Category: Festivals

Festivals, Review, Theatre

REVIEW: Barking Spider Visual Theatre’s SHORT PANTS NO HOLES

Full of possibilitiesBy Kim Edwards

Barking Spider have been creating and presenting some thrilling and innovative theatre in recent times, from captivating story-telling in The Memorandium and dream worlds in Psychopomp and Seething, to lavish spectacle in Liberty of the Press and delightful domesticity in One Suitcase: Four Stories. Their most recent performance was part of the Roola Boola Children’s Arts Festival, and Short Pants No Holes is promoted as a hands-on puppetry and story-telling show.

Short Pants No Holes

Even with an intimate audience, performers Penelope Bartlau and Rachel Edward were vibrant with charm and excitement. Their casual and witty pre-show patter was very engaging for kids and adults alike, and set a lovely relaxed tone for the show. The opening sequence was a beautiful bunraku performance with a little boy, a box and his toy. The dexterity and sensitivity of the puppeteers working in tandem was delightful, and the simplicity of the tale, told in movement rather than words, captivating.

What followed was distinctly at odds with this initial impact. Bartlau is a masterful improviser and story-teller, and took random suggestions and objects from the audience to weave witty and weird tales. She was animated and interesting, and the skill with which even the most difficult and erratic prompts from her eager young audience were accepted and utilised was excellent. This forms the majority of the performance, which ends with a cute reworking of a fairytale with vegetables, and the audience being given carrots to briefly ‘puppeteer’ for themselves.

Overall, the show was definitely enjoyable, but felt lacking. The emphasis was on quirkiness, improvisation and minimalism, but with an effort to make a more visually interesting stage, the production was rather like the set pieces: lots of promising-looking shapes under wraps, but unfortunately not much opened up or revealed. In the story-telling, Edward’s obvious talents seemed underused in fielding audience answers and running crowd control – I would have loved to see her take up the story thread at some point, or provide character voices or accompanying action. Also, it was a surprise that there was no more ‘hands-on’ interaction with the narratives being created – after the fabulous little ‘find your imagination’ exercise, it seemed a shame the children only called out answers rather than being prompted to explore other relevant group sounds or movements from their seats.

Ultimately there didn’t seem to be a clear picture as to how the disparate elements of the show were working together: the lovely opening energy then wonder fell into an awkward pace, and my little theatre companion (although distinctly younger than the school-aged audience at which the production is aimed), kept asking wistfully if the puppet was coming back? This is not a new show, so perhaps (as is understandable with impro) this particular performance just didn’t quite gel, but with its loose, rather oddly structured shape and uneven, mysterious tone (what does the title mean? and why carrots?), Short Pants No Holes felt full of entertaining moments and unrealised potential.

Short Pants No Holes was performed at Chapel Off Chapel as part of the 2015 Roola Boola festival.

Cabaret, Festivals, Review

REVIEW: Natasha York in THESE THINGS TAKE WINE

Raise your glasses to wild and witty cabaret

By Narelle Wood

Natasha York takes us to the slightly grittier, grungier side of cabaret in her one-woman show, These Things Take Wine.

These Things Take Wine

Performing a selection of songs from Amy Winehouse, Elton John, Michael Jackson and many other familiar tunes, York takes us on a journey through her love affair with wine and all antics wine-related. York debunks the stereotype that cabaret is glamorous by embracing the look and behaviour of ‘drunk Tash’. In fact York’s intoxicated performance is so believable that the only thing indicating that York might be sober is her unfaltering vocal performance.

York’s drunken anecdotes cash in on the ‘it’s funny because it’s true’ motif. These familiar stories makes it hard not to smile and laugh throughout the cleverly selected and witty rewritten songs, not to mention the repartee between York and her accompanist and musical director Daniele Buatti. Buatti adds some deprecating humour to the performance, calling out some of the more obvious puns for what they are – not particularly ‘punny’.

These Things Take Wine unfortunately had only a short run at the 2015 Melbourne Cabaret Festival, but hopefully this is not the last we hear from York or this show. This show is cabaret, comedy and drinking rolled into one, making it a perfect accompaniment to a good night out.

Venue: Alex Theatre, Level 1, 135 Fitzroy St, St Kilda

Tickets: $35 Full | $32 Conc

Bookings: www.natashayork.com

Image by Ange Legas

Cabaret Review, Festivals, Whats On

REVIEW: Dash Kruck’s I MIGHT TAKE MY SHIRT OFF

Exceedingly good cabaret

By Myron My

Every now and again, there is a show that is so clever, so witty, so painful, so funny, so daring and so much more than you thought you were getting into. Dash Kruck‘s cabaret show I Might Take My Shirt Off is a prime example of this.

I Might Take My Shirt Off

Kruck plays Lionel, a man who is struggling to accept that the love of his life has left him. To be perfectly honest, he’s a heartbroken mess, and with the stern advice of his frightening German therapist who orders him to go out and express himself, Lionel ends up performing in his very own cabaret performance.

With his “how to cabaret” list in his trouser pocket, Lionel systematically goes through his checklist that will guarantee him a successful show. Included on this list is taking his shirt off, having booze and being sexy. For the latter, he performs a hilariously brilliant and most memorable song about being – for want of a better word – “intimate” with a partner.

Kruck portrays the nervous and emotionally battered Lionel with honesty and his retelling of happier times with his ex are difficult to listen to. Accompanied by a three-piece band on keys, drums and double bass, the original songs written by Kruck and Chris Perren are well paired in guiding Lionel to overcome his loneliness and sadness of a broken heart.

Lionel may be passable in the spotlight but Kruck is an amazing talent on stage. His comedic timing and the tightness of the show’s delivery is a standout. Kruck engages with the audience on many levels as he heads into the crowd to ad-lib songs or just to say hi, so even when things get quite sexual and explicit, the relationship he has built with us lets him get away with it. Of course, his charisma and cheekiness don’t hurt either.

Kruck has a strong voice that adapts to the different tones and styles of song covered throughout the show. If only there had been an encore to the ‘unplanned’ encore because I would have happily sat and listened to Kruck’s voice for much longer than 60 minutes.

I Might Take My Shirt Off is a highly recommended cabaret about freeing oneself from the past and looking hopefully to the future. And also about killing mythical beasts. But more to do with the former.

I Might Take My Shirt Off is being performed as part of the 2015 Melbourne Cabaret Festival

Venue: The Butterfly Club, 5 Carson Place (off Lt Collins St), Melbourne CBD
Season: Until 28 June | Thur-Sat 9:00pm, Sunday 8:00pm
Tickets: $38 Full | $34 Conc
Bookings: The Butterfly Club

Cabaret Review, Festivals, Whats On

REVIEW: Lynn-Ruth Miller is NOT DEAD YET
Four-score years with a vibrant performer
By Myron My
Lynn-Ruth Miller has lived a long time. She may have even almost died a few times, but in her cabaret show Not Dead Yet, she lets it be known that even at 81, she’s nowhere near done yet, not by a long shot. With a mixture of story telling, music and songs, Miller takes us on a journey on what it means to not only live, but to be alive.
Not Dead Yet

Beginning as a toddler, where even the temptation of tapioca pudding was not enough for her to drink her milk, which she still hates, Miller manages to fill us in on eight decades worth of stories in just sixty minutes. It’s a carefully crafted show where plenty of thought has been put in to how these tales will be told. Miller’s tenuous relationship with her mother is summed up with a few powerful words, the beginning (and end) of relationships is covered in just a minute but yet we feel like we know every detail of these events.There is much nostalgia in Miller’s show with bittersweet memories of past loves and family members. At one point, Miller is almost overcome with emotion and whether or not this was part of the act is hard to say. As Miller is talking about these moments, it feels like we are no longer in the room and she is literally reliving these broken-hearted moments, the swimming lessons, her 16th birthday and so on. They say you can tell a lot about a person by their eyes, and Miller’s shine when talking about all these events and in return, we are captivated by everything she has to say because she is talking from the heart.

While the show is low on musical numbers, they are still engaging pieces, which provide more insight into Miller’s varied life. Her voice is not as strong as it undoubtedly was years earlier but she can still carry a tune, and hell, she’s still a better singer than most of us anyway.

As Miller states in Not Dead Yet, this show is not a sob story but about a series of events that for better or worse, have got her to where she is now. Her life is going to keep getting better and more enjoyable every day until she dies but there is still a lot of life left in her and that’s a valuable lesson we can all take home.

Not Dead Yet is being performed as part of the 2015 Melbourne Cabaret Festival

Venue: The Butterfly Club, 5 Carson Place (off Lt Collins St), Melbourne CBD
Season: Until 28 June | Thur-Sat 7:00pm, Sunday 6:00pm
Tickets: $38 Full | $34 Conc
Bookings: The Butterfly Club

Comedy, Events, Festivals, Review, Stand-Up Comedy, Whats On

REVIEW: Chris Taylor and Andrew Hansen: In Conversation With Lionel Corn

The Chaser do-over Q and A

By Caitlin McGrane

The Chaser stars Chris Taylor and Andrew Hansen are here to ruin audience Q and As forever. Fictional author Lionel Corn is somewhere between Groundskeeper Willie, Malcolm Tucker and George R.R. Martin. However, I’m not sure there’s enough under-shirt padding in the world that could make Andrew Hansen even vaguely resemble Martin in this almost totally transparent reference to the author in their debut MICF show. Corn’s pairing with Taylor’s totally inept interviewer/MC was wonderful; that I cannot remember his name has only enhanced the effective awfulness of his character and his love of his own voice.

Chaser

In this show Taylor and Hansen do what they’ve always done best – lampooned popular culture and social conventions in order to score satirical points. Their fantastic send-up of The Festival of Dangerous Ideas, in which Lionel Corn was interviewed by the worst moderator in the world, had me laughing and cringing throughout. They opened well, with an extended gag about walk-on music that effectively called out the ridiculous music that always accompanies speakers onstage, to which literally no one else pays attention.

The whole show was a send-up of the endless festivals that we all love to attend – writers’, emerging writers’, film, dangerous ideas etc, etc. It also very satirically lambasted shows like Q&A, with their refusal to engage in a conversation about the lack of women and trans people on screen.

The only part that let the show down slightly was a bizarre sequence involving a disease invented by Corn/Hansen called ‘Parkinsons of the arse’; it felt cheap and poorly thought out. I also missed out on seeing the promised guest comedian, but enjoyed the explanation of the empty chair on stage as symbolising the journalists and broadcasters who were locked up for political dissidence, or who couldn’t be there due to a schedule mix-up.

While the show isn’t exactly as groundbreaking or biting as some of their Chaser sketches, it was engaging, entertaining and kept me laughing.

Venue: The Forum

Season: Until Sunday 19 April (excl. Mon) Tue-Sat 7pm, Sun 6pm

Tickets: Full $34| Conc $30

Bookings: http://www.comedyfestival.com.au

Comedy, Events, Festivals, Music, Review, Stand-Up Comedy

REVIEW: Jude Perl presents Is it just me?

Musical comedy with a conscience

By Narelle Wood

 Jude Perl knows how to make an entrance, an entrance in a dress that would make Lady Gaga green with envy. Perl’s musical comedy is full of musical and pop clichés in a satirical look at everything from being a pop star to asking the very poignant question Is it just me?

 Jude_Web2

The songs cover a whole gamut of topics, but all seem to have some feminist undertones, or other social commentary hidden amongst the extremely witty and downright hilarious lyrics. Her songs drip with well-written innuendo and a smattering of over shares, which, she acknowledges from the start, are things the audience may not want to know.

Between the musical numbers, Perl performs some non-musical comedy that is just as funny. While I really enjoyed these parts of the show, the highlights for me were the musical numbers; I couldn’t pick a favourite song if I tried. My absolute favourite part of the show was Perl’s voice; it sounded like an incredible cross between Alicia Keys and Suzie Quatro resulting in a sound that I found both familiar and completely unique.

I thoroughly enjoyed Is it just me? from beginning to end. There is something very endearing about Perl that made even the audience participation moments (which I usually dread) completely okay. Jude Perl’s Is it just me? is extremely entertaining and honest comedy at it’s musical best. If good comedy and good music is your recipe for a good night out then this show is a must.

Venue: The Butterfly Club, Carson Place, Melbourne

Season: 6pm Wed 13 May – Sun 17 May, 7pm Sat 16

Tickets: Full $25| Conc $23

Bookings: www.thebutterflyclub.com

Comedy, Festivals, Review

REVIEW: Backward Anorak presents The Hip Hikers’ Guide to the Galaxy

An Intergalactic Comedy

By Narelle Wood

Backward Anorak’s show The Hip Hikers’ Guide to the Galaxy was promoted as an ‘intergalactic master class on assimilating one’s alien self into a hipster world’. It was not so much a master class as it was a brief aside to many of the other chaotic and mostly funny antics on stage.

HH_web

The show began with lots of promise; awkward dancing with impressive flair (Laura Frew); a DJ dropping some very hip beats (Leo Milesi); and the stylish entrance of the show’s two main characters Prince Harian (Vincent Milesi) and his slave Minge (Michelle Braiser). The story is that Prince Harian must find a wife and the audience are employed to help find him one.

The show is a musical comedy and the music selection is great, as is the reworking of the lyrics; it also helps that Milesi and Braiser have fantastic voices. I loved the costumes; it was like the 80’s had thrown up on stage but in a fabulously atrocious kind of way. And full credit to the cast who wore the spandex leggings, sparkly hot pants and oversized knit cardigan seemingly with pride.

While there were some laugh-out-loud moments, especially in the opening minutes, there always seemed to be too much going on. It felt like very little of the show was spent on the storyline. Instead the plot degenerates into seemingly unnecessary cheap jokes about sex, swearing, and some ill-placed and offensive references to ISIS and sex offenders. In fact a lot of the comedy relies on the bullying of one of the characters; I couldn’t quite see how this was humorous. These moments were in direct contrast to the really witty and well-written musical numbers, so I left feeling confused rather than entertained.

I found it to be a combination of things I really enjoyed and things I really didn’t. A Hip Hikers’ Guide to the Galaxy is worth a look if you are familiar with Backwards Anorak’s work or if you like comedy that crosses the line more than once.

 

Venue: The Butterfly Club, Carson Place, Melbourne

Season: Until 19th April (excl. Mon): Tue, Wed & Sun 8pm, Fri & Sat 9pm

Tickets: Full $32| Conc $25

Bookings: thebutterflyclub.com

Comedy, Events, Festivals, Stand-Up Comedy

REVIEW: Claire Sullivan presents Space Cadet

A comedic space adventure

By Caitlin McGrane

Claire Sullivan’s madcap space adventure started well; her voice appeared from behind the audience over a $2 megaphone to hurry people in from the bar at Hugs & Kisses. The show began with an unusual level of audience participation – Sullivan invited everyone in the intimate theatre-cum-dance floor onto the stage where we were told we were going into space and had to participate in the take-off. This level of participation was about all I was ready to handle, and am very glad I was not called upon when Sullivan instructed the audience to ask questions about space. I enjoyed this mini Q & A but couldn’t help feeling like this was stalling for time.

Claire Sullivan

The performance was often enjoyably frenetic, disjointed and ludicrous – the moments where Sullivan shone were where she was ad-libbing and interacting with the audience (which appeared to be mostly made up of her friends and former singing teachers). The weakest parts for me were when the seemingly vague script forced Sullivan to flail on stage and reach for props from plastic bags; it didn’t seem so much hilariously zany as it appeared disorganised.

Sullivan is certainly talented and I enjoyed her raw comedic energy, but I found myself distracted by her attempts to wrestle with technology and direct the show towards a coherent conclusion. It was the first night of the show, and these things often take time to fine tune, but I am aware that this show has been performed in Perth so I was surprised by how scattered it seemed. I look forward to seeing what Sullivan does next, and I hope her next show is tighter and sharper because I do thoroughly believe she has it in her to produce something brilliantly bonkers that tells a great story.

Venue: Hugs and Kisses, 22 Sutherland Street, Melbourne

Season: Until 18th April, 8pm (no show Sundays)

Tickets: Full $17 | Conc $12

Bookings: http://www.trybooking.com/GPYC

 

Comedy, Festivals, Performances, Stand-Up Comedy, Whats On

REVIEW: Katerina Vrana presents About Sex

Lets talk about sex

By Myron My

Let’s talk about sex baby. If you like my body and you think I’m sexy. Let me play with your body make you real hot. Despite these three sentences being lyrics to three very well known songs about sex, they also encapsulate Katerina Vrana’s show, aptly titled About Sex.

Katerina Vrana

Born in Greece but having lived almost two decades in England, Vrana has a wealth of stories and anecdotes to share of these two cultures and their dealings with sex. Her impersonations of her family members, including her mother and father, are brilliant but it is when she talks about her 17-year-old brother asking her for sex advice that things really get cracking. One simple question from him is all it takes for the audience to be simultaneously shocked and howling in laughter.

Vrana covers a range of topics, from her first one-night stand to the differences between single sex, married sex, and gay and lesbian sex, however her focus is pretty much on sex pre-1994 and sex post-1994. Why 1994? Generally speaking, that’s when Internet porn took over the world and changed everyone’s ideas about what sex is and should be.

Vrana has great comedic timing on stage and her delivery and facial expressions of punch lines is impeccable. She knows exactly how far to push the envelope and then step back to let us take it all in before she gets straight back into it.

As an added bonus, Thursday night shows are performed in Greek, so it’s a perfect opportunity for those Greek grandchildren out there to take your grandparents out on the town for a laugh and some fun.

Vrana’s insights in About Sex are more than just cheap dick jokes and ‘wham-bang thank you ma’am’ type of comedy. Vrana is opening up discussion about sex so we are not ashamed or embarrassed by it or our bodies; after all, we all do it, so why shouldn’t we enjoy doing it and talking about it?

Venue: Elephant & Wheelbarrow, Cnr. Bourke and Exhibition St. Melbourne.

Season: Until 18 April | Thurs-Tue 8:30pm

Tickets: $20 Full | $15 Conc

Bookings: TixNoFee

Comedy, Festivals, Review, Stand-Up Comedy, Whats On

REVIEW: Paul Culliver is The Best Newcomer

An endearing comedy

By Narelle Wood

Self-proclaimed Best Newcomer Paul Culliver delivers 4 ½ star comedy. Covering all the important topics from dating, nuclear war, fitness and a definitive solution to any human resource issues, Culliver’s comedic timing is brilliant.

Paul Culliver

Most of Culliver’s humour centres on self-deprecation and observational comedy, but as with most comedians, Culliver sees things from an exceptionally unique perspective. The performance space is quite intimate, and Culliver interacts with the audience with ease. This is especially evident in the off-the-cuff moments where things haven’t quite gone to plan, and a completely unfazed Culliver, takes it all in his stride.

I was a little worried at the beginning of the show as Culliver’s delivery seemed frenetic and he was talking so quickly I couldn’t quite catch what he was saying. Thankfully this didn’t last very long and the pace and atmosphere soon relaxed. The ending was a little philosophical for where I thought the show was heading; this aside it was a show full of chuckles.

Culliver is endearing and I especially liked the way he spoke to everyone as they left the venue. The show’s one of the shorter ones in the Comedy Festival and its late night, time slot would actually work really well for anyone looking to wrap up their evening with some great laughs.

Venue: Highlander Bar, 11a Highlander Lane, Melbourne

Season: Tue-Sat 9.45pm, until 18th April

Tickets: Full $15| Conc $10

Bookings: http://www.trybooking.com