Kerith Manderson-Galvin
Artist
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| 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
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| "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. |
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
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| 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.
