The Container Festival
MUST
31 July to 15 August
Monash University, Clayton Campus
Guest blogger Chris Edwards
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| The Container Festival |
I’ve seen some
damn good theatre lately.
MUST’s Container Festival been in full swing
for just over a week and I’ve been spending a lot of time in tiny
performance spaces forgetting about the cold thanks to the excellent art in
front of me. So much time, in fact, that finding the time to write up my
thoughts on these shows has been difficult, to say the least.
But, without further ado, here are some of the
best shows that I’ve been lucky enough to get to, and with two nights of
performances left, do try and get out to Clayton to see what all of the artists
have on offer.
Bedtime Stories for Girls
By Genevieve Atkins
Directed by Jessica McLaughlin Cafferty
Possibly my favourite show of the festival,
this is a shockingly honest and brutal deconstruction of the hierarchies and
cruelties of young female relationships – and it’s also terrifyingly hilarious.
The writing is the hero here, as Atkins’s biting wit and sharp satire brings to
mind Amy Schumer or a David Mamet who’s more-feminist and less-douchebag, and
sustains what might have just been a sketch-length concept to half an hour
without showing any signs of strain.
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| Bedtime Stories for Girls |
The direction and performances are just as
striking, with Imogen Walsh and Hayley Foster particularly standing out as the
bitchiest of the four girls, though all four (including Aislinn Murray and
Emily Stokes) have excellent chemistry and comic timing. This is an angry shout
of a play, viciously attacking the way in which this society teaches young
women to fear their own bodies and hate each other. Go see it, and definitely
watch out for whatever this team makes next.
Blessed
A play reading
By Fleur Kilpatrick
Directed by Danny Delahunty
If you’ve read my previous post then you’ve
already heard me wax rhapsodic about Fleur Kilpatrick’s writing, so I’ll try to
keep this brief: I loved it. In a pared back reading, with just performers
Olivia Monticcuolo and Kevin Kiernan-Molloy onstage, the beauty of
Kilpatrick’s words shone through. The poetry of her dialogue, the simplicity
and skill of the performers, and her ability to hone in on the specificity of a
character through how comfortable they are or aren’t with their own poetry,
make the script a pleasure to experience.
Plus there’s something particularly
impressive in the fact that Kilpatrick has written a play that is both about
religion and full of a potent rage, but not one that’s directed at that
religion. To say anymore would be to delve into spoiler territory, but suffice
it to say that this rage is more directed at a society in which the gap between
the rich and the poor keeps growing bigger and bigger and nobody seems to care
anymore. I will definitely be seeing whatever full production this text
receives at the beginning of next year.
The Wiggle: A One Man Tribute to the Best
Band of the Nineties
Created and performed by Jordan Broadway
This show is just pure fun. Jordan
Broadway embodies everyone’s favourite group of colour-coded children’s
entertainers in a 25-minute nostalgia-based contact high. I sat in an
audience of 40-plus adults who all sang and danced along as Broadway’s
crystal clear voice perfectly covered such classics as "Hot Potato" and "Big Red Car".
If you don't have a particular connection to The Wiggles, then this may not be the show for you, but if you do, prepare to feel like a little kid again. I don't think I've purely enjoyed any other show from this year's festival quite as much as I did this one, and that's saying something.
I'll be posting more reviews over the next few days, but do make sure you make the trek out to Clayton tonight and tomorrow night for the last two nights of regular performances before Saturday's Closing Night Gala. There have been some truly great shows this year, and I'm looking forward to telling you about some more of them!
SM: I'm back in Melbourne and heading out on Friday.
SM: I'm back in Melbourne and heading out on Friday.
