What Did She Think?

WHAT: Earnestly Said Than Done WHEN: 17 - 23 April 2023 WHERE: The Motley Bauhaus Black Box WRITTEN AND PERFORMED BY: Nick Robertson and Rowan Thambar Nick Robertson and Rowan Thanbar - photo by Tony Dymock At the start of the month I wrote about a clever pair of stand up comedians who decided to share a bill - Gay Horseplay - the result of which was an hour of sharp comedy with no fill. Earnestly Said Than Done is another shared bill in the same style and is playing at The Motley Bauhaus Black Box for this last week of the Melbourne Comedy Festival . Earnestly Said Than Done is a collaboration between two emerging comedians - Rowan Thambar and Nick Robertson. Thambar is well on the way to building a strong career and writes comedy for The Project . Nick is more of an 'around the traps' comedian, with a several years of stage performance behind him. Thambar opens the show with tales of how his family history is kind of like the OG of MAFS . Leaning into his Sri Lankan herit

WHAT: Ms Beige Brown Goes Beyond WHEN: 13 - 22 April 2023 WHERE: Queen Victoria Women's Centre (Wayi Djerring) WRITTEN & DIRECTED BY: Cathy Hunt SOUND BY: Jess Keefee LIGHTING BY: Natalya Shield PERFORMED BY: Yvette De Ravin Turner, Chris Flemming, Cathy Hunt, Shannon Loughnane, Tom Schmocker,  Yvette De Ravin Turner, Cathy Hunt, and Tom Schmocker - photo by Darren Gill If spoken word and indie theatre had a love child, the result would be Ms Beige Brown Goes Beyond which is currently being performed at the Queen Victoria Women's Centre as part of the Melbourne Comedy Festival . In a semi-surrealist adventure, "Australia's foremost feminist performance poet..." takes on Centrelink and applies for a community grant in a desperate effort to maintain her integrity as an artist, but also pay her bills. Ms Beige Brown is a character created and performed by Cathy Hunt and has been haunting poetry and spoken word spaces for years. She has her own YouTube channel

WHAT: Adults Only Magic Show WHEN: 13 - 23 April 2023 WHERE: Arts Centre Melbourne (The Famous Spiegeltent) CREATED BY: Sam Hume and Justin Williams PERFORMED BY: Sam Hume, Magnus Danger Magnus, and Justin Williams Sam Hume and Justin Williams - Photo Supplied Roll up! Roll up! Grab and drink and prepare for the funniest naughty night in town at the 2023 Melbourne Comedy Festival . Adults Only Magic Show is one of three offerings by Showmen Productions this year. This is the one you DON'T bring your kids to. Adults Only Magic Show is possibly one of the most fun shows in Melbourne right now. It is packed full of wonderful legerdemain and prestidigitation and, more importantly, this is a show full of humour (and a couple of dangly bits). Hume and Williams have been performing amazing magic together for ten years. In the beginning they did the whole Houdini shebang. Their shows were full of props and costumes and all the water tanks and coffins you would historically have associat

WHAT: Grim WHEN: 10 - 22 April 2023 WHERE: The Motley Bauhaus WRITTEN AND PERFORMED BY: Ellen Grimshaw DIRECTED BY: Kimberley Twiner AV BY: Chris Hocking and Matt Osborne  LIGHTING & SOUND BY: Kelli-Anne Kimber Ellen Grimshaw - photo supplied After watching Grim at The Motley Bauhaus I realise a new theatrical genre needs to be created. I am calling it astrobouffesque.  Ellen Grimshaw loves to use the conceit of alienation to help us look at the absurdity of humanity through humour, rapier sharp wit, and poignant satire. I first experienced Grimshaw's energetic explosions of observation at the 2019 Melbourne Fringe in Just Us Girls . Grimshaw brings all of those fireworks but perhaps hits the target with more impact in 2023. Grim is the story of an alien who has been kicked out of their spaceship and hurtled right into the offices of a casting agency. Whilst being completely bewildered, the agency mistakes them for an actor and starts auditioning them for a range of commerc

WHAT: Pear-Shaped WHEN: 5 - 15 April 2023 WHERE: Theatre Works WRITTEN BY: Miranda Middleton and Ziggy Resnick DIRECTED BY:  Miranda Middleton DESIGNED BY: Grace Deacon COMPOSITION BY: Oliver Beard LIGHTING AND AV BY: Aron Murray PERFORMED BY: Ziggy Resnick and Luisa Scrofani STAGE MANAGED BY: Gin Rosse Ziggy Resnick and Luisa Scrofani - photo by Angel Leggas Magical realism , surrealism ... what the hell is the difference? There is one, but it probably doesn't matter. This is the question I found playing in my mind after watching Pear-Shaped at Theatre Works last night. (This play is surrealism just for the record). With Pear-Shaped, writers Miranda Middleton and Ziggy Resnick have masterfully interwoven Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland with an age-old human story of deep pain and confusion. This story is one known by so many people through their youth - across all generations. It is a story of eating disorders and the carnage they create on family and

WHAT: Gay Horseplay WHEN: 28 March - 9 April WHERE: Storyville WRITTEN AND PERFORMED BY: Carmelo Costa and Jaxson Garni Jaxson Garni We all know the best way to get through life is KISS . This is the secret magic of stand up comedy. When it is done skilfully and with confidence the audience is taken on a ride of laughter which cancels out all of the hassles of the day they have just lived for. Gay Horseplay , being performed at Storyville as part of the Melbourne Comedy Festival , is exactly that type of show. Gay Horseplay is, in it's simplest form, two friends and comedians who are sharing a split bill. Each man knocks our socks off with a hilarious 25 minutes of humour - supposedly about life as gay men, but really this is just life for all of us. Carmelo Costa is perhaps the more experienced performer and he opens the show. His humour is a touch more risque. Whilst I wouldn't recommend this for minors, the adults of the world can get a lot of cheeky laughs and a 'no w

WHAT: Stinking Hot Trash WHEN: 29 March - 8 April 2023 WHERE: The MC Showroom (Theatrette) WRITTEN AND PERFORMED BY: Isabelle Carney DIRECTED BY: Samuel Buckley and Will Hall AV BY: Gabe Micallef Isabelle Carney - photo by Cornershop Comedy Yep. The Melbourne Comedy Festival is back for 2023and Melbourne stages are filled with comedy in all it's fabulous forms. Stinking Hot Trash is one of the crazier offerings playing in the Theatrette at The MC Showroom this week. Stinking Hot Trash is a comedic incarnation created by Isabelle Carney . Carney was part of the writers room for Mad As Hell and the absurdist aesthetic defined by Shaun Micallef shows across the course of the evening. Stinking Hot Trash is a bit more random and unformed and perhaps leans more closely to the Aunty Donna style of comedy. In Stinking Hot Trash Carney doesn't let us into the baggage she carries around. She is here to tell us about all the garbage in her life. Across the hour Carney takes us fr