amazing 71%. I missed too many shows at Theatre Works this year, but that'll change in 2013.

Produced/Co-Produced by Theatre Works
No Child
Margaret Fulton: Queen of the Dessert
This is a door
Hello, my name is
The Year of Magical Wanking
Negative Energy
Mother/Son

Dan also directed Golden Dragon, Melbourne Theatre Company

and

Declan Greene
Summertime in the Garden of Eden, Sisters Grimm
The unspoken word is "Joe", MKA, La Mama
Pompeii L.A.,Malthouse Theatre

Pompeii L.A. Photo by Pia Johnson

Outstanding Productions 2012

CABARET

Candy B, Australian Booty: The Fatty-Boom-Boom Remix

Candy B

COMMERCIAL SHOW

Summer of the Seventeenth Doll, MTC presents the Belvoir production

MUSICAL

Margaret Fulton: Queen of the Dessert, Present Tense,Theatre Works

Special mention
Contact!, Arts Centre Melbourne

COMEDY

Zombatland, Arts House, The Suitcase Royale

Special mention

The Goodbye Guy, Justin Hamilton

Zombatland

MUSIC

Field Recordings  and Music for Airports

Bang on a Can All-Stars, Melbourne Recital Centre

Bang on a Can All-stars

DANCE

Weather, Lucy Guerin Inc, Melbourne Festival

CIRCUS

From the ground up, Circus Oz

BEST OF THE BEST

The Wild Duck, Malthouse presents a Belvoir production

Summertime in the Garden of Eden, Sisters Grimm

Summertime in the Garden of Eden

Lipsynch, Arts Centre Melbourne, Ex Machnia, Théâtre Sans Frontières

Choir Girl, Sarah Collins, Celeste Cody and the choir

MY FAVOURITE SHOW OF 2012

100% Melbourne, Rimini Protokoll & The City of Melbourne

my just home from the show reaction

My favourite moments are here, which are different from my favourite shows and artists.

2011 Loves

2010 Loves

2009 Loves

2008 Loves
2007 quickies

What Melbourne loved in 2012, part 3

Today's theatre folk are Sean Bryan, Scott Gooding and Daniel Lammin.

Sean Bryan
general manager Present Tense

SEAN: After returning home from working on and developing musicals in the US at the start of the year, I was thrilled to see so much happening in the way of musical theatre development around the country, from the big ones (Officer and a Gentleman and Moonshadow) to the work of up and comers, such as Emily Mercurio and Josh Mulcahy's One More Year. It goes without saying that it was a thrill to be part of that with Margaret Fulton: Queen Of The Dessert too. I think the development industry for musical theatre took some big steps forward this year, and I hope it continues to do so next year.

SM: Being at the opening night of Margaret Fulton and seeing how much Margaret Fulton and her family loved the show was a sparklie highlight for me. Sean was side stage working the desk and didn't stop grinning for the entire show!

Scott Gooding
theatre whore

SCOTT: This year has seen me travel the world and come across some very unexpected theatrical experiences. But the highlights have been (in order of appearance):

Ending up backstage at the Elephant Pageant in Thailand with 1000 performers and 20 elephants. Really had to be aware of backstage etiquette and OHS on that one!

On the production of monsters: Rob Reid, Clare Watson and MTC getting it right. Great script, amazeballs set, tight acting. Oh, and the older people across the audience from us sighing audibly or falling asleep. Always a sign that I'm gonna like the show.

Going to Edinburgh Fringe festival for the first time. The city stops for the performing arts.
'Twas like being a a pig in a particularly piggy heaven.

I, Animal. The Border Project with the Melbourne Zoo. An interactive, travelling unique theatrical experience. Takes all the good elements of choose-your-own narrative theatre and places it in the setting of the zoo. Uplifting, meaningful, morose and buoyant all at the same time.

Also wish to second Sarah Walker's photography. Beautiful and funny and glorious.

SM: I'm going to bend the rules a bit and go back to December 2011 for my favourite Scott moment. RAG Theatre's The Classic Tale of Faust.  RAG Theatre creates opportunities for people who experience barriers to arts participation.  Just being in the 70s timewarp of  Latvian House in St Kilda and being served vodka and Latvian snacks was pretty neat, but the moment was the seeing just how much this show and the process of making it meant to the people in it. When something is created with love and the people performing love what they are doing, it's nearly impossible to not enjoy sharing the experience with them.

Daniel Lammin
director

another photo by Sarah Walker

DANIEL: Returning to Melbourne after a year away*, I have been thrilled and inspired at how much its theatrical landscape has changed. There are a whole new generation of theatre makers and artists around, creating unusual, unexpected and exciting work. There were a few notable highlights, including Declan Greene’s Pompeii L.A., Sisters Grimm’s Summertime in the Garden of Eden, No Show’s Shotgun Wedding, the Short and Sweet Variety Gala and assistant directing on On the Misconception of Oedipus, but I have whittled down to: The Unspoken Word is "Joe". 

It was virtuoso. It was daring. I felt like I was watching the pillars of the theatre, of what I understood about the art form, crumble before my eyes. Joe was one of those works that truly interacted and reshaped form, character, narrative and audience relationship, and yet was still immensely entertaining and moving. The direction was simple and affecting, the performances (especially Nikki Shiels) were intricate and operatic, and Zoey Dawson’s script was some kind of crazy miracle. I walked out of the theatre in a state of shock and awe. How often can you say that?

*NIDA

SM: The final play of the Short and Sweet Theatre season was Enter Certain Outlaws written and directed by Daniel (and he performed in it for the gala performance). I can't forget the horrified silence of the audience when they realised that this cutsie sweet verse play about two little boys was about the two little boys who violently killed another little boy. I openly laughed when I saw it in the heats (laughter can be how we cope with the worst life has to offer), but knew that I'd have been beaten by members of the audience if I'd dared to laugh during the final's performance. It went on to win a couple prizes: best director, best play.

part 1
part 2
part 4
part 5
part 6
part 7
part 8

part 9

part 10
part 11

Review: The unspoken word is "Joe"

The unspoken word is "Joe"
MKA and La Mama
6 October 2012
La Mama Theatre
to 14 October
lamama.com.au

The unspoken word is "Joe" has added as many performances as possible. The last lot sold out in 20 minutes. This means that the cast get pizza and those without tickets will have to see something else at the Fringe and believe what they heard about this show.

Last year, award-winning playwright Declan Greene recommended that I see a show co-created by Zoey Dawson. I know there's a lot of noise outside but you have to close your eyes was one of my favourites in the 2011 Fringe and since then Dawson's directed us The Most Excellent and Lamentable Tragedy of  Romeo and Juliet and performed all over the world in in MKA's The Economist.

Zoey's great! And wunderbeast producers MKA have grabbed her new script to create the rarest of Fringe beasts: a show that you can't get tickets for and a show that all reviews agree about.

"Joe" is a meta theatre reflection on indie theatre and breaking up. Really! What's so wonderful is that it's also nothing like that. Only the bravest go meta and so few succeed. Being in on the jokes, I was there from second one, but knew just how good it was when my date whispered, "It's not for real, is it?"

Hell yes, it's for real. It's so painfully real that it guarantees to send everyone back to their own memories of making art and stuff, being really serious about it, getting drunk, thinking you're the bee's knees and making a total muggins of yourself. It's wonderful stuff.

And it's all made more perfect with Greene's direction and dramaturgy, Eugyeene Teh's consistently awesome and witty design and a extraordinary cast (Nikki Shiels, Georgina Capper, Annie Last, Matt Hickey and Aaron Orzech) who never let us in on the joke.

Cameron used up all the best adjectives and the metaphor about taking liberties with dead body. And I couldn't agree more.

Review: The Most Excellent and Lamentable...

The Most Excellent and Lamentable Tragedy of  Romeo and Juliet
The Zoey Louise Moonbeam Dawson Shakespeare Company
2 March 2012
45downstairs
to 11 March

Is there anything as all-consuming as first teenage love? We may smile with gooey nostalgia, but remember what that first heart break felt like and how no one understood because no one could love as strongly as you did? Romeo and Juliet is about that kind of teenage love and Zoey Dawson's all-female version lets us see the story from the heart of a teenage girl.

Dawson creates theatre from an authentic and positive female perspective, and her work continues to remind me of what love was, is and always will be like.

As a teenager, I adored Juliet's suicide because it proved the power of great love. As an adult (possibly older than her parents), it's almost impossible to see any romance in such a devastating choice. By telling it from Juliet's perspective, Dawson and her remarkable and delightfully surprising cast (Brigid Gallacher, Carolyn Butler , Devon Lang Wilton, Laura Maitland, Naomi Rukavina and Nikki Shiels) ensure that it can't be seen as a social tragedy out of the young lovers' control.

Gallacher's Juliet is a 13-year-old who still wears flat shoes and has a pastel bedroom decorated with teddy bears. Her vision of sex is sweet kissing and her idea of romance is so absorbing that she can't see beyond her boy in his blue flannel shirt (played by the five other members of the cast). Gallacher's performance creeps into your heart and reminds us that children have the passion to make decisions that can't be un-made and don't always have the experience to know that it will get better. The stunning final scene takes some liberties with the script, but they are such that they may leave the ghost of Shakespeare wishing he could re-write.

While it highlights the teen suicide, violence and sexualization of children aspects of the story (remember that Juliet is 13 and being forced to marry an older man), it doesn't neglect the joy and fun with characterisations that I've not seen and the best wedding scene ever.

Shakespeare didn't write his women with the same complexity as his men, so it's wonderful to see young women rejecting any concepts that woman are virgins/lovers/wives/hags/witches. The Most Excellent and Lamentable Tragedy of  Romeo and Juliet is indeed most excellent and I so hope that Zoey Louise Moonbeam Dawson gets her creative teeth into Shakespeare's comedies.

This review appeared on AussieTheatre.com

What I Loved 2011

December really did sneak up this year. I still think it's August.

But the urge to make chocolate truffles and eat fruitcake tells me it's time for the What-I-Loved Awards.

Now in their fourth year, there's still no red carpet or sparkly statue, but feel free to put on your best frock and assume that you were nominated.

I've seen over a hundred shows this year, reviewed most of them and loved watching others without the critical hat.

As ever, most of my reviews are also written for the national site AussieTheatre.com, which welcomed new editors and owners Erin and Matt in July. Already they've increased hits by thousands and readers can look forward to a whole new look in 2012.

And please keep reading every other site and blog that reviews, comments or raves. Without them, we may not have had David W's magnificent hissy over nasty reviewers or Site Unseen may not have started a debate about the value of community cultural development.

My criteria for the What-I-Likeds is: how much I liked it.  The shows I remember (yes some are forgotten) are the ones that respect audiences enough to know that we watch theatre with our uncontrollable emotions. Even if our oh-so-clever heads appreciate a practitioner, get the joke or the reference and admire the structure, if our hearts and guts don't care, there's not much point in even being there.

For the first time, there's only one non-Melbourne show among the winners and most of this year's winners are independent companies and artists.

Outstanding Artists 2011

WRITING
Angus Cerini for Save for Crying

Special Mention
Patricia Cornelius for Slut  in Tenderness, Platform Youth Theatre

DESIGN
David Samuel for MKA's season 1 (Sleepyhead, 22 Short Plays, The Horror Face, J.A.T.O)

Special mention
Gabriela Tylesova for the shoes in Love Never Dies

LIGHTING DESIGN
Paul Jackson for Little Match Girl

PERFORMANCE
The cast of Aftermath

DIRECTION
Daniel Schlusser for The Dollhouse

EVERYTHING THEY DO ROCKS
Tobias, Glynn and everyone from MKA.

Outstanding Productions 2011

CABARET
Miles O Neil's World Around Us II
with bonus points to be shared with the rest of The Suitcase Royale for the Xmas song at the Last Tuesday Society's Occupy Xmas.

Smoke and Mirrors

COMMERCIAL SHOW
Clybourne Park, MTC

MUSICAL
Next to Normal, MTC
and
Flowerchildren, Magnormos

Special mention
Spring Awakening, MUST

COMEDY
Sweet Child of Mine, Bron, Jim and Linda Batten

Special mention
Negative Energy Inc, Ash Flanders


Best of the best
Namatjira, Malthouse Theatre and Big hART

and

I know there's a lot of noise outside but you have to close your eyes, I'm Trying To Kiss You

This extraordinary show never made it past a review preview, which said sucked in to anyone who missed it. Played in the crowded downstairs room of a Fitzroy terrace, word of mouth ensured that this Fringe gem sold out (and maybe pushed some overcrowding regulations).

I'm Trying To Kiss You are Allison Wiltshire, Anna McCarthy and Zoey Dawson. Remember those names.  Deeply personal, I know etc is a confronting and intimate revelation of young women's thoughts. Unafraid of gender, language and sex, the creators crafted a story of confusion, awkwardness and bravado that was willing to be honest.

It's development took 18-months and was assisted by the Melbourne Fringe Festival and Full Tilt Outside Eye mentor program.

I heard it described as confronting and scary; a friend of mine thought it was sad and lonely. I thought it was beautiful – and that includes its glorious bitchiness, darkness and anger.  Without being obvious, this work gently grabbed me by the heart and reminded me what it was like to be 20ish.

My favourite show of 2011

Ganesh Versus the Third Reich, Back to Back Theatre, Malthouse Theatre and MIAF

2010 Favourites
2009 Favourites
2008 Favourites

Review: The Economist

The Economist
MKA
3 December 2011
MKA Pop Up Theatre, Abbotsfod
to 16 December

The channel 10 news and the Herald Scum declared MKA totally out of line for presenting a play about Anders Breivik, the man who killed 92 people in Norway on July 22 this year. Goodness knows we don't want angry youngsters questioning and confronting a world that allows for such depravity. What if a Melbourne hipster was inspired and got a similar idea? On behalf of us with half a brain, I toast a "Fuck You" to news reporters who chase controversy.

Unlike many journos, writer (and MKA Artistic Director) Tobias Manderson-Galvin read Breivik's diaries, manifesto and blog. He braved conservative writings and looked beyond the media image of the lone Aryan nutter. Until I saw The Economist, I passively went along with the terrorist kook theory. What am I saying, I'd forgotten about the attack a week after it happened and couldn't have named Breivik without the help of Google. But I know the name Martin Bryant, and an hour with MKA left me understanding and questioning so much more than any media report had.

The Economist is the fictional story of Andrew Berwick, whose life in Norway is remarkably similar to the other AB. He was a teased teenager who tagged and found steroids and the painless violence of World of Warcraft.  As he got older there was facial plastic surgery, gun clubs and "racist fox hats", misunderstood white pride folk music, sexless sex with prostitutes and a farmhouse filled with the ingredients for explosives. And he wrote and read the likes of John Howard. Yes, our Little Johnny.

Now there is nothing as dull as lefty preachy theatre. Be assured, there's nothing dull about this show and there's no hint of a sermon. Director Van Badham (whose writing I am so going read) subverts expectations starting with Zoey Dawson as Berwick. Clad in hideous beige trousers and red windcheaters, the cast set the uneasy tone and give us permission to laugh at a story that we know ends in unexplainable pain.

It's a complex story but Manderson-Galvin finds the moments that develop the full picture without forcing meaning and lets his audience enjoy the kind of mind fuck that leaves you wobbly and wanting more.

Great news is that the season has been extended.

This review originally appeared on AussieThearte.com