Category: Performances

Opera, Performances, Review October 16, 2014October 16, 2014

REVIEW: Victorian Opera Presents THE BIG SING

With voices raised

By Narelle Wood

For one night only Victorian Opera, community choirs from around regional and metropolitan Victoria, VOYCE (Victorian Opera Youth Chorus Ensemble), students from the Master of Music Opera Performance program and Orchestra Victoria came together for the very aptly named The Big Sing.

In the magnificent surrounds of Hamer Hall we were treated to performances of Verdi, Mozart, Bizet, as well as Gilbert and Sullivan and Maestro Mills’ own arrangements of Australian folk songs “Click go the Shears” and “Waltzing Matilda”. The program provided a great variety of musical moods, from the joyful drinking song “Brindisi” from La Traviata to Purcell’s haunting “When I am Laid in Earth” from Dido and Aeneas.

It was, however, the ethereal performance of “With Drooping Wings” also from Dido and Aeneas and sung by VOYCE that was a highlight, demonstrating the depth of talent that Victorian Opera has to work with.

Michael Petruccelli and Matthew Tng were very entertaining (they seemed to be thoroughly enjoying themselves) and I could have listened to Kate Amos and Cristina Russo sing all night. But for anyone unsure whether opera is for them, nights such as these are a perfect introduction. Selection of music aside, Maestro Mills provides a history and context to the pieces in a passionate, sometimes brutally honest, but always entertaining style.

While in an opera performance the opera singers will always be the stars, listening to, and on this very fortunate occasion watching, Orchestra Victoria is an incredible experience. This time we were treated to some introductions to the various instruments, and personalities, of the orchestra, which added a relaxed and very personable feel to the evening.

I did find the request to join in the singing of “Waltzing Matilda” a little confronting and was a little too self-conscious to join voices with likes of Elizabeth Lewis and Nathan Lay. Hopefully The Big Sing will be back next year as I certainly thought it was a big hit, and who knows – maybe next year I’ll be game enough to sing along.

Victorian Opera’s The Big Sing took place at Hamer Hall on 13th Oct 2014.

Events, Festivals, Performances, Review October 7, 2014October 7, 2014

REVIEW: Magic Steven’s TRY TO LOVE EVERYONE

Unusual and absorbing

By Caitlin McGrane

As the Melbourne Fringe Festival drew to a close on Sunday night, the audience at The Toff in Town was treated to Magic Steven’s final show in a three-performance run over the two-and-a-half-week festival. Steven aimed to teach us how to love everyone, but it seemed to be that the most important lesson was how to love oneself.

Steven’s basic set up on stage meant that his words, delivered in a dead-pan almost uninflected tone, rolled around the whole space, filling every gap. The show covered Steven’s life since the end of the Comedy Festival in April, and is split into three parts: autumn, early winter and late winter.

I’ve never really been to many spoken word events before, but I found Steven’s gently lilting story to be strangely engaging. Often the theatrics of a performance can distract from the words, but this show made them stand out and become the stars. It was like having a conversation with a guy at a party, in the best possible way, because it was entirely without the contrivances that can make poetry or comedy performances seem unnatural or forced. The structure was even and the pacing excellent, I also enjoyed how each third managed to slip in a reference to Steven’s time in India.

In autumn Steven decided to take in as many couchsurfers as possible, in order to try to spread platonic love to strangers. Early winter follows his lacklustre search for a girlfriend, and we learn that simply waiting for someone to approach you after a show might (remarkably) not be the best option. Late winter was my favourite, when we were asked to question the conventional wisdom that ‘in order for someone to love you, you must first love yourself.’

While it’s a shame there are no more shows left in this run, I would encourage you to seek Magic Steven out the next time he puts on a show; his style is different, but ultimately very rewarding.

Magic Steven: Try to Love Everyone was performed at The Toff in Town as part of the 2014 Melbourne Fringe Festival.

Events, Performances, Theatre, Whats On October 4, 2014October 4, 2014

REVIEW: Sesame Street Presents ELMO’S WORLD TOUR

Frankly good fun!

By Kim Edwards

This was the first time my reviewing buddy was a two-year old, but she was prepared to be a harsh critic. Admittedly, I was also prepared to be a little bored and a little underwhelmed by any efforts to get the beloved Sesame Street characters on stage in any kind of appealing way… and so, was pleasantly surprised. Elmo’s World Tour is very charming: a sleek, well-paced production where the cute characters are personable and plausibly familiar, the family entertainment factor is a clear priority, and the storyline is taut and neatly developed.

A world globe gift from Grover inspires Elmo to want to go traveling, and with the help of Abbycadabby to conjure up alphabet letters, he and the Sesame Street gang visit countries starting with those magical letters. Of course, with Abby only using her second-best wand, and Cookie Monster eating his letter C, the trip doesn’t always go smoothly, but of course everything works out in all the best ways.

I enjoyed the educational element that connected the story firmly to the TV show, including the multicultural theme that introduced the very excited pre-school audience to greetings in other languages, and music and dance styles reminiscent of the countries visited. I also loved that, along with these new songs, the plot managed to work in lots of the best vintage Sesame Street tunes and include a few key cameos from Ernie and Bert, and the Count. Less successful is the awkward Australian component and new character, but Lady Baa Baa’s inclusion is thankfully brief.

The anonymous performers do a simply wonderful job: the dance energy, physical characterisation and puppeteering are all excellent. Full-body costume work is always thankless, but the actors give no sign of being tired, hot or jaded after doing three performances a day and (I suspect at times) playing multiple characters. The costumes themselves look very authentic (no easy feat for muppets made full-size), and the set and props are practical for a touring show, but handsome and nicely manipulated.

The mood in the Regent Theatre was cheerful and supportive, with the sound not too loud, the house lights left dimmed, and a general empathy for parents and little fans who needed to exit, stand, fidget or snack during the show. My little critic and I thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, though I would recommend if paying extra for the Elmo meet-and-greet afterwards, you ensure your child isn’t likely to baulk at the (actual) enormity of their hero in person. There were a number of ‘wailing with Santa’-style incidents, but Elmo and his assistant were very sweet and patient, and the faces of devoted fans throwing their arms around their idol was a delight in itself.

The final 2014 performances of Elmo’s World Tour take place at The Clock Tower, Moonee Ponds, this Monday October 6. Tickets start from $22.40 at http://lifeliketouring.com/sesamestreetpresents/

Cabaret, Festivals, Performances, Review October 4, 2014

REVIEW: Fringe Festival’s MONSTER

Welcome to the darkness

By Myron My

With its low lighting and large spacious rooms where you can only just see to the other end of it if you squint and focus, Revolt is the perfect venue for Monster, a horror-cabaret that looks at perceptions that the transgender community constantly battle.

Created by Daniel Gough and Danielle Starkey, we are welcomed into the dark and into the home of Madam (also performed by Gough) as she regales us with stories of her life. What starts as light-hearted enough slowly but then suddenly becomes dark and intense as Madam gives us an insight into life as a transgender person.

The lighting and set design support this darkening mood, building on the intimacy of a topic like transgender and also creating a claustrophobic mood in Madam’s attic apartment. The three “rooms” on set, the lounge, bathroom and bedroom, are where people are traditionally most honest with themselves and cannot escape their truth and it is quite fitting that the bathroom is where the most emotive and haunting moments take place in Monster.

Gough tackles the complexities of a transgender person with impressive results. You almost forget that Gough is reciting lines and performing on stage as Madam, especially with his consistency on playing out her mannerisms and nervous habits. He builds a strong emotional connection with the audience and the boldness and courage present in the final moments feel like a combination of loathing and loving self-acceptance for Madam.

Monster is a brilliantly horrific piece of theatre that looks at transgender people and the conflicts and issues they face but doesn’t accuse or threaten: instead, it leaves you questioning and looking to your own moral compass for answers on who the actual “monster” is.

Monster was performed at Revolt as part of the 2014 Melbourne Fringe Festival.

Festivals, Performances, Review, Theatre September 29, 2014September 29, 2014

REVIEW: Fr!sk Presents CONTRA

Some are more equal than others

By Myron My

“Welcome, Cousins!”

This is how we are greeted as we enter the world of Contra for the 2014 Melbourne Fringe Festival. But we are not really cousins – we are comrades in a futuristic dystopia where we are blindingly loyal to our great leader and under the ever-watchful eye of – well – just about everyone.

Presented by Fr!sk Festival at the Victorian College of the Arts, there is an immersive element in the first part of this show that felt like I was in a version of 1984 or The Hunger Games. We are all huddled outside and numbers are read out announcing the winners of a lottery to see who will be chosen to work in a career department, a most honoured position.

Surrounding us are posters with propaganda slogans such as “Report or Regret” and “Equal and Fair”. We are then marched single file through the building, getting fingerprint-scanned and collecting our food ration pill. Various precincts are mentioned and ever since ‘The Great Disaster’, we all serve under the watchful eye of The Conductor.

From here on, it’s a fairly straightforward performance exploring the impossibility of curbing natural instincts and speculating as to where the desire for power and ambition can lead. As the audience, we are oppressed civilians watching these character’s lives begin to crumble as the pressure to conform reaches breaking point. The five performers in the cast do a great job in their respective roles but Simone French and Cait Spiker particularly impressed me with the levels of commitment invested into their portrayals. Moreover, the choreography and soundtrack used in the ‘sexual misconduct’ scene was executed effectively in creating an opportunity for these characters – and for their audience – to experience a moment of real emotional connection.

The plot is a familiar one for this dystopian genre with no real twist or surprise, but the initial immersive experience is what won me over. There are ultimately some interesting messages that Contra offers about life, society and expectations, but I feel the play is summed up best with one character’s proclamation that ‘freedom should not be a privilege’.

Contra was presented by Fr!sk Festival at the Victorian College of the Arts as part of the 2014 Melbourne Fringe Festival.

Performances, Review, Theatre, Whats On September 7, 2014September 7, 2014

REVIEW: Caroline Lee in WAKING UP DEAD

A blank sheet and a black crayon

By Myron My

In Waking Up Dead, writer Trudy Hellier explores what happens to a woman when her husband dies in an unexpected and shocking way, only then to discover he was also leading a double life.

With direction from Susie Dee, Caroline Lee succeeds in captivating our attention with her portrayal of the grieving woman. Her fragility is evident throughout and you can see her slowly unraveling as she recalls moments of her life with her husband, leading up to that fatal moment and beyond.

Her dialogue is delivered earnestly and from the heart, and Hellier has created a script that really captures the emotions and reactions a person feels when not only someone they love dies, but also someone they love turns out to not be who they thought they were. Ian Moorhead’s sound design is used effectively with interspersed sound bites throughout Waking Up Dead. TV news reports and police interviews all point to the inevitable and add more despair to Lee’s character’s story.

The set design by Callum Morton is simple yet demanding of our interest – it comprises of a single white sheet of paper that rolls down a wall and onto the floor upon which Lee then draws in her bedroom and its furniture (including a desk, bed and bookshelves) with a black crayon. As her memory becomes more confused and in turn, becomes more agitated and frail, so does the appearance of her room as she rubs things off and smudges things out.

Waking Up Dead is a beautiful production and exploration of what it is to grieve and lose someone you love and how at the end of the day, we can only ever put faith in our memories to remind us of the people in our lives.

Venue: fortyfivedownstairs, 45 Flinders Lane, Melbourne
Season: Until 14 September | Tues- Sat 8:00pm, Sun 5pm
Tickets: $35 Full | $25 Conc
Bookings: http://www.fortyfivedownstairs.com/events or 9662 9966

Events, Festivals, Performances, Review September 7, 2014September 7, 2014

REVIEW: Barking Spider’s LIBERTY OF THE PRESS

Freedom, fashion and forgotten stories

By Myron My

It’s hard to put into words the thoughts and feelings I had whilst experiencing Liberty of the Press. Even the venue for this concert/exhibition/fashion-runway/performance-based evening – the State Library of Victoria – was most unusual, yet fitting for a show like this.

In this production inspired by the stunning “Press Dress” – an outfit constructed from panels of silk printed with the front pages of Melbourne newspapers – worn by Mrs Matilda Butters at the Mayor’s fancy dress ball in 1866, we were treated to a variety of sensory events presented within the confines of the library.

Beginning in the La Trobe Dome Reading Room, we witnessed some Chinese drumming which sent reverberations throughout your body and echoes all over the room. At one point four scrolls were thrown over the top floor railings with the last one reading “Liberty of the Press”. It had begun.

It is then you heard a distant beautiful operatic voice singing. It was hypnotic and I could have listened to it for much longer but as I was drawn towards it, I caught a glimpse of the Press Dress in the Queen’s Hall. All that’s left of the ornate costume is the dress, which now belongs in the State Library of Victoria’s Realia collection. Interestingly, little is known about the dress’ creator, Mrs William Dobbs, apart from the fact she lived in South Yarra.

Following this was a catwalk showing of some eye-catching fashion inspired by the dress from designers New Model Beauty Queen and Preston Zly. This was accompanied by a traditional Chinese performance with Chinese Dragons, which led us to the State Library Forecourt where the two worlds came together in a spectacular conclusion.

Created by Barking Spider Visual Theatre, Liberty of the Press was performed as part of Melbourne Spring Fashion Week, and acknowledged the lesser-known history of women from the past and the 40, 000 Chinese who arrived to Victoria during the Gold Rush.

There’s not much else to say about this except it was simply a visual and aural feast of fashion, design, performance and music that took place on September 4, 2014.

Performances, Theatre, Whats On August 4, 2014August 4, 2014

REVIEW: Hoy Polloy Presents THE SEAFARER

Award-winning play a tough sell

By Margaret Wieringa

Sharky has returned to his blind, alcoholic older brother Richard just before Christmas. For a change, Sharky is not drinking. On Christmas Eve, they have several visitors and a card game takes place, with only Sharky aware of just how high the stakes truly are.

fortyfive downstairs was an excellent space to house Richard’s lounge room, the only set of the performance. The wind gushing down the laneway and the old floorboards added ambience to that created by the old furniture and dim walls (although so many of Guinness and other Irish brand alcohol posters seemed unnecessary to set the scene).

Overall, the play dragged. The script by Conor McPherson has been nominated for a variety of awards including the Laurence Olivier and several Tony awards, but it felt very long and repetitive and, at times, boring. There were several times when it was necessary to get Sharky and Mr Lockhart alone, but the way the other characters were removed from the scene was clumsy and obvious.

It is a script with a lot of dialogue, which can run the risk of losing crucial dramatic silences. There were some attempts to create these moments, most notably from Sharky, whose near silence in the second act is a big change from his verbosity in the first, but it seemed far too contrived. And somehow in all of these weighty moments, the heavy truths that are to be revealed are lost, and the emotional lows were unclear.

The mismatched ages did create some confusion as to why these five people were in a room together at all, but despite the terrible drunken staggering, the somewhat average Irish accents and a rude audience with phones ringing several times (even during crucial scenes), each of the five actors had moments that worked really well in the performance. As Ivan, Adam Rafferty had a few lovely incidents of storytelling portraying a character who can wax lyrical and dig himself into the odd hole. Mr Lockhart, played by Michael Cahill, gave an excellent description of the hell that a man can feel, while David Passmore captured the jovial edginess of Nicky, and Geoff Hickey and Barry Mitchell were able to show the challenges of a strained relationship between brothers with much regret and pain in their history.

Venue: fortyfive downstairs, 45 Flinders Lane, Melbourne
Season: 30 July – August 10
Tickets: $33-$38
Bookings: 9662 9966 or http://www.fortyfivedownstairs.com/buy-tickets/?event=seafarer

Performances, Review, Theatre, Whats On August 4, 2014August 4, 2014

REVIEW: Mockingbird Theatre’s QUILLS

Delving into the darkness

By Ross Larkin

Quills might be Mockingbird Theatre’s most ambitious production to date. It’s their eighth show in two years and the first to be staged at North Melbourne’s Meat Market Pavilion.

Quills is about the Marquis de Sade’s last days and the discovery that even while incarcerated he has been writing 1200 page tomes depicting all things pornographic, sadistic and vile. The Marquis is stripped of his quills and paper in order to be silenced, yet finds other clever and twisted ways to maintain his mind’s workings until eventually he is stripped of everything else from limb to head.

Written by Doug Wright, the play sits somewhere between witty, unsettling, grotesque, political and shameful. Its success lies in the suggestion that the Marquis’ censors are the real criminals: far more insane and twisted than the Marquis himself. It’s a big bite for even the longest standing companies to chew, with its three-hour duration, non-stop dialogue and heavy array of social issues, and although the usually savvy Mockingbird Theatre and director Chris Baldock succeed on some levels, the production sadly falls short on others.

While the Meat Market Pavilion is a genius choice for the old lunatic asylum with its stark, wide-open spaces and shadowy corners perfectly lit to reflect such an environment, the scenes (with seating organised in traverse) are spread too far apart, making some dialogue difficult to hear and some scenes difficult to see with full impact.

The supporting cast of asylum inmates create some great atmosphere despite being distracting at times: however, it is for the main players to bear the bigger issues. Adam Ward’s performance as Dr Royer-Collard is so theatrically heightened as to be better suited to a caricature pantomime or circus ringmaster, whereupon every second line is shouted ad nauseam. Fortunately Andrea McCannon as Renee Pelagie and Dylan Watson as Abbe de Coulmier keep things grounded with their fine and believable portrayals.

It is Adrian Carr, however, who plays the Marquis, with the greatest weight on his shoulders. It’s a brave role for anyone to attempt: a daring, witty, controversial sexual deviant and naked for half the show. Throughout Act One, Carr comes across as more irritating than sinister with no signs of much-needed light and dark shading, yet by Act Two he proves he has a handle on the complex and multifaceted character of the Marquis, and delivers some chilling moments indeed.

As usual, the quality Mockingbird stamp can be seen overall in Quills: it’s just a shame that the questionable areas were significantly felt.

Quills is playing now from August 5 – 15 at 8pm and Sunday August 10 at 5pm at the Meat Market Pavilion, 5 Blackwood street, North Melbourne. Tickets at http://www.mockingbirdtheatre.com.au/

Cabaret Review, Music, Performances, Whats On August 1, 2014August 1, 2014

REVIEW: Rita Costanzi has A SCORE TO SETTLE

Held an audience entranced

By Jessica Cornish

A Score To Settle is the one-woman musical cabaret performance starring the vivacious and extroverted Rita Costanzi and her grand harp. This former principal harpist of the Vancouver Symphony and CBC Radio Orchestra did not disappoint her opening night audience.

The musical monologue loosely followed Rita’s life, from her glorious and grandiose birth under a pregnant moon, to finding a partner crazy enough to love another harpist, her experiences with a tea-reading fortune teller and an exploration of why she has dedicated her life to this instrument that has essentially become an extension of herself. The narrative was very neatly scripted and clearly well-rehearsed, but having been expecting a more casual cabaret-style narrative it took me a few minutes to ease in to the dialogue and readjust my expectations of the evening.

With music weaved between her bubbly narrative, Costanzi was easily one of the most incredible harp players I have ever been privileged to see. And being in such an intimate venue such as The Butterfly Club the experience was even more unique- when else do most people get to sit within meters of a beautiful unamplified harp and hear it played so exquisitely? The audience was consistently blanketed in silence as soon as her fingers hit the strings. I myself was constantly mesmerized by her pieces, but my favourite piece for the night was a beautiful rendition of the Celtic classic, “Danny Boy” – clichéd, I know, but lacking a strong classical background and any type of program I found it hard to identify many of the compositions by name. A little informational playbill-style sheet may not go to waste in future performances.

I particularly loved the small excerpts where she sang into her harp whilst playing. The ethereal and mesmerising result sounded like was an ancient Elvish song taken from straight from Middle Earth, and made me wish she had done more singing and playing, although I can imagine this would be incredibly difficult.

A Score to Settle is an extremely unique and entertaining 70-minute piece of musical art that Melbourne audiences are lucky to experience for another couple of days. The fact that Rita and her harp made it to Australia in one piece is a major effort in itself that deserves rewarding if nothing else.

A Score to Settle will be performed for the next three days at the iconic Butterfly Club in Carson Place, CBD.

Friday 01 August 2014 7:00pm
Saturday 02 August 2014 7:00pm
Sunday 03 August 2014 6:00pm

Full $23
Concession $20
Group (8+) $18

http://www.thebutterflyclub.com/