Review: I'm Not a Mime

Melbourne International Comedy Festival
I'm Not a Mime
Patrick Collins
12 April 2021
The Butterfly Club
to 18 April 
www.comedyfestival.com.au

Patrick Collins

My review is in Time Out.

Review: Because The Night

Because the Night
Malthouse
9 April 2021
All of Malthouse
The season is sold out, but keep an eye on the website
www.malthousetheatre.com.au

"Because the Night" Malthouse . Photo by Pia Johnson

Hamlet as a choose-your-own-adventure, escape-room, gallery, anonymous-dress-up, wear-comfy-shoes, live-mystery, 1980’s-trip-to-Tassie, deconstructed-text, maze, open-stranger’s-drawers, op-shop-rummage, carnival-spook-house, re-imaging response to the natural world fighting back as humans kill each other for power? Hells, yes! 

Welcome to Malthouse’s Because the Night. 

The inherent nature of art is a unique experience. Any experience of this immersive experience is impossible to recreate as everyone is encouraged to explore the 30-plus rooms, follow any of the six actors and make their own story. 

"Because the Night" Malthouse . Photo by Pia Johnson

Conceived in lockdown, Because the Night is as much director Matthew Lutton’s response to Covid as a response to Hamlet. With a text by Kamarra Bell-Wykes, Ra Chapman and Lutton, this Elsinore is a 1980’s Tasmanian Kingdom forestry town where ancient giant trees are the impending threat. A basic knowledge of Hamlet is assumed*, but it can be enjoyed without engaging with more than the overarching story. 

Once bags are put in lockers, everyone in the 60-person audience is given a black cloak and papier-mâché mask to become a ghost – non-distracting identical ghosts haunting the space is a brilliant move – and begin in three different rooms. I saw Hamlet (Khisraw Jones-Shukoor; Keegan Joyce is in the other cast) and kick-arse Ophelia (Tahlee Fereday or Artemis Ioannides) in the gym, and so want to see how it begins for Gertrude (Belinda McClory or Jennifer Vuletic), Claudia (Maria Theodorakis or Nicole Nabout), Laertes (Harvey Zielinski or Ras-Samuel Welda’abzgi) and Polonius (Rodney Afif or Syd Brisbane). 

"Because the Night" Malthouse . Photo by Pia Johnson

These six are the only characters and while it’s cool to not be bothered by the outside commentary from the rest of the castle, another way to dive into this story is to be Rosencranz, Horatio or dead King Hamlet and find your scenes. If you miss THE soliloquy, I can’t imagine anyone stopping you from having a go yourself (quietly) when you find Yorick’s skull. 

If you really miss the text, it’s all in the design. Dale Ferguson (architecture), Marg Horwell and Matilda Woodroofe (interiors), Kat Chan (costumes), J Davide Franzke (sound) and Amelia Lever-Davidson (lighting) tell Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Because the Night. Explore! Push the “don’t push” buttons feel, watch, touch, open, get lost and listen. The detail is exquisite. From being able to see Claudia on the royal-office phone while hanging out with Gertrude in her flower-clad bedroom to feeling the empty air in front of you as you inch into a pitch-black room, the spoilers aren’t in the story but in the secrets of the design.

"Because the Night" Malthouse . Photo by Pia Johnson

There are clues everywhere. Some are obvious and others would take multiple visits to begin to figure out. But open draws, look in folders, go down anything that looks like it might be a room – I thought I’d found them all; I didn’t. But I found Hamlet’s childhood diary, King Hamlet’s autopsy report and Polonius’s secret bunker. I watched Laertes leave notes, Ophelia hide a weapon and Gertrude run her hands through the dirt of her husband’s grave. I followed actors and was distracted by rooms and lights and sounds. The story is clear no matter what you see or miss, but I knew we were more than half-way though when distraught Hamlet ran past me in a corridor convincing himself that “it was an accident”.

"Because the Night" Malthouse . Photo by Pia Johnson

The breathtaking complexity of Because the Night overcomes any fear of gimmick or even comparison to other immersive works based on Shakespeare. It’s sold out, but that only means that it’s something that Melbourne audiences really want more of. And multiple visits to. So keep an eye on the Malthouse web site for news. And next time, it would be amazing to have an immersive Australian story like Don’s Party, Summer of the 17th Doll or another Cloudstreet. 

"Because the Night" Malthouse . Photo by Pia Johnson

 

 * King Hamlet is dead and possibly haunting his castle. His wife Gertrude quickly married the King's brother/sister Claudius/a, who became monarch. His son Hamlet isn't happy. Polonius is advisor to the monarch and has two children, Laertes and Ophelia. Teenagers Prince Hamlet and Ophelia are hot for each other. There’s a lot of angst and the only option for a Shakespearian ending is “everyone gets married” or “everyone dies”.

Review: The Butch is Back

 Melbourne International Comedy Festival
The Butch is Back
Reuben Kaye
9 April 2020
Maz Watt's
to 18 April 
www.comedyfestival.com.au

Reuben Kaye

My review is in Time Out.

Review: Agony!Misery!

Melbourne International Comedy Festival
Agony!Misery!
Zoe Coombs Marr
2 April 2020
Melbourne Town Hall, The Powder Room
to 18 April (with extra shows at The Forum)
www.comedyfestival.com.au

Zoe Coombs Marr

My review is at Time Out.

Review: On the Origin of Faeces

Melbourne International Comedy Festival 

On the Origin of Faeces 

Alanta Colley 

30 March 2021 

The Butterfly Club 

to 4 April 

www.comedyfestival.com.au

Alanta Colley

My review is in Time Out.  

Guest Review: Moth

Moth
Dancehouse
18 March 2021
Dancehouse
to 21 March
www.dancehouse.com.au

Review by Courtney Beaumont

Moth. Photo by Gregory Lorenzutti 

What flame are you drawn to? What gives you life and, paradoxically, death?

MOTH at Dancehouse explores the cyclical experience of life through precise looping choreography, transformative costume design and exemplary cohesive lighting and sound production. 

Like moths to the flame, three dancers (Emily Shoesmith, Mel Tan and Aimee Schollum) contort and twist, fluttering towards the literal and figurative light. Searching for synchronicity within themselves, the performers move in unity as they discover the light. Director, choreographer and performer Aimee Schollum,from New Zealand, creates a devastating and raw world of destruction that explores the futility of life and the beauty that can be found in it. MOTH follows Schollum's first full length work, Sonos, which won Best Dance at the 2018 Melbourne Fringe. 

The choreography is exceptional – immersive, dynamic, meditative and stressful at times as it explores the metamorphosis of the moths, who move with malleable self-assurance, unaware of their own mortality. With precise unity in movement, they are drawn to a shared flame. As it expands, they discover their personal lights, which prompts the audience to contemplate their own flames. 

 The repetitive, looping choreography combines bodily sounds of percussion, along with the droning original sound design by Tamara Violet Partridge. The sound design lends itself greatly to the raw, pack mentality of the moths and follows the life cycle of the moth. When danger arrives the design is heightened with sound that ignites the primal instincts of flutter and panic. 

Amelia Peace’s costume design is transformative as it breathes with its own sound throughout the work. The costumes first swamp the performers, in brown and dust-stained shapeless gowns that move with the performers. Throughout the performance the costumes slowly are removed along with the moths’ metamorphosis. 

The haunting world of MOTH will have you living and dying with the moths, and meditating on what it is to experience life, despite its futility. Beauty can be found in its cyclical and mesmerising transformation of life, death and rebirth.

Courtney Beaumont is a Melbourne based writer, with a background in theatre and performance. She has worked in production for 10News, as well as reporting for the Herald Sun in urban affairs. She currently writes independently and is an active part of the Melbourne theatre community.

Review: Colour-Fool

Colour-Fool
ButohOut! 2021 New Ab/Normal
28 March 2021
Dancehouse
to 28 March
www.dancehouse.com.au

ButohOut! 2021 New Ab/Normal

My review is on artshub.com..au

Review: The Human Voice

The Human Voice
Periscope Productions and Choral Edge

4 March 2020
Meat Market Stables
to 13 March

meatmarket.org.au
www.periscopeprod.com

The writers of 'The Human Voice'. Photo by Sarah Walker
Jean Tong, Georgia Symons, Thomas De Angelis, Lewis Treston, Ang Collins, Fiona Spitzkowsky

Periscope Productions developed the idea of a multi-writer production based around the theme of telephone conversations before 2020. So, while The Human Voice's relevance of using technology to communicate rings loud and clear, the work never loses its initial intent or feels like a reaction to lockdown.

The company, who began at Melbourne University student theatre in 2012, were inspired by a 1930 play by Jean Cocteatu and wanted to explore how we talk to each other on telephones. Voice-to-voice; intimacy without without video or emojis.  Are we more honest when all we have are our voices or does it make it easier to hide what we should say or want to say?

Director Benjamin Sheen invited six of Australia's most-exciting emerging writers – Ang Collins, Fiona Spitzkowsky, Georgia Symons, Jean Tong, Lewis Treston and Thomas De Angelis – to write around the theme. 

The six works are performed by an ensemble of equally-as-exciting performers – Amarachi Okorom, Alex Hines, Chris Wallace, Felicity Steel, Cait Spiker, Mason Phoumirath, Ross Dwyer, Senuri Wagaarachchi – and supported by a live choir – Choral Edge (musical director and composer: Juliana Kay; composer David Keefe; movement director Jessica Dick, who also directed two of the pieces). 

Its disparate elements could feel mismatched, but its unexpected synergy is invigorating, engaging and exciting. 

The audience are initially split into two groups who are divided by a curtain. It's clear that there is a stage and performers on each side. The first short works are phone conversions. Everyone can can hear both sides of the conversation, but can only see one side, as the speaker eye rolls, chair stretches or goes on doing the dishes. As there are laughs from the audience watching the other person, it's easy to imagine that their actions might also not mesh with their words.

Each has written a work that could easily stand alone but is supported by and made stronger by those surrounding it. There's the awkward and comfortable love of talking to family, the "are they really?" of phone sex, the "what-if?" ease that not being physically seen, the freedom of confessing to a stranger, the jealousy of someone calling your person too often, to a sci-fi tension-filled thriller with tins and strings, and the inevitable questions of what happens when people are in the same space again.

Themes of communication easily connect the works, but the theatricality of having a live choir brings more layers of connection. At first the choie can only be heard, but the gut-felt power of humans singing together builds as they get closer and are eventually an integral part of the performance.

Hearing human voices can get us through the worst of times and make life feel normal, but being in the same room as other people is how we make theatre. The Human Voice incorporates many independent theatre voices and by exploring one way that we communicate, it finds many ways to connect with all the humans who see it.

Review: Runt

Runt

Dee/Cornelius/Wilks

2 March 2021

fortyfivedownstairs

to 7 March

fortyfivedownstairs.com

Nicci Wilks 'Runt' Photo by Pier Carthew

This is a something special.

My review in Time Out.

Review: We’re probably really really happy right now

We're probably really really happy right now

Theatre Works and Public Service Announcement Theatre Co

25 February 2021

Theatre Works

to 6 March

www.theatreworks.org.au

 

'We're probably really really happy right now' Photo by Pia Johnson

My review in Time Out.

Review: Single Ladies

Single Ladies
Red Stitch
10 February 2021
Red Stitch Theatre
to 14 March
redstitch.net

"Single Ladies" Red Stitch. Photo by Jodie Hutchinson

There was a lockdown and sharing reviews didn't seem like the thing to do.  And today we face a world where our federal government think information, news sharing and discussion isn't what we want. Sigh ... dependence on social media.

So, go to the theatre. I really enjoyed Single Ladies. Here's my review in Time Out.

Review: Jofus and the Whale

Jofus and the Whale
Fish and Twiner's Bait Shop
La Mama
9 February 2021
La Mama Courthouse
to 21 February
lamama.com.au

Lily Fish in "Jofus and the Whale"

The first night back at La Mama since March 2020. Friends, strangers and sparkling plonk! What an unmitigated delight! 

And Jofus and the Whale is even more delightful. And perhaps the perfect metaphor for getting out of 2020 is Jofus escaping from a whale's gross and squelchy – so squelchy – insides.

Jofus in red nose, white tights, red striped socks and a tailored button-up jack and matching beret is Lily Fish's clown. Fish and her director Kimberley Twiner are founding members of the outrageously wonderful ensemble PO PO MO CO, who spent a lot of lock down dancing in the front yard of a house in Brunswick for passing traffic. PO PO MO CO often make shows for grownups, but Jofus is for everyone.

It’s a story of a Jofus and a whale. And a fish called Roger. And a dog called Samantha. It's a bit Moby Dick, biblical Jonah, Everybody Poops, Jacques Cousteau, and a reflection on obsession.

And it’s physical comedy at its most- skilled and honed. Being multiple characters, contemplating quests, and taking on the responsibility of being the first show in a theatre-as-loved-as-much-as-Melbourne-itself is a mighty task. Being your authentic clown that could only be from your heart, and letting audiences know and love you without any barriers is also a mighty task.

In her director's notes Twiner talks about clowning,  being alone and the important thrill of play and being stupid: "When the idiot is truly initiated, they have become brave, brave enough to do something very scary, to stand there, alone to look people in the eye, and to simply be one big-huge-absolute-unforgettable-unmistakeable dingus."

Jofus is a dingus, a dingus who is as thrilled to be back in theatre as theatre is thrilled to see Jofus. Twiner’s direction keeps the story moving and doesn’t let Jofus be indulgent, and Lisa Mibus’s lighting creates a world that’s easy to believe is under the sea or in a whale.

Jofus and the Whale is joyous. And wonderfully odd in all the ways that leave you grinning inanely for an hour. Underneath your mask, of course.

Review: Das Rheingold

Das Rheingold
Melbourne Opera
3 February 2021
Regent Theatre
5, 7 February
21 February
melbourneopera.com

"Das Rheingold" Melbourne Opera. Photo by Robin Halls

If you're going to be the first opera back and the first production in the re-furbished The Regent after a year that left us wondering who was in charge at Valhalla, you may as well go Ring. 

And you may as well excel!

Melbourne Opera continue to dazzle with productions that are mostly funded independently and supported by sponsors and benefactors. Covid postponed Das Rheingold – twice – but the gods are back on side. And if you are unable to get to The Regent tonight or Sunday, Melbourne Digital Concert Hall are live streaming Sunday's performance.  And there's a performance in Bendigo at the gorgeous Ulumbarra Theatre on 21 February.

Das Rheingold  is the first part of Wagner's four-opera Ring Cycle, Der Ring des Nibelungen. In its full 15  hours, it's been live binged since it was performed as a cycle at the first Bayreuth Festival in Germany in 1876. There are "Ring nuts" –  people who travel the world to see ALL the cycles; passion for this story is obsessive – who are planning to be in Melbourne in 2023 for the full cycle, which will be the first Australian independent production of the cycle since 1913.

"Das Rheingold" Melbourne Opera. Photo by Robin Halls

Based on a Norse saga (the same one that inspired Tolkien and his Ring stories), there are dwarfs, giants, gods, golden apples, and a magic ring. It begins when a creepy man wonders why content and happy women don't fancy him, and decides that his having wealth and power will change that. He steals their gold and makes a ring that will give its owner power over the world. The gods get involved and they aren't much better at dealing with power and greed. Trickery, anger, bargaining, a goddess speaking the truth, death, despair, and a rainbow bridge follow. And Part 1 is just the prologue!

"Das Rheingold" Melbourne Opera. Photo by Robin Halls

The cast of Das Rheingold is relatively small but 140 Victorian performers and creators and technicians are involved (and Wagnerian conductor Anthony Negus from the UK). Covid restrictions meant casting locally and one of the exciting elements of this production is having singers from the company's Richard Divall Emerging Artists Program in principal roles. 

"Das Rheingold" Melbourne Opera. Photo by Robin Halls

 

 Director Suzanne Chaundy's consistent vision is neither past nor future but clearly reflects on the mythology and now. This opera was first performed in 1869, but its themes of power and greed are sadly still contemporary. Chaundy consistently supports creative teams that surpass any expectations of having limited resources. This production has the fraction of the resources available to other opera companies but is emotionally engaging, musically commanding and visually stunning.

The design team especially excel in creating an integrated world, despite some distractions like stage sound being heard and polystyrene looking a bit too much like polystyrene. Andrew Bailey's sets fly from heavens to the darkest pits using lifts, swing poles and ring motifs; Tobias Edwards's video is used sparingly to create magic; Harriet Oxley's costumes define  character; and Rob Sowinski's lighting connects all the elements and works with the music to support and the mood and momentum of the story. The holding back of some colours until the final act is especially wow.

"Das Rheingold" Melbourne Opera. Photo by Robin Halls

Ring nuts need no convincing to see this production, but it's a remarkable opportunity for newbies to discover what the fuss is about. Or merely use the opportunity to hear opera singers and an 80-piece orchestra in an historic theatre that was built for opera.