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

Circus, Festivals

Melbourne Fringe 2016: MORTAL SINS

In search of seven sins

By Myron My

Contemporary circus company Vertical Insanity Circus are performing their first inter-state season as part of the Melbourne Fringe Festival. Their show Mortal Sins used circus and contemporary dance to explore the seven deadly sins. Unfortunately, the performance, while sound in skill, needs more work in developing these themes and the show.

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Alex Charman and Persia Janzen possess a solid level of skill and technique with their show, completing some impressive acrobatics and a nice turn on the trapeze. However, there does not appear to be a story evident and any potential meaning that can be inferred is subsequently lost. Mortal Sins feels like we are simply watching people perform without purpose or intention. Similarly, the dance routine by a male performer, again talented in his own right, seems quite repetitive and lacks the passion that this dance requires.

The opening moments with the performers’ shadows being lit from behind a curtain goes for too long and requires larger pieces of fabric ,as there are numerous times where you can see their limbs and bodies coming out from the sides. I feel there needs to be more exploration with this work so that the themes that arise from the seven deadly sins are distinctively explored and conveyed on stage as it is quite difficult to determine where one sin ends and another one begins, if at all.

Falling 15 minutes short of its advertised 45 minutes, Mortal Sins is a good example of emerging circus artists but not a performance that felt ready to be put on stage.

Mortal Sins was performed as part of the Melbourne Fringe Festival between 22 – 25 September.

Circus, Festivals, Whats On

Melbourne Fringe 2016: SIRKUS CIRCUS

Variety is the spice of circus life

By Leeor Adar

Circus Oz is delivering some real treats as part of the Melbourne Fringe Festival this year. The Melba Circus Hub in Collingwood is featuring some excellent local and international circus and cabaret artists.

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Dale Hutton’s Sirkus Circus was a delight for all ages, featuring impressive independent circus, cabaret and contemporary vaudeville. The Melba Circus Hub filled with thrill-seekers of varying ages as we spent over an hour with our mouths gaping at the death-defying and often funny performances.

New Zealand’s Blingling Bros hosted our night with a series of laugh-out-loud mishaps interspersed throughout the astonishing performances.

Jess Love was a fantastic opener, as she flung and strung, and energetically twisted her body through her hoop act. Love was a perfect way to start this line-up with her professionalism and charm. The audience was fired up and whooping with claps and gasps.

As a Dale Hutton show, Sirkus Circus was a big tribute to the jugglers. Karl Laczko gave us a LED light show with his clubs that respond to movement, and Hazel Bock was an astonishing and unique wonder with her foot-juggling act. If you’ve never seen a flapper juggling a table, you’d have been in for a treat!

The international star of the night and DOCH alumni, Tony Pezzo, delivered his famous five-ring-juggling act. With colourful clothing and a striking, energetic presence, Pezzo commanded our attention and closed the night on a buzzing high.

Do yourself a favour and head on down to the Melba Circus Hub and catch yourself one of these Circus Oz treats by October 2. Tickets are available from the Fringe website: https://melbournefringe.com.au

Performances, Review

Melbourne Fringe 2016: FALLING APPLES

Powerful concept as lives traverse

By Leeor Adar

The concept of Lene Therese Teigan’s Falling Apples is vast and intimate – a Chekhovian-inspired world where the characters’ lives collide in uncertain times.

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As a fan of Chekhov’s work and Peta Hanrahan’s wonderful direction of A Room of One’s Own earlier this year, I had high hopes for this production presented by La Mama and Verve studios as part of the 2016 Melbourne Fringe Festival, but it was ultimately a cacophony of words, ideas and vibrations.

The Kensington Town Hall is undoubtedly a beautiful place to perform a production. The echo within the large chamber provided a beautiful and haunting introduction as the voices of the performers hummed a suitably melancholy sound – this is Chekhovian terrain after all.

The echo, however, did not bode well for the performers and their interactions. Unless the audience was seated directly opposite the vignette, much of the dialogue was lost within the space. Due to the length of the performance space, the audience was seated along some distance, exacerbating this issue. This had the unfortunate affect of alienating the stories before us. I expect a better choice of space or seating arrangement would have prevented this.

I appreciated the concept of the characters constantly moving within the space as one scene was explored. Undoubtedly the message is clear – we cross paths with other histories every day, and occasionally collide. On this occasion it was further distracting from the already difficult-to-follow dialogue of the active scene within the work.

There were silver linings of strong performances from some members of the cast, particularly Elizabeth Huey-Williams as the troubled sister, and Marissa O’Reilly as the foreign lover. Huey-Williams and O’Reilly gave a lovely depth to their performances that managed to pierce through the chaos surrounding them. Unfortunately, some of the performances were unconvincing and I do not doubt that staging issues contributed.

Ultimately this premiere work was conceptually strong, but weak in execution.

You can catch Falling Apples from Tuesday-Saturday until October 8, Kensington Town Hall: http://lamama.com.au/2016-winter-program/falling-apples

Image by Tommy Holt of T6 Photography

Cabaret

Melbourne Fringe 2018: APOLOGUE

Game show satire ramps up the dark comedy

By Myron My

For those who enjoy the thrill of watching Wheel of Fortune, Family Feud and The Price is Right, you will not want to miss Apologue. Then again, maybe you will, as Apologue is not exactly a contestant-friendly game show. It is however, a quirky and fun look at how the mass media is used to manipulate and control our thoughts and beliefs.

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A hapless contestant is pulled on stage and must answer a series of questions in order to win some inane prizes that are presented as essential and luxurious by the hosts. With each round, the contestant’s comments are taken out of context, and opinions and beliefs are pushed down upon her.

The four cast members are great to watch on stage, each bringing the required energy required for their character and in turn, supporting the others. Elizabeth Wilhelm and Elly Hewitt as game-show hosts Vanessa Rochella and Bradley Marino (with a moustache that seems to have a life of its own) are brilliantly excessive and exaggerated with their fake smiles, and underlying emotional and personal problems seeping through the facade.

Milla rounds out the cast as the focused and no-nonsense stage manager Whimsy DeBarcie, whose only concern is making sure that the show rates well; while Lucy Rees as contestant Jennifer (or Jen, Jenny and Jumanji) portrays the confusion and frustration of being taken out of context and being coerced into saying and doing things she disagrees with as she is pounced on by the hosts. I actually feel Apologue could have gone further and been more direct in its examination of mass manipulation as at times I felt that these ideas were passed over and lost in translation due to the game-iness of the environment.

Apologue is a bold theatre piece by Spoon Eyes Productions that despite this critique, still has you questioning what it is you value and why you value it. With its strong dose of dark humour and over-the-top performances, it is a fitting show to be performed during the Melbourne Fringe Festival.

Venue: Wick Studios – 23-25 Leslie St, Brunswick, 3056
Season: Until 27 September | Sun – Tues 7pm
Length: 60 minutes
Tickets: $25 Full | $15 Conc
Bookings: Melbourne Fringe Festival

Image by Maddie Stephenson

Cabaret, Festivals, Performances

Melbourne Fringe 2016: AWESOME OCEAN PARTY

Quaint, quirky and awash with gentle charm

By Myron My

We’ve all been invited to a party – an ocean party for our half-human half-octopus friend. Created and performed by Giema Contini, Awesome Ocean Party is a 60-minute cabaret-comedy-performance piece that explores loneliness and acceptance through the eyes (and three hearts) of this hybrid creature.

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Contini has great physicality on stage and fully conveys the awkwardness of her character that later reveals to us that it is her birthday whereupon the human side to her begins to surface. Her interactions with the audience are sweet and genuine and convey her longing to belong and be accepted.

While the original performance of the show was staged in an empty swimming pool, for this remount Contini has chosen to perform in The Butterfly Club. With its own quirky feel and some specific set pieces, you willingly believe that you are in some underwater/beach environment. The fish tank in the centre of the stage is a constant reminder of where she has come from and the seashell sandpit is utilised well as a place for her to feel safe and happy.

The highlight of Awesome Ocean Party is the biographical picture-story book Contini reads to the audience, from her birth to the death of her parents and then finding hope and strength. It’s a touching story and the illustrations in the book and the descriptive passages create some stunning visuals for us. The music composed by Nathan Stoneham and played by Ned Dixon support the story – and the performance as a whole – in creating a feeling of belonging and being connected.

Contini has a great voice and the timing and pacing of her songs is well structured to keep the momentum (and a bit of awkwardness) going. Songs like “Under The Sea” from The Little Mermaid and Andrew Gold’s “Thank You For Being A Friend” (which most people would recognise as The Golden Girls theme) express her sea-dwelling and land-dwelling aspirations and desires while also exploring the differences of her life.

There is a whimsical aspect to Awesome Ocean Party that makes you warm to Contini and the show almost immediately. It is uplifting and entertaining while encouraging you to remain true to yourself and your convictions, and believe that everything will turn out the way it should.

Awesome Ocean Party was performed as part of the Melbourne Fringe Festival from 20 – 25 September, 2016.

Festivals, Review, Whats On

Malthouse and St Martin’s Theatre Present GONZO

Porn, perspective and personal opinions as teens talk

By Margaret Wieringa

Teenagers and porn. Everyone is worried. Back in the day, porn was hard to find and rarely discussed. Now there is the Internet, and it’s free and, especially with smartphones and the like, very easily accessible. One big worry is that it is going to cause teenage boys to develop addictions and skewed ideas of what is expected in real relationships. Experts, politicians, teachers and parents all weigh in whenever the subject is raised, but, as director Clare Watson points out in her program note, there is a voice missing, and that is of the voice of teenage boys.

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Watson took the results of a survey of teenage males across Melbourne and worked with a group of boys from St Martin’s Theatre Company to develop this piece. What has resulted is an experience that is almost like eavesdropping for the audience. The four main performers – Ari Long, Jack Palit, Sam Salem and Sol Rumble – sit on stage and have what comes across as a relatively casual chat. The only real indication that is isn’t a normal conversation (apart from the odd stumbled line) is the visual design work by Michael Carmody appearing on the screen behind them. Initially, there is footage of bouncing breasts – an image seemingly unrelated to the chatter onstage, but adding to the wider commentary. Later, there are short sections breaking up the dialogue where the actors name porn clips, or tell brief anecdotes, and these are accompanied by a variety of significant animations of words or images.

The performers aren’t obviously playing characters – they use their own names, wear casual street clothes and spend as much time on their phones as they are talking. But it is important for the audience to remember that this is scripted, and that the opinions being expressed are not necessarily those of the actors, but an amalgam of the responses to the survey.

Toward the end of the performance, the boys are joined by Gala Vanting who is listed in the program as being a sex worker, educator and activist. I felt like the actors had, by this stage, established a nice rapport and Vanting’s entrance felt a bit forced – like the teenagers now had someone else that they had to relate to. It was interesting to hear what she had to say and the way the others responded to her, but this section felt less successful to me

Overall, I think that this is a very timely piece that is a glimpse into the world of teenagers. I hope that there is a way that the production is able to be given life beyond this season so that it can inspire conversations in schools and homes – but in the meantime, it’s playing at the Malthouse Theatre until October 1.

Gonzo plays at the Malthouse Theatre, 113 Sturt St, Southbank

September 22 to October 1. The shows are Tuesday to Saturday at 7pm with a 3:30 matinee on Saturday October 1.

Book tickets at www.malthousetheatre.com.au or call 9685 5111

Tickets are $35 – $65

Image by Sarah Walker

Circus, Performances, Whats On

Melbourne Fringe 2016: 4+4=4

Power, poignance and peril when you’re at the end of your rope

By Myron My

Presented by The Flying Xamels as part of the Melbourne Fringe Festival, 4 + 4 = 4 is a surrealist circus experience looking at four different lives, how they co-exist together and individually, and are finding their way around. Four circus artists with four ropes perform as individuals and as an ensemble as a poignant metaphor for trying to fit in with life and following the right path.

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There is much to take in and analyse in 4 + 4 = 4, as the way these themes are explored could take on different and personal meanings for everyone in the audience. Fortunately the cast are all too aware of this and ensure that the tricks we see on stage are performed in a meditative and dream-like state. When you consider the technical aspects to some of the tricks, being able to appear that calm actually requires great skill and confidence, which these artists possess to a high degree.

But it is not just the performers who keep us entertained or transfixed on stage. Included in the mix in the back right corner is an artist drawing on pieces of paper on an easel and a camel that is perched atop the performance space and dropping paper flowers down below. At numerous times, one of the circus performers jumps down from the railings and bounds head first through the artist’s drawing, destroying the creation and disappearing into the darkness. The drawings all seem quite pleasant with their cartoon -tyle presentation, but the images themselves evoke a feeling of manipulation and being overpowered. In one way, smashing through the drawing shows the quartet’s defiance at this and their efforts at remaining true to themselves and living their lives their own way.

Similarly, the action all taking place under the watchful gaze of the camel – representing focus, determination and travelling – is another symbolic example of the characters staying on task and on track while undertaking their own personal journeying.

4 + 4 = 4 is circus that makes you question the way you live your life, and consider your place in the world in relation to those around you. Some mesmerizing and captivating tricks – with a well-matched soundtrack and lighting design – ensure you’ll be contemplating this show for some time to come.

Venue: Meat Market, 5 Blackwood St, North Melbourne
Season: until 25 September | Sat 8pm, Sun 7pm
Length: 60 minutes
Tickets: $28 Full | $23 Conc
Bookings: Melbourne Fringe Festival