Category: Whats On

Festivals, Musical Theatre, Whats On

Melbourne Festival 2016: OUR LADIES OF PERPETUAL SUCCOUR

It’s a wild and wonderful ride

By Leeor Adar

I was expecting St Trinians, but instead I was treated to something so much better. A musical theatre lover I am not, but Lee Hall’s adaptation of Alan Warner’s Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour may have cured me.

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The internationally renowned National Theatre of Scotland has indeed graced our good Melbourne Festival this year with a riotously funny, endearing and poignant show concerning the misdemeanors of Scotland’s wildest Catholic schoolgirls.

On a journey to Edinburgh for a choral competition, our girls are planning to booze, cruise and find a worthy specimen for their hormone-driven desires. Initially, their voices sing out unaccompanied to Felix Mendelssohn’s Lift Thine Eyes, but it’s a momentary holy light before the girls embark onto far wilder renditions of Jeff Lynne’s Don’t Bring Me Down and disco classic Shine a Little Love. The cast are all talented sopranos, and they heartily reimagine 70s rock and disco classics as they travel between dive bars and blow up a drug dealer’s shack with fireworks. They manage to do their mischief all the while under the watchful gaze of a Virgin Mary statue.

There is heart to this production. The desire to rise up and beyond their incestuous poverty is an ever-present theme. One character, Orla (Joanne McGuinness), a cancer sufferer and virgin until further notice, peers across the world with the gentle eyes of someone who may soon leave it. Kay (Karen Fishwick) is the local doctor’s daughter, and a university hopeful whose momentary lapse into recklessness could change her life forever.

Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour feels like any wild party – there are moments of pure inclusive ecstasy, and moments of poignant truths. Vicky Featherstone has directed a fluid and thoroughly engaging production to rival anything we’ve seen on the Melbourne musical stages. Featherstone’s cast gel so effortlessly it feels like these girls have known one another forever. The cast must be commended on their highly physical performances, and a further accolade must be given to choreographer, Imogen Knight, for their well-crafted movement.

Overall, the entire production team have created a show that captivated and sent their audience into fits of laughter. A standing ovation was what they received for their efforts, and I expect Melbourne will be delighted to see the National Theatre of Scotland return next year.

Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour is performing at the Fairfax Studio, Arts Centre Melbourne until Saturday 22 October. Tickets available at https://www.festival.melbourne/2016/events/our-ladies-of-perpetual-succour/#.V_iM_DJh2CQ

Review, Theatre, Whats On

Bitten By Productions Presents THE CRITIC

Reviewing the play about reviewing

By Margaret Wieringa

Imagine this: you are attending a theatrical performance written, directed and starring a close friend… and you hate it. What can you tell them? Be honest, or be polite? Now, raise the stakes: you are a theatre critic writing for a well-respected newspaper. Ouch. This is the situation that Jamie finds herself in, having begged to be allowed to review a friend’s performance only to discover it is appalling.

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Gabriel Bergmoser hits the spot with his script, challenging the characters to look into themselves and search for their truth. The dialogue had a level of awareness and blunt honesty that made for deliberately uncomfortable moments for both the characters and the audience. The opening scene, with Susan reading a scathing and horrible review must have had creative folk in the audience cringing with familiarity, or perhaps just enjoying that it is about a fictional performance.

Director Ashley Tardy has gathered a strong cast who work well to capture the warring personalities onstage. Jamie, played by Louise Cocks, talks her thought process out while balancing on the edge of self-confidence and anxiety. Her high-energy performance captures the stress of Jamie fighting her way through this dilemma, and is beautifully countered by the hardened, cut-throat attitude of her boss. In this role, Angelique Malcolm struts the stage, owning it and everyone on it. She can own another character with a single glance – and knows it. Then there is Emma: as cocksure and self-centred as any performer putting on a solo piece, but also overly sensitive and self-deluding. Alicia Beckhurst captures the intense emotional state of Emma, from post-performance high to the anger of feeling betrayed. Thank goodness for Ellie, Jamie’s housemate who has seen the performance and been along for the ride.  She provides much needed humour to break up the tension (or sometimes, to add a whole extra level of stress). Rosie Flanagan delivers her hilarious dialogue with great timing, punctuating the piece.

My only real issue with the performance was that it felt rushed. As a very dialogue-heavy piece, much of it needed to slow down and allow the audience to keep up. My favourite moment of the performance was watching Jamie and Ellie react to the magnificently strange noises being created off-stage by Emma as she performs her terrible show – beautiful teamwork and absolutely hilarious.

Where: Club Voltaire, 14 Raglan St, North Melbourne

When: October 6-15, 7pm

Tickets: $18-$20

Book: www.trybooking.com or acopa.com.au/voltaire.

Performances, Review, Whats On

David Strassman in iTedE

They’re back!

By Joana Simmons

David Strassman and his colourful collection of puppets are bringing absolute magic and comedic brilliance to the Atheneaum Theatre in his brand-new show iTedE. Renowned as the man who made ventriloquism hip again, Strassman has been cracking up audiences at the Athenaeum for 15 years and is back, pushing boundaries further with spellbinding technology and timely social commentary.  His ability to make all those characters fully come to life is unbelievable.

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With the help of the lovable Ted. E. Bare, Strassman warms up the crowd with suitable jokes related to AFL Grand Final weekend. We learn that Strassman is worried that with our lives becoming more and more reliant on technology, our imaginations are becoming weaker, which means shows like his and live theatre will die out. He wants to rally his puppets together to sit on a panel at a TED Talk about “the suspension of disbelief.” The range of characters and the way they are developed is incredible: from Chuck Wood, the wise-cracking, quick-witted and ever uncouth, to Buttons, the sick, intoxicated clown. We see how they are different parts of Strassman’s personality; the voices in his head bought to life with absolute dexterity and intelligence.

It is delightful to see how even in our world of CGI and virtual reality (looking at you, Pokeman GO!) how the robotics and puppeteering can have a crowd swept up in every move and wetting themselves laughing in the process. The robotics are incredibly advanced, allowing each puppet to move on their own. The set, lighting and sound are high-quality and transform the theatre into a new world. The thing that still has my jaw dropping is how there were no breaks between all the voices Strassman was doing. How he managed to breathe is beyond me, and shows how he is truly a master.

Melbourne has a host of awesome art going on at the moment– Melbourne Fringe, Melbourne Festival, gigs, musicals and all the underground instillations this city is renowned for. Strassman’s iTedE is an event not to miss. It reignites your inner child’s imaginative flame and tickles your adult sense of humour. Book today, it’s worth braving the Footy crowds for!

Show Details:

Strassman: iTedE

30 Sep – 15 Oct 2016, 7pm

The Athenaeum, Collins Street

www.ticketek.com.au

Festivals, Performances, Whats On

Melbourne Fringe 2016: ____DAY NIGHT’S DREAM

Evocative, intimate wanderings into a nocturne of dreaming

By Myron My

One delightful certainty during the Melbourne Fringe Festival is that there will be a number of performances being held in random and uncommon locations, and ____day Night’s Dream is another great example of this. This immersive show explores the dreams of seven people, and it does so on a 16th-floor apartment overlooking the city.

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Interestingly, the dreams are all based on the performers’ (Iryna Byeylyayeva, James Christensen, Aram Geleris, Daniel Holmes, Madeleine Johnson, Sara Laurena and Freya McGrath) own dreams, and performing them within the confines of the apartment creates a literal intimacy as well as a metaphorical one, having been invited into this very personal space to be privy to these personal dreams.

Director Declan Mulcahy has takencare to depict the retelling of each dream differently, ensuring the audience is engaged and also not permitting us to get too comfortable with what might happen next – just like in dreams. One unnerving dream unfolds in a bedroom, another takes place via a TV screen that is wheeled out to us in the living room, while a third experience involves a tactile recount of the dreamer’s story.

The apartment is small and while fitting everyone is a tight squeeze, the creators have wisely chosen to split the group, with scenes being performed simultaneously in different rooms. The unfortunate downside to this is that there are times when it is difficult to focus on the dream at hand as you can overhear others being told. This is particularly the case in the living room where I was so eager to hear and attempt to make sense of the recitations by the blindfolded man sitting at a computer screen, “staring” at a blank word doc, but it proved impossible with another exchange taking place only three feet away.

The final dream is quite a surreal experience in ____day Night’s Dream, as we watch and listen in the communal courtyard, while the rest of the building’s tenants go about their business. And then – just like a real dream – it’s over and we are left to walk out into the darkness. Perhaps this is what a waking dream feels like.

Venue: Cnr Bouverie St and Victoria St, Carlton, 3053

Season: until 1 October | 8pm and 10pm
Length: 50 minutes 

Tickets: $25 Full | $20 Conc
Bookings: Melbourne Fringe Festival

Circus, Festivals, Whats On

Melbourne Fringe 2016: JUGG LIFE

Throwing around innovative ideas, and catching everyone’s attention

By Myron My

There was a time when it seemed juggling was simply a person throwing a handful of balls in the air and keeping them there. While it is skillful, there was surely not much you could do with it to keep audience entertained for a prolonged period. However, presented as part of the Melbourne Fringe Festival, jugglers Byron Hutton and Joe Fisher breathe amazing life into the art form with a highly engaging circus show, aptly titled Jugg Life.

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While the two use a variety of balls, pins and rings for their acts, it is the incorporation of music, percussion and their innovation in challenging what juggling that makes this show a definite crowd-pleaser. Their routines involve both some precision timing and the maintaining of impeccable hand-eye coordination not only for themselves but with each other, as objects are often passed adroitly back and forth while in mid-routine.

The energy and chemistry Hutton and Fisher possess is infectious, and watching them trying to one-up each other during their “street fighter” combat juggling is highly enjoyable to watch. The two remain strongly connected throughout the show and the support they have for each other is evident.

The set-up of the stage elicits an environment of fun, with bright boxes to store their props and a drum kit sitting in the corner, and the way they use the latter further displays their juggling prowess. The music is perfectly suited to keep energy levels up and the choreography of the routines to the music – particularly with the Polyphonic! app where the two create their own electronic songs – shows the real thought that has been put into Jugg Life.

Usually, juggling might not considered be as wow-inducing as jumps on a tight rope or balancing upside down on seven chairs, but Jugg Life certainly closes the gap. It’s a strong show by Hutton and Fisher who have taken juggling to a whole new exciting level.

Venue: Fringe Hub – Arts House, 521 Queensberry Street, North Melbourne, 3051
Season: until 1 October | 6.30pm
Length: 50 minutes
Tickets: $20 Full | $15 Conc
Bookings: Melbourne Fringe Festival

Festivals, Kids Theatre, Whats On

Melbourne Fringe 2016: THE FAIRYTALE COOKBOOK

Serving up delicious and dynamic kids’ theatre

By Rebecca Waese

The Fairytale Cookbook, devised by Jason Geary and delivered by a rotating cast of seriously funny performers from Impro Melbourne, serves up a winning recipe for school holiday fun this Fringe Festival.

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Under the skillful guidance of the Chef character, played by Timothy Redmond on the day I attended, the kids in the audience were encouraged to pick the ingredients to make original fairytales that sent the actors into the realm of the ridiculous and super silly. I had thought the show would ask the kids to make up new endings for the likes of Rapunzel and Rumpelstiltskin, but it was far more creative than that. Kids could pick characters from a wide-ranging list including a two-headed person, a ninja, a mermaid or a dancing bear and see the characters take on challenges in magical situations. In the performance I saw with my six-year-old daughter, the fairytales included a spider who could only move forwards through the world and a genie who lived in a tooth and got captured by a giant beard. The kids were delighted to see their ideas come to life and the players, combined from the Company and the Rookie ensembles, really listened to the kids, allowing them to clap for the person who would play the lead role in each story, decide how the stories would end, and do all the important character-building and plot development, even when, in our show, it called for potatoes to shoot out of a toilet named Flushhead.

The age guide of 3 and up does not mean the show is too young for older kids. While the players were gentle and patient with the littlest spectators, there was enough wit and bite to have the entire audience, adults included, truly enjoying the show. There were no props or sets or costumes needed. The cast used only the list of storytelling ingredients and said yes to all the suggestions from the kids and the collective creative energy in the room was palpable. After the show, my kids were inspired to make up new combinations of fairy tales at home from the list for hours. My daughter told me, “The show didn’t feel like an hour! It felt like a few minutes because I was having so much fun.”

High-quality, super funny, deeply creative and empowering, The Fairytale Cookbook was a terrific intro to impro for kids. Do yourself a favour and take yourself and your kids to this show.

 Venue: Fringe Hub: Arts House – Meeting Room. $15

521 Queensberry St, North Melbourne.

Dates: Thurs Sept 29-Sat October 1, 10 am- 11 am.

Bookings: https://melbournefringe.com.au/program?event/fairytale-cookbook/5c51cecb-6313-476c-8b70-b17bb38fa036

Rebecca Waese is a Lecturer in Creative Arts and English at La Trobe University.

Festivals, Performances, Whats On

Melbourne Fringe 2016: 2.0 / CONTACT

A touch – of artistry

By Myron My

Presented as part of this year’s Melbourne Fringe Festival, The Human Project’s 2.0 | Contact, is an exploration on what touch can be and mean to humans, and how life could be without it. A highly physical experimental piece, it incorporates martial arts, dancing and some wrestling moments as an “outsider” dissects and analyses the state of physical touching.

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With injury befalling one of the performers, the show has had to be restructured to work around the three remaining cast (Rosie Osmond, Ashton Sly and Joseph Lai), but had you not known,  you wouldn’t be able to tell, as the performance is seamless and feels like it has been just the three of them rehearsing all this time. This is a highly demanding show – both physically and mentally – but the training and effort the three have put in in getting this piece together is profoundly evident. With its minimalist set, staging, and costumes there is nothing for the performers to hide behind, and their every move or word is what has all of our attention.

Throughout the show, there are “outsider” descriptions of various forms of human contact that the incomers have witnessed, which are then being played out for us on the stage. While these appear exaggerated and feel unnatural to watch, we are later informed that what we have witnessed is a common act such as kissing or shaking hands, adroitly illustrating the idea that a simple act of contact can generate multiple interpretations.

An interesting theme that runs throughout 2.0 | Contact regarding touch and physicality is that love and violence – affection and aggression – are closely related, and can transform from one into the other quite suddenly. There are powerful scenes of gentle caresses or kissing that are contrasted with the aggressive punching choreography, or bodies running into each other and being flipped onto gym mats.

2.0 | Contact is a strong production by The Human Project, a young promising company only formed in 2015. This is very much a reflective and evocative piece that has you questioning how we use touch in our own lives and how these meanings can differ from each person – and being – we come into contact with.

Venue: Sokol Melbourne, 497 Queensberry St, North Melbourne 

Season: Until 30 September | 8.30pm 

Length: 60 minutes 

Tickets: $25 Full | $16 Conc 

Bookings: Melbourne Fringe Festival

Festivals, Performances, Whats On

Melbourne Fringe 2016: NOTHING SPECIAL

Absurdist satire on our yearning for individuality

By Myron My

We all want to be something special. As children we are often led to believe we can be by our parents and teachers, and while it can be a positive thing, it can also be quite detrimental. Presented as part of the Melbourne Fringe Festival, Hotel Now’s Nothing Special looks at what happens when people live their lives based on the belief that they are extraordinary, and more talented and important than the average man.

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We follow a young girl, Chlorine (Simone French), literally from from the moment she is born. Her mother informs us that she was not supposed to live beyond the age of five, but that’s a defeatist attitude so she was forbidden to die. Chlorine’s dreams to be different and unique and to leave her mark on the world as an innovator in the arts are explored through various periods of her life, but when this seems unlikely, it is the harsh realities that Chlorine must then contend with.

Chlorine’s vulnerability and fragile ego is captured well by French and she plays well with the tragedy that feels certain to befall her. Likewise, Tom Halls‘ character work is a definite highlight of this show. From Chlorine’s “dance mum” persona to Othella, the Dean of the academy for gifted children that Chlorine attends, his movements, facial expressions and speech are dedicated and consistent.

The show explores the lengths to which people will go in order to feel successful and be revered. It is an all-consuming goal where even – as the two characters are having a (melodramatic) breakdown – they position themselves to still be under the right frame and lighting.

Nothing Special is an eccentric and absurd look at our obsession to be special and to matter. It’s a great concept that is executed well by Halls and French. With so many “talent”-focused reality TV shows screening at the moment, Nothing Special is a great reality check for those with mistakenly big dreams.

Venue: Sokol Melbourne, 497 Queensberry St, North Melbourne 

Season: Until 30 September | 7pm 

Length: 60 minutes

Tickets: $25 Full | $16 Conc

Bookings: Melbourne Fringe Festival

Events, Review, Whats On

Melbourne Fringe 2016: BETWEEN TWO LINES

An illuminating, liminal, literary indulgence

By Leeor Adar

“Fiction and poetry are doses, medicines…” – Jeanette Winterson

I’m in a bathtub in a bookstore. I’m robed, sipping a blossoming tea, and being read to. The world outside bustles by, occasionally stopping to stare in wonder, but honestly, I’m already somewhere else. I’m on a different wavelength – a higher wavelength.

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For the literary lover, the scent of the pages of a book is a gentle caress, speaking of untold and sometimes familiar places. It’s the promise of another world that draws us in, a chance to escape our chaotic reality.

Anna Nalpantidis, creator of award-winning live-art production, The Ministry, has brought us something exceptional for this year’s Melbourne Fringe Festival. Between Two Lines was inspired by Nalpantidis’ interest in biblio-therapy. A visit to Melbourne’s ‘School of Life’ ignited her interest in what the Greeks referred to as the ‘House of Healing for the Soul’. Literary healing.

Nalpantidis’ installation design is whimsical and breathtaking. With the help of illustrator, Astrid Mulder, and the astonishing gentleness of ‘therapist’, Elizabeth Brennan, these collaborators have created in Nalpantidis’ words, a “very intimate, indulgent and rejuvenating experience”.

So how does the magic unfold?

You will don a soft white robe, you will relinquish your possessions (momentarily), and you will fill out a short questionnaire that gauges your emotional state. Moments after you’ve read excerpts of literature, Brennan emerges from the veiled white world to take you in for your session.

Into the golden tub I climb, encased in soft, pillowy materials as a voiceless Brennan guides my senses to a tea of my choosing (chrysanthemum in my case). Once in my heavenly cocoon, Brennan reads to me. What she reads shall remain our secret…

My experience was like nothing I’ve ever had. It was as if Between Two Lines gently took my hand and guided me to the quieter part of my mind. Leaving Embiggen Books, I walked the mad cityscape like I was not of this world. I was on different terrain; tranquillity encased my whole being for what felt like a walk through the clouds.

Nalpantidis tells me that the responses of participants and spectators who look through the window are “profound”. Experiences can be quite emotional for some participants, and incidences of spontaneity are frequent, including people stopping their car to tap on the window and look within.

Between Two Lines stops traffic, literally. It pauses the participant’s life, suspending them in an ethereal state above the living world.

If you want to have a positive and enlightening experience, then I urge you to walk up Little Lonsdale to Embiggen Books until October 1, and experience this truly inspired and unique performance.

My only wish? That Nalpantidis and her team could indulge me again.

Please Note: the performance sessions are currently fully booked, but keep an eye out on the Facebook page or email Nalpantidis directly to join the waiting list: a.c.nalpantidis@gmail.com

Image by Theresa Harrison Photography

Festivals, Review, Whats On

Melbourne Fringe 2016: ONSTAGE DATING

A show to fall in love with

By Myron My

The dating game is a hard one to keep up with, let alone win. With online dating apps more or less becoming the most common way in meeting someone, going on a first date and getting to know someone from scratch face to face is but a distant memory. In her Melbourne Fringe Festival show, Onstage Dating, Bron Batten is determined to change this by having a first date with a member of the audience on stage – and the results are priceless.

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The show opens in a colourful and attention-grabbing way, and from then on we are all putty in Batten’s hands as she recalls memories of bad dates and describes the science behind dating and human interactions. Eventually she pulls out the pre-filled questionnaires from all the participants willing to be her date, and I am surprised by how many there are.

In a show that requires heavily on having the right audience volunteer: one that will go along for the ride and have a “yes” attitude, Batten could not have picked anyone more perfect – and in more ways than one – than Alex. Alex: who works for the Greens and cries for joy as he is riding an electric motorcycle. There was not one person in the venue that was not swooning over Alex, but I digress…

The date begins over wine and dinner and then progresses as first dates can often lead to, the lounge room. Throughout the date, Batten asks Alex (and vice versa) some getting-to-know-you questions: some are comical and some are a bit deeper. The openness and willingness they both share on stage is quite touching and despite it being an overt performance and Fringe show, you almost feel like there is a genuine connection.

While Onstage Dating can be taken as a fun show in which to have some great laughs (which it is), it is also a reminder that nothing can ever replace human face-to-face interaction. While we may all be leading very busy lives that make dating apps ideal, we should be making time for these encounters, as the outcomes might be a welcome surprise. So if you’re feeling brave go ahead and volunteer to be one of Batten’s dates, if not, then just go ahead and enjoy a highly entertaining hour of laughs.

Venue: Fringe Hub – Arts House, 521 Queensberry Street, North Melbourne, 3051
Season: until 1 October | Tues – Sat 8pm, Sun 7pm
Length: 60 minutes
Tickets: $24 Full | $20 Conc | $18 Cheap Tuesday
Bookings: MelbourneFringe Festival