Category: Performances

Events, Performances, Review, Theatre, Whats On

Review: AND THE BIRDS FELL FROM THE SKY

Experience theatre in a completely unexpected way

By Adam Tonking

Created by theatre director Silvia Mercuriali and filmmaker Simon Wilkinson, And The Birds Fell From The Sky is somewhere between amusement park ride, film, and nightmare.

In more traditional forms of theatre, the audience is invited to experience the story on their own terms. In And The Birds Fell From The Sky, you are pushed into the centre of the action, and given new eyes and ears – you’re forced to experience the story as if you are in it, not merely witnessing it. Your senses have been kidnapped, which seems appropriate as it appears that you have been kidnapped by a car full of clowns.

Am I being too vague, too abstract? I went into this performance with very little certainty about how it was all going to work, and the delicious fear of the unknown only builds in the foyer as you remember small pieces of information – there are only two people in each audience, you will be sitting in a wheelchair – while strange sounds shake the floor from the next room, and you read the warnings on the wall that say things like “People with claustrophobia may experience difficulties with the performance…”

Then you’re led into a small room and given video goggles and earphones, and told to follow any instructions very carefully…

Clearly, this is an experience like no other. The narrative comes at you like a dream – you’re in this car full of clowns, you have a task to perform – and hints at a subtext about the nature of experience, while the experience itself is given to you through all five of your senses.

It’s fascinating, overwhelming, and thrilling. The word “immersive” seems to have been designed for a show like this. Wilkinson and Mercuriali have created an astounding and innovative theatre experience.

And The Birds Fell From The Sky is on at the Arts House, North Melbourne Town Hall, 521 Queensberry Street, North Melbourne; Wednesday 29th February till Sunday 18th March 2012.

The show runs every 15 minutes between Wed – Fri, 2.30pm – 4.30pm & 6pm – 9pm; Sat 1pm – 4pm & 5.30pm – 8.30pm; Sun, 1pm – 4pm & 5.30pm – 7.30pm. 20 minutes no interval. Book at www.artshouse.com.au or call (03) 9322 3713.

Cabaret, Events, Performances, Review, Whats On

REVIEW: Sophie Walsh-Harrington is HOT

In search of the sequel to success

By Bradley Storer

After her incredibly successful debut cabaret, The Damsel in Shining Armour (winner of Best Cabaret Adelaide Fringe 2011), Sophie Walsh-Harrington returns to Melbourne with her new show HOT. Crafting a follow-up is a massive task as Sophie herself is obviously aware – the first segment of HOT acts as both a funeral and exorcism of the success of Damsel, Sophie entering in mourning black, greeting individual audience members like attendees at a wake, brandishing her Fringe award in their faces.

Those coming expecting similar fare to Damsel should be forewarned: Sophie continuously informs the audience, via bullhorn, that ‘this is not a cabaret’. Instead we are taken through Sophie’s travails to leave behind her cabaret past and become a ‘serious’ artist, ranging from attempts at monologue, mime and in one particularly hilarious segment, political donkey-themed agitprop anthems. Songs fromartists such as Paloma Faith, Muse and Sia are scattered throughout the show with fragments popping up like bad habits.

Sophie nevertheless retains the goof-ballish but headstrong innocence that made Damsel such a joy, which here keeps the audience on side even as the show takes a more confusing turn. Her vocals have only increased in power, which makes one sad about the relative lack of songs in comparison to her previous work – but in a show which she repeatedly proclaims is not a cabaret, this makes sense.

The show’s major theme is a continuation from Damsel: the attempt to live an authentic life – in this case the struggle of artists to maintain artistic originality and legitimacy in the wake of enormous success. Sophie shamelessly parodies artistic self-indulgence as the show moves into the realm of ‘serious’ theatre. 

The culmination of this endeavour is a lengthy, ‘Animal Farm’-style play. Despite Sophie’s uproarious characterizations and comically expressive physicality, this section began to drag the further it went along – even though this links in with the overall thematic structure of the show, self-indulgence (whether real or simulated) is only funny for so long.

However at the climax of the show, the accumulated superficiality collapses in on itself as if by magic. Sophie seems to rise from the debris of the dissembled show like a phoenix, with a spontaneous rendition of Des’ree’s ‘Kissing You’ so powerful it held the audience completely spellbound. For this alone HOT is worth seeing, reiterating not only Sophie’s incredible skill as a cabaret artist but reassembling what has come before in the show into a true, electrifying moment of artistic rebirth.

HOT stands as a riotous examination of the downsides of creative success, in its own way as cunningly and cleverly structured (if not more so) as its predecessor, and, if the finale is anything to go by, promises even greater achievement and success for Sophie’s future. What is perhaps required is a bigger audience for this show to burn at its brightest.  

HOT plays at La Mama Theatre until March 4, 8:30pm Wed/Sun, 9:30pm Thur-Sat

Directed by Alex Wright, backing tracks performed and engineered by Jason Odle

Tickets: (03) 9347 6142 or www.lamama.com.au

Cabaret, Cabaret Review, Events, Festivals, Performances, Whats On

Review: EMMA CLAIR FORD in Butterscotch

“Fall down seven times, get up eight”

By Maxine Montgomery

The quotation is a good motto we should all take into life, and one that Emma Clair Ford has taken to heart in writing her latest solo cabaret work, Butterscotch.

At the top of the show, Ms Ford entered the show room of the Butterfly Club with a great deal of poise and a dash of mystery, silently stalking down the centre aisle towards the intimate stage.

With her entrance, she created a mood of intrigue and simplicity all at once. She gave away nothing and kept the audience fully engaged as she took us on a journey, on “an adventure within an adventure”.

Ms Ford has crafted a very clever and well-structured script, and at all times, she was in control of its pace and delivery. Her careful choice of words painted very vivid pictures of childhood memories, tales of an oft-broken heart, and time in foreign lands.

I very much enjoyed her repeated use of one scenario, presented in two entirely different veins, to bookend a climactic moment of the show.

The music Ms Ford has chosen throughout the cabaret is so well matched to the progression of the through line that the songs could have been purpose written for the show.  Myself, I will never again be able to listen to “Six Months in a Leaky Boat” in quite the same way!

Emma Clair’s voice is clear, well controlled, and most adaptable in handling the music of the show. Her versatility extends from a music theatre belt to a sweet, pure tone which she introduced as she sang “Vieni a mia diletto” (Come, my delight) – the song was a perfect choice as she told of her desire to visit Juliet’s famous balcony in Verona.

Butterscotch is a unique cabaret, expertly created and delivered. Ms Ford deserves every success as she takes this show across to the 2012 Adelaide Cabaret Fringe Festival this month.

The second and final Melbourne preview is on Wednesday February 22nd at 8pm at the Butterfly Club in South Melbourne, but look out for details of another Melbourne season later in the year.

For tickets, please visit http://thebutterflyclub.com

Cabaret, Cabaret Review, Events, Performances

REVIEW: What’s Love Got To Do With It?

Tales from the heart

By Jessica Cornish

Singer/songwriter Ruth Katerelos, draped in a red-laced singlet and fishnet fingerless gloves, took the mainly over-40’s Butterfly Club audience on a journey of her life in What‘s Love Got To Do With It?

This intimate and personal cabaret explored in brief her time as a self-destructive teenager to becoming a woman in love, a woman in grief, a mother, and finally finding a way to love again.


 Accompanied by her silent and focused Ovation guitar player, Monique Kenny, Ruth performed a series of mainly acoustic pop songs she had composed, along with a couple of more jazz-influenced numbers. Although musically appealing, the songs would have benefited from more varied chord progressions, as some began to sound rather similar as the show continued.
 
The cabaret was obviously very well rehearsed, and the banter of Ruth’s life came across as a series of slick monologues, well-projected and clearly articulated. Initially the show seemed to lack a clear direction, however, as the show progressed and Ruth revealed more of her roller-coaster life experiences with substance abuse and relationships, you could not help being drawn into her story. Ruth’s heartbreaking tales of her constant loss of friends and lovers, and how she tried to make sense of life again in becoming a mother and finding a new partner Marg, made me catch my breath, and all I wanted to do was to hug this woman who I’d never seen before in my life.

Beyond the personal however, Ruth also touched on wider concepts of love, and how we perceive it as a society. She argued that a person can’t get all their needs fulfilled by a single person and that sometimes simply staying in a relationship for safety doesn’t help make people happy, and these more universal observations kept the performance from being self-indulgent.
 
On the night I attended, there were a couple flat notes and little vocal cracks, but in such an emotional story, I don’t believe that really mattered. Ruth took  us on a moving journey and her very attentive audience thoroughly enjoyed the night, with a couple even flying specifically to Melbourne from Adelaide to see this friendly performer.

Overall, What’s Love Got To Do With It was a pleasant and touching night of entertainment. Keep an eye out for future performances: I would recommend it for a more mature audience who will enjoy to be lulled by acoustic pop songs, and seeing a snapshot of a remarkable life not familiar to most of us.
 
What’s Love Got To Do With It was performed at The Butterfly Club on Thursday 2nd to Saturday 4th of February 2012.

Events, Performances, Review, Theatre, Whats On

Review: COGITO at La Mama

You think, therefore you’ll like…

By Anastasia Russell-Head

This play is intriguing. Two women, dressed almost identically, stand on a minimalist white stage and declare:

“My name is Katherine Lee.”

“My name is Katherine Lee.”

Which one is Katherine Lee? Are they both Katherine Lee? And what is that heart doing in a clear perspex box suspended above?

Originally written for the Singapore Arts Festival, the themes and scope of Huzir Sulaiman’s play Cogito are reminiscent of a short story.

There is an element of sci-fi in exploring the concept of artificial intelligence, but it is essentially a human story about loss, grief and reconcilliation.

Kristin Keam and Suzy Cato-Gashler were both strong as the two on-stage Katherines, with Cato-Gashler being particularly convincing in the role. Newcomer Frank Handrum was excellent as the dour, efficient lawyer, Lex.

It was unfortunate that the excellent cast and script were let down by the spacing of the production.

The audience were situated “in the round”, with the result that much of the play was spent looking at the back of the actors’ heads and trying to decipher what they were saying when it was directed at the other side of the room. I

n addition, the superb voice-over provided by Glenda Linscott was compromised by poor EQ-ing, and was often too boomy to be able to understand clearly.

Visually the production was quite successful, despite the spacing issues. The lighting was very effective, and the special effect moment towards the end (I won’t spoil the plot for you!) was quite stunning and unexpected.

Sit on the side next to the entrance door, prepare to be intrigued and slightly confused (in a good way), and enjoy the talents of some excellent seasoned actors in this little futuristic “short story” of a play.

 

Cogito by Huzir Sulaiman

La Mama Courthouse

February 9 – 19

Wed, Fri, Sun 8:30pm

Thur, Sat 6:30pm

Cabaret, Cabaret Review, Events, Festivals, Performances

REVIEW: Candice McQueen is NASTY

A hot night and an hilarious show

By Jessica Cornish

Candice McQueen has ‘been a lotta places, seen a lotta faces, and fucked a lotta races.’

The immortal demi-god who watched the crucifixion of Christ and chilled with the ancient pharaohs of Egypt told the tale of her 90’s love affair to a packed opening night Butterfly Club crowd last week.

Nasty is a brand new work performed by Spanky (Candice McQueen). This tranny superstar previously worked in London’s famous Bistrotheque for seven years and was proud to present her new show at The Butterfly Club as part of the 2012 Midsummer Festival.

The Mister Sister (with a fluro-pink wig dangling over her shoulders, and a malfunctioning glittering false eyelash threatening to crush her right eye) kept her hot and sweaty audience laughing all night.

The opening rap was followed by a hilarious narrative of her secret birth in front of an array of silver baboons, since her mother with a fleeting Asian/Spanish accent was tragically dying of a melting heart, and was forced to hand the small child over to an African monkey to raise as his own.

Initially the show, Nasty, was equally quite hard to follow. Hilarious, certainly – however, it wasn’t clear where the show as a whole was going. Fifteen minutes into the piece we finally learn of her love for a man named River, and the show begins to explore their naughty nineties relationship of love, loss, love and loss once more.

In between Candice’s spoken monologues of her experiences with River were splashes of songs accompanied by her acoustic guitarist/ukele player, Kylie. With her long black hair, purple glasses and loose fitted t-shirt she sat quietly in the corner awaiting her moments to shine. Occasionally Kylie also provided harmonic vocal lines to Candice’s songs which lifted the musical pieces significantly. Their voices blended together beautifully, and gave the musical pieces a whole new energy and vibrancy.

Whilst the musical composition of Nasty was nonetheless fairly uninventive, the banter in between the numbers made up for the lack of musical genius. Stand-out moments were Candice proving that the lovable Jack from Titanic was in fact a gay lad unfairly manhandled by a frumpy and loud Rose, and her segments retelling the loss of River in a risqué night club where her famous Australian father was DJ’ing at the time. 

Finally the show did demonstrate to its audience that the only point of human life was for all of us to find love, be loved and love in return, proved to be a great night out, and the sweaty audience thoroughly enjoyed themselves.

Nasty was part of the the Midsumma Festival at The Butterfly Club.

Dates: 31 Jan – 5 Feb

Times: Tue, Wed & Sun 8pm, Thu-Sat 9pm

Cabaret, Cabaret Review, Events, Performances, Whats On

Review: LACHLAN MACLEOD’S A Very Merry Christmas

Get into this christmas comedy quick!

By Melissa Trickey

After having a somewhat scrooge-y day, I was a bit “bah humbug” when I entered The Butterfly Club on Thursday evening…. But the “magic, majesty and hhhhhwhimsy” of Lachlan’s Macleod’s A Very Merry Christmas soon warmed the cockles of my heart to turn my frown upside down and make me Madame President of the Christmas Spirit Club!

Christmas sure smacked me in the face as soon as I walked in the door, with the busiest set I’ve ever seen in that performance space. I had no idea the stage could fit so much! Three musical instruments, a fully decorated Christmas tree, a framed Jesus picture and a curious object that was concealed by some kind of mystery Christmas material…

This turned out to be Lachlan himself, who promptly did what I did not expect at all – sat as his keyboard and played a (seemingly) serious song about Christmas. Next second he totally bazinga’d me with the lyrics: “The doors are locked, I’ve got your cash, so f***you all!” People didn’t seem to mind though – we were all laughing too hard!

There were many lyrical gems like this along the way. Lachlan touched on such topics as re-gifting, office work parties, due rewards from Santa for being a bad little boy, and the evergreen last-minute present shopping. His lyrics are simple, direct and right on the money (except for the priest thing…), and his songs are very funny and appealing to a broad audience with great writing, delivery and chorey!

Lachlan has a gift for simple and effective storytelling that is quite endearing and suited the show very well. Some opening night nerves made Lachlan appear slightly jittery at times, but I’m sure they will settle down and Lachlan can relax into his performance more. From a performer’s perspective he has put A LOT of pressure on himself with his all-singing, all-gags, mostly-playing and sometimes-dancing agenda! In accompanying himself on no less than three instruments, Lachlan certainly is working harder than most. 

I thought there was a slight lag in the middle of the show that could be tightened up by shaving back some verses and material. It was good to be mellow but the feeling rather overstayed its welcome.  However, the finale was sharp, witty, and brilliant to watch, with the emergence of a special Christmas costume and resulting song. I don’t want to give too much away but it was absolutely hysterical and a closing highlight for the show!

Lachlan is everyday funny like Hamish and Andy, writes clever and witty lyrics like Tim Minchin, and delivers them with the pathos of Tripod. One day I will see him on TV and be like, “Hey, I reviewed that guy once!” Thanks for the Handy Christmas Facts, Lachlan, and for the numerous laughs! Merry Christmas!

Dates: Thurs 8th to Sun 11th Dec
Time: Thurs-Sat at 9pm & Sun at 8pm

Venue and bookings: The Butterfly Club, Sth Melbourne

Events, Opportunities, Performances, Review, Theatre

REVIEW: A Fistful of Scripts

An evocative and illuminating evening of new theatre

By Jennifer Coles

Firstly, I’d like to applaud Wise Works Media and Theatreworks for an evening like this. A Fistful of Scripts was a collection of new works presented as table reads for the benefit of their writers (cast included Leonie Leaver, Katharine Innes, Nadia Andary, Christopher Barry, Madeline Clare French, Stephanie Evison-Williams, Tom Kay, Callan Lewis, Alex McArthur, Adam Turnbull, Francesca Walters, Josie Parrelli and Kim Morrell). After each performance, the audience was invited to participate in a forum discussing the pros and cons of each script to provide the writers with invaluable information.

At the centre of Wafik ‘Fiko’ Doss’ The Heart of Rex was King Rasheed who failed to save his wife and children from murder. Believing his brother the culprit he banishes him, but is haunted by his wife’s ghost as his brother is haunted by family secrets. The piece had a beautiful grasp of Elizabethan language and some truly beautiful lines (delivered with gusto by the cast).

However Doss gets rather lost in his own words; lines were often elaborated, over-extended and repetitious. Influences from Greek theatre, Shakespeare and fairytales were abundant, but this clouded the piece – particularly the Greek chorus whose role needed to be more defined. The characters, although passionate and well-realised, lacked time to develop their motivations, leaving the ending predictable. What Doss has created is something just short of brilliance, but he needs to decide if this is a short play or a long one.

Dear and Departed (Sean McIntyre), a short monologue by a grandmother at her own funeral, contained moving images created by the woman’s memories: recollections of attempts to get her granddaughter to sleep resonated well with the audience. The piece needed to stay focused on the woman as it moved into vague territory before a significant plot revelation. This would have had more power if links beforehand been more structured.

Finally JILTED! (Parrelli and Morrell) tells the tale of unlucky-in-love Ebony who has just been stood up by her boyfriend. When she asks why her relationships fail, everyone has an opinion – particularly her loudmouth sister and brother-in-law. Dealing with modern themes, the ladies at Scorpio Productions have brought these situations to life with wonderful characters that read well together and really ‘bond’ as a dysfunctional family. JILTED! now needs to focus on defining Ebony’s character more in her search for self-improvement and answers.

Although the audience provided some insight into possible reworkings, occasionally suggestions offered were more for audience clarification than writers’ benefit. I hope the writers continue to develop these pieces and find the advice useful, for with a bit more polish, these scripts are all on the way to be insightful and moving works.

A Fistful of Scripts was produced at Theatre Works on Dec 6 2011.

Cabaret, Cabaret Review, Events, Performances, Review, Whats On

REVIEW: April Albert is DIE KNEF

A tribute to a legend misses the triumph

By Adam Tonking

Die Knef, a cabaret written and performed by April Albert, traces the life of Hildegard Knef, a chanteuse whose survival of World War II coloured the rest of her career as a performer, but never held her back from her ambition.

Albert’s show is a brief insight into a relatively unknown figure in Australia, and showcases songs in a language that is too seldom celebrated outside of opera here.

Hildegard Knef, referred to by Albert as “the Edith Piaf of Germany”, was an actress and singer who enjoyed a long career spanning from the 1940s through to the 1970s. With Albert as Knef, Die Knef is at its most simple the story of one woman’s life, featuring the songs that made her famous.

But Albert presents it as a kind of nostalgia concert from a faded artiste you can imagine touring RSLs and pokies venues, and so Knef comes onstage with all of the pizzazz and charisma of a star, but gets distracted reminiscing about the many tragedies of her life.

Watching Knef unravel under the weight of her memories makes for fascinating viewing.

I had thought that a show containing entirely foreign language songs might present a challenge, but the audience quickly accepted the change and Albert seemed most comfortable when singing or speaking in German.

Although her commitment to the character is admirable, she rarely seemed to connect with the unimaginable horrors that Knef describes experiencing during World War II.

The script appears meticulously researched, peppered with pithy quotes for which Knef was well-known, but then focuses too heavily on these bad times, not on the successes that made her so famous and hence a character worth getting to know.

April Albert’s Die Knef was on at The Butterfly Club in South Melbourne from the 1st till the 4th of December at 7pm. 

For details of other upcoming shows, visit www.thebutterflyclub.com.

Events, Musical Theatre, Performances, Review, Theatre, Whats On

Review: HOUSEWARMING – A New Musical

Home is where the heart is

By Bradley Storer

Housewarming, a new musical composed and written by William Hannagan-McKinna and Belinda Jenkin, opens on its lead character Tommy (Daniel Benge) on the threshold of a new adventure: the perilous plunge into share-housing.

Like the similar work which precedes it on Theatreworks double-bill, Give My Regards to Broady, Housewarming deals with universal themes of growing up and the struggle to move beyond the past.

Accompanying Tommy on the journey to independence is a mismatched group of fellow post-adolescents.

There’s Mia (Rachel Rai), the sheltered mummy’s girl with borderline OCD; Kelly (Elle Richards), the spoiled and self-aggrandizing rich girl; Luke (Drew Collet), the hard-drinking uni dropout; the dreadlocked Jo (Dave Barclay) and his ethereal, reiki-toting ex-girlfriend Daisy (played by Jenkin herself).

While these outlines may seem almost stereotypical in their construction, one of the joys of the evening is watching these skilled actors fill out and develop their characters beyond generic characteristics.

As the plot proceeds, unexpected twists reveal hidden depths to each character and their relationships with their housemates delving into unforeseen territory.

The ensemble are all strong performers and singers, and each are given a moment to shine with excellently composed moments of self-revelation and remembrance – highlights are Kelly’s ensemble-supported diva number ‘I Insist’, Daisy’s delicately heart-breaking ‘I Grew My Hair So Long’ and Tommy’s explosive solo ‘I Am Bruised’.

In comparison to the wacky comic mania of Broady, Housewarming approaches the same topic with seriousness and compassion while still retaining a light-hearted touch.

Aided by a committed and talented ensemble, Housewarming is a fantastic evening at the theatre, ranging from heart-warming to wrenching to youthfully optimistic all in the same show.

Housewarming: A New Musical is in a double-billing this month with Give My Regards to Broady!

Dates: 28 Nov – Dec 10 at Theatre Works, St Kilda

Times: Nov 30 to Dec 3 at 8:45pm / Dec 5-10 at 7:00pm