Comedy, Review, Whats On

John Dore in REVOLVING DORE

Take a spin with this disarming and charming comic

By Joana Simmons

John Dore’s conversational observational comedy show, Revolving Dore, is a-dore-able. This seasoned comic (who headlined in the Perth and Melbourne Fringe Festivals and was a finalist in RAW Comedy and Green Faces and written for and starred in Channel 31’s Live On Bowen) observes the mundane humdrum of daily life and spins it into side-splitting stories and sentiments.

Revolving Dore

For an hour, John takes the audience out of the brisk Melbourne evening and under his arm – he is so relaxed and relatable you want to be friends with him, and since his endearing honesty and hilarious charm make you laugh your pants off you think a bit about being a “more than friends” with him too. Covering content from work stories to sick days, dinner parties to mouse traps, and David Attenbrough to red backs, Dore’s well thought-out segues make the show seamless.

His comedic dexterity is multi-dimensional. There’s moments of physical comedy, where his facial expression and long limbs paint pictures words can’t. A simple use of the microphone for a very specific sound effect you just have to be there to appreciate, and comedic timing and callbacks that just hit the nail on the head. He doesn’t take the easy route to laughs by covering run-of-the-mill content or picking on an audience member or using swearing as a punch line – rather, he shines his own unique light on things we can all relate to, and makes them hilarious and effortless.

Do yourselves a favour and get down to The Butterfly Club, get yourself a mulled wine, and get ready for this comedy treat. See John Dore now so you can say you saw him before he was big, because he’s going to be. I mean, with talent like his he’s more than halfway there, so support the industry, tell your friends, and make sure he gets his foot in the dore.

Show Details: Revolving Dore

Dates: 18th – 22nd of May

Time: 7pm

Cost: $25-32

Venue: The Butterfly Club, 5 Carson Place, Melbourne

Tickets: thebutterflyclub.com

Performances, Review, Whats On

Next Wave Festival 2016: THE HORSE

Silence in space made into music

By Myron My

Every now and again, there is a production that pushes the boundaries of what can be done. Dylan Sheridan’s The Horse is one of these shows, in that it uses a variety of tools to create an immersive musical space travel experience for its audience. As director, composer and performer (electronics), Sheridan vividly creates an intergalactic world with a saxophone, violin, cello, electronics and automated instruments.

The Horse.jpg

The Horse takes its title from the Horsehead Nebula, a cloud of gas and dust in outer space, 1,500 light years from Earth. So named due to the shape of its swirling gases, it is visible in the night sky as a dark silhouette against other luminous matter, though above the Horsehead is a bright pink gas which contrasts with the dark gas found below. For his composition inspired by this phemonemon, Sheridan translates actual interstellar data into the music of The Horse. For the most part this metamorphosis of information into art creates interesting results, but at times – perhaps deliberately – it feels like not much is happening to keep us engaged musically.

The perfectly executed lighting takes some of its cues from the colours of the nebula, shining a cold light on one half of the stage, and a warm, glowing light on the other. The close of the performance also cleverly has us physically moving from the darkness towards the pink glow, further building on this evocative environment Sheridan has created so well.

While The Horse creates a delicate mood of space exploration and dream states, there is also a sense of trepidation and unease from what is transpiring. The show begins in pitch black until a dull light shines on a single automated violin being strummed. The highly skilled musicians – Benjamin Price (saxophone), Emily Shepherd (violin) and Robert Manley (cello) – constantly appear suddenly and slowly fade away as if they are spirits. At another one point, a light shines on a single square patch of grass, with birds chirping in the background that immediately turns to darkness and we begin to hear train engines working from all directions.

There are some parts in The Horse that feel like they go on for a little too long or need to be more engaging for the audience; however, if you allow yourself to be taken in by the experience, you really do feel like you have left Earth to drift into new realms. While the Horsehead Nebula still has about 5 million years left before it erodes away, The Horse is only on until the end of the week so make sure you book your tickets and support some creative emerging talent.

Venue: Arts House, 521 Queensberry St, North Melbourne, 3051 
Season: Until 22 May | Thurs – Sat 8.15pm, Sun 7.15pm 
Tickets: $23 Full | $18 Conc 
Bookings: Next Wave Festival

Musical Theatre, Review, Whats On

Melbourne Premiere: HEATHERS THE MUSICAL

Black comedy classic into a fantastically biting and bitchy musical

By Caitlin McGrane

Before I went to see Heathers: The Musical I had vowed to myself that I would watch the cult movie so I was prepared, but I ultimately didn’t, and more’s the better, as I feel it would have utterly ruined the fresh first-time delight if I had. That said, there is still plenty for fans of the film to love – those classic lines (that even I knew) delivered with just enough homage to avoid pastiche. Heathers is a twisted classic story of high school popularity, love, sex. And murder. Written for the stage by Kevin Murphy and Laurence O’Keefe, the show delivers acerbic wit and darkly poignant comedy in spades.

Heathers the Musical.jpg

Veronica Sawyer (Hilary Cole) is a Senior at Westerberg High School in Ohio; in desperation to make her final year more bearable, Veronica asks the eponymous popular girl gang, the Heathers, if they can help her by just letting her associate with them. Veronica falls in line with the Heathers, until she meets broody Baudelaire-quoting heartthrob J.D. (Stephen Madsen) whereupon things start to go slightly pear-shaped… Cole and Madsen both inhabited their roles wholly and convincingly: their chemistry positively palpable.

The Heathers comprise of ‘mythic bitch’ Heather Chandler (Lucy Maunder), neurotic bulimic Heather Duke (Hannah Fredericksen), and bland cheerleader Heather McNamara (Rebecca Hetherington). All three performers are exceptionally funny, but Fredericksen really stole the show as Heather Duke whose ascension to Queen B was hilariously unhinged. Vincent Hooper and Jakob Ambrose looked like they were having heaps of fun on stage as the lewd and cringe-inducing jocks Ram Sweeney and Kurt Kelly. Lauren McKenna positively shone as Ms Fleming, whose culturally appropriative Afro-inspired dress and hair were so bad they were genius. It would also be remiss not to mention Mitchell Hicks‘ impressive work as J.D.’s unfathomably repulsive father ‘Big Bud’; his every appearance on stage made me want to run screaming from the auditorium. The other members of the ensemble cast – Sage Douglas, Heather Manley and Stephen McDowell were all excellent, and provided the much-needed pace for many of the song-and-dance numbers.

The only area in which the production was let down was in sound design; while director Trevor Ashley and musical director Bev Kennedy did a wonderful job bringing the musical to the Arts Centre stage, on opening night the sound quality in the theatre was not successfully monitored or moderated. This meant that while the cast were performing it was virtually impossible to hear what they were sing-speaking over the noise of the band. This aside, the rest of the production coordination was outstanding.

I therefore thoroughly enjoyed what I could hear of the songs, particularly the LGBT-inspired number delivered by Ram and Kurt’s fathers. Despite being mostly unable to discern the lyrics, I still had a fantastic time; I couldn’t care less what they were singing about half the time because the performances were making me laugh, which is what I wanted. The melodies weren’t original, or even particularly catchy, but every song simultaneously captured the spirit of the 80s, as well as the neuroses of high school to which we can all relate.

Well-thought out set design (Emma Vine), lighting design (Gavan Swift) and choreography (Cameron Mitchell) were essential to support the cast while they careered about on stage. Angela White’s costumes were exceptional and instantly transported us back to 1988.

Heathers had the audience – many of whom were no doubt hard-to-please movie fans – whooping and rolling in the aisles for so much of the performance that any glitches or technical missteps went entirely unnoticed. Indeed, such was the excitement of the ladies in the row in front of me that when J.D. made a brief appearance in the audience one of them quietly screamed, ‘Ooh Julie! Look who you’ve got next to you!’ And I think that just about summed up the experience – it really did make me giddy with high school excitement, albeit with rather more murderous inclinations. I can’t recommend it highly enough.

Heathers is showing at the Arts Centre on Southbank until 22 May 2016. For tickets and more information visit: http://www.artscentremelbourne.com.au/whats-on/2016/musicals/heathers-the-musical

Circus, Performances, Review

Aerial Manx in TEMPEST IN A TEACUP

Cheerfully grotesque

By Myron My

Aerial Manx is one of those performers who has probably never said no to a challenge: someone who is always up for anything and testing new things and the limits of how far he can push himself and his body. Along with his wife Little Miss Bones, Manx and this new and intimate show showcases just that, and with acts such as his signature sword-swallowing backflip, Tempest in a Teacup makes it clear why he is a cut above the rest. Yes, this is not a show for the easily queasy.

Tempest in a Teacup.jpg

It seems the older I get the more faint-hearted I become, and the tricks performed in Tempest in a Teacup reinforced this fact for me. The sword-swallowing I could actually watch, but when Manx lifted three bowling balls chained to his ears, seeing that lobe get stretched was incredibly intense. The only comfort to me was knowing that Manx and Little Miss Bones were obviously experienced professionals who had most likely performed these tricks countless times and nothing should go wrong, and thankfully nothing did, except for the technical mishaps.

Throughout the show Manx attempted to control the music from his watch and iPad on stage. Unfortunately, technology being technology, songs did not start when they should have, started playing on their own, or began to play and then skipped to the next track. While he attempted to fix this, Manx would let us know how embarrassed he was and to talk among ourselves while he tended to it. My question is, why, when there is a dedicated sound and tech booth in the back of the venue, would you not utilise this to then focus your attention on the performance? Because while the tricks were amazing, I feel there was definitely a need for a tighter structure and direction for the show.

At the beginning, the two performers are showing us oddities they have collected over the years, including a replica cast of the Elephant Man’s skull and antique tools used for lobotomies. However, these props are never brought back again or utilised in any way, so I wondered why they showed us, apart from filling in time. On occasion, this loose awkward structure made me feel like I was watching a street show rather than a piece being performed at a venue. Manx has no doubt plenty of random and unique experiences throughout his career, and it would have been great to have heard some of those stories and how they got him to where he is now. One time when he does this well is with regards to recounting his recent Guinness World Record achievement for the Fastest Human Backbend Walk over 20 metres, which he then proceeds to perform. And if you need a visual aid on what that looks like, think of the spider walk in The Exorcist.

Aerial Manx is a great performer who is very skillful in what he does and who clearly likes to push the boundaries of what the body is capable. In order to make Tempest in a Teacup a strong production as a whole, I feel it’s imperative that he offers some more powerful purpose or reason or narrative behind what we are seeing. With the wonderful creative possibilities of circus becoming more prominent in performances at Melbourne venues and festivals, it would seem there needs to be something more happening than watching someone swallow two neon tubes simultaneously, as impressive as that may be!

Tempest in a Teacup was performed at The Butterfly Club between 29 April and 8 May, 2016.

Performances, Theatre, Whats On

Next Wave Festival 2016: SEDIH/SUNNO

An exquisite and emotional experience

By Myron My

There is so much I want to write down right now but I am unsure if it’s a critical review of the show I just saw or a visceral personal response. Such is the effect that Rani Pramesti has on you when you walk out of Sedih//Sunno. “Sedih” is Bahasa Indonesia for ‘sadness’ and “sunno” is ‘to listen’ in Fijian Hindi, so the show is an invitation to listen to our sadness. Or as one of the performers advised us, it is a mediation on such sadness.

rani-p-collaborations-sedih-sunno-2016-photo-credit-daniela-rodriguez.jpg

Sedih//Sunno is a collaborative performance installation piece by Pramesti, Ria Soemardjo, Kei Murakami and Shivanjani Lal, all sharing stories with us in this multi-sensory and multi-cultural show. As we take our seat in a room surrounded by gorgeous Indonesian batik fabrics, we hear the four women speaking over the top of each other in their various languages as if they are conversing at home with their family. I don’t understand any of it (except some snippets of Japanese), but it feels lively, fun and inviting.

The conversation soon quietens and Pramesti enters the space, asking for permission to join us. She puts the intimate group at ease with her gentle humour and calm nature, and I almost feel like I am at primary school show-and-tell, as Pramesti shares with us stories of her childhood and her mother’s childhood. While devising the show, Pramesti reveals she discovered her mother had been sexually abused when she was eight years old, which changed the nature of the work drastically. It became a piece about keeping company with your sadness and not hiding it away on its own. The integrity of the performance and safety of the audience is always paramount for the four artists and they are with us every step of the way through the performance.

As we continue moving through the space, we are handed small pieces of batik and directed to Pramesti who helps us in folding the sheets and putting them away, no doubt something she has done numerous times with her mother. As I sat down, listening to the beautiful music from Soemardjo’s tamboura and her Javanese-inspired vocals, and watching as the rest of the group folded their fabrics with Pramesti, I was taken back to my own childhood, where I would help my late mother fold linen. It was a very vivid experience and raised questions of my own personal grief and sadness since my mother passed away eight years ago.

Sedih//Sunno can be seen as a rite of passage of accepting sadness as part of our lives. It is about reflecting on those moments and opening up to ourselves as to how they have made us who we are. At another point in the show, we are provided with smalls bells and shown a path that has four glass bowls of water. As we walk past each bowl, we ring our bell as we dunk it in and out of the water three times. Again, through the guidance of these artists we are able to acknowledge sadness and the passing of time.

So there have been some tears shed as I write this and maybe if I had written this review a few hours after I saw it rather than immediately, my response would have been slightly different, but Pramesti and her team are owed our honesty and should be aware of the poignant experience with which they have provided people. Pramesti’s mother says in a recorded conversation that “life is beautiful and unplanned”, but you really should plan to see Sedih//Sunno before it sells out.

Venue: Arts House, 521 Queensberry St, North Melbourne, 3051
Season: Until 15 May | Wed – Sat 6.30pm, Sat 3pm, Sun 5.30pm
Tickets: $28 Full | $23 Conc
Bookings: Next Wave Festival

Image by Daniela Rodriguez

Review, Theatre, Whats On

Twelve Angry Presents [LADY] MACBETH

Exceptional

By Narelle Wood

Fires burn and cauldron bubbles as Lady Macbeth and Macbeth cause political and murderous trouble. In Twelve Angry‘s latest production, the infamous Scottish play is retold in an intriguing and thought-provoking way.

[Lady] Macbeth.jpg

Macbeth, full of deep and dark desires, with more than a little encouragement from his loving wife Lady Macbeth and the three weird sisters, sets his sights on ruling the land. Not prepared to leave his future status to fate, Macbeth takes matters into his own hands, and as is the case with any Shakespearean tragedy when the natural order is disrupted, the body count is high.

The usual emphasis, at least in the versions I have seen, is Macbeth’s slow decent into madness. But director Fiona Spitzkowsky takes a different tack, placing Lady Macbeth at the centre of Scottland’s chaotic state. The result is a refreshing interpretation of Macbeth that I had never considered but is by far the most beguiling I have ever seen. The weird sisters are reinvented with a ‘mean girls’-style friendship between Lady Macbeth, Lady Banquo and Lady Macduff. Macbeth seems a little more unhinged than usual and Lewis Macdonald plays Macduff with an aggressive side that has not been so evident in any of the other incarnations I’ve seen.

Ultimately what makes this reinvention work is the exceptional cast. Alice Marks is the strongest Lady Macbeth I’ve ever seen. It’s not overplayed; Marks is both sinister, sexual, mischievous and guilt-ridden all at the same time, even drinking from a goblet in a menacing manner. Marks is complimented by Victoria Mantynen and Anne Lumsden as Lady Banquo and Lady Macduff respectively, who both bring a complexity and depth to two minor characters who could otherwise be fairly easily dismissed. Charlie Craig’s Macbeth is easy to dislike; weak, aggressive and arrogant, in this version he is no longer the tragic hero corrupted by power. It is worth making the time to see these actors strut and fret their hours upon the stage.

There was not much that I didn’t like in this production. The main issue was outside ambient noise, which made the actors, especially during more quiet times, a little hard to hear. The soundtrack and singing that accompanied the play was both haunting and evocative, and the candlelight created an appropriate eerie feel. Impressively the candle on our table faded just as Macbeth finished his lamenting comparison between the brevity of life and the burning of a candle; I like to think this was intentional.

400 years after Shakespeare’s death it would seem impossible to give such a well-known classic tale a fresh retelling. This has instantly become my favourite interpretation of [Lady] Macbeth.

Venue: Tuxedo Cat, 293 Latrobe St, Melbourne
Season: 11-13th May, 7.30pm
Tickets: Full $25| Conc $15
Bookings: twelveangry.tumblr.com

Musical Theatre, Review, Whats On

Doorstep Arts Presents DOGFIGHT

Brave cast and company grapple with Pasek and Paul musical

By Myron My

Dogfight, based on the 1991 River Phoenix film, revolves around the actions of three marines on their final night in a small town in 1963, just before they are to be deployed to Okinawa, and then on to Vietnam. While the trio come from seemingly similar backgrounds, they are friends bound by circumstances of war. Over the course of this night, these bonds are tested, especially when Eddie meets the naive and innocent Rose.

Dogfight.jpg

The original production of Dogfight, with book by Peter Duchan, premiered in New York in 2012 and won the Lucille Lortel Outstanding Music Award as well as being nominated for a number of others. However, so much of the show feels outdated, and unfortunately there is nothing new or especially engaging being offered by this story – whereupon even those who are not familiar with the film itself can see exactly how things are going to pan out.

The score by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul is fresh and fun to listen to, and under the capable musical direction of Trevor Jones here, the highly talented five-piece band brings their work vividly to life. The lyrics however were a disappointment. They felt clumsy and uninspired, and didn’t really offer much insight to the characters’ thoughts that wasn’t already evident from the book. The strongest numbers are the opening song, “Some Kind of Time”, “Come to a Party” and “Pretty Funny”, the latter finally allowing us to feel what the characters really were.

Alexander Woodward tackles the difficult role of Eddie, whom the audience must somehow simultaneously like, while being repulsed by his actions. Unfortunately, the journey Eddie goes on did not feel fleshed out enough here, and as such, prevented the complexities required of this problematic character to come through on opening night. The changes and realisations he has never seemed to come from a place of understanding and growth and ultimately felt forced. However, Woodward certainly generates some nice moments in his scenes with Olivia Charalambous (Rose), and the duration of their date beginning at the restaurant until their farewell encompasses some of the best moments in the show.

Charalmbous has a great energy on stage and her renditon of “Pretty Funny” was a touching and genuinely emotional scene. Jaclyn DeVincentis adds some excellent comedic timing in her portrayal of Marcy and the honesty with which she plays her is warm and well-grounded, so it’s a shame (but understandable given the role) that she did not have more time on stage. The ensemble are full of vigour, and the choreography by Leanne Marsland brings forth the bravado and aggression we can see would have been rampant during that era.

It’s great that Doorstep Arts are willing to champion lesser-known musicals, and Dogfight does endeavour to look at marine life and how young men’s lives were and are forever changed by needless war. While there were strong performances in this ambitious production and good musical numbers, at 2.5 hours long I admit though that I expected richer character development and a more engaging book from an award-winning work.

Venue: Chapel Off Chapel, 12 Little Chapel St, Prahran
Season: 15 May | Mon- Sat 8pm, Sat 2pm, Sun 5pm
Tickets: $49.90 Full | $44.90 Conc
Bookings: Chapel Off Chapel