Mini review: Heaven

Heaven
La Mama
29 May 2013
La Mama Theatre
to 30 May
lamama.com.au

Heaven won writer/director Kit Brookman the Phillip Parson's Young Playwright's Award in 2012 and this production proves that he's a young writer to keep an eye on.

With an uneasy tone that forces questions of what is real, Heaven is the story of a group of teenage friends who try to bring a classmate back from her recent death. Although maybe a bit over done at times, his writing captures a teen voice and his story has them making choices and behaving like teenagers.

And the cast – Jessica Clarke, Andre Jewson, Lachlan Woods and Sarah Ogden – grasp the tone and mood perfectly; each bringing enough extra to the script to make the characters theirs.

Heaven did so well that extra performances were added. Next time, I'd like to see what a different director finds in the work, but the good news is that we'll see a new Kit Brookman play (with Sarah Ogden) later in the year (I don't think I can say where yet).

Review: Menagerie and Bodily Education

NEON: Festival of Independent Theatre
Menagerie
Daniel Schlusser Ensemble
17 May 2013

On the bodily education of young girls
Fraught Outfit
31 May 2013

The Lawler
mtc.com.au

The MTC's NEON Festival of Independent Theatre is letting five of Melbourne's best independent companies create and present a new work without the stress of finding a venue and an audeince. It's exciting knowing that these amazing and very-loved companies will be seen by a broader audience, but that doesn't mean they are going to be loved by new eyes.

The season opened with the Daniel Schlusser Ensemble's Menagerie.

They tried to get the rights to Tennessee Williams's The Glass Menangerie, but thankfully they weren't granted because what they created was far more fascinating.

I thought Menagerie was beautiful. The cast were faultless and I was so engulfed in the experience that it left me a bit wordless. So, please read what Chris Boyd said in The Australian.

Others didn't love it, like Cameron Woodhead. I've read whinges along the lines of "how could he have misread it?", but all reviewers can do it read what they see on the stage and his review makes it very clear that he didn't see a work about love.

I was less worried about interpretation, which could be because I like and admire, rather than love Tennessee's writing (and my feminist reading of him never left me feeling comfortable or seeing the love), but this work did inspire me to re-read The Glass Menangerie. 

However, Schlusser's work isn't so much about interpreting text. He creates worlds for characters to live in and it's up to the audience to decide who and what they watch. In this case, it's still William's New Orleans, but in a trailer park after Cyclone Katrina, where there's a plastic paddling pool, a hot tin roof to play on and people from William's life and work.

It's nothing like a Williams play, but it's the essence of Williams and if it doesn't bring you closer to his work, it sure brings you closer to something about the man who wrote some of the more important theatrical works of the twentieth century.

The next NEON work (finishing this week) is Fraught Outfit's On the bodily education of young girls. 

It's inspired by a 1903 novella by Frank Wedekind and director Adena Jacobs has worked with ten young women (13 to 16) from St Martin's Youth theatre.

It's another remarkably beautiful work to watch with a very different, but utterly delightful cast.  But, unlike Menagerie, I didn't leave inspired to read the text. In fact, my reading of the summary of the text left me re-interpreting what I saw on the stage.

Sitting in the theatre, I gave up looking for story and meaning and was happy to watch the young women stretch and dance and play. Does that sound pervy? It didn't feel so watching it, but reading that it was about a group of young girls in a boarding institution being groomed for an unknown future made me feel awkward.

I initially saw a gorgeous and heartfelt reflection on ageing and the difference in seeing teenagers as women or girls – and especially how teenagers see themselves as one or the other. But as a place that was training them up for something "unknown", I saw it as a reflection on the performance world these young women want to work in.

Already they have been cast based on how they are going to look on the stage and the world of performance can be wonderful, but often cruel and judgemental. Is this their bodily education? Instead of watching them as young women being themselves, I saw the process that created the work and any onstage awkwardness as misunderstanding.

I wish I hadn't read the program and could only see it as something that was beautiful.

And we still have Hayloft, The Rabble and Sisters Grimm to come!

(And I am currently reading The Story of O in preparation for The Rabble's work. At this stage, all I can say is Oh...)

Menagerie photo by Sarah Walker.

Bodily Education photo by Lachlan Woods.

Mini review: True Love Travels on a Gravel Road

True Love Travels on a Gravel Road
23 May 2013
fortyfive downstairs
to 2 June
truelovetravels.net

Jane Miller is one of my favourite Melbourne writers. Her work lets us see the hearts of her broken characters and she knows that the only way to survive the unexpected horrors of love is to embrace the darkness and laugh.

True Love Travels on a Gravel Road is set in a country town where two couples are trying to figure out what to do next. For Maggie and Jake, it's a trip to Graceland and things like Maggie's husband or Jakes lack of money needn't stand in the way of their dream.

With spot on performances (Chris Broadstock, Marnie Gibson, Emily Goddard, David Kambouris, Elizabeth McColl and Glenn van Oosterom) and tone-perfect direction by Beng Oh, there's not much more to say, except that it finishes on Sunday.

Review: Flowerchildren, The Mamas and Papas Story

Flowerchildren: The Mamas and Papas Story
Magnormos
22 May 2013
The Comedy Theatre
flowerchildren.com.au
to 23 June

Magnormos's 2011 premiere of Flowerchildren: The Mamas and Papas Story sold out at Theatre Works, got rave reviews (here's mine) and made it onto favourite and award's lists. It's since been developed and has opened its first professional season at The Comedy Theatre. If it doesn't sell out, get rave reviews and awards, there's something wrong with the system because it's as close to perfect as music theatre can be.

The story spans 1965 to 68, the years that The Mamas and The Papas, an American folk rock quartet,  recorded and performed as a group, sold millions of records and ensured their place in music history. The music, mostly written by John Phillips, is still as memorable today and epitomises the sound of hippy California.

But it wasn't all flowers and free love. Peter Fitzpatrick wrote the (immaculately researched) book and has been working with Aaron Joyner (director, producer and musical arranger; and founder of Magnormos) since 2009 to develop the work. With its four narrators, it focuses behind the hits and public adoration, and the genius moment is making the storytelling about the songs; leaving it hard to ever hear some of them again without feeling the love, pain or bitterness that created them.

Joyner's arrangements weaves the music around the narrative, letting it to be heard as more than a final product, but the highlights are the recreations of their recorded sound. Music director Sophie Thomas creates a live sound that's got be as amazing as sitting on a bean bag with a huge pair of stereo headphones and a special cookie while listening to them for the first time. Their studio recordings with eight-part harmonies are created with four more singers who sing as ensemble characters and from backstage. I think they were more visible in the original version and I missed seeing how the four created a live eight-person sound.

It's naturally a much bigger show, with a new design and extra ensemble, but it hasn't lost any of its intimacy. So much that it feels like it's still finding out how to fill so much space – which they needn't worry about because the sound and the stories are huge and the cast make the group so real that its feels weird watching the real Mamas and Papas on YouTube.

Casey Donavan (Cass), Laura Fitzpatrick (Michelle), Matt Hetherington (John) and Dan Humphris (Denny) tell the four individual stories and the group's story like it's theirs. What makes this production so much more than a bio-show is performances that embrace all the atrocious behaviour, addiction and ability to hurt each other without losing the any of their character's heart. They let us see that everyone believed that were doing the best thing, even if it was obvious to everyone else that it wasn't.

And they can sing. Wow, can they sing. While they sound like the group, each brings enough of themselves to make it sound fresh. And, although it feels wrong to single out anyone in such a consistently sensational ensemble, gorgeous Casey Donavan makes sure that Cass Elliot hears and shares Casey's cheer for "Dream a Little Dream of Me".

If you don't know the music of The Mamas and The Papas, you will be in love with it before the interval. If you've loved them for years, discovering their story can hurt, but nothing takes away from that music. And it might be best to not google too hard to learn about composer John Phillips. He was a far from perfect man, but he created music that's outlived him and will take a long time to fade.

It's kind of odd that a small independent music theatre company from Melbourne has created such a perfect telling of such an American group, but it's one that's going to travel far from Melbourne. (Is somebody flying Michelle Phillips out to see it?) And if we can create such stunning music theatre in Australia, why can't some of the money that goes to re-creating American productions be spent on developing more work like this?

I'm also aware that this is a pricey ticket show and that there doesn't seem to be any concession priced tickets. Hopefully there will be deals and offers, because it would be more than a shame if people who have supported Magnormos in the past can't afford to see this and take everyone they know.

This was on AussieTheatre.com.

Review: One Man, Two Guvnors

One Man, Two Guvnors
MTC, Arts Centre Melbourne, National Theatre of Great Britain
21 May 2013
Playhouse, Arts Centre Melbourne
to 22 June
mtc.com.au

By the guffaws at the opening night of One Man, Two Guvnors, it's guaranteed to be a sold-out must-see. With a cast and script as tight as a mother-of-the-bride's girdle, low-class British farce doesn't get any classier.

Commissioned by the National Theatre of Great Britain, it opened in June 2011 and had to move to the West End, where it won a swag of awards, is still running and is also touring the world. With a script by Richard Bean (who wrote The Heretic, seen last year at the MTC), it's an adaption of Servant of Two Masters, a 1742 Italian commedia comedy.

Pauline and Alan are getting engaged, but Pauline's homosexual ex-fiance (her dad made the beard deal in prison) turns up after they thought he was dead. But don't worry cos he is dead and has a twin sister and ... and that's just a sub plot! Meanwhile Francis Henshell's accidentally gone and got himself two jobs and two bosses, who are both in the same hotel (a pub that does food!) and all he has to do is keep them apart, get a feed and meet the dolly of his dreams.

If you're arty and posh, it's a contemporary reflection on commedia dell'arte with a broad social commentary about a time when Britain thought it was going to change. Or – it's bloody funny and set in 1963. It's a bit Carry On/Are You Being Served? but created for and by smart people, and with less tit jokes.

There's a skiffle band (and original songs by Grant Olding) to make the scene changes and the interval much more fun; an old school design with side flats and a curtain that's been designed with as much understanding, irony and jokes as the script (and it's a bit gorgeous); and a cast who deftly balance the line between art and good taste before pratfalling over it and running as fast as they can away from any semblance of arty sensibility.

Owain Arthur owns the show as Francis Henshell, but Mark Jackson as an ailing octegenarian and Edward Bennett as the personification of why we laugh at private boys school are scene stealers and there's no one on the stage who doesn't love and get exactly what this show is.

If the law firm of Dangle, Berry and Bush makes you giggle, you're already loving it.

This was on AussieTheatre.com.

Review: Legally Blonde, The Musical

Legally Blonde: The Musical
Howard Panter for the Ambassador Theatre Group & John Frost
11 May 2013
Princess Theatre
to September
legallyblonde.com.au

Oh my god

Oh my god, you guys

I liked Legally Blonde

I was so surprised!

I really didn't think

it was going to be my kind of show

Oh My God!

Honesty, no one thought that I was going to like Legally Blonde: The Musical, least of all me – but how wrong we were!  It's a hoot and an utter delight from start to finish and no where near as airbrushed, Barbie-pink, teen and dumb as its marketing makes it out to be.

Elle Woods is a sorority sweetheart at UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles) and heels-over-head in love with super spunk Warner. When Warner dumps her for not being serious, she decides that the only way she can get him back is by joining him at Harvard Law School. It takes some work, but she gets accepted, but is a pink-wearing beach-hanging rich girl from the west going to get along with the black-wearing scruffy intellects of the north-east?

I haven't seen the film, but am told that the musical takes a chunk from the original book by Amanda Brown. I don't care if it's not great or put in the "chick lit" (grrrrr) section of the book store, it's a book and when people read a book they like, they start reading more and society's intelligence goes up.

What makes the stage version such a joy is that it starts with a complex story and that all the cliched expectations of its story are shaken, tossed about, high-kicked and put back together in ways that celebrates the importance of being yourself. And what makes it stand out from some of our more recent commercial musical snores is a cast who are all playing the same show, enjoying themselves and daring the audience to not love it as much as they do.

Lucy Durack is Elle; she's wonderful and nothing like the Barbie princess on the posters. By finding her own balance between ditz and girly swat and by not being a cliche of either, her Elle is warm and loving and funny. I've since had a look at the film and Broadway Elles (I can't believe I grew up in a YouTube-less world) and Durack's bought enough originality to make Elle her own.

Which isn't to say that the rest of the cast are anything less. And I mean the human ones, as well as the dogs who deserve extra treats and tummy rubs for hitting their marks and being more disciplined than many human actors I've seen.

I saw David Harris in Miss Saigon in 2007 and knew he'd be one who'd make it because he brings emotion and guts to his characters. As scruffy intellect Emmet Forrest, he kicks spunky Warner (Rob Mills) away without trying too hard. And Mills is perfect as Warner, but needs to go deeper to give Warner an extra dimension and some sympathy.

Cameron Daddo is delightfully sleezy as Professor Callahan; Erika Heynatz is as tight as her amazing abs as the exercise queen accused of murdering her hubby, Brooke Wyndham; and Helen Dallimore as  Paulette, hairdresser and new bff to Elle, almost steals the show with a gorgeous performance that's so full of love that you want her to be your bff too.

So why did I think I wasn't going to like it? It's a film that just never made it into my DVD player (although that's about to change), but the marketing of this show makes it look like it's for brainless tweens who give each other snaps and want to be in a sorority, even if they don't understand that it means getting into uni (and – thank the gods – that we don't have them here). It's all pink and princessey and airbrushed to make Elle look plastic.

And Legally Blonde is not that! There's an audience out there who love scruffy intellects, despise pink, have no idea what "props" are and don't need an explanation of what a Rhodes scholar is in the program, but, they only see this show as piece of unworthy fluff. 

Legally Blonde is fluff, but it's more that expensive Iranian fairy floss than spun sugar on a stick. And, as the tickets aren't as bank-breaking as recent show, don't let the pink put you off!

(And if you're a student, there are special student rush prices: details on the Facebook page.)

This was on AussieTheatre.com.

Photos by Jeff Busby.

Mini review: One For The Ugly Girls

One For The Ugly Girls
La Mama
12 May 2013
La Mama Theatre and ONFG
to 19 May
lamama.com.au

This production of One For The Ugly Girls was a must-see at the Adelaide Fringe this year and has already added an extra show for its La Mama season. Ring La Mama now (9347 6142) to see if you can squeeze in before it finishes on Sunday.

A middle aged painter's wife died three months ago and he books a life model to use her as a trigger to paint one last perfect painting of his love before she fades from his memory. When Jade turns up, she's not at all what he was expecting.

I was a bit excited to read that Tahli Corin's script had been workshopped by Edward Albee and can see his influence in the confrontations. It's a terrific script, but is feels a bit over-written and distanced, and I'd like to have felt more rawness to bring us closer to the characters.

None of which makes it any less enjoyable as Syd Brisbane, Hannah Norris and Lori Bell bring the emotional reality and closeness to their characters that's not quite there in the script.

It's a work about our perceptions of beauty in art and women, with opportunities to question our own judgments about both. I also wonder what it would be like if the painter were played by a pin-up perfect man (not that you're not a spunk in your own way, Syd), but it's always curious when a not-so perfect man judges a naked woman.

Review: Insomnia Cat Came to Stay

Insomnia Cat Came to Stay
Quiet Little Fox
12 May 2013
Tower Theatre, Malthouse
to 18 May
malthousetheatre.com.au

If you too dream of sleep, there are two nights left to see the beautifully disturbing – and a bit too close for comfort – Insomnia Cat Came to Stay.

I've had a bad sleep week and when reviews slip away, it's because they're written in my head in the useless dark hours of sleeplessness and I've been too tired to get them into real words. I have ongoing sleep issues. "Issues" makes it sound like it's solvable and an inconvenience, but anyone who has seen dawn after hours of lying in bed knows the special hell of insomnia.

Insomnia Cat Came to Stay is Fleur Kilpatrick's response to 18 months of insomnia. Now let's make this clear, insomnia isn't "It was hard to get to sleep last night", it's "I didn't sleep" last night or the night before or the night before. We don't know why, but our bodies are designed to sleep for at least a third of our life and without this time, we break.

Fleur first performed her piece at the 2011 Melbourne Fringe, but for this season (that has already been loved in Perth and Adelaide), the gorgeous creative team of Danny Delahunty (director), Sarah Walker (designer), Thomas Russell (animator), Roderick Cairns (composer/arranger) are joined by performer Joanne Sutton.

Already bound in her white bed-seet world when we enter, Sutton's seems amiable and sweet, then the show starts and she's mesmerising and a little bit scary as she brings nights of sleeplessness to vivid, disturbing life that no amount of valerian can help.

She's too awake to sleep and too exhausted to function. With animations projected onto her bed sheets prison, it's like her dreams are crawling out of her head, without giving her the peace of sleeping through and forgetting them. As insomnia takes over her life, she gives it a name: her insomnia cat. It's a smelly moggy who just turns up and demands attention, but who hasn't learnt to love one of these unexpected friends.

Fleur's writing is lovely and captures her insomnia perfectly, but the biggest joy of this show is seeing how seamlessly the design, music and direction work with the actor and the writing to create something that's so much more than great words on paper.

Thanks to Facebook and Words With Friends, I know that I'm not the only person awake at 3 am. I'm lucky that I can make my own hours as a freelancer and can catch up on sleep when other people are at work. I have no idea how insomniacs function when they have to be at a desk by 9 am. If you've ever got a dirty look or a telling off for being late to work because just leaving the house was so hard that you don't know how you'll make it to lunch time, you must see this show.

Or just see it because it's beautiful.

Photo and trailer by Sarah Walker

Mini review: The Tall Man

The Tall Man
La Mama
5 May 2013
La Mama theatre
to 5 May 2013
Lamama.com.au

I think Leticia Caceres is my new favourite director this year. After her gorgeous Constellations at the MTC earlier this year, she's directed Tall Man at La Mama, which sold out and I only managed to see it on its last day because of an extra performance.

She also had a stunner of a script to work with. Angela Betzien tells a heartfelt and honest story about an estranged family that reflects the environmental damage of open cut mines and the destruction of a mining town and society. She made the big picture personal and the result is beautiful and painful. I especially loved how she planted backstory and just let it sit without dominating the now of their tale.

And Hayden Spencer and Louise Brehmer as the too-damaged father and daughter were the perfect cast.

I'm sure we'll see this one again.

Mini review: Dance of Death

Dance of Death
Malthouse Theatre
5 May 2013
Beckett Theatre
to 19 May
malthousetheatre.com.au

As Dance of Death was made by some of my favourite creators, I think it's best that I just say that I'm glad this wasn't my introduction to any of their work.

This work tries to show just how clever and smart its makers are. And it does; they are amazing creators and it's a fine looking show, but the story gets so lost in the being clever that there's nothing and no one to care about. What starts off as a fascinating angry style and tone doesn't change; the end is played from the start and the rest is stuck in a mid-ground that doesn't have the heart to pull us through the story or the distance to let us not want to care and just enjoy the spectacle.

As a well-read smart arse, I understood the cleverness and the reflection of Durrenmatt's reflection of Strinberg, but I wonder if it would make much sense without an understanding of the context.

Review: Scarborough

Scarborough
The Honeytrap
10 May 2013
Brunswick Arts Space
to 18 May
thehoneytrap.net.au

Another new company, another hidden warehouse space and another independent show that's more engaging than anything on our commercial stages this week.

The Honeytrap are a new independent theatre company formed by Melbourne-based creators Loren de Jong Debbie Zukerman, Kasey Gambling, Joanne Redfearn and Celeste Markwell. They've been working together since 2006, formed the company last year and helped to fund their second show, Scarborough, with a Pozible crowd sourcing campaign.

They've also all studied the Meisner method with Wendy Ward and the show has similarities with Ward Theatre's A Death in the Family – currently in a warehouse on another side of the city – starting with it being a surprisingly powerful and fascinating piece of theatre with beautifully honest performances.

The Brunswick Arts Space is in a tiny back alley behind Sydney Road and the noise from the back of the shops adds to the atmosphere of being in a tacky seaside hotel room (designed perfectly by Casey-Scott Corless with costumes by Nicholas Mackinnon). The uneasy floor is covered with sand and the audience have no where to hide, sitting on all sides of the square room.

A 30-year-old teacher (Redfearn) is having a relationship with one of her 15-year-old students (Matthew Connell). To celebrate his 16th birthday – it's not statutory rape once they're 16 – she's booked a room in seaside Scarborough, but as he gets ready for a night on the town, she says she wants to stay in.

Directors De Jong and Markwell focus on how the characters see the relationship and its subtle power shifts. And as they are all somewhere between 15 and 30, they bring an emotional empathy to each character that frees the audience to make their own judgements – which are much harder to make when you're watching the character's most private and honest moments.

And if you dare think it's easier to watch because the student is a male, the play is repeated (almost verbatim) with a male teacher (Doug Lyons) and female student (Libby Brockman). Knowing what's coming takes nothing away from the work and allows for re-thinks that focus less on gender.

This play by UK writer Fiona Evans was a hit at the 2008 Edinburgh Fringe when it was just the first couple, but doubled its length at its London season by introducing the repetition; a bloody good choice.

I suggest seeing Scarborough in tandem with How I Learned to Drive (playing a few 100 metres away at the Mechanics Institute) that has a hotel room scene with an uncle celebrating his niece's adult birthday. And if you like the style of Scarborough, head to Footscray for A Death in the Family. As a southern baysider who had to drive across town to all of these venues,  it's easy to park and well worth the time spent in the car (or it's easy to PT it to Brunswick).

Meanwhile, The Honeytrap has caught some attention with this show and it's going to be exciting and interesting to see where they go from here.

Review: How I Learned to Drive

How I Learned to Drive
Mockingbird Theatre
3 May 2013
Mechanics Institute Performing Arts Centre
to 18 May
mockingbirdtheatre.com.au

How I Learned to Drive won writer Paula Vogel the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1988. If you want to learn about American theatre, the list of Pulitzer winners is a fine place to start. This is a beautifully written work about a harrowing subject that finds a sympathy and forgiveness that's as uncomfortable as its subject.

Director Chris Baldock's new independent company Mockingbird Theatre are continuing to bring famous contemporary scripts to audiences who already love the works and introducing some incredible writers to new audiences. Last year we saw The Laramie Project and can look forward to Equus and Kiss of the Spiderwoman later this year.

One of my regular theatre cohorts at the opening of How I Learned to Drive started a convesation about whether shows should have trigger warnings. It's an argument that can't be answered easily and perhaps the poster shouldn't be running with "wildly funny" as its lead. I'm not a fan of the trigger warning trend; I think they encourage more people to read/watch something because it's juicy than save people from content they would rather miss. If you don't know, this play's about the sexual abuse of a child by her uncle.

Set in the 60s and 70s, L'il Bit (Sarah Reuben, who was also in The Laramie Project) remembers her relationship with Uncle Peck (Jason Cavanagh). It would be comfortable to see her as all innocence and him as all evil, but what makes this work so disturbing is its gut-wrenching honest exploration of a man who believes he's in love with a child and a child who believes she's helping her uncle. As we ask what her life would have been like without Uncle Peck, the moral lines are blurred and re-established and for all its uncomfortable honesty, it's its forgiveness that stays with you.

Cavanagh's Uncle Peck is the character you can't take your attention away from. It would be easy to play him as a pervy creep. It would also be easier to watch. But Uncle Peck is a likable, ordinary man. We know his behaviour is despicable, but Cavanagh lets us into Peck's mind and the most disturbing part of this work is feeling sympathy for a man who we think deserves no sympathy. After his performance in The Joy of Text at La Mama earlier in the year (heaps better that the MTC version) and his ongoing work in making The Owl and the Pussycat a new favourite indie venue, 2013 is looking to be a terrific year for him.

Reuben's L'il Bit is emotionally spot on in her relationship with Peck – he is the only person who treats her as an adult worth listening to, but it's only as an adult that she begins to understand the relationship – but her performance felt too memorised and I could see a bit of the adult actor stopping L'il But from feeling in control. The power of this work is in letting go of our understanding of the situation and in letting all of the characters feel in control, and I suspect that with a few shows over that Reuben's performance is now soaring.

Andrea McCannon, Juliet Hindmarsh and Sebastian Bertoli play the rest of the family and society who turn a blind eye (McCannon as Peck's wife and L'il Bit's mum is especially good). They are a kind of chorus, but their strength comes from their not seeing what the audience sees; through them we see how easy it is to miss or avoid seeing the obvious.

I've seen How I Learned to Drive before and I'll see it again. It's a stunning work that's uncomfortable  and uncomfortably liberating to watch and Baldock's production is one that'll stay with you long after you've left the theatre.

This production is supporting Child Wise, Australia’s leading international child protection charity committed to the prevention and reduction of sexual abuse and exploitation of children around the world.

This was on AussieTheatre.com.

Re-visit: No Child...

No Child...
Theatre Works
7 May 2013
Theatre Works
to 26 May
theatreworks.org.au

No Child... sold out at last year's Melbourne International Arts Festival. Melbourne's arts community loved this show so much that the lovely people at Theatre Works have brought the inspirational and very lovely Nilaja Sun back to Melbourne and have already had to extend the season. Don't miss out this time!

The good news is that there are tickets available for later in the season, but you probably won't be able to squeeze in this weekend.

I saw it for the second time and enjoyed it even more than the first time (review). Being in the Theatre Works space is more intimate than the Fairfax and makes it feel like Nilaja is performing just for us, rather than doing a piece of capital T theatre.

No Child... is Nilaja's reaction to working as a teaching artist in New York's poorest schools. Her fictional Malcolm X High School in the Bronx is every school in the US where kids have to go through metal detectors to get to classes and aren't expected to make it to graduation. Her story includes teenagers for whom pregnancy and gang killings are a normal part of life. This is obscene. The richest country in our world can't look after its kids and educate them safely. And we certainly can't sit back and be content as our public school teachers are paid a pittance, schools are forever facing cuts and pressure is put on families to pay for their childrens' education.  This sucks. And then children are blamed if they slip through the system. We are failing as a society when any child misses out on a basic, safe and exciting education.

But this isn't a story about how an education system fails, it's about how to triumph within a system and how to teach when your class doesn't want to be there. Made with love for every student, teacher and their families, it's about people who care and people who know that all children need to feel valued.

Nilaja plays every role, including the janitor who's been at the school since the 60s, a new teacher who gave up a financial job to teach, the teenagers in the class and herself. Directed by Hal Brooks, she's been performing it since 2006 and every season has been greeted with critical gushing and audiences who want to come back for more.

It's an astonishing performance that leaves you unable to walk away uninspired, whether you're a teacher, a student, a performer, a writer, a theatre maker or anyone who has children and teenagers in your life.

It's selling our because it's THAT good. Book now before everyone books to see it again.