Tag: dance

Dance, Events, Performances, Review, Theatre, Whats On February 7, 2013February 7, 2013

REVIEW: Pat Kinevane’s SILENT

Unspoken stories given a powerful voice

By Myron My

Pat Kinevane is the writer and performer of Silent, a one-man play that combines dance, sound, silent films and monologue to create a truly captivating and touching performance.

Kinevane plays Tino, a homeless man whose cinema-crazed family named him after Rudolph Valentino. Tino looks at specific moments in his life – including the suicide of his gay brother – that have led him to become a homeless man with few possessions and who may or may not be losing his mind.

A one-man show has the potential of losing momentum and audience interest, especially when it runs at close to 80 minutes. Kinevane manages to maintain and vary the pace with different forms of narration, including short dance numbers, miming with pre-recorded voiceovers, and dynamic acting. The blending from one to another is seamless and at just the right moments- so much so, that you sometimes forget you are in fact only watching a single performer.

The large stage is left quite sparse with minimal props available, but Kinevane owns the whole performance area and with the help of well-timed lighting design, also creates an intense and claustrophobic environment thus allowing us to get further inside Tino’s head. Furthermore, the music for Silent beautifully encapsulates the emotional mood of the show and solidly supports in building on the vivid imagery that Kinevane describes to us.

Kinevane charms the audience with his character’s vulnerability and good nature and even though the material borders on crude on occasion, he manages to steer clear of actual vulgarity. His interaction with some audience members as Tino further strengthens our poignant connection to this wreck of a man.

Silent deals with the guilt and remorse we have about past actions and about trying to make amends with our own selves. This is something that we can all relate to and ultimately hope that it does not become our downfall either. A powerful story with just the right emotional strings pulled.

Venue: Southbank Theatre, The Lawler

Season: Until 10 Feb | Fri-Sat 7:30, Sat-Sun 2:00pm

Tickets: $40 Full | $35 Conc

Bookings: mtc.com.au/silent.aspx or 98688 0800

Events, Performances, Review, Theatre, Whats On March 23, 2012March 23, 2012

Review: AD NAUSEUM

A beautiful tale of a terrible man

By Adam Tonking

Ad Nauseam, created by Tom Pitts and performed by Nick Bendall with Kate Laverack and Grace Travaglia, is the story of one rather unlikeable man and the drunken destructive path he cuts through one night in the city. But the story itself is only the beginning of this wonderful production.

Pitts’ text, one long rant, is almost poetic, reminiscent of those long-dead beat poets Kerouac and Ginsberg and through Pitts’ treatment of the language, transforms a gritty loathsome bender into something romantic and poignant.

His despicable narrator seems lost and forlorn, even while his actions paint him as an arrogant pig, somehow you want to be the one to save him. I did find the insertion of a few topical one-liners jarring and unnecessary, however they did receive the biggest laughs of the night. The text is performed in counterpoint with a score also composed by Pitt, and the interaction between the two beautifully underpins the ebb and flow of the piece.

Playing the part of this narrator, Bendall brings a rascally quality to the character’s unpleasant tendencies, charming the audience with his antics as opposed to repelling us. His physicality in performing this piece was a work of art, like mime bordering on dance, depicting the world and the people he interacts with through mere controlled movements and poses of his constantly working body, from delicate and beautiful to aggressive and masculine. Fascinating to watch.

Haunting him throughout the piece are the spectres of the two women who started him on this downward spiral, played by Laverack and Travaglia, who never speak a word, but manage to convey everything they need to through the movement of their bodies.

Ad Nauseam is a masterful work, using poetry, mime, dance, music, lighting – all the elements available to create a phenomenal, tragic and romantic piece. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

This production is showing at La Mama Courthouse, 349 Drummond Street Carlton, from Wednesday 21 March till Sunday 1 April, 6.30pm Wednesday, Friday and Sunday, 8.30pm Thursday and Saturday. Book at www.lamama.com.au or by calling 03 9347 6142.

Cabaret, Events, Performances, Whats On November 9, 2009November 24, 2009

THE LITTLE RED DRESS: Waiting By The Wireless

In war time, love, laughter and loss are all the fashion…

A colourful new cabaret debuts at The Butterfly Club this month – and it all began with a little red dress.

Young dynamic Melbourne artist Jenny Patrone is still tapping her toes after winning the Popular Choice award for Short+Sweet Dance 2009 recently, but is now taking a walk in someone’s shoes with her own cabaret show of WWII-style songs, based on amazing real-life stories of women in wartimes.

When Jenny started the Creating Solo Cabaret course earlier this year, she began investigating a period of history and music that had always fascinated her. She soon uncovered real letters and private stories from the lives of British girls whose fun-loving, light-hearted teen years changed abruptly when their sweethearts, neighbours and brothers were called to enlist.

The Little Red Dress marks the moment when the world went back to war, and dance, song and laughter were needed to get daughters, sisters and lovers through long weeks of waiting by the wireless – hoping their boys come home soon, and fearing the worst every time a telegram arrived. Starring Jenny Partrone, accompanied by Adrian Portell, guest-starring Adam Nunn and directed by Kim Edwards, The Little Red Dress opens at The Butterfly Club on Thursday November 26 until November 29.