Category: Whats On

Events, Performances, Review, Theatre, Whats On

REVIEW: Red Stitch presents WET HOUSE

An emotional and essential experience

By Myron My

A wet house is a hostel for alcoholic homeless men and women, where they can drink and sleep as much as they want with no expectations for them to be rehabilitated. They are more or less, the people that society has given up on. In Red Stitch’s production of Paddy Campbell’s Wet House, we get an insight into the lives of three residents and three workers of a wet house, each one struggling with their own redemption and reason for being.

REDSTITCH

Wet House is based on Campbell’s first-hand experience of working in a wet house and you can see how effective a story can be when the writer well and truly knows what he is writing about. Not a single scene is wasted, no dialogue is filler, no movement is pointless. Everything that happens in Wet House has a purpose, and with six different stories being told, the pacing is controlled well and is never difficult to follow.

The performance opens with colleagues Helen (Caroline Lee) and Mike (David Whiteley) going through the handover of their shift. The dark humour used throughout is disturbingly funny and highlights even more the issues that the script is raising. The arrival of new recruit Andy (Paul Ashcroft), with his idealistic and simplistic views on helping these people comes into great conflict with the realities of the job as well as his relationship with Helen and Mike.

Wet house residents, Dinger, Spencer and Kerry (Nicholas Bell, Dion Mills and Anna Sampson), each have their own unique story to tell, but at the same time, their story is universal. Mills in particular is exceptional as Spencer, bringing a vulnerability and sympathy to a character we should revile against and disgusted by. The scenes between him and Whiteley are extremely intense to watch which is due to the strong performances and fearless directing by Brett Cousins.

Sophie Woodward’s set design captures the bleak environment of despair that these people face day in day out. There is a creative use of the space in the theatre that I have not seen before which draws you further into this world and story. Costumes have been used to give more life to the characters and build on their personalities.

Red Stitch’s production of Wet House opens discussion on alcoholism and how we support those who are seen as beyond help and how the intention to do good is ultimately never going to be better than action. It is an emotionally draining show but it is a show that needs to be seen.

Venue: Red Stitch Actors Theatre, 2 Chapel St, St. Kilda.

Season: Until 18 April | Wed- Sat 8:00pm, Sat 3:00pm, Sun 6:30pm

Tickets: $37 Full | $20-27 Conc

Dance, Performances, Whats On

REVIEW: Force Majeure Presents NOTHING TO LOSE

Unabashed and cheerful celebration of human bodies

By Margaret Wieringa

It’s rare to see an overweight body in underwear anywhere. The media is mostly about the traditional construct of ‘the body beautiful’, and even plus-sized models are posed to reveal only that which is deemed attractive – the curve of a large breast or the roundness of some junk in the trunk. But normal large men and women?

Nothing-to-Lose

Created by Force Majeure under the artistic direction of Kate Champion in collaboration with artist and activist Kelli Jean Drinkwater, Nothing to Lose is a performance art piece powerfully choreographed by Ghenoa Gela that uses personal experiences to embrace the fat body. It is at times confronting, challenging the audience to consider words and phrases they may have used or heard used toward large people: “What a pretty face”, “Haven’t you had enough?”, “Does your back hurt?”, and many more. At one stage, a group of audience volunteers were invited onstage to physically explore the bodies of the dancers – an exercise that mostly provoked awkward laughter.

The cast started onstage in near darkness as the audience moved into their seats, and when the house lights came down, they writhed about each other on the stage in very dim light. This continued for some time and had the feel of an exploratory exercise that the group may have completed in development of the work rather than a final piece. Unfortunately, it was not the only piece that felt under-prepared. At times some of the sequences felt longer than necessary, and I found the initial confrontation had lost its impact by the time the cast had moved onto the next scene.

Luckily, after a few scenes, the cast pushed pedestals into the space and arranged themselves on them to dance a beautifully synchronised piece. It was in this that I saw exactly how good the show could be. Each body was highlighted by the harsh lighting, frankly revealing the flaws and dimples that in daily life we mostly strive to hide. It was beautiful.

And then there was the jiggly dance – a delightful number with each body moving in a uniquely wobbly way and with exaggerated facial expressions that sent giggles rippling through the theatre. The performance ended on a high, with a hip-hop dance number performed by an extended cast that drew cheers from the audience. Nothing to Lose is at times awkward and a little uneven, but ultimately both triumphant and entertaining.

Nothing to Lose is playing at the Malthouse Theatre until March 21. Tickets can be booked at http://malthousetheatre.com.au/whats-on/nothing-to-lose

Review, Theatre, Whats On

REVIEW: Chunky Move presents DEPTH OF FIELD

A cross-cultural human experience

By Caitlin McGrane

Depth of Field is an immersive and fascinating theatrical experience. Played out on the Malthouse forecourt, the outdoor performance explores what it means to exist and thrive in Melbourne’s city. The evocative performance reminds the audience of how much the metropolis has changed, and how the unspoken interactions between strangers are a shared cross-cultural human experience.

Depth of field

The performers, James Vu Anh Pham, Tara Jade Samaya and Niharika Senapati are all exceptional; their synchronicity was perfect. I loved how they seemed to fly through the space, only to come crashing down to earth in a cloud of dust. The forecourt space, often forgotten and dismissed, is perfect for the production; as the dance builds to a crescendo the dust fills the air, which combined with the breeze means the audience is treated to a deeply textural sensory experience.

While the three performers occupy the vast and featureless performance space, the surrounds are populated by extras, performers the audience might only notice once they walk past a handful of times. Their participation only increases the audience’s immersion; even when a (presumably) unpredicted visitor walks through the performance, it caused ripples of laughter through the audience as though they were in on the joke.

Director and choreographer Anouk van Dijk has outdone herself with this production, and I cannot recommend it emphatically enough. The music from Ben Frost, Daníel Bjarnason and The Bug is reminiscent of Hans Zimmer’s Interstellar soundtrack – the sweeping, crashing score is acutely emotive and perfectly compliments the lighting design by Michael Carr and Blair Hart.

This finely tuned performance made for a wonderful evening’s entertainment and my only regret is not bringing a jumper. As the sun set behind the cityscape, I found myself staring across the skyscrapers, reminded of the traditional owners of this intriguing land.

Date: Until Saturday 14 March

Time: 7pm

Venue: Malthouse Theatre, 113 Sturt St, Southbank

Tickets: http://malthousetheatre.com.au/whats-on/depth-of-field

Dance, Review, Whats On

REVIEW: Phantom Limbs Presents DREAMLOGIC

A beguiling reverie

By Caitlin McGrane

The opening 20 minutes of Dreamlogic took me slightly by surprise, it was like being in a psychological experiment and I did for a moment think that there might be an element of audience participation. Thankfully, I was mistaken. The two performers, James Welsby and James Andrews, begin by blowing up balloons and moving them around their bodies without using their hands. It’s incredibly awkward and hilarious to watch, as simultaneously audio from a psychology experiment plays in the background. The focus of the performance is on the subconscious mind, so it’s fitting that the opening seemed to encourage the audience to relax and let themselves be carried through the performance.

Dreamlogic

As the performance built to a crescendo, the space between the dancers reduced until they started to move beautifully together. I particularly enjoyed the surprising yet creative use of balloons, but was slightly disappointed they didn’t move around them towards the end as the balloons filled up the space. Choreographed creatively by Welsby himself and Amy Macpherson, the 50-minute show was delightfully captivating. The rhythmic ebb and flow of the performance captured the audience’s attention and held us in a dream-like state that continued even as I left the theatre. My absorption was only briefly distracted by the slightly clumsy lifts in the final act.

The subconscious mind and the spaces between people, the subject matter that inspired the performance, never felt tired or insipid. Instead, I found myself asking questions about the way that people interact with each other and how we move collectively through spaces. Dreamlogic is a delightful performance that I would highly recommend to anyone who enjoys thinking critically about how we interact.

Dreamlogic is showing at the Northcote Town Hall at 7:30pm until Tuesday 10 March. For tickets visit http://www.darebinarts.com.au/whats-on/dreamlogic-phantom-limbs.

Review, Theatre, Whats On

REVIEW: Jane Cafarella’s E-BABY

A tale of two women

By Myron My

For some people, giving birth and becoming a parent is the most beautiful experience in life. There are unfortunately women who are unable to carry a baby to term and so turn to surrogacy. In Jane Cafarella’s e–baby, inspired by interviews with infertile women and surrogates who share their stories online, we meet an accomplished lawyer who has been trying unsuccessfully for her own child for seven years. She finds a surrogate to carry her baby and we follow the relationship of these two women over the course of the pregnancy.

e-baby

Both Carolyn Bock (Catherine) and Sarah Ranken (Nellie) do a solid job in portraying the often-tense relationship between these two women. Whilst it initially and naturally took a few scenes for them to appear comfortable with their characters on the preview night of e-baby, their performances feel realistic and honest. Bock finds the right balance in showing a woman who is excited about the prospect of being a mother but also depicting the desperation and shame that she would feel in fear of being seen as less of a woman. She does this both subtly and powerfully through the most miniscule of actions: a fleeting stare, a taut smile and a twitching, fidgety hand. I would have liked to see her more emotive however in the moments where Catherine appears at her weakest and most frustrated.

Ranken similarly finds her stride as the somewhat chaotic but laid-back surrogate, Nellie. The vlogs she posts online to her surrogate community are used as a confessional for the Christian mother of two to express her doubts and uncertainties about being a first-time surrogate. Ranken organically brings to surface Nellie’s naivety in not fully comprehending what she has agreed to, and the conflict this then provokes with her religious beliefs.

Cafarella’s script examines the ‘forced’ friendship between these women, and the profound difficulties that each face after  signing such a contract become apparent. The few repetitive scenes can be forgiven due to Cafarella’s tackling of the subject so sensitively and expertly, which is no surprise considering she has been exploring and writing about surrogacy for over 25 years.

There appears to have been great collaboration by production designer Matilda Woodroofe, lighting designer Siobhain Geaney, video designer Brian Cohen and sound designer Kahra Scott-James, as the various technical elements of e-baby come together well in building on the emotions of the characters, but never detract from the characters’ stories or leave us feeling overwhelmed. The poignant illumination of a pregnant woman on to the set’s wooden boxes was particularly effective in showing Catherine’s yearning for motherhood.

e-baby is a good character piece about two women who form an unlikely bond through the blurred lines of commercial surrogacy. The preview performance shows that there is a lot of heart and thought in this work from everyone involved, but the play stays resolutely away from sentimentality to bring to stage an affecting story that is all too real and sad for many people.

Venue: Chapel Off Chapel, 12 Little Chapel St, Prahran

Season: Until 15 March | Wed-Sat 8:00pm, Sun 5:00pm, Tuesday 10 March and Saturday 14 March 2pm

Tickets: $40 Full | $35 Conc

Bookings: www.chapeloffchapel.com.au or 8290 7000

Cabaret, Cabaret Review, Whats On

REVIEW: Emma Clair Ford in LAUGH UNTIL I CRY

Impeccable

By Bradley Storer

A rich languorous voice in the darkness, calling and drawing listeners into the deep folds of blissful undisturbed slumber – as Melbourne cabaret mainstay Emma Clair Ford takes to the stage of The Butterfly Club in her latest work Laugh until I Cry, she trails her characteristic air of seductive mystery and refreshing emotional honesty, wrapped up in a honey-hued voice that thrills at the same time it soothes and relaxes.

Laugh Until I Cry

Laugh Until I Cry is a jazzy exploration of the anxiety-riddled emotional rollercoaster known as adulthood. What sets Ford apart from fellow and equally talented cabaret performers is the absolute economical tightness of her writing, in which not a word seems excessive or unnecessary but perfectly calibrated for maximum effect. Aided by Alister Smith‘s snappy direction, Ford unleashes torrents of manically-driven monologue and beautifully nonsensical dream imagery with admirable clarity and precise diction, the rich underlying musical soundscapes provided by accompanist Vicky Jacobs helping to take the audience on these imaginative journeys.

Ford herself is that contradictory combination of being radiantly charismatic at the same time she is intensely relatable and seemingly ordinary, blessed with a gorgeous voice and comic gift that can take Adele’s ‘Right as Rain’ from a jazzy jaunt into an adrenaline-crazed outburst worthy of Sondheim. Drawing on composers ranging from Gershwin and The Beatles all the way to Michael John LaChiusa, Ford takes us from one end of the day to the other, paralleling the journey from despair to acceptance and forgiveness of our own human frailties.

Laugh until I Cry, as its title implies, is an ultimately joyous celebration of the strength and fortitude needed to wade through even a single day of adult life, a great new work from an established cabaret artist which is mandatory viewing for any cabaret aficionado or those wishing to see cabaret in its purest and most creative form.
Venue: The Butterfly Club, 1 Carson Place, Melbourne.
Dates: 4th – 8th March
Times: Wednesday/Sunday 8pm, Thursday – Saturday 9pm
Tickets: Full $30, Concession $26, Members $25, Group 8+ $24
Comedy, Performances, Whats On

REVIEW: Impro Melbourne’s SUPERSCENE and SMELLS LIKE A SONG

Let the competition begin

By Narelle Wood

Impro Melbourne presents two unique improvisation experiences in their double feature SuperScene and Smells Like a Song.

SuperScene and Smells Like a Song

SuperScene is competitive improvisation where five directors each construct a unique story and the audience holds the power to vote off a director at a time, until there is only one left standing for the Super Scene. It didn’t appear as thought the stories always went in the direction that the director had originally intended, with a few of the performers throwing in their own interpretative responses to where the scenes were headed. Needless to say, we were treated to five very unique stories.

Among the storylines that didn’t make the cut were the Victorian Era succubus/Inspector Doris mystery and the 60’s artistic beatnik drama. I really wanted to see what happened to the 60’s artist played by Sarah, partly because the storyline was great but also because Sarah’s performance was incredible. I struggled with not knowing how all the stories ended, but in the world of competitive improvisation only one director gets the prize. The Super Scene was the conclusion to the epic World War II German Blimp catastrophe in Utah. This story had everything from storms, to accents, to an accidental bombing of small town America.

The second half of the show was dedicated to Smells Like a Song, an improvised musical where the audience again had the power to decide not only when the songs would happen, but what the songs would be about, by throwing a rose onto the stage and shouting “smells like a song”. The performers pulled together a storyline that combined an actor’s dream, an evil plastic surgeon and William Shakespeare to fulfil the original audience suggestion of ‘Hot Lips’. It boarded on the bizarre at times due to the audience’s selections of songs, but the undeniably talented performers made it all work and delivered lots of laughable moments.

Musical director Boris Connelly, along with the lighting and stage crew, provided all the atmospheric and actual props the performers desired. Connelly’s music was the perfect backdrop to the antics on stage.

SuperScene and Smells Like a Song is a joyous way to wrap up a weekend and exceptionally good value given the talent and the price of tickets. A show that you could see over and over again.

Venue: The Space Dance Hall, 5a Carlton St Prahran
Season: 7.30pm Sundays until March 21st
Tickets: $10 online | $12 at the door
Bookings: www.impromelbourne.com.au/shows

Musical Theatre, Review, Whats On

REVIEW: Luckiest Productions Presents SWEET CHARITY

Your friends should see this now

By Bradley Storer

Luckiest Productions’ Sweet Charity has made its way to Melbourne after successful sell-out seasons in Sydney and Canberra. This Helpmann Award-winning production more than lives up to expectations with a dark revisionist exploration of this Broadway classic.

Sweet Charity 2015 photo Jeff Busby_2

Verity Hunter-Ballad in the title role of Charity Hope Valentine brings a refreshing touch of normality and relatability. The audience is always aware, beneath the zany and perky exterior, of the real flesh and blood human that Charity is. She also dances up a storm and brings exquisite vocal mastery to all of Charity’s songs, unleashing a full-throttle and soul-rending performance in the despairing ‘Where Am I Going?’. Martin Crewes shows surprising versatility as the various men in Charity’s life – at first showing seductive charm and gallantry as the charismatic Italian movie star Vittorio Vidal, then later morphing into the neurotic but lovable Oscar Lindquist, with a similar vocal transformation from operatic tenor to contemporary character singing.

The bare-bones production, under the direction of Dean Bryant, is unafraid to show the darkness that lurks beneath the surface of this seemingly comedic musical. The female ensemble are depicted closer to the prostitutes of Fellini’s original film than the taxi dancers of the Broadway musical, stuck in an eternal cycle of degradation and poverty that they’ve given up on escaping – most touchingly rendered in Nickie (Debora Krizak) and Helene (Kate Cole)’s by turns cynical and hopeful duet ‘Baby, Dream Your Dream’. Even Charity’s Act One comedic tour de force, ‘If My Friends Could See Me Now’, is performed in a single light surrounded by darkness, as if suggesting the continual threat of the despair kept at bay by Charity’s hopefulness and optimism.

Cy Coleman’s classic Broadway score and Bob Fosse’s signature choreography are both thrillingly modified here to service the new production – new arrangements of music bring in such contemporary sounds as electric guitar, drums and synthesizer that drastically shift the feel of Coleman’s music to the modern. The famous ‘Hey Big Spender’ becomes less of a brassy Broadway belter and more like the guttural, dirty rock music of a strip club in the early hours. The ‘Rich Man’s Frug’ is transformed through the wonderfully imaginative choreography of Andrew Hallsworth into an angular and frenetic vision of a hideously modern New York party, and the psychedelic hippy celebration of ‘The Rhythm of Life’ into a rock-gospel revivalist meeting that sees most of the cast naked by the end.

The most drastic change is the very last scene, stripping away any pretensions to Broadway brightness with Hunter-Ballad’s achingly vulnerable and raw performance and an ending so shocking and unexpected that it leaves the audience dumb-founded. Such a dark and revelatory vision of a classic Broadway musical make this production of Sweet Charity a must see!

Venue: The Playhouse, Arts Centre, 100 St Kilda Rd, Melbourne.

Dates: 25th February – 7th March

Times: Wednesday – Saturday 8pm, Tuesday 7pm,  Matinees: Thursday 26 February, 1pm, Saturday 28 February, 2pm, Sunday 1 March, 3pm, Saturday 7 March, 2pm

Tickets: Tickets from $79.90, Under 30s concession pricing $30

Bookings: www.artscentremelbourne.com.au, 1300 182 183, at the box office.

Image by Jeff Busby

Cabaret, Review, Whats On

REVIEW: Miss Everheart Presents EARLY BURLY

Hilarity in high-heels

By Narelle Wood

Who wouldn’t love to sit back, cocktail in hand, and watch a tasteful striptease to finish off the week? Miss Everheart Presents: Early Burly is a sophisticatedly risqué combination of cabaret, comedy and burlesque presented by Miss Adelaide Everheart.

Early Burly

The show was comprised of four tantalising performers including the very flexible Caterina Vitt, smouldering Ainslie Adams, the comedic musical stylings of Anya Anastasia, and the crude, lewd and lame joke-teller herself, Miss Adelaide Everheart.

Throughout the hour we were treated to stripteases inspired by the Paso Doble and old-world glamour. Amongst my favourites for the evening was Caterina Vitt’s geek chic-inspired strip that would be very well placed on an episode of The Big Bang Theory. Although it did feel a little uncomfortable laughing at someone while they took their clothes off, the blend of Vitt’s facial expressions and choreography made the routine a slapstick burlesque delight.

While Ainslie Adams’ performance was glamorous, with stunning sequined frocks, suspender belts and sequined undergarments to match, Anya Anastasia went a direction all of her own. Providing some cabaret interludes to the burlesque, Anastasia treated us to an interesting rendition of “Mr Cellophane” and her early Marie Antoinette impersonation was dead on.

The theatre was packed, which is a testament to how entertaining the Early Burly is, but it did mean it was difficult to see at times, especially during Vitt’s floor choreography, but this was a small glitch in an otherwise thoroughly joyous alternative to Friday night drinks. Early Burly is definitely a show to catch next time round, which according to Miss Everheart is in May. From the burlesque beginner to aficionado Miss Everheart Presents: Early Burly is all-round great fun.

Venue: The Butterfly Club
Bookings: www.thebutterflyclub.com.au

Review, Theatre, Whats On

REVIEW: The Owl and the Pussycat Present FLESH EATING TIGER

Story gone wild

By Myron My

The Owl and the Pussycat returns for its 2015 season with the Australian premiere of Flesh Eating Tiger, written by Amy Tofte. I’m not going to beat about the bush with this one, I was sorely disappointed by this production and it is not at all what I have come to expect from this theatre venue.

Flesh Eating Tiger

My biggest issue lies with the script. When looking at individual scenes, it can be funny and sharp, but as an overall story it is just one big mess. Flesh Eating Tiger follows the relationship between two people, “A Woman” and “Some Drunk” and the destructive nature of obsession and love. However, before we can even get to know who these people are, the narrative is going off in so many frenetic directions that I could not keep up, and halfway through I frankly stopped caring enough about these people to even try.

The story is incredibly convoluted, which is surprising given how the scenes just seem to repeat themselves throughout the duration of the play. It almost reached the point where if  “A Woman” cried one more time or “Some Drunk” got angry and shouted, I probably would have done the same thing.

Zak Zavod (Some Drunk) and Marissa Bennett (A Woman) show promise for what is some demanding character work but it did feel like the story was controlling their character’s choices rather than the other way around. There were moments where they did well but overall the performances still lacked the emotional depth and complexity needed to sustain such roles.

It is under the watchful eye of director Jason Cavanagh that Zavod and Bennett manage to deliver some great moments in Flesh Eating Tiger. He’s clearly pushed them to get to the level they do and has built some incredible trust between them to perform some of the more intimate scenes. Cavanagh brings some great moments to life and the film-noir scene sits firmly in place as one of the highlights of this show.

Unfortunately though, I walked out of Flesh Eating Tiger not having learn anything or felt anything other than frustration and confusion. Sadly, this production feels more like a big presentation on pretentious self-gratification than the destructive capacity of relationships.

Venue: The Owl and the Pussycat, 34 Swan St, Richmond
Season: Until 7 March | Mon-Tues & Thurs-Sat 7.30pm, Sat 2pm
Tickets: $30 Full | $25 Conc
Bookings: http://www.owlandcat.com.au