What Melbourne loved in 2016, part 15

All that's left is me. Tomorrow I'll publish my 2016 list of the shows I loved, but it's time for some moments.

This year marked 10 years of me reviewing. I had a month off to breathe.

I only saw 165 (or 20+ more if I count events with multiple performances) shows this year. There were also less reviews but a lot more tweets. And I was teaching arts journalism; meeting and reading young writers who want to write about the arts is as good as it gets. It's been a shitty year for arts writers, but there are plenty of voices who are going to be there and demand that they are heard. And I love teaching.

Selfie. Not giving a single fuck in Ubud in November.

Plus a special thanks to Faster Pussycat Productions for the new logo.

SM's favourite moments in Melbourne theatre in 2016: Having this series welcomed back after a year off was awesome. Getting the emails and messages and talking to people about it IRL reminded me that we are a strong and active community.

Like so many others, I was a bit over it this year: funding cuts, Fairfax cuts, creative and writing tertiary courses being branded "lifestyle choices", far too many people still excluded from having a voice on main stages, boring conservative mainstage programs, and criticism of that dullness being ignored. The arguments I began to have in the 1980s are still happening; it's fucking depressing.

Then in the last couple of weeks I saw:

• Blaque Showgirls at Malthouse. An Indigenous fuck you to every condescending, well-meaning and earnest statement about acceptance and respect. Laughed until I cried.
• Burning Doors by Belarus Free Theatre at Arts Centre Melbourne. Some people are using theatre to save lives and change their world. Some people risk so much more than a couple of dull hours to go to the theatre.
• Hot Brown Honey at Arts Centre Melbourne. Standing screaming ovation for rejecting everything that denies women and especially women of colour a voice. 
• Briefs at Arts Centre Melbourne. The other side of the Hot Brown Honey coin. What this show said about gender and masculinity needs to be bottled and drunk by everyone who tells someone to "man up".

Maybe there's a lot of hope for our main stages in 2017.

And throw in Moira Finucane telling a room of cheering people that "Art does change culture and it does change lives", at a fundraiser where Finucane and Smith raised enough money to create the kind of art that does change lives.

Going to Coranderrk to see Coranderrk and hearing the voices that spoke there 135 years ago.

Being totally relaxed lying in bath in the Embiggen Books window for Between Two Lines at Melbourne Fringe (Anna Nalpantidis with Elizabeth Brennan).

Coranderrk at Coranderrk

Between Two  Lines

iOTA singing "Life on Mars" at the Melbourne Festival Bowie concert.

Watching children cut Cameron Woodhead's hair at Haircuts by Children at Melbourne Festival.

Cameron Woodhead at Haircuts by Kids

Having no idea what was funny at Two Dogs at the Melbourne Festival.

The moment when Joshua Ladgrove decided that Neal Portenza couldn't do his scripted show when there were only nine people in the audience and The Age reviewer was in the front row. 

Watching a stage of naked women dancing in Nic Green's Trilogy at Arts House.

The Harry Potter and the Cursed Child reading that wasn't a reading because it was just a group of friends hanging out and reading out loud. (Thanks Ben McKenzie.)

Getting a bag of "FUCK YOU" candy hearts at Dion in the Melbourne Fringe.

Dion

The best way to read a play

The whole audience breathing in together when the black world became white, and again when the white world dropped to reveal Hamer Hall in Back to Back's Lady Eats Apple at Melbourne Festival.

Dancing in an industrial fridge in a hotel dressing gown as Otto and Astrid sang "Ich Bin Nicht Ein Roboter" at the Finucane and Smith Christmas Cocktail party.

Otto and Astrid

Robbing a bank with Richard Watts and Fleur Kilpatrick at Pop up Playground's Small Time Criminals.

Fleur Kilpatrick, me, Kevin Turner, Richard Watts at Small Time Criminals

Running late to see Pound It, walking down the stairs and wondering who that amazing voice could be coming out of – then seeing Bridget Everett and knowing that I was going to love every second of her show.

Every tweet from Candy Bowers.

Hanging out in Ai Weiwei's cat room for kids at the National Gallery of Victoria at 6.30 am during White Night.

Ai Weiwei's cats at NGV

What SM is looking forward to in 2017: Whatever it brings, everything else that everyone else has said, and The Book of Mormon.

part 1
part 2
part 3
part 4
part 5
part 6
part 7
part 8
part 9
part 10
part 11
part 12
part 13
part 14
2014
2013
2012

Review: Smoke and Mirrors

Smoke and Mirrors
the Arts Centre
12 February 2011
the Famous Spiegeltent
to 25 February
spiegel.theartscentre.com.au

The Famous Spiegeltent is back at the Arts Centre forecourt and it's already hard to get tickets for  Smoke and Mirrors, the show that sold out in Sydney, blew Edinburgh away and won a pile of Helpman Awards.

With the velvet-voiced gender-challenging rock god iOTA is at its centre, fans like me know that we have to see it. Leaving out his genre-defining performances as Hedwig and Frank 'N' Furter, his original albums and solo shows leave all who experience them wondering why (and rejoicing that) we can still see him in intimate venues.

Smoke and Mirrors isn't all about iOTA and surprises with the wholeness of its story, the collaboration and input from its remarkable and diverse artists and the mesmerising mood that refuses to let its audience go.

Describing it as a live concept album, Craig Ilott and iOTA devised Smoke and Mirrors specifically for the Spiegeltent; an old place that travels the world and makes countless performers and freaks feel like they belong. With a sexy-as-hell design by Nicholas Dare and dramaturg guidance by Sakia Moore, it captures the momentary ecstasy, passing connection and lingering darkness of travelling performers and draws the audience into a surreal world where time and memory hold no truth.

 iOTA is a ringmaster of sorts whose songs dream about running away to the circus. Visited by the ghosts and memories of forgotten circus act,  he is soon caught in a lost vaudeville world where acrobats refute all laws of gravity, a cheery tap dancer sings in a brown houndstooth suit, a bearded lady seduces and an old school magician makes us believe the trick is real. With a live band, who redefine rock and sex, he is drawn into acts and his presence leaves each in an place they never expected.

From mind blowing numbers like "Fuck me into my happy place" and  pin-drop moments like Queenie Van de Zandt's bearded reprisal of the ringmaster's "I'm just a simple girl" (Tina Harris as musical director has to be mentioned – and she looks mighty fine in her shorts and braces), the completeness of Smoke and Mirrors shows how cabaret and vaudeville are art.

This review appears on AussieTheatre.com

photo by Jamie Williams

2007 Reviews

If you're nostalgic about 2007, reviews from that distant year are now uploaded.

It was the year
I discovered iOTA and Lally Katz,
Micky D told us about having colonic irrigation,
Kristy Edmunds presented the most amazing MIAF program
and my favourite play was Air Balloon Across Antarctica.

The Rocky Horror Show

The Rocky Horror Show

Dainty Consolidated Entertainment, Ambassador Theatre Group 

18 September 2008

Word on the street was that iOTA is the best Frank N Furter ever. That’s some pretty big, stiletto, patent boots to fill. Last night Melbourne got to see if what all the fuss was about, as The Rocky Horror Show opened in the less-sunny capital.

Let me take you (if I may) back to 1980. The Time Warp was a contender on the Countdown Top Ten, with Ashes to Ashes as its main competition for the number one spot. It was close, but Richard O’Brien beat David Bowie. So that means it’s about 28 years since I discovered and fell in love with The Rocky Horror Show. I’ve seen many Franks since then. (I am too young to have seen Reg Livermore though.) Frank remains an original, intriguing and unforgettable character. When he’s played right, every member of the audience wants him; when he’s played wrong, he’s a boring and offensive parody. I expected a lot from iOTA, not only from hearsay about this performance, but because his original music is rarely off my iPOD play lists.  Did he live up to expectation, comparison and hope?

Oh, yes! iOTA is a goddam super star. It’s hard to describe the difference between a very good performer and a great one, until you see one of the greats. iOTA is one of the great ones. He doesn’t perform Frank – he is Frank.  He owns the room and no matter how amazing the rest of the cast are, they almost pale in comparison.

This cast is indeed fabulous. The ensemble is as tight as a corset and their skill, talent, dedication and enthusiasm are undeniable. But has Gale Edwards directed a great production?

This Rocky plays with the rhythm and melody of the music, the design has been described as a bit too ‘Bratz dolls’, and the characterisations are slightly different from the well-known expectations. I didn’t like all of the choices, but this production offers something new and reveals unexpected and original moments, like the "Don’t Dream It" cock chariot that is simply going to be adored or hated.

However, to get an opinion different from my own, I went with a friend who had never seen a Rocky (not even the film). He didn’t get what the fuss was about and said that he had no idea why the audience where whooping and cheering. After some intense questioning, he admitted that he didn’t understand what was going on.

From the biggest arena to the tiniest theatre, success comes down to understanding the characters and following their journey. The Rocky Horror Show is a surprising and original story about unique characters who all grow, act and change. This production relies heavily on an assumption that the audience knows what’s going on. The rushed first act doesn’t allow time to create or discover an empathy with or understanding of the brilliant characters.

After some thought, my friend also said, “It’s like watching a technically amazing band performing covers. You can’t fault it, but it just doesn’t feel right.”

Despite everything that is terrific about this Rocky Horror Show, in it’s determination to be a Rocky that we haven’t seen, it loses the essence of what made this show so great when it all began.

But iOTA is the best Frank ever. If you love the show, see this Frank.

This review appeared on AussieTheatre.com

iOTA and The Beauty Queens

iOTA and The Beauty Queens
15 December 2007
The Famous Spiegeltent

What do you do when you have a full Spiegeltent full of devoted fans, a show dependant upon the sound you’ve spent weeks perfecting on the computer and the gods of technology decide to curse you? You do the show anyway – of course.
 
iOTA and the Beauty Queens (Sharpy & Timmy) didn’t expect to be doing a semi-acoustic show with lots of bass and drum. They did describe the sound they created and it sounded like it would have been amazing. But I didn’t really care and neither did anyone else there.
 
I wanted to see iOTA perform. I’m still chastising myself for missing the Melbourne season of Hedwig and now know that I will need a trip to Sydney to see him as Frank.
 
iOTA is a rare genuine mix of rock, punk, gender bending and pure charisma. You don’t want to take your eyes off him. Combine that with a well trained, honeyesque voice that lovingly embraces the harshness of rock without losing any tone or control. It must be scary to be called enigmatic, but IOTA lives up to his reputation.
 
I don’t know his original music enough to comment on the effect of the technical problem, but I was mesmerised and would have bought a CD if they’d been selling them. I’ll go and find myself one this week.

This review originally appeared on AussieTheatre.com