Tag: Melbourne Fringe Festival

Festivals, Review, Theatre, Whats On

REVIEW: It’s Happening in the Space Between My Face and Yours

Throwing surrealism to the wolves

By Myron My

A woman has gone missing and her friends are left to go on with their lives, not knowing what has happened to her. Despite attempts of normalcy and moving on, the wolves are always at their door waiting for the right moment to strike.

My latest venture into this year’s Melbourne Fringe Festival was It’s Happening In The Space Between My Face and Yours. Written by Izzy Roberts-Orr, it’s a surreal look at love, sex and death through the eyes of a bunch of twenty-somethings sharing a house together. There is strong direction by Nick Fry, and the cast have done well in creating a sense of unity in their movements on stage.

It's Happening in the Space

The sound and lighting design by James Hogan and Nick Fry respectively are a highlight of the show and create an atmosphere of foreshadowing and something more sinister at play but this is not complemented by the acting or the script. The biggest issue I had with It’s Happening… is that I don’t know what it wants to be. Is it a romantic comedy for hipsters or a supernatural suspense? Either way, the two do not mesh with success here. Whenever surrealism is attempted in theatre, it either works incredibly well or not at all and in this situation, it does fall into the latter. There were also storylines that occurred very awkwardly like the introduction of a new housemate who rents out Jack’s room and the romance between El and Ali (Elle Kulesza and Rebecca Hunt).

I was captivated by Tom Molyneux and Meaghan Lawrie as the two ‘wolves’, almost to the point where I was watching them even when they weren’t actively participating in a scene. However, I was not convinced by the rest of the cast in their roles and their emotional scenes did not feel real to me. More development was required for all the characters, especially Jack (Jennifer Speirs) who needed more of a presence if she is to be the central character and theme in the play.

Melbourne Fringe Festival is about trying new things and doing something different: seeing what works and what doesn’t. Unfortunately the debut performance of It’s Happening In The Space Between My Face and Yours doesn’t quite hit the mark.

Venue: Sketch and Tulip, 364 Victoria St, North Melbourne
Season: Until 02 October | Tues – Sun 9:15pm
Tickets: $19 Full | $15 Conc
Bookings: http://www.melbournefringe.com.au or 9660 9666

Cabaret, Cabaret Review, Festivals, Whats On

REVIEW: Melissa Langton in A SINGER MUST DIE… AND OTHER BEDTIME STORIES

Winningly witty and deliciously dark

By Bradley Storer

Award-winning cabaret performer Melissa Langton arrives at Chapel off Chapel with her latest offering, A Singer Must Die… And Other Bedtime Stories for Melbourne Fringe Festival. The subject of the evening is the idea of the ‘apocalypse’, both on the global and personal scale. Langton opens the show with the title song, a grim reflection on the artistic process and creative crisis, following with a rip-roaring gospel-inflected tune anticipating the destructive ecstasy of the coming cataclysm, setting up many of the ideas explored throughout the piece.

A Singer Must Die

Langton cleverly weaves tales of personal calamity and turmoil in a wide-ranging series of scenarios, the only set being three platforms which she cleverly moves between to punctuate her narratives. Topics reach from the forgotten little sister of Jesus forever living in her brother’s shadow, deception in online dating, a short-lived romance between carnival freaks to the return of the Devil to Earth. Some of the brighter numbers seem a little simplistic and underwritten in comparison to the darker songs, and at the beginning of the evening there seems to be an overload of more melancholy material which threatens to make it a little repetitive, but by the halfway mark Langton manages to find a balance between the light and shade which works wonderfully.

Langton herself is a charming performer, her wide-ranging vocals wielded to maximum effect and her belt physically shaking the room with its enormous strength! At times Langton seemed a little reserved and tentative, but this can surely be chalked up to opening night jitters – by the end of the evening she had blossomed with hilarious comedic energy in her more upbeat numbers and a simple but touching gravitas in more serious moments.

There are some utter gems amongst these partially spoken, partially sung tales. A hilarious saga of heartbreak and automotive spree-killing, a gently heart-breaking look into the life of a recently widowed woman.  The story of a woman breaking into the home of her ex-lover hums with the simultaneous agony and joy of being hopelessly in love, an extraordinary act of empathy which touched the audience in the deepest recesses of our hearts. The penultimate song, which explores the continuous unity of the human spirit and the possibilities of reincarnation, brilliantly ties together all the threads seen in the show into a multi-faceted reflection of the divide fundamental to the human condition. An evening of both entertainment and enlightenment!

VENUE: Chapel off Chapel, 12 Little Chapel St, Prahran.

DATE: 24 – 29th  September

TIME: 7:30 (6:30 Sunday)

PRICES: Full $28, Concession $25, Group 10+ $20

TICKETS: www.chapeloffchapel.com.au, Ph: (03) 8290 7000, at the door.

Events, Festivals, Review, Theatre, Whats On

REVIEW: A F*#king Mad Tea Party at MELBOURNE FRINGE

They’re all mad, there…

By Myron My

To enter A F*#cking Mad Tea Party at Melbourne Fringe Festival, one must first take a test. Only when the task is complete to the guard’s satisfaction is permission granted to head on upstairs and join the party. Upon having passed, I am greeted by a number of characters including a French0speaking woman and a man in a wooden chest, seemingly stuck there.

A Mad Tea Party

We are free to roam the space – which is amazing – and interact with the other “guests” at the party.  The Wonderland transformation affects the whole performance space (even areas that are not specifically used), inevitably adding to the authenticity of the evening.  It may have taken two days to set everything up but it clearly took a lot longer to get everything together and prepared.

The performers – Cassandra Belfrange, Jack Bennett, Rachelle Harvey, Ryan Lovat, Timothy Christopher Ryan and Samantha Wojcik – are brilliant and each one of them embraces and embodies their character with much gusto and love. They are all so dedicated and committed that it is impossible to pick a favourite or standout.

The music throughout the show has a variety of songs ranging from Marilyn Monroe to Laura Marling and some dreamy musical scores to name a few. Each one adds a unique element to the show depending on the individual act we are seeing. However it is through most of these acts that I feel A F*#cking Mad Tea Party suffers. Interspersed throughout the story are dance routines, circus acts and even a touch of burlesque but these performances needed tightening. There was much potential in each of them, but they all seemed to finish before they peaked. Perhaps in a more traditional performance these pieces would have satisfied, but this is Wonderland and I was hoping for something more adventurous and daring.

That said, immersive theatre seems to be popping up more and more in Melbourne (there are quite a few such shows during the Fringe Festival), but there’s something special about A F*#cking Mad Tea Party that requires viewing. It’s silly and strange and captivating and innocent and dangerous and I suspect you will not be able to find anything even remotely similar to experiencing a unique evening like this.

Venue: Norm. 34 Breese St, Brunswick

Season: 24-28 September | 8:00pm

Tickets: $27 Full | $22 Conc

Bookings: http://amadteaparty.com.au and http://www.melbournefringe.com.au

Festivals, Performances, Review, Theatre, Whats On

REVIEW: Water Torture for MELBOURNE FRINGE

Staying at the shallow end

By Myron My

We all know Melbourne summers can be absolutely stinking hot. For many of us, we don’t have the luxury of a swimming pool in our backyard or the time to drive down to the beach.

Water Torture

The only option is to head to the nearest public pool, as so many people do. There is a myriad of different personalities melding there in a way that – according to writer of Water Torture, Lauren Smith – doesn’t happen anywhere else.

There are roughly a dozen characters in Water Torture, and on the day being depicted many of them are more or less forced to interact with each other, even if the encounters are not always reciprocated.

I feel the writing could be stronger on two key points: namely, character and story development, especially when dealing with multiculturalism or making any social commentary. Those promising moments are so fleeting that they had no significant effect on the audience. The swimming interludes, whilst definitely showing great creativity with the music and choreography, were too long and occurred too many times.

Having said that, the majority of the cast does a great job with their roles, primarily the two lifeguards, played by Stephanie Evison-Williams and Nicholas Cain. Their Baywatch-esque lifesaving scene wins the award for the best moment of the show.

Set designer Kim Ritchie has flawlessly recreated the environment of a public swimming pool. The audience sits in the middle of the space, looking up to the actors so it feels like you are truly  in the swimming pool. The water action occurs at our level, strengthening the idea of how so many different types of people go to the public pools.

Having the audience sit on swivel chairs allows us to turn and see any of the characters at any time, even if they are not the current point of focus. The actors remain in character and interacting with each other the whole show and sometimes it’s more interesting to see what’s happening in the “background”.

Despite a few issues with the writing, Water Torture is an enjoyably entertaining hour to spend during the Melbourne Fringe Festival. It’s something so many of us can relate to from having experienced such characters as those portrayed here, by either seeing them, being with them or – god forbid – actually being them!

Venue: Revolt Productions, 12 Elizabeth Street Kensington

Season: Until 29September |Tues-Sat 7:30pm, Sun 5:00pm

Tickets: $22 Full | $18 Conc

Bookings: http://revoltproductions.com

Cabaret

REVIEW: Alex Roe in HERE COMES YOUR MAN

Getting ready for a hit

By Myron My

In Here Comes Your Man for the 2013 Melbourne Cabaret Festival, Alex Roe plays a hit man – a very successful hit man who has a slight career crisis when he meets the beautiful Abigail.

Roe has some good storytelling abilities and the twists and turns in his story were highly engaging without any lulls in this cabaret tale full of crime, death and love. Roe incorporates a nice level of dry humour and drama and seems very relaxed with his delivery and interaction with the audience.

Photo by Shoot at Everyone Imaging

As a performer, when you start to involve audience members in your act you do run the risk of inadvertently breaking character but watching Roe on stage, I did not feel as if he was an actor remembering his lines but found myself quite invested that this man really was a conflicted contract killer!

Here Comes Your Man has a good variety of songs but some of them did slow down the proceedings and cause Roe to lose the intensity he had built up, especially in the middle of the show. It seemed sometimes that either the song was not well-matched to Roe’s voice or it did not add to the story. However the songs where this was definitely not the case and were show highlights included Fairground Attraction’s ‘Perfect’ and (aptly) The Pixies’ ‘Here Comes Your Man’.

Roe is joined on staged by accompanist Tom Pitts and I honestly have never seen a pianist get so wonderfully involved into the music he is playing – his performance was flawless and fluid from beginning to end.

On this occasion, Here Comes Your Man was performed as a workshop season with Attic Erratic with plans of a full season run at the Melbourne Fringe Festival later this year. The concept is unique and interesting and Roe has the skill and charisma to eventually turn this show into the cabaret ‘hit’ it deserves to be.

This production took place on July 3 and 4 at The Butterfly Club as part of the Melbourne Cabaret Festival.