What Melbourne Loved in 2018, part 6

Today, we remember that our theatre community is far more than just the people on stage.

Sarah Walker
Photographer

Sarah Walker. Photo by Jordon Prosser

Favourite moments in 2018
I photographed three productions by Western Edge Youth Arts this year, and they all totally blew me away. Casts of young people, aged between 12 and 25, almost all from migrant communities, tackled Antigone and Romeo and Juliet with such power, passion, humour and wickedness. I was floored.

There were so many moments just in those three performances: Young Samoan performers stepping in and out of character with whiplash speed to comment on their own experiences of tradition, honour and ceremony. Somali girls agonising over exactly what it felt like to be turned into an object, when unpacking the Montague/Capulet conflict in Romeo and Juliet. Polynices reframed as a young black man enraged by the system and reclaiming power the only way he knew how. A young man playing Creon, soliciting press questions from the audience and answering them more deftly than any real politician I’ve seen.

They were the most exciting, innovative and thrilling performances I saw all year, and they reminded me what theatre can and should be. Huge props to the staff and directors there who are giving so much of themselves to make space for new voices. Terrific stuff.

Looking forward to in 2019
I’ve been working with Fleur Kilpatrick for 10 years, and to be in the room with her and a collection of incredible, intelligent women for the development of Whale has been just so exciting. I can’t wait to be part of giving that show a life next year. I think it’s going to be a real good one.

SM: Sarah and I talked about ghosts for a project she was making; I loved that.

Robert Reid
Playwright
Witness

Robert Reid. An old publicity shot

Favourite moments in 2018
Contest, by Emilie Collyer. Incredible text staged by a fiercely intelligent team. My review at Witness Performance.

Prize Fighter by Future D Fidel, Powerful story, powerful writing, powerful performance, great theatre. See My review at Witness Performance.

Pre-Historic, Elbow Room, great story, great writer, great performances, plucky and spunky and smart and fun. My review at Witness Performance.

My Sister Feather by Olivia Satchel, most human show i saw all year, two performers at their best with two great characters by a great writer. My review at Witness Performance.

The Infirmary, Triage Live Art Collective, dark, light, deep, affecting. My review at Witness Performance.

Calamity Jane. One Eyed Man. Pure joy. My review at Witness Performance.

Looking forward to in 2019
Looking forward to? Dunno. The Cloud Street remount at Malthouse ... my production of The Bacchae at the Courthouse ... big shows I guess ... epic five hour long shows.

SM: I was sitting next to Rob during a Melbourne Festival show. He'd lost his voice and was communicating by writing messages on his phone. At the end of the show, I asked him to tell me his thoughts in an emoji. He nailed it. He still wrote a long and complete review, but that emoji was still perfect.

Carla Donnelly
Critic, podcaster
Across the Aisle

Carla Donnelly

Favourite moments in 2018
2018 saw so many incredible works. My stand outs include Blackie Blackie Brown  – which is essentially the play I never knew I always wanted and could have. Blackie Blackie Brown was an outstanding feat of stage craft; so many things I have never seen on the stage coming together in one riot of unapologetic blackness, super hera-ness and feminism (and death).
The BBB episode.

Sandy Greenwood's performance in Matriarch is one I couldn't stop thinking about for days. In a inter-generational story about exploring cultural identity and trauma, she truly channelled the four women in her family and brought them all into the room with her. Her performance was absolutely mesmerising.

Bighouse Dreaming (Melbourne Fringe killed it this year) was another that stayed on my mind for a long time. An extremely well written and directed play clearly articulating the dehumanisation of Indigenous people in all facets of this colonial world – especially when coming into touch with power. This show (and many others at Fringe) gave me that total wonder of alchemy; how artists can create something from nothing and put it on with very little but deliver works that are so powerful.

Other favourite shows of the year: The Nose by The Bloomshed, Love Song Dedications by Ten Tonne Sparrow, Lone by The Rabble, The Nightingale and the Rose by Little Ones Theatre and The Infirmary by Triage Live Art Collective.

Looking forward to in 2019
Barbara and the Camp Dogs!! The Legend of Queen Kong.

SM: My favourite moment is happening right now as I listen to Across the Aisle. There are so many great discussions about Melbourne theatre. We need to do more to get them all heard far more!

What Melbourne Loved in 2018, part 1

This is my favourite end-of-year tradition. Melbourne's theatre community talks about what they  loved this year. We hear from critics, directors, actors, writers, designers and people who simply see a LOT of theatre.

This series reminds us how much reviews and criticism are just small part of the reaction to a show. Shows that didn't get great reviews are still loved and shows that got piles of those darn stars can be forgotten.  It also reminds us – yes publicists, I'm talking to you – that discussion and writing continue long after a season finishes.

We start with two SM regulars and a first timer.

I was going to wait until 1 December but Stephen talks so wonderfully about The Director, which is still on this week. I also adored this show.

Everyone is welcome to contribute. Your memories and moments don't have to have been something you saw on a stage, and sometimes one sentence is all you need.

Here's the Google form to write your contribution.

Stephen Nicolazzo
Director
Little Ones Theatre

Steven Nicolazzo

Favourite moments in 2018
My favourite moment in Melbourne theatre happened just last night (now last week) at Lara Thoms's The Director (Arts House). This work was a deftly handled and emotionally liberating exploration of the ritual of death and inescapable grief. It was told with such openness that catharsis seemed to take place not just for the audience but for the performers as well. It was like a strange and intimate conjuring of grief and joy that no one saw coming. Experiencing a work that made notions of your own mortality both humorous and heart-breaking in a room full of your peers and strangers, unexpectedly struck a chord so deep within me I didn't think I could access such emotion. It was an astonishing thing. I am so pleased to have experienced The Director and grateful to the artists who created it. Its performance that while serious in some of its content, still had the smarts to laugh at it self and the thing some of us (including me) fear the most. I just found it so refreshing and absorbing as a result.

The other brilliant moment of 2018 was Joel Bray’s work Dharawungara as part of Chunky Move's Next Move 11. It was spectacular: a stunning, clever and moving rite of passage mixing story telling, dance and visual theatre. Designed by the glorious Kate Davis (of The Rabble) and with live score by Naretha Williams, this piece was a special one. New form, humour, and queer aesthetics all rolled into one piece. It was a divine and holy experience.

I also truly admired and love love love LOVED everything about Going Down by Michelle Lee (especially Catherine Davies's performance and the entire ensemble. It was just the funniest, brightest, smartest piece of theatre of the year!).

Other truly brilliant, touching and inspiring works were: Moral Panic (Rachel Perks and Bridget Balodis), Lone (The Rabble), Prehistoric (Elbow Room) and Samara Herch and Chambermade Opera's Dybbuks.

Looking forward to in 2019
I am looking forward to Dance Massive the most. I always find this festival so friggen inspiring. I'm also excited to see whatever is happening at Darebin Arts and Jennifer Vuletic's performance in Arbus and West at MTC. Golden Shield looks really interesting too!

SM: I first saw a Little Ones Theatre show in 2009. If I can, I'll keep seeing every show Stephen creates with his company, even if I don't gush every time. Stephen's had an up and down year with the critics. My favourite of his works this year was Suddenly Last Summer at Red Stitch, which I saw it on the last weekend. He queered a queer text; it was glorious. And great news that his Merciless Gods gets a return season at Arts Centre Melbourne in 2019.

Keith Gow
Playwright and critic

           

Keith Gow. Selfie

Favourite moments in 2018

Before I talk about what happened on stage, let me first give a shout out to Witness Performance – a new outlet for discussing theatre in Melbourne (and to a lesser extent, Australia), both critically and historically. Witness has brought Alison Croggon back to regularly writing about theatre and also given a platform to First Nation’s critic Clarissa Lee, as well as welcoming other new critics from diverse backgrounds throughout the year. As other avenues for critical writing shrink, Witness is putting out long form, thoughtful critical reactions to theatre that is vital for robust discussion, as well as being a strong historical record. Admittedly, I am slightly biased, having written for Witness a few times this year, as well as having Rob Reid review my Fringe show there.

On stage, I will have seen over 100 shows by the time this year is finished. I saw amazing work all over Melbourne this year. From Hir at Red Stitch to Abigail’s Party at MTC to Blackie Blackie Brown at Malthouse to Prize Fighter at Northcote Town Hall to Songs for a Weary Throat at Arts Centre Melbourne to The Mission at Arts House to Sleepover Gurlz in a bedroom in Fitzroy to Sneakyville at 45 Downstairs to The Nightingale and the Rose at Theatre Works.

Perhaps the absolute highlight of the year was Angus Cerini’s The Bleeding Tree. After two sell-out seasons in Sydney (at Griffin and STC), I’m so grateful that Arts Centre Melbourne programmed this show. It's a stunning work about family violence and its aftermath. Exquisite writing, extraordinary performances. Bracing, upsetting and poetic.

And to bring things full circle, one of the great things Witness has been doing this year is hosting Live Nights after certain shows for audience members to discuss what they have seen. The Bleeding Tree was one of their Live Night events. As a critic, sometimes I need to sit with a show for a while to know what to say. I’m so glad to have had an outlet to discuss this show right after I saw it, because it was so good and we all had so much to discuss. I think I loved the show more after the discussion, even though there were definitely elements that needed examination – and hearing other people’s points of view had me considering things I hadn’t thought about. Great show, great post-show discussion.

Looking forward to in 2019

I’m looking forward to what Bryce Ives does at Theatre Works. I’m looking forward to hearing more about La Mama rising from the ashes of its devastating fire this year. I’m excited for lots of things the Malthouse are doing like Wake in Fright and Solaris and Australian Realness. And I’m glad Little Ones’s Merciless Gods is returning  at Arts Centre Melbourne.

SM: I always like Keith's reviews and have loved reading his writing for Witness this year. He brings a playwright's perspective to his criticism and isn't afraid to let his writing be a work of art in itself.

Andrea McCannon
Actor

Andrea McCannon. Photo by Alex Vaughan

Favourite moments in 2018
I think my favourite show has been The Bachelor S17 E5, presented by La Mama at the Brunswick Mechanics Insitute. It was a hilarious and unexpectedly moving verbatim rendition of an episode of the USA version of the reality TV show The Bachelor with a really interesting cast. It took something of no substance and made it say so much. My favourite moment was when the ditched drag queen de-frocked and unpacked their suitcase full of rose petals. It was beautiful and heartbreaking. I loved it.

I also want to say that the resilience of the La Mama team and the strength of their community has been totally inspiring this year.

Looking forward to in 2019
Lightning Jar Theatre are mounting Mr Burns: A Post Electric Play at 45 Downstairs in February and I’m so excited for this production. Their previous two shows, Stupid Fucking Bird and Venus in Furs, were brilliantly performed and they’ve assembled a wonderful cast for this show. It’s such a fantastic script – funny and affecting and so bloody clever. I can’t wait to see what they do with it.

SM: I've seen Andrea in more shows than I've written about seeing her in. This year, I saw her in the last performance of Just A Boy Standing in Front of a Girl  by 15 Minutes from Anywhere (another one of my favourite indie companies). Hopefully this is a show that will also get a return season, with the same cast.

2017
2016
2014
2013
2012

What Melbourne loved in 2013, part 7

Today's favourites are from playwright and play maker, Rob Reid, director Daniel Lammin and director Shannon Woollard.

And remember that contributions are welcome from all SM readers.

Robert Reid
playwright, director, play maker; artistic director, Pop Up Playground

Photo by Sarah Walker

ROB: Kids Killing Kids. Totally awesome show, amazing energy, incredibly entertaining for a work that was fundamentally a power point presentation, lecture and a dance number.  But how do you pass up a show that was condemned on the floor of the UN.

SM: I'm not sure when Rob has time to breathe. He's just finished a week where he was directing a play reading (Yours the Face by Fleur Kilpatrick for the VCA's Master of Writing for Performance), had a new work premiering at 5Pounds of Repertory (Because of Reasons), a recent work (The Well) re-mounted at La Mama, and was playing his guts out at This is Door 13 at Theatre Works. I managed three out of the four, but I saw the first season of The Well. He's created and co-created more shows and events in 2013 than a lot of people have seen in 2013.

But my favourite moment was a tweet saying that he'd created a Valkyrie game for me. I consider this my achievement of the year.

And see what Rob's looking forward to in 2014 at issimo.com. 

Daniel Lammin
director, writer

DANIEL: There have been a few highlights for me this year, some expected and some a complete surprise. But the biggest highlight?

A few honourable mentions would be Matt Lutton’s double-punch with Dance of Death and The Bloody Chamber, both which left me giddy with joy.

Daniel Schlusser also hit it out of the ballpark with Menagerie and M+M.

I was prepared to despise Simon Stone’s The Cherry Orchard, but absolutely adored it.

Bagabus delivered the gorgeous Bushpig, a beautiful little fable with cracking writing and a tremendous performance.

And then there was the sublime impossibility of Einstein on the Beach, which might be one of the most incredible things I’ve ever seen in a theatre and probably ever will.

But if I have to pick the highlight, it's MKA’s Kids Killing Kids. Not long into it, I began to feel sick to my stomach in the best possible way. There had always been, in the back of my mind, this worry that we artists don’t really think about the consequences of what we do, and often get away with so much because it is ‘art’.

What David Finnigan, Sam Burns-Warr, Georgie McAuley and Jordon Prosser dared to share with us was an extreme experience of where that danger is magnified to unexpected proportions, but all four had the maturity to leave it to us to decide whether they did the right or wrong thing. No work I’ve seen has made me question my intentions and ethics as a theatre maker as much as this show.

I left it shaking, dizzy, crying and distressed; terrified to dare walk into a rehearsal room again, and questioning every decision I’d ever made as a writer and a director.

And I was so incredibly thankful for that.

Part of me worries that a lot of those questions were lost on a lot of people hypnotised by how ‘cool’ the show was or how exhilarating their production of Batallia Royale sounded, but I think the questions it poses and the discussion it has instigated made it exactly the kind of show we needed to see, for our practice and our conscience.

There was something deeply unsettling behind the eyes of these four young artists, a need to tell this story in order to understand it better for themselves. It might not have been technically impressive with opulent set design and ridiculous costumes, but Kids Killing Kids is probably the most important piece of theatre of this past year.

And then there was the Febreze bottle in Summertime in the Garden of Eden. Give that thing a Green Room Award.

And see what Daniel is most looking forward to in 2014 at issimomag.com.

SM: Maybe we could redesign the actual Green Room Award to be a Febreze bottle? 

My moment of Daniel's this year is his Columbine: every moment of it, from the early Facebook updates to being there and knowing that every seat was sold. As it was being created, I wondered why he was telling a story that's distanced from his own. He showed me why.

Shannon Woollard

director

SHANNON: After all the slog, tears and triumphs associated with production of Jazz Angel, it was – unequivocally – Steve Gome's mesmerising turn in Dario Fo's Johan Padan and the Discovery of the Americas at Trades Hall in October.  Seeing this done properly (a labour of love for Gome and director Wayne Pearn) was very moving for me.  

One of the first "adult" plays I was permitted to see was Cant Pay? Won't Pay! in London at the age of 13. That crazy genius Fo entered my psyche and could not be removed thenceforward. Seeing Johan Padan was worth enduring those tedious, frustrating and disappointing theatrical experiences. Having a lone actor take me on a two-hour expedition into this incredibly humanistic work reminded me that history is about perspectives and that theatre, or more accurately, storytelling, is actually a form of nourishment. I also felt deeply sympathetic and incredibly pissed off when I found out about the poor attendance figures in the first part of their run.  The show deserved to be sold out.

Shannon's annual PlaySix festival opens on 12 December. Details here. 

SM: Jazz Angel was in in the upstairs theatre at The Athenaeum. It was like being in the 1920s. This is a space that should be used more.

(OK, my real favourite moment was when I was feeding a cat called Artie while his parents were on holidays. Not having seen Artie for a couple of days, I was panicking. Then on day three of the disappearance, I saw him. He glared at me and ran off, but I knew I hadn't lost him.)

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6
Part 8
Part 9
Part 10
Part 11
Part 12
Part 13

Part 14

Part 15

Part 16

Part 17

2012 part 1, with links to the rest

A night at The Container Festival

The Container Festival
MUSTMonash University, Clayton
2–20 August
monashstudentassociation.com
Facebook page

When Rob was King

As armageddon wind blew Monash Uni a bit closer to the city, I rugged up for a night with MUST and The Container Festival and highly recommend you try and do the same before it ends next week.

My night started in the Container Hub, where there was no wind, a good bar, cheap food and public art wonder Saryraphin Lothian (from the  Pop up Players) was testing a new game called Monarch of Melbourne. King Rob Reid set the standard, but was quickly displaced. Reigns were short and bloody until Queen Fleur decided to extend her rule by knighting the likes of Sir Sarah.

Who's Queen?

And that's before seeing any shows.

The first was Fleur Kilpatrick's Braves. Only 15 people can fit into the festival's  shipping container theatres, which makes for an intimacy that leaves La Mama feel distancing and creates an instant connection between audience and performer. 

Accompanied by Roderick Cairns on strings, Fleur wrote it and performs as Molly. Molly sings and tells us how she married her high-school sweet heart, the boy she lost her virginity to. It didn't work out for ever and she asks if it's even possible to be so brave at 16 to face a truth you don't understand. 

With its delicate, sad but hopeful story and its musical interludes, it reminds me of Daniel Kitson's The Ballad of Roger and Grace (one of my favourite shows ever). Fleur and Daniel are nothing alike, but they both know that the real magic of theatre is telling a story directly to your audience.

Sarah Walker and Fleur Kilpatrick

Next was 6", Uncut. I was a bit sad that I wasn't seeing Taylor Mac at the Recital Centre tonight, but I still got to see a ukelele playing man dressed in his finery with a leopard coat, beige wedge heels and underwear made for adjusting. Bunny Hutch (Jack Beeby) hates love and shares his confusion through ukelele songs, Dr Grin (Grindr) performance poetry, and stories like the first time he was fisted and the importance of telling lovers what you ate that morning. This is a new show that's getting its first outing in a shipping container, but is so adorably filthy and funny that it has to be seen more.

Jack Beeby as Bunny Hutch

It was then a rainy rush to S. Rules, a show that has caused the words like "censorship" and "how dare you" to be bandied about the university this week. I respond with "boring", "prude" and "as if you haven't done similar or at least thought about it". Ok, I take the last one back, because in the 15 minutes  I spent with a young lady (Tom Wells) called Slut, I saw things I hadn't thought about. If you're likely to be shocked about S-E-X and hilarious incest and abortion stories, you might not like Slut. But I got to end my night cradling a dragged-up Slut in my lap as she masturbated to a photo of Jonbenet Ramsey; I haven't done that before.

If it wasn't such an insane theatre week in Melbourne, I'd have happily spent a few nights at The Container Festival. This is an amazing chance to see independent artists and students experimenting and reaching out to see if there's an audience for their art and voices. And everyone gets to hang in a cool club, have a drink and draw a penis or some breasts (there's an art wall that just screams undergraduate).

The festival finishes on 20 August, but there's a gala tomorrow night (Saturday) that will let you catch up on some of the 200 performances and events you've missed. And King Rob is directing a rehearsed reading of Bacche Rising (60s New York meets classics) on Monday. The program is here.