What Did She Think?

What: High Achievers When: 10 - 22 April 2017 Where: Tasma Terrace Written by: Tim Smith and Michael Symes Directed by: Sam Russo Performed by: Chelsea Zeller Chelsea Zeller High Achievers is a comedy sketch routine written by the enduring comedy writing team Tim Smith and Micheal Symes (best known for the iconic TV sketch show The Comedy Company ). Part of this year's Melbourne International Comedy Festival , it is being performed by Chelsea Zeller at Tasma Terrace (a new MICF venue behind Parliament House). Zeller has teamed up with Russo (director) to bring us a delightful hour of hilarious and well crafted characters which we can all recognise and love and thank the powers that be we are not them. It is very much a short-hand version of Joanna Murray-Smith' s Bombshells   although Smith and Symes have not restricted the gender of the characters in High Achievers . Apart from the overall structure of a series of character monologues, this performance remi

What: Puppetry Of The Penis When: 2 - 9 April 2017 Where: The Palms at Crown Created by: Simon Morley and David Friend Performed by: Rich Binning and Barry Brisco Rich Binning, The Hamburger, and Barry Brisco If you haven't heard of the hit comedy show Puppetry of the Penis by now you haven't been living on planet Earth. Created for the Melbourne International Comedy Festival back in 1998, this show has grown exponentially over the years and is now a permanent Vegas show. For one week only Binning and Brisco perform it for us at The Palms at Crown . I confess that I am one of the few people in the world who had not seen the show yet, so I was...excited(?)...to get the opportunity to experience this unique form of puppetry which could only be invented by the Australian ocker. It was a bit strange to hear the American accents of this new generation of puppeteers but given the scope and scale of the Penis machine it is not surprising. Brisco tells us "There ar

What: Summerfolk When: 23 - 26 March Where: Theatre Works Written by: Maxim Gorky Directed by: Robert Johnson Performed by: Elisa Armstrong, Kerrie-Anne Baker, Amy Bradney-George, James Christensen, Nick Clark, Alisha Eddy, Charlotte Fox, Tom Heath, Luke Lennox, David Meadows, Sarah Nicolazzo, Seton Pollock, Nicholas Rijs, Alex Rouse, and Yuchen Wang. Set by: James Lew Costumes by: Carletta Childs Sound by: Liam Bellman-Sharpe David Meadows, Yuchen Wang, Seton Pollock, Alex Rouse, Nicholas Rijs, Alisha Eddy, James Christensen, Elisa Armstrong, and Sarah Nicolazzo Summerfolk is the latest production from the nascent company Burning House Theatre and comes off the back of their successful 2016 production The Tragedy of Coriolanus . Both of these plays have been presented at Theatre Works in St Kilda whilst founding member and director Johnson undertakes his Masters degree in directing at VCA. The play itself was written by Maxim Gorky in 1904 and is a typical social real