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.

Music, Performances, Review

Tinalley String Quartet and John Bell in SPEAK LESS THAN YOU KNOW

The letters of Beethoven, alive in words and music

By Leeor Adar

A Tinalley String Quartet and John Bell collaboration is an iconic pairing that would excite any theatre or classical music aficionado.

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Tinalley’s Adam Chalabi (1st violin), Lerida Delbridge (2nd violin), Justin Williams (viola) and Michelle Wood (cello) are exceptional. Thirteen years of performing worldwide and multiple awards later, it is unsurprising Tinalley have reached the status of one of ‘Melbourne’s Most 100 Influential People’. The precision, intensity and elegance of their music do justice to the brilliance of Felix Mendelssohn and Ludwig van Beethoven.

Tinalley first treat us to Mendelssohn’s String Quartet in a minor, Opus 13. Without a doubt, this is Mendelssohn’s journey through the soaring heights of passionate love. Further inspired by the passing of Beethoven, Mendelssohn’s Opus 13 features the occasional tribute to the old master, whilst carving his own fervour into the Quartet tradition.

One can imagine walking in the night air, bathed in the moonlight during the Adagio – Allegro vivace. Into the second movement, the Adagio non lento, there is a maddening energy that is both overwhelming and reminiscent of Beethoven’s Quartet, Opus 95. Succumbing to the varying moods of Mendelssohn’s romantic Quartet so far, the third movement, Intermezzo: Allegretto con moto – Allegro di molto, is an insistent melody that intertwines rapturously. The dazzling Quartet closes with the intensity of Beethoven’s leaning, and forms an amalgamation of all previous movements with Mendelssohn’s distinct flair.

When Tinalley finishes the Quartet, I am under Mendelssohn’s spell. It is fitting that Mendelssohn’s Quartet, so inspired by Beethoven, should be the splendid gatekeeper to Beethoven and his letters.

Enter Bell, letters in hand.

Bell’s timeless, cool voice embodies Beethoven’s deeply personal letters, reflecting his tempestuous temperament. From the earnest longing for the company of his friend Karl Amenda at age 31, to a different kind of longing for his Immortal Beloved at age 42, the insight into Beethoven’s lonely, and intense emotional inner life is palpable. It is not difficult to hear how Beethoven’s music reflected the torment and passion he experienced within himself.  The audience was given some comic relief in Beethoven’s letters to his nephew’s boarding school owner. The letters show the intensity of Beethoven’s hatred towards his sister-in-law, and later, a copyist who dared fail his expectations.

Interspersed amongst the reading of the letters, Tinalley performs Beethoven’s String Quartets, with each reflecting the mood of the letters read by Bell. Conceptually devised by Anna Melville, Melville brought Beethoven to life in a way that his music alone could only do in suggestion. The rich insight his letters provide confirm the temperament of the man who shared so much in his music.

Speak Less Than You Know was an outstanding and enjoyable insight into the Quartets of two masters. I, like others in the audience, left the Melbourne Recital Centre with a renewed passion for the men and their music that existed almost two hundred years before us.

‘Speak Less Than You Know’ was performed at the Sydney Opera House and Melbourne Recital Centre across three nights.

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, Review, Theatre

Melbourne Fringe 2016: GIVE UP

Engaging performer shares his experiences with depression

By Myron My

Guillym Davenport has given up. His depression has finally got the better of him so he’s spending the night alone, in his bedroom, eating pizza and drinking booze – with us. The show isn’t ready, and he’s not prepared, but come on in anyway…. In Give Up, presented as part of the Melbourne Fringe Festival, Davenport looks at the issues of mental health and what happens when it all gets too much.

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Davenport is charming, funny and very likeable on stage and there is some intelligent discussion generated about mental health. Unfortunately his attempts at pairing this with the deconstruction of theatre do not work well, creating a haphazard show that doesn’t quite seem to know where it’s headed.

There’s a scene in which it feels like Davenport is legitimately opening up to the audience as he discusses his depression. He mentions his frustrations at wanting to talk about his mental health with friends but finding the conversation being relegated to talking about trivial things like what TV shows they are watching. It is a genuine moment of vulnerability as he fights back the tears and struggles to finish his sentences.

However, when you compare this to the theatrical pretence of the show being unrehearsed and under-prepared, and the self-conscious way in which the final few moments of the show then play out, it almost cheapens this earnestness and makes me question the authenticity of these earlier parts. I feel this work can either try and deconstruct theatre and put itself outside the issues as meta-fiction, or tackle depression as a very real and personal concern from the inside. The problem has come in trying to achieve both, especially with the theme of mental health needing to be addressed in a sensitive and intelligent way.

There is a definite place for works like Give Up in contemporary theatre, as mental health – especially in young men – is an extremely important issue to acknowledge, identify and explore. As it currently stands however, I feel this show needs more work on refining the way it is structured and executed to ensure the audience feels the full impact of the worthy message Davenport is trying to share.

Venue: Fringe Hub – Arts House, 521 Queensberry Street, North Melbourne, 3051

Season: until 1 October | 10:15pm

Length: 50 minutes

Tickets: $18 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.

Cabaret, Festivals, Performances

Melbourne Fringe 2016: TERROR AUSTRALIS

Be fabulously afraid

By Myron My

Admittedly, I did walk in to Terror Australis not knowing what to expect at all, and I am so glad I did, because the delights it unearthed are so much richer if you have no idea what’s to come (so go see it now, or read on at your peril). Through a clever mix of cabaret, burlesque, live art, dance and comedy, the show looks at the dark culture of Australia with gobsmacking flair.

terror-australis-photographer-stillsbyhill

The set design is true Australiana with a hills-hoist used for makeshift pole-dancing, resulting in some pretty slick and sexy routines. Added set pieces such as goon bags, knives and dingo masks further enhance the strong feelings of ambiguous national pride, and while these items are enough to infer what performer Leah Shelton may be referencing, watching as these allusions come to life take them to a magnificent other level.

Shelton pays homage to various Australian songs, films – including classics such as Picnic At Hanging Rock and Mad Max – and significant moments of history, such as that incident with the dingo… Projections are played out on the various sheets that hang from the hills-hoist while it spins around, creating jarring and distorted images of the selected movie scenes and visuals, adding to the macabre and twisted atmosphere being created.

Shelton is sensational as she brings her various characters to life and plays up to the archetypes of these films and cultural references brilliantly. The costuming is literally the perfect example of when less is more and her comic timing is impeccable and has the entire room in stitches.

No Aussie icon is sacred as Shelton tears through Australia with some unforgettable acts in Terror Australis. It is a brave production that relies on the audience to let themselves be taken on a incredible journey through the deep dark psyche of this country, and this is what you must now go and do to fully appreciate how truly clever and outstanding this show is.

Venue: Fringe Hub – Arts House, 521 Queensberry Street, North Melbourne, 3051
Season: until 1 October | 9:15pm
Length: 45 minutes
Tickets: $25 Full | $20 Conc
Bookings: Melbourne Fringe Festival

Image by Stillsby Hill

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