Circus, Review, Whats On

Circus Oz Presents MODEL CITIZENS

Brilliantly breathtaking

By Joana Simmons

In their newest show Model Citizens, the Circus Oz crew has made a masterpiece that blows our socks off and tickles our feet as the same time. Featuring a highly energetic all-Australian cast, and an absolutely fantastic live band, we are taken on a journey to explore the myths of modern Australia, what it means to fit in; to be a model citizen. The range of circus acts is immense, all skillfully choreographed and intertwining with the blue set and giant everyday objects, with a delightful dash of the company’s trademark Aussie charm.

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The Circus Oz Big Top on Birrarung Marr buzzes as the audience of all ages piles in to the well-lit, well structured, technical canvas wonderland. The blue set designed by Michael Baxter, with a giant pair of scissors side stage, provides a familiar yet unrecognizable backdrop for the world we are about to enter.  We are asked to wonder what makes us us, to open our eyes and mind, as the models come to life: flipping over and around each other to the punchy drums. There’s a real sense of play throughout the show, contrasted with the element of danger in the acts and the deeper questions we are searching for answers to. We crane our necks gasping as the performers hang and spin high above us on various circus apparatus, each with a wonderful twist – a giant pair of Y-Fronts, a huge safety pin, trapeze and more. From the contortion to hula hoop, spring sequences, adagio, fire, juggling, balancing to rollerskating, each act seamlessly glides into the next, with no divide between storytelling and ‘tricks.’ This show is something greater than people making shapes to music.

I could rave for days about the band. The original music by musical director Ania Reynolds had me tapping my feet and at the edge of my seat. Reynolds was joined by energetic musical ensemble – Michelle John, the multi-talented and highly hilarious Matt Wilson, Alex Wiebel Wiebel and Jeremy Hopkins (whose new rendition of “Waltzing Matilda” was a standout). From synth to drums to guitar, bass saxophone and violin, the soundtrack united the show.

Moreover, the athletic performers ought to be properly chuffed at how they all kicked some serious ass, and clearly have trained for a very long time to be the top of their game. All performers’ characterization was natural and they don’t only make it look easy: they make it look fun.  Individual acts that had the audience going berserk included the “Peg Acrobatics” featuring Jake Silvestro, Lachlan Sukro, Steph Mouat, Luke Ha and Mitch Jones – a delightfully playful, well-choreographed and comic sequence. Meanwhile, Jarred Dewey’s contortion irons were graceful and stunning, and Freyja Edney is a multifaceted performerand incredibly strong; she also wears an apron like a boss.  It was the penultimate piece however – Alex Wiebel Wiebel on the slack ropes – that absolutely tore the top down.

It’s hard to believe it’s Artistic Director/ Concept creator Rob Tannion’s first show. Everything is so well put together, with the right combination of comedy and something to think about. He has something wonderful to share, and I am excited to see what he will bring next. Shows of this magnitude take an army of creatives to bring to life – Laurel Frank’s costume design was both fitting with the theme and all the individuals’ bodies.  Lighting by Sian James-Holland gave a real sense of originality and ingenuity, especially paired with Ryan Taplin’s rigging design (never before have I seen a giant pair of undies from which one can suspend themselves). It gives me so much inspiration and pride to see what is capable when such creatives work together on something with such overt dedication.

If you still think circus is just tightropes, jaded bearded ladies, and seedy ringmasters, you couldn’t be more wrong. Circus Oz has created its own ballsy brand, and has bought us a terrific show in Model Citizens. Go with your kids, your partner, your friends: it’s worth every penny, and will get your heart racing and a smile on your face.

Model Citizens – Circus Oz Big Top premiere in Melbourne 

Season 20 June – 16 July 2017

Duration 2 hours (including 20 minute interval)

Venue Circus Oz Big Top

Location Birrarung Marr, Melbourne (between Federation Square and Batman Avenue)

Tickets $30 – $95 (plus booking fees)

Bookings ticketek.com.au

Image by Rob Blackburn

Review, Theatre, Whats On

Malthouse Theatre Presents REVOLT. SHE SAID. REVOLT AGAIN.

Tear down the wor(l)d

By Leeor Adar

Alice Birch’s Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again. directed by Janice Muller is a perpetual play on words, and a play on what those words mean to us. It isn’t just a revolution within our society, but a collective ‘revolt’ at our own bodies, and at the male gaze for which women squirm under. Yes, it’s a raging, raging work. It probably needs to rage, because what Birch tells us is nothing new to a woman’s struggle within the constraints of her world, the sharp lines that fix her within it – whether that is her workplace, her lover’s place, her child’s place – or any place in which she exists.

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Birch’s text takes us to many dimensions of existence – at first it’s the constructed box that sits on the stage, vignettes of conversations that throw sex, marriage and work upon its head – women asking to be utterly present in the acts society inflicts upon them. Marg Horwell’s set design is effective here, the sound even strains within the ‘four’ walls created. Soon enough, this world revolts upon itself and a woman (Sophie Ross) climbs out of the four walls to really talk about the things we don’t talk about – about the damage women inflict upon our bodies, in a beautiful and hideous memorandum of all our physical evils – to be endlessly sexually available.

For all the seriousness of the work, the audience laughs with tears in their eyes at some scenes, and sometimes we flinched away – we couldn’t look upon what was before us. I sat behind male audience members who I confess I enjoyed watching too throughout the piece; in context, I admit I was morbidly fascinated at how they would react. Of course they laughed when it was appropriate, and sometimes when it was totally inappropriate, because on some level it was surely uncomfortable for male viewers to see a woman getting angry or opening her body up with Birch’s visceral words – but I can tell you that looking around the room at the women was an different story. Many moments of the play were a bitter reminder, unravelling us at the seams.

The cast is five-strong (Belinda McClory, Elizabeth Esguerra, Ming-Zhu Hii, Gareth Reeves, and Ross). Each actor delivered their parts with total abandonment and intensity – it is an absolutely demanding show to watch, but also to act. The words are hard, and they’re almost too funny and also too damn real. You know Birch is onto something good when you physically react to the words.

For all its power, the total breakdown of the world presented to us loses shape as characters throw costumes on, haphazardly run about, throw themselves on stage, shake, spit, shiver, deliver – it ceases to be a functional whole. Oddly enough, the work held its power until the final dimension and then disintegrated. Was it meant to show us how bad we really had it – apocalypse femme? I can’t say. But sometimes in an effort to rattle its audience, the hyper-modern piece loses us.

Did it change my outrage, or the message? No. Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again. remains a daring exercise to deconstruct everything that shapes womanhood in a violent world.

Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again. will be performed at the Malthouse Theatre until 9 July. Performance dates, times and bookings available here: http://malthousetheatre.com.au/whats-on/revolt-she-said-revolt-again

Image by Pia Johnson

Cabaret, Review, Whats On

Roulston and Young Present SONGS FOR LOVERS (AND OTHER IDIOTS)

Fantastically funny

By Bradley Storer

British cabaret stalwarts Michael Roulston and Sarah-Louise Young bring their acclaimed song-writing prowess to Melbourne audiences in their fluffy but barbed presentation Songs for Lovers (And Other Idiots).

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The two performers have a wonderful playful chemistry, bouncing off each other and interacting with the audience to create a delightful and fun atmosphere from the very start. Young is a joyful and radiant performer, taking the lead on most songs with her crystalline soprano and is equally compelling when she is lusting after a (fictionalized) younger man as she is playing the character of a divorcee struggling to overcome her loss. Roulston is her Puck-like and mischievous counterpart, quick with an incisive comeback and an arched eyebrow to the audience, providing harmonies, counter-pointing and even taking over for a song where he has to admit to a shameful secret that I won’t reveal here (Hint: it involves Enya).

The pair have composed an hilarious collection of tunes that tackle both their own relationship and the many facets of modern dating and love, ranging from the straight girl/gay man dynamic, the difficulties of dating in middle age, the joys of contented singledom, even an epic ‘walk of shame’ more calamitous than The Odyssey. One particular song involving children was so funny and irreverent the audience (including this reviewer) were falling in the aisles laughing!

As the duo regaled the audience with their own tales of love and embarrassment, you could see many attendees nodding their heads in recognition – I can’t think of anyone who wouldn’t see themselves, even in a small way, reflected in this comedic collection.

Lovers of original song-writing, lovers of cabaret comedy – heck, lovers in general will adore this show, so get in and see this delightful duo!

Venue: The Butterfly Club, 5 Carson Place, Melbourne VIC 3000

Dates: Wed 21st – Sun 25th June

Time: 8:30pm

Prices: $32 Full, Concession $28, Members $26, Groups (6+) $25

Bookings: thebutterflyclub.com, or at the venue

Cabaret, Review, Whats On

Dusty Limits in GRIN

Suave and satirical cabaret charm

By Bradley Storer

Announced onstage by accompanist and co-composer Michael Roulston, Australian-born cabaret performer Dusty Limits burst onstage, suited in black with a hint of feathers, and charmingly commanded the audience from his first moment with clear expertise. Beginning with the cheerily negative ‘Is It Too Late?’, Dusty walked us through the back-catalogue of his songwriting with Roulston, interspersed with witty asides and remarks about the state of the modern world.

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One of the foremost performers in the European-Weimar cabaret tradition, Dusty was utterly charming and charismatic throughout the entire show, utilizing his crisp diction, a clear delectation for words and a warm and beautiful lower register to maximum effect, as well as a few well-placed and stunning high notes that thrilled with their power. The socially-critical aspect of Weimar cabaret was heavily present, with topics covered in the show included the hypocrisy of religious leaders, the ‘problems’ of the super rich and a touching elegy to the continuing problem of homelessness. Roulston’s sensitive and versatile accompaniment was a huge contributor to the impact of every song, and the pair’s long-standing collaboration was clearly evident with both responding instinctively to the rhythm of the other.

A clear audience favourite was a jaunty and macabre number about an undead family reunion, the weird and embarrassing members of the family inhabiting the song clearly familiar to many. And of course, another particularly hit was the number without which no dark and pessimistic cabaret is complete: the drinking song.

Some of the particularly British references in the song may have gone over the audience’s head, but the misanthropic humour was most definitely universal. If you have a taste for the twisted and the dark, catch this homegrown treasure while you still can!

Venue: The Butterfly Club, 5 Carson Place, Melbourne VIC 3000

Dates: Wed 21st – Sunday 25th June.

Time: 7pm

Prices: $32 Full, $28 Concession, Members $26, Groups (6+) $25

Bookings: thebutterflyclub.com, or at the venue.

Cabaret, Performances, Review

Memo Music Hall Presents THE VERY WORST OF THE TIGER LILLIES

Gloriously grotesque as always

By Bradley Storer

It was appropriately a cold night in St Kilda when the diabolical godfathers of British alternative cabaret, The Tiger Lillies, took to the stage at Memo Music Hall. After nearly thirty years of performing, their confronting and controversial compositions have made them a beloved cult-favourite worldwide. With an air of weary but playful detachment, the trio assaulted the audience with their particular style of performance, turning the venue into something between a demonic carnival and a filthy Weimar-era den of inequity. From their first steps onstage the audience was eating out of their hands, whooping and hollering for more.

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Lead singer Martyn Jacques was creepily charismatic, his eerie but beautiful countertenor voice standing in stark contrast to his frightening clown makeup and the chilling lyrics of their original compositions. His deadpan expression and facial gesticulations were used to hilarious effect in such songs as ‘Terrible’, recounting the weekly schedule of a serial murderer/arsonist/rapist, and ‘Sailor’, a blow-by-blow recounting of an encounter with an un-enthused sex worker. Fellow founding member Adrian Stout provided exemplary work on the contrabass, theremin and even the musical saw in addition to backing vocals, with Jonas Golland’s subtle drumwork adding an extra layer of drama to every song.

The band has a massive repertoire from their twenty-eight year career to choose from, so picking a selection for performance must be an unenviable task! Highlights of this night included the rollicking ‘Aunty Mabel’, a genderbending tale of a cross-dressing amputee, as well as the emotive ‘Beat Me’, where Jacques’ beautiful piano-playing was combined with understated accompaniment from Stout and Golland to heartbreaking effect. At the end of the night, the performers called for requests from the audience who bombarded them with enthusiastic replies – picked from the multitude was the gut-bursting paean to alcoholism ‘Another Glass of Wine’, the ‘sure to offend everyone religious’ number ‘Banging in the Nails’, the apocalyptic classic ‘Crack of Doom’, before the night ended with, aptly enough, the fatalistic and eventually fatal countdown of ‘Twenty Five Minutes’. From the way the audience stood and cheered for the trio as they took their final bows, they would have gladly sat there all night as the boys played their entire back catalogue!

An unmissable night of dark and malevolent entertainment from masters of their craft, demonstrating clearly why they’ve continued to endure for nearly three decades!

The Very Worst of The Tiger Lillies was performed on 18th June, 2017 at MEMO Music Hall.

https://www.tigerlillies.com/

Music, Review, Whats On

Xiu Xiu Presents THE MUSIC OF TWIN PEAKS

For the love of Lynch

By Tania Herbert

A gig touting “The Music of Twin Peaks” is always going to bring out the cool creatures, and this was a solid display of Melbourne’s pre-hipster arthouse crowd. The show opens with a projection screen looking up a staircase, with a revolving fan and fading light. A deep booming repetitive base note sounds out for several minutes.

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Then enter Xiu Xiu, an insanely good-looking trio of artists (Jamie Stewart, Angela Seo and Shayna Dunkelman), who take us through a reinterpretation of the music, sounds and poetry in a musical episode of David Lynch’s cult masterpiece Twin Peaks.

The gig was an extremely theatrical and slick program of music, with pieces floating between romantic classical to smooth jazz, to grunge rock to experimental soundscape – with a bit of spoken word in case there wasn’t already enough range.

Rich, complex, even funny in moments, the quirky mystery and depth of Twin Peaks was caught in full. The multimedia was simple, but cool and ambient and complemented the wonderful performance and wacky onstage antics the performers added to each number.

It wasn’t a great start in terms of sound – the balance was way off, with ear-piercing percussion meaning the piano couldn’t be heard, feedback issues and indecipherable vocals. However, credit to the sound crew – it was rapidly sorted through the first couple of numbers, after which the balance was spot on to bring out the most interesting parts of what was often a cacophony of sound.  The vocal clarity was never quite resolved, though this was only a slight detraction from a masterful musical performance.

The gig was supported by a work by Alessandro Cortini from Italy, with a 45-minute sonic-dreamscape composition set to Italian Super-8 home videos from the family archives of the artist. The piece was all about the contrast – videos of children playing the snow or families at the beach against the extreme intense music – creating a set-up where you found yourself feeling intense anticipation for what was to happen next, even though these were simple home movies. Musically, it’s a style I personally find becomes repetitive and I didn’t feel it built much – it felt more like an interactive museum piece, but was certainly a good ‘stage setter’ for the show to come.

Looking around midway through Xiu Xiu’s performance, I see a crowd of arty people in a high- domed, red-velvet-draped reclaimed electrical substation, all standing stock-still and staring upwards, mesmerised by black and white footage of a ceiling fan and a series of random noises… it was deliciously David Lynch-y.

Xiu Xiu was a reminder that the music of Twin Peaks is definitely concert-worthy – particularly when captured in such a great piece of musical performance art.

Xiu Xiu is playing tonight (Friday 23 June as a double bill with Sarah Davachi (Canada)

Date:       Thu 22 – Fri 23 June, 8pm
Tickets:   $45 plus booking fee
Bookings: www.thesubstation.org.au

Cabaret, Interview, Performances

Martyn Jacques on THE TIGER LILLIES

An interview with the cult cabaret artist

By Bradley Storer

Welcome back to Australia! Having toured here many times over the years in both theatrical shows and concerts, is there something about this country that keeps drawing you back to visit?

Yes I love it! I even have a dream about living here. It’s the history, the colonial buildings, the weather. It’s all weird and magical. Dark and cruel as well. I could imagine doing a project and writing about it. I lived and still spend time on the Mill bank estate in London. Used to be Mill bank prison where the convicts were sent over.

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Since Australia originally began as British penal colony, do you find Australian audiences react to the Tiger Lillies’ work in a massively different way to the audiences in your home country?

I think there’s something a bit different about Australians, yes. I’d like to understand it better. I suppose I’d need to spend more time here

After maintaining a career over nearly thirty years, has your general artistic approach to creating your work changed or evolved?

I’d like to think we’re like good wine. We were good at the beginning so it can evolve, change and become better

You’ve mentioned before that after writing so many songs inspiration now tends to come from external sources such as historical figures or events rather than internal, emotional sources – have recent political events (both in Britain and further abroad) and more contemporary social upheavals been an influence on your songwriting?

I’m more interested in history. Its dark side. But that’s the appeal – just the same thing but performed by dead people long gone.

Across your careers, you’ve composed extensively for theatre, with your latest album Cold Night in Soho being your first in ten years not linked to a theatrical show – do you approach writing for the theatre or a theatrical adaptation differently to composing an original album? Do you find the process for either more enjoyable?

I’m happy doing both. The difference is blurred. As long as it’s a good story and theme. The theatre-based albums are good albums as well.

Your music contains extremes of both lyrical beauty and joy as well as violence, death and apocalypse – in a world today that seems to be increasingly shifting towards the latter, what motivates you all to keep creating art? Is there a kind of catharsis or celebration inherent in creating and singing your particular style of music?

It’s like an addiction. I can’t stop. I record around 3 albums a year. I need to do it. It’s my reason to exist.

The Tiger Lillies have written about many dark topics in their work including rape, murder, drug abuse, paedophilia and religious hypocrisy. Do you feel that perhaps music can explore these darker aspects of the human experience in ways that other artforms can’t?

No I think other art forms do it a lot more and it’s far more acceptable than in music. But I think that’s one of the reasons we’re unusual and original. We take dark subjects – which in theatre and art and film is normal – and write songs.

You’ve previously talked about the influence of punk on the Tiger Lillies, with the willingness to push boundaries and offend along with a strong anti-establishment sentiment being a core part of the band – do you believe that with the move towards the conservative right happening in many Western countries that the punk spirit is now more important than ever?  

Yes, it’s perfect for the age in which we live!

To end on a lighter subject, when you’re not performing yourself who are some of the cabaret and musical acts that you love to watch onstage?

I’ve liked some of the things I’ve seen at the Adelaide Cabaret Festival. It’s nice to see there are people out there who have a similar sensibility

The Very Worst of The Tiger Lillies was performed at Memo Music Hall, St Kilda on June 18, 2017.

Circus, Review, Whats On

NICA Presents CIRCOSIS

New-generation circus artists dazzle

By Leeor Adar

Circosis is the coming together of the National Institute of Circus Arts (NICA) final-year students. It is a solo performance showcase for the students to perform their skills after three intense years of studying their art.

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Director Kate Fryer assisted students in crafting their solo works and created a hospital/warehouse theme as a backdrop, where students donned doctors’ uniforms and shuttled pieces and props offstage. Interspersed amongst solo performances, the group would create vignettes that were telling of their own skills and stories, some humorous and others downright disturbing.

Due to the large number of graduating students now coming through NICA, Circosis was split into two separate groups labelled the Left Brain/Right Brain. I attended the opening night of the Left Brain, and had an absolutely fantastic night.

The solos opened with Nelson Smyles – a last name befitting the Port Macquarie native whose clowning with hoops suspended in air was charming and breathtaking. Watching Smyles effortlessly leap through the hoops before him as they playfully bounced and wiggled out of his way was a delightful start to the night. Following Smyles were two very differing acts; Phillip Island’s Harley Timmermans performed a powerful and fluid piece with aerial straps and Maya Tregonning hailing from Perth treated us to a rambunctious day in the life of a wild-animal circus trainer in some clowning that sent the audience into fits of laughter.

A more nostalgic work followed with New Zealand’s Emily Gore who took us on a sentimental ride in using the rotating ring apparatus. Isaac Lawry’s energy was palpable, but almost at odds with the haunting blue lantern that swung from the ceiling, sending him diving perilously away from it. One thing was clear from some of these works, there were definite energies and experiences they were calling upon – loneliness, desperation to grasp joy, or escaping from some force. The final piece before interval was therefore the shock factor brought by Brisbane’s Ela Bartilomo, whose anti-fur campaign began as a fashion-model photo shoot suspended in air before a contortionist act with a grotesque twist.

Post-interval revealed acts that only continued to raise the bar. Canberra’s Elizabeth Jackson balanced herself with breathtaking strength upon the Chinese pole, recalling an almost proletkult theatre-style. Jack Wilde also hailing from Canberra delivered a glitzy number whilst flirting with the crowd balanced on a ladder. Ulladulla’s Luke Thomas followed in what was one of the standout performances of the night: an ethereal piece that saw him suspended in the air in circus tissue. Thomas’ work captured the concept of rising above circumstances beyond our control as he fluidly ascended the tissue and plastic bags fell from above him. Sutton’s Sandra Lee took us to an even darker space as she hand-balanced and contorted her body to a recording of performance artist Marina Abramović discussing her experience of the piece Rhythm O, where she allowed the audience to inflict pleasure and pain upon her body. Listening to Abramović’s recording was harrowing and distracted a little from Lee’s movements – but overall Lee’s performance was a marvelous show of elegance and physical strength.

The last two performances of the night were very much about showmanship. Ulladulla’s Riley McDonald’s performance on the swinging trapeze as he embodied a deranged seducer/madman was very tongue-in-cheek and risqué, while Melbourne’s Jessie McKibbin’s performance on the roue Cyr (Cyr wheel) was a beautiful finish for the evening, and one of the most memorable performances of the night. McKibbin managed a multitude of costume changes in the few minutes whilst controlling her Cyr with effortless grace.

To wind up the night the performers came together in their doctors’ uniforms for an exciting finale – capping off an incredible evening from the up-and-coming circus talent in Australia.

You can catch either Left Brain or Right Brain (why not both!) until the 24 June. Please follow the link for performance dates/times and bookings: https://www.nica.com.au/event-tickets.php?cPath=422

Image by Aaron Walker Photography

Review, Theatre, Whats On

Australian Premiere of THE HAUNTING

Chilling visions of Dickens

By Owen James

A haunted, secluded mansion plagued by visitations from spectres and spirits is no new story, but remains irresistible to the creative mind. In The Haunting, writer/adaptor Hugh Janes has taken five short stories from the supernatural-obsessed Charles Dickens, and refashioned them into this two-handed drama-horror. This library of Dickens’ tales is aptly set inside a library, with the young book dealer David Filde cataloguing the books of Lord Gray, as a series of strange and unexplained events haunt the unsettled pair.

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As we enter the deceptively intimate Athenaeum, we are met with the beautiful set designed by John Kerr. There are dusty, cobwebbed never-ending shelves of the desolate and abandoned library, and a nightmarish tree beyond the window, eerily bare of leaves. This evocative, thematically overbearing Gothic mansion, like the play itself, conceals secrets in every nook and cranny, with intricate design and not a detail overlooked by Kerr.

With a sudden stab of sound and a dramatic dropping descent of lights, we are instantly transported to this haunted Victorian world crafted by director Jennifer Sarah Dean, where nothing and no-one can be trusted. We are hypnotically drawn slowly into the sceptical minds of our two characters, and lured into a false sense of security – the perfect victims for chills and jump-scares a plenty. While the first few of these were received with small bouts of laughter, the audience’s bemused titillation descended into audible gasps. Kyle Evans’ eerie sound design played perhaps the biggest part in this. Almost a whole other character, the sound effects and soundscape are perfectly effective and always precisely timed – but could afford to be louder. The walls of the haunted Athenaeum could shake and rattle a little more.

Duo Cameron Daddo and Gig Clarke build the tension and suspense necessary to pull off this piece, and clearly enjoy working with each other. Watching their combined terror mount with each heightened descent into the nocturnal haunted world invites us to join their trepidation and jolting surprise, being as much the victims of this haunting as they are.

Daddo does a commendable job presenting the cautious and austere Lord Gray as a man perturbed by compromise and change. As Gray moves from certainty to fear, building to hysterics, his counterpart takes an almost mirrored approach. Clarke as the seemingly tentative yet curious David Filde is a delight to watch, delivering the character and his stories with perfectly executed stress and anxiety – perhaps symbolising Dickens’ own obsession with the supernatural world.

Tehya Nicholas provides a chilling visual performance as Mary, hitting her marks to execute the well-timed moments of shock and intensity. Her ghastly costume by Rhiannon Irving appears always briefly, but memorably. Jason Bovaird’s chilling lighting reveals every darkened corner and cavity at just the right moment, and aptly focuses our attention when and where required. The warm sunlight and misty Gothic nighttime invoke diurnal safety and tense claustrophobia respectively, creating the ideal sinister aesthetic for the piece.

The tension built by the strong first act is unfortunately hindered by a weaker second act and anticlimactic ending. The strong performances and technical elements do their best to keep up, but ultimately we are left questioning how to feel for these characters, and where or with whom our sympathy should lie. The Haunting is a visually evocative and beautifully atmospheric piece that provides a wonderful ride, where it’s best to enjoy the journey but perhaps not the destination.

The Haunting haunts the Athenaeum Theatre until July 1st. Tickets through Ticketek: https://premier.ticketek.com.au/shows/show.aspx?sh=HAUNTEDD17

Photography by Nicole Riseley

Musical Theatre, Review, Whats On

Pursued By Bear Presents ORDINARY DAYS

Authentic and accessible

By Joana Simmons

Presented as the second part of a unique double bill, Ordinary Days is a slick contemporary chamber musical with heart. Bought to us by independent performance and production hire company, Pursued By Bear, this 90-minute show accomplishes their vision of telling great stories and challenging the theatre industry. The stories of four characters going about their days in New York weave into our hearts and each other’s lives through the delightful music and lyrics by Adam Gwon. It is a relatable, believable and thoroughly enjoyable show about growing up and enjoying the view.

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Chapel off Chapel is humming as the almost full house takes their seats. The white tulle suspended from the ceiling provides the perfect canvas for the colourful chirpy showtune opening sung by the ever-optimistic Warren (Joel Granger). We meet Deb (Nicola Bowman), a graduate who is feeling the standard Gen-Y dissatisfaction with life: wanting to achieve great things and reach that big picture but not quite knowing how. She loses her most precious possession – the notes to her graduate thesis, and this is the catalyst for a chain of events that turn the ordinary days of four New Yorkers into something extraordinary. Jason (Matthew Hamilton) moves in with his love Claire (Brittanie Shipway) and we see their excitement and tension build as a couple, as things from the past are revealed and their bond unravels. Through powerful songs and vignettes, these multiple stories become intricately connected and the audience becomes heavily invested.

The cast carries their individual stories and works together with accuracy and professionalism. Granger’s endearingly geeky portrayal of Warren is authentic and strong. Hamilton brings maturity to his role as Jason, however his accent and pitch took some time to settle and some movement felt forced, although once on the mark he was a treat. The female cast in their own respects stole the show for me though: Shipway’s singing and natural emotion, especially in “Gotta Get Out” were heart-melting highlights, and Bowman had the audience in stitches with her fantastic comic timing, smooth delivery and subtle yet hilarious physicality. Director Tyran Parke has done an outstanding job bringing such creative and dramatic gems out of these four talented people. Special commendation goes to musical director Stephanie Lewendon-Lowe as this show is basically entirely sung through; the storytelling and diction combined with great dynamic delivery of the songs was top-notch and she supported it all on piano the whole time. The lighting by Jason Crick bought life and drama to the relatively blank set, and whilst there were some minor sound issues on the night I attended, the technical team did a good job.

My favourite part was the end: there was some truly magical goosebump moments throughout, but the ending left me feeling beautifully warm (which was a relief considering the Melbourne temperature.) Whilst the storyline of Ordinary Days isn’t anything too groundbreaking, the music and characters pull us in and help us to see and appreciate the little things, which is so important, especially now.  Escape the cold and get swept up in finding the extraordinary in the ordinary.

Ordinary Days (part of double bill, Chump Days) at Chapel Off Chapel

8-18 June 
Time: 8pm Thursday-Saturday, 5pm Sunday
Tickets: $35 Preview (Thursday 8 June), $49 Adult, $39 Concession (+transaction fee)

http://chapeloffchapel.com.au/melbourne-comedy-theatre-art/melbourne-events/melbourne-theatre/ordinary-days-8-18-june/

Image by Ben Fon