Wednesday, 11 December 2024

LOVE ACTUALLY? A MUSICAL PARODY - Musical Theatre Review

WHAT: Love Actually? A Musical Parody
WHEN: 6 - 23 December 2024
WHERE: Atheneaum Theatre
WRITTEN BY: Bob and Tobly McSmith
COMPOSED BY: Basil Winterbottom
DIRECTION, CHOREOGRAPHY, AND SET BY: David Venn
MUSICAL DIRECTION BY: Danielle Buatti
COSTUMES BY: Heidi Brooks
PERFORMED BY: Ian Andrew, Mitchell Groves, Jeremy Harland, Belinda Jenkin, Sophie Loughran, and Massimo Zuccara
STAGE MANAGED BY: Sam Hornstein

Mitchell Groves and Belinda Jenkin - photo by Nicole Cleary

There are a few absolute Christmas movie staples - shows you have to watch in December every year. These include It's a Wonderful Life, Die Hard, and of course, Love Actually. Love Actually (2003) was one of the first of those big star montage movies and went on to spawn others including Valentine's Day and He's Just Not Into You for example. All of these movies are just begging to be made into parodies and Bob and Tobly McSmith finally took the plunge in 2021 for Love Actually. Love Actually? A Musical Parody is having its Australian debut this month at the Atheneaum Theatre and it is a real hoot.

The McSmiths have an entire closet of parody musicals based on iconic screen gems. Others include The Office, Friends, Baywatch, etc. Parody is a particular artform and whilst it may seem like a lazy way to do comedy it can actually reveal a lot. Love Actually? A Musical Parody is totally silly and stupid, but within all of that clowning and frivolity the McSmiths explore the narrative flaws of the original film. They reveal celebrity culture and how little 'story' matters when it comes to box office takings. They interrogate the audience and ask if they recognise why they choose the tickets they buy. 

Love Actually? A Musical Parody does this by stripping away the 'magic' of film. It calls the characters by the actors' names. They take this concept to an even more hilarious level of meta by forgoing some actors names and actually bringing them into the musical as their most famous characters in other films such as Alan Rickman (played by Jeremy Harland) performing as Professor Snape from the Harry Potter films. I can't tell you how much of a hilarious mind bomb it is to see Severus Snape being seduced by the Fosse-esque moves of Belinda Jenkin.

The levels of parody in Love Actually? A Musical Parody know no bounds and nothing is sacred. Basil Winterbottom's compositions draw from a range of beloved musicals including (but not limited to) Hamilton and Sweeney Todd. The actual music is backing track rather than live and Musical Director Danielle Buatti has wisely taken the time to work with the actors to maintain their characters in their songs. This also helps because they are a younger cast and still developing their vocal strength. I saw the show on a Sunday, and I could tell their voices were a bit tired. I also wondered if the foldback was a problem because there was some pitchiness.

David Venn's direction is smart and simple. He is also the choreographer. There is not a lot of dancing in this musical which is probably a good thing because it does run to just under 2 hrs and to extend it further would not be good for the audience. To be honest, it needs to tighten up another 10 minutes IMO. His set, however, is magnificent and it does a lot of the heavy lifting to keep us in the Christmas spirit from the moment we enter the theatre to the moment we leave. It has real WOW factor.

When I walked into the theatre, I told my peeps all I really wanted from Love Actually? A Musical Parody was a lot of energy and some good laughs. I got all of that and so much more. The cast never stop and between them they play around 50 characters! Every single character is immediately identifiable through the script, Heidi Brooks' amazingly clever costuming, and the strong characterisation by the actors. I laughed within the first 5 minutes of the show and didn't stop until it was over. You can't ask for much more than that I reckon.

I have my favourite characters in the movie, of course, and it is true I loved those characters the most in the musical but that is not a reflection on the others who were all brilliant. After all, you can only work with what the source material gives you. I loved the fluffers in the movie and they were just as funny in the musical (played by Mitchell Groves and Jenkin). Ian Andrews' creates a brilliant Hugh Grant - "the Prime Minister of romcoms" - and Sophie Loughran's Natalie was perfection (as is her portrayal of Emma Thompson).

If I mention everybody and everything this review will never end (although I will give a special shout out to the stage manager, Sam Hornstein, who is obviously a master of prop management). To get the most out of Love Actually? A Musical Parody you need 2 things: first you need to have watched the movie, preferably fairly recently; second you need to just want to have a good time. Don't come to the show expecting high art. This is not that show. Love Actually? A Musical Parody is pure Moliere style farce with a few good tunes and a barrel full of silliness. Exactly what we need in the lead up to the big day!

4 Stars

Friday, 29 November 2024

EDGING - Theatre Review

WHAT: Edging
WHEN: 27 Nov - 1 Dec 2024
WHERE: Arts House (The Warehouse)
CREATED & PERFORMED BY: Sammaneh Pourshafighi and Eden Falk
DIRECTED BY: Lara Thoms
DESIGNED BY: Kate Baxter (KB) and Lara Thoms
LIGHTING BY: Jenny Hector
SOUND BY: Tilman Robinson
VIDEO BY: d duan

Sammaneh Pourshafighi and Eden Falk - photo by Gregory Lorenzutti

Aphids is something of an institution these days, and they have been doing the thing they do under the artistic leadership of Lara Thoms and Mish Grigor since 2019. They have been incredibly prolific and developed what is absolutely a signature look, feel, and interrogation of ideas which is immediately recognisable. One of the newest inclusions to their repertoire is Edging which opened at Arts House this week.

One of the signature elements of Aphids productions is they gather people who are interesting and build shows around those people and their experiences and social impact. One of the truly great examples of that was their show A Singular Phenomenon which predates this leadership team, but Thoms was a co-creator and in this iconic event lies the seeds of Thoms' creative process absolutely. You can see the distinctive elements coming through in the repeating repertoire including shows such as The Director and Exit Strategies for example.

Edging is technically co-created by Sammaneh Pourshafighi and Eden Falk but Thoms' direction comes through clearly. I find myself wondering how two such diverse artists came together to create this show and I suspect Thoms is the answer. Pourshafighi is a cross form artist, a 42 year old, gender fluid Iranian refugee who was once interrogated by Border Security for hours (an entire night), which must have been terrifying and exhausting. Falk is an actor who, for three years, did the voice overs for the TV show Border Security International.

Across 70 minutes Pourshafighi gets to work out her trauma by interrogating Falk as the proxy white cis-male institutional patriarchy. Initially it is just Falk in the space with a suitcase a conveyor belt and a double row of video monitors arrayed high upstage. Pourshafighi's voice (Big Brother style) commands him to start the conveyor belt and inspect items from the suitcase. They are innocuous including thongs, a bag of dirty underwear, a roll of toilet paper. Along the way Pourshafighi tells us a bit about themself and their experience under interrogation. Sneakily the theme music from the TV show Border Security becomes evident and we learn about Falk's connection to the themes of the show. There is even a super cute dog who joins us for a while to play the iconic sniffer dog in the TV show. Awwww.

Pourshafighi and Falk are always themselves although the entire show shifts around them role-playing, and their stories are interspersed with games played with the audience. Along the way issues of exclusion, authority, and domination are explored. Power is the question of the show. Who holds the power on stage and in the story telling? Whose stage is it? What power does the audience have even in participation moments. Who will win the greco-roman wrestling? Who holds the keys to doors - border control, entry to Berghain

The show starts slowly although the Big Brother idea is quick off the mark. Unfortunately, the introduction lingers too long in Pourshafighi's self-deprecation about her 'funny' voice which creates a weird dissonance of this being the voice of power. Perhaps that is the point. I don't know because I don't think their voice is odd. There was also this commentary about 'Daddy Australia' which didn't resonate with me at all because I have never heard anyone refer to Australia as daddy. I may be being too literal here and this is probably a synonym for the patriarchy and BDSM, but I can't see it catching on. 

Once Pourshafighi is on stage with Falk and the Border Security stuff starts to be explored Edging become really strong, but I feel like this is mostly a result of Falk's incredible skills as an actor. The show comes to be about him and his experiences and regretted complicity in the Australian Governments extreme border policies when offshore detention became entrenched in our nasty and cruel refugee response. I wanted it to be more about Pourshafighi and I wanted some honesty and vulnerability from them.

There is powerful stuff in this show and I really wanted to be allowed to sit in it and feel the horror of being denied your 'gayness' because you don't know who Bette Midler is or anything about Greco-Roman wrestling. Who in Australian DOES know anything about Greco-Roman wrestling for goodness' sake? I wanted to process the lengths the government went to in order to produce film content only aired in other countries to deter them from considering Australia as a refugee destination. I wanted to absord the idea that content was created without credits to ensure the privacy of (protect?) the people who made the work. Who ever heard of a film without credits? 

Unfortunately, the ideas get side-tracked with the game playing. A memory game is played with a diorama of the Berghain club in Berlin. You had to answer questions about this tiny diorama in order to enter but it was impossible to see the tiny details so we couldn't win. The metaphor would have been stronger if I (or my plus one) had known anything about the Berghain. The concept holds but I think the reference is too obscure if this is meant to resonate with a broader audience. 

The show also has a pace problem. It is constructed in segments. I think they are meant to represent wrestling bouts because the performers seem to always pause and reset before beginning the next section. They are kind of the black outs you have if you are telling yourself, you are not having a black out show. 

My issue is not the construct per se, but it makes it all so slow and measured and it is too easy to tune out, especially if you aren't following all the threads being laid out. By the end of the show my plus 1 was completely tuned out and I was struggling to care anymore. What I did love, though was the self-interrogation towards the end, which is one of the signature features of Aphids shows. Good questions are asked of the performers about their complicity and performative self-interests. The kind of questions which are always implicit in all art.

This brings me a full circle back to the Aphid's signature. Aphids work is always billed as experimental, but I wonder if, after all these years, and with what is now quite clearly a creative formula, you can actually use that word legitimately? If you consider that the set for Edging is almost identical to the set for The Director, and they generally favour a white box set anyway, and the self-interrogative element dates back through works such as Exit Strategy for example, and their oeuvre is to bring apparently disparate characters together who share an experience in an unexpected way, what experimentation is actual taking place anymore? 

This is not to say that Edging isn't important or powerful. It is more of a question about when does the new and different just become the ordinary and mainstream? I also want to flag the danger of what was once fresh and exciting becoming staid and rote if you are not constantly alert and genuinely self-interrogating - not just being performative about it. Having said that, Aphids audiences love what Aphids do so from a sustainability point of view I can't deny a winning formula. This is definitely a theatrical style very much supported in Melbourne at this point is history and that is to be celebrated.

I don't deny Edging did not blow me or my plus one away, but it was intriguing and insightful in places, and fun along the way. Also, a lot of the audience come out saying they loved everything about it so go ahead and give it a try. It might just be the best thing you see this year.

3.5 Stars

Tuesday, 26 November 2024

HIDDEN TUNES - Musical Theatre Review

WHAT: Hidden Tunes
WHEN: 22 - 24 November 2024 (also 29 November 2024 at Library at The Dock)
WHERE: La Mama (The Motley Bauhaus)
COMPOSED BY: Jun Bin Lee
BOOK & LYRICS BY: Jun Bin Lee and Yu Zhi
DIRECTED & CHOREOGRAPHED BY: Sarah Yu
DESIGN BY: Zena Wang
PERFORMED BY: Angel Xiao, Yujia Du, Jiawen Feng, Lansy Feng, Jun Bin Lee, Bingyao Liu, and Yuyang Peng
STAGE MANAGED BY: Jared Jin and Kexin Wang

Yujia Du and Angel Xiao - photo supplied

Tucked away in the tiny, but excellent theatre space at The Motley Bauhaus, a new musical was brought into the world. Presented by La Mama as part of their Festival of Mother Tongues, Hidden Tunes is a Mando-pop musical which packs a real punch. The great news is that even though the main season is already over, there is an extra performance on 29 November at Library at The Dock so I would snatch up tickets while you can!

Hidden Tunes was created by Small Ripples Theatre and this is their second production. Small Ripples creates new musicals for the Asian diaspora although I have to say Hidden Tunes is an extremely universal topic and treatment! It is performed in Mandarin but there are English surtitles, so you don't lose a single beat as this powerful tale of abuse, friendship, social media, and moral dilemmas fills the space. Accompanying the singers are the glorious sounds of the traditional yangqin (played by Bingyao Liu) and the acoustic guitar (played by composer Jun Bin Lee).

Hidden Tunes begins with all the joy and anticipation you can imagine exuding from an entourage of young students beginning their academic career at a prestige music conservatory. They dream big dreams and, yes, there is some rivalry and the newest wunderkind (A Jia played by Yujia Du) enters the fray. There is some low key excluding and gossip amongst the ensemble (performed by Angel Xiao, Yuyan Peng, and Jiawen Feng), but eventually the protagonists - A Jia and Xiao Qian (Lansy Feng) - become friends and start working together. 

Xiao Qian is also receiving extra tutoring from one of the greatest musicians and lecturer. One day she has to visit him late at night at his home rather than in his office and she is assaulted. A Jia sees her emerge clearly distraught. A Jia has guessed what has happened but decides to 'stay out of it'. Xiao Qian's studies and ambitions fall away in a tragic breakdown as she still has to continue classes with the lecturer. Her friends don't understand what is happening and the on-line trolling starts. (My favourite scene is the chorus playing the Netizens!). In the meantime, A Jia is pushed further and further into the quandary on what to do.

What is brilliant about Hidden Tunes is the depth of understanding in the story telling. This is not just someone's rote telling of a story we have all heard about before. The truths which lie in Xiao Qian's tortured collapse, in A Jia's reluctance to get involved, and even in the chorus's work in their various support roles, are delicate and nuanced. Hidden Tunes isn't about the victim or the perpetrator. Hidden Tunes is about the bystanders. It doesn't proselytise about what people should do, but it is a roadmap on what to look for when someone's behaviour changes dramatically and what NOT to do.

Sarah Yu (director and choreographer) has done an excellent job of keeping the blocking and the dance work simple and clean. The space is small, and it allows the performers to focus on their character work and also their singing. Most of the cast are quite young and still developing their vocal strength so this is smart and avoids the risk of pitchiness. 

Hidden Tunes is a gem of a show in concept, construction, and execution. I think the ending could use some fleshing out. I would have liked to see what A Jia does after the big moment of revelation. The surtitles could also use a bit of help to find a lyricism to match the beautiful sounds of the Mandarin lyrics and tempo but that would happen in the next stage of development I presume. 

All of the performances are fantastic. Lansy Feng's collapse is painful to watch, Yujia Du's performance builds the pressure perfectly, and Angel Xiao is a breath of lightness as she steps out of the chorus to play the third friend in the circle.

Musically, the two live musicians work well playing the traditional acoustic instruments. The rest of the music - including electronic music - is played back through the PA and blends excellently. I will say sometimes the volume was a touch loud for the young singers but I also have to confess I was sitting right next to a loudspeaker.

I know Hidden Tunes sounds like it is a niche show for a Mandarin speaking audience, but it really isn't. This is one of the best new musicals this year in my opinion and it would be a shame if you missed it because you think you won't understand it or will feel disenfranchised because of the language. Hidden Tunes really is sooooooo good. 

4 Stars

PS: Extra information and support material is handed out after the show. After all this story is a true one for too many young people in some form or another...

Thursday, 14 November 2024

CLIFFHANGER - Dance Review

WHAT: Cliffhanger
WHEN: 13-17 November 2024
WHERE: Arts House (Warehouse)
CREATED BY: Holly Childs and Angela Goh
PERFORMED BY: Angela Goh
COMPOSED BY: Gediminas Žygus
COSTUME BY: Verity Mackey
Angela Goh - photo by Gregory Lorenzutti 

Cliffhanger is the latest new work offering presented at Arts House. Performed in the Warehouse, this show is advertised as being an examination of the 'Sisyphean task of climbing beyond the interface layer of reality'. Combining stream of consciousness style text with contemporary physical movement/dance, the show addresses doom scrolling, attention competition, and fruitless endeavour.

Holly Childs is a writer whose practice lies in fiction, poetry and text for art projects. Angela Goh is a contemporary dance artist. The two have been working collaboratively since 2015. Cliffhanger has apparently been in development since 2019 and I think there is still a lot of COVID angst underlying the work despite the amount of time which has passed. 

I say that because despite the driving idea of the show being the tension of the classic cliffhanger mechanism to build suspense and drama, this show seems to be mired to deeply in the suspension phase, so we never get to feel the catalytic energy which makes the release of falling off the cliff so powerful. Goh bases her movements in a slow dramaturgy which doesn't help this. There is only one real moment where this works as a 'cliffhanger' which is when she suddenly rolls along the floor into the wall and then is suspended in the glare of headlights. For the rest of the time, we are (quite literally in one section) perpetually pushing the rock up the hill yet never reaching the top.

In some respects, I feel as if Childs and Goh have created two different works of art and then just brought them together. There is little to no consistency in what they address in their artforms beyond the loosest of themes. Childs has created a random thought generator which moves a bit backwards and forwards in time but doesn't really address anything discussed in blurb such as doom scrolling or algorithms or the weaponisation of information. To be honest though, I think I enjoyed her components the most because they were non-literal. Goh's dissociated performance of the text was excellent too and did speak to a societal disconnect which is linked to spending too much time in front of our computers.

This becomes echoed in Goh's performance and hits home strongly towards the end when she is transformed into a cat quietly waiting for us all to notice it. As abstracted as Child's text is, Goh's choreography is far too literal. Rocks (which move from the floor to the wall) are held as a mouse and a finger scrolls as if doom scrolling. Goh's eyes flick between an array of imagined screens vying for her attention. There is a plank against the wall on which Goh engages in a never-ending climb just like Sisyphus. Luckily for us it does eventually end... Also luckily for us, Gediminas Žygus' composition is fabulous, and the music brings fun and life to the show.

I am going to admit at this point I do not favour slow dramaturgies as a performative style. Whilst I think they are engaging for creatives to explore, I don't think they are engaging for audiences to watch. Within the context of a performance there needs to be consideration of how the act of attention and awareness and redundancy work in the human brain. Slow dramaturgy can be a powerful element of a performance, but it has to be used wisely and in a broader context in the story telling.

I think the ideas underlying this show are great and the music is wonderful! The show would be stronger if technological elements were integrated and I could see how this could develop with lighting and video elements explored and enmeshed (assuming they do actually want to create the show they have advertised). 

I do think what is already present in the performance could be much stronger though. The rocks on the white Tarkett immediately reference a climbing wall although they are not spaced quite right. Instead of transferring the rocks to a wall to be a more literal representation, they could be repositioned on the stage during the performance and then Goh could actually interact with them as a referential climbing wall in situ. They don't become functional on the real wall anyway so that just feels like filling in time. 

This is the problem with slow dramaturgies too. I always find myself asking whether this is actually trying to say something or is it just filling in time to create a 'full length' show. As soon as I start to wonder about that you have lost me. This is what I mean by incorporating how the brain works with regard to attention.

I guess in the end what I am saying is that there are the seeds of something fascinating here, but this feels like a creative development, not a fully realised performance. Childs and Goh need to work with a dramaturg or director to corral the ideas into a meaningful and satisfying experience for the audience. 

The production elements which are there are all very beautiful and precise. The costume is beautiful although I don't think it really speaks to the work. Verity Mackey has made a very nice outfit though. Even though there is no lighting designer credited, for the most part the lighting is quite good too.

2.5 Stars

Friday, 18 October 2024

GLOBAL SMASH CLUB - Cabaret Review

WHAT: Global Smash Club
WHEN: 16 - 19 October 2024
WHERE: Trades Hall (ETU Ballroom)
CREATED & DIRECTED BY: Moira Finucane and Jackie Smith
PERFORMED BY: Mama Alto, Glynnis Briggs, Maude Davey, Zitao Deng, Moira Finucane, Imogen Kelly, Ian Muir, Yumi Umiumare, Xiao Xiao

Moira Finucane - photo by Max Roux

Legend has it that the Finucane & Smith cabaret powerhouse began 20 years ago with the internationally phenomenal The Burlesque Hour. Their retrospective celebration, Global Smash Club, being performed as part of the Melbourne Fringe Festival, celebrates that tradition and those performances and performers who have helped to create the iconic performance history which makes up much of the modern Finucane & Smith suite of delectations.

In truth, the ideas which sit behind these cabaret iterations of Finucane & Smith date as far back as the early 20th Century and Weimar Germany. I read in an article that Moira Finucane become fascinated with this particular slice of human history and appears to have dedicated most of her performance career reminding us all of the great decadence, freedom, and rebellion that period fostered, and which are still leaking into the parched and starched world of today.

I say leaking because this speaks directly to the iconic selections for this retrospective. There is too much content, too many acts, too many collaborators for Global Smash Club to ever really do the Finucane & Smith legacy justice. Luckily, it is their wont to switch in performers across their seasons so whilst I will speak of what I saw on opening, each performance is likely to differ in detail and content depending on who has been programmed. It is like the lucky dip of the cabaret world.

Words which are thrown around in reviews of Finucane & Smith seasons are often the same. The works sit in questions of gender, power, violence and utter decadence. We have all come to think of decadence as supreme indulgence...and it is that. But more accurately, the world means to decline and fade which is the dark side of that coin which Finucane & Smith's Kabarett work kneads out. They constantly play with that thin wedge between elegant beauty and the fragmented grotesque. Interestingly though, the performances rarely judge, they merely expose. You could say they are both celebrated. After all, Finucane & Smith are all about love and acceptance. They only judge the judges.

For example, Yumi Umiamare reprises her Geisha all tightly wrapped and concealed in a glorious kimono, hidden from sight whilst standing high in the centre of the room. Slowly she is revealed, and chopsticks look to gouge out her eyes before landing safely in her perfectly coiffed top knot. These trappings of traditional feminine beauty peel away to reveal the warrior woman smothered underneath, a gloriously tattooed body replacing the delicate embroidery of the kimono.

Maude Davey's work follows similar patterns with a different aesthetic. In a skintight red leather cat suit, this tall, sexy, lithe woman belts out that 60s classic 'Let Me In' with a gritty mezzo edge. Suddenly the lyrics don't seem quite so sweet and cute anymore... Revisiting another of her classic acts, Davey comes out decked in cabaret feathers and booby tassles before ripping out that classic Australian hymn 'Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again' with all of that rock edge of the original Angels. It was delightful seeing the shock and delight on the Gen Z faces as us older folk spontaneously did that classic retort. Once they worked it out the whole room was in on the act. It was sublime.

Remember I was talking about leaking earlier? It was deliberate because Finucane brings back two of her truly classic characters which date all the way back to The Saucy Cantina - Sauce Girl and Dairy Maid. Both characters are still as iconic as ever and remind us that life and love and lust are messy and cannot be confined or controlled when set free. Another character who I love is the drag king character which harks back to Gotharama I believe. 

Piera Dennerstein opened the show with an operatic blitz from the recent iteration of The Exotic Lives of Lola Montez. In a work of truly sublime proportions, Dennerstein's soprano soars into the heavens. What was the crescendo of the previous show is just a launch point for the glories of Global Smash Club.

Imogen Kelly joined the ensemble on opening night providing comic relief with her Burlesque Hall of Fame costume billowing into a glorious collection of shapes and shimmering colours as the light played over the surfaces. For those of you who don't know, Kelly is the only Australian to have been crowned World Queen of Burlesque. It is also true that when this was happening, she was undergoing surgery for breast cancer. In her follow up Princess performance, in the same traditions as Finucane, Davey, and Umiumare, the princess is torn away piece by piece, to reveal a rock goddess, the final booby tassles removed to reveal breasts ripped open and rebuilt to save a beautiful life still performing glorious art.

Across the evening Zitao Deng brought us another original song. You will remember her from House of the Heart. Also from that show, we got a very special one-off performance by Yorta Yorta Taungurung Wiradjuri elder multi-faceted artist Glynnis Briggs and country star Ian Muir. Xiao Xiao was also with us, accompanying the performers on her soulful cello. Mama Alto was there as well (of course!) with a sob inducing version of 'First Time Ever I Saw Your Face'.

I am not going to lie though. I think my favourite moment of Global Smash Club was Finucane, Davey, and Umiumare gadding about as little snow angel Harajuku Girls before Umiumare slides into her nightmare Hello Kitty routine. I was afraid to go home to my own cat after that! 

Global Smash Club is a show not to be missed. It is a greatest hits selection which still knocks our socks off. My one criticism is I don't think the song they chose to end the night with was the right tone or pace. The singing was glorious, but it was a slow song perfect for clutching your amore close and just swaying together in intimacy, but it did not reflect the energy of the performances which preceded it and did not give off an energy which made us want to leap back into the world and teach them what we had just been reminded of. Luckily, that was just a small moment and so much energy had been sent and shared and absorbed I can't imagine anybody leaving Global Smash Club without feeling renewed and truly alive again.

4.5 Stars

Saturday, 12 October 2024

CONDUIT BODIES - Dance Review

WHAT: Conduit Bodies
WHEN: 9-13 October 
WHERE: Arts House (Main Hall)
CREATED AND PERFORMED BY: Melinda Smith & Alon Ilsar
SET BY: Jessamine Moffett
COSTUMES BY: Anna Cordingly
INTERACTIVE MEDIA ART BY: Sam Trolland
LIGHTING BY: Bronwyn Pringle

Melinda Smith - photo by Nicole Tsourlenes

One of the things I truly love about contemporary Australian dance is how it focuses on the exploration of how the body moves and works and struggles and fails and succeeds. Apart from making it endlessly intriguing to watch because of the unpredictability, it also opens the artform up to being a place for every body which means it is allowed to be a very real exemplar of the social model of disability. Perhaps nothing demonstrates this with more clarity than Conduit Bodies currently being presented at Arts House as part of Alter State and Melbourne Fringe Festival.

Lead artist Melinda Smith has teamed up with inventor Alon Ilsar to create a truly unique performance which opens art conception and realisation far beyond the teeny tiny bounds in which is has been confined in the able-bodied communities to date. I am calling this a dance review, but apart from the dance/movement component of the work, in Conduit Bodies Smith uses Ilsar's amazing Airsticks to perform as a duet with Ilsar (who is also a percussionist), and to create amazing live digital art.

Smith has Cerebral Palsy, so it is fair to say that portions of Conduit Bodies works within the paradigm of slow dramaturgies. Having said that, Smith's natural movement style mirrors Ilsar's percussive suite, and just as percussion can draw a long steady beat but also bring a fire storm of energy, so can Smith as she navigates an arena both in and out of her chairs.

Whilst Conduit Bodies is non-narrative, it is fair to say Smith has worked with dramaturg Zoe Boesen to create a linear arc which sweeps across the arc of struggling with the body to being at peace with the body, of struggling with existing technologies and being set free by new and future technologies, of isolation and of collaboration. And amongst all of these high concepts, the shot is scattered with humour and beauty.

Smith has been an early adopter of Ilsar's Airsticks and, watching Conduit Bodies, I admit I am dying to try this new technology. The show begins with Smith rolling up to a drum kit but if she can't even scratch her back with the mallet, obviously a traditional percussive drumbeat is not likely. She then makes her way to a typewriter. Looking at it, she feels around and finds what looks like a big paint brush and waves it around a bit. Words start appearing on the screen, cascading in meaning and repetition until we read the frustration when the wrong keys are hit. Ah yes, we've all done that but imagine how often that happens to people with less physical control? This wand is helping Smith tell her story with the words she struggles to type.

Smith leave the typewriter, and new magic happens as the words turn into images. They looked like very complex snakes being drawn on the screen. It took me a while to realise that these were embedded images which draw across the screen as Smith moved the brush (and later just her body) creating textured and dynamic moving art experiences. 

Up to that point Conduit Bodies is what you might expect, but once Smith leaves her chair and plays in a big projected 'sandpit', her body and the art becoming one in a surreal fugue things get truly exciting. I found myself thinking this art being created in front of my eyes should be preserved and sold as NFTs! 

A pause, another wheelchair rolls out and Smith dances a duet before remounting and then something special happens. Ilsar, who has been performing a muted score to Smith's adventures steps forward with his own Airstick and suddenly Smith's body is not a digital paint brush - it is a digital instrument! Together they perform duelling Airsticks - a sound and movement composition. (Airsticks can be most easily thought of as a digital iteration of a theremin perhaps...).

More happens, but the outcomes are the most exciting thing about Conduit Bodies. Across these lively artistic adventures - very picaresque in nature - Smith becomes at peace with her body and the world, which is opened up for her with creations such as wheelchairs and Airsticks. Assistive technology is a developing arena, but Conduit Bodies demonstrates just how much fulfilment and engagement they bring to people who have been historically shut out of life. Oh, and it is just fantastic performance too! 

4 Stars

Saturday, 31 August 2024

THE SPLENDID ANOMALY - Theatre Review

WHAT: The Splendid Anomaly
WHEN: 27 - 31 August 2024
WHERE: Arts House (Main Hall)
WRITTEN AND PERFORMED BY: Ahmarnya Price
DIRECTION/DRAMATURGY BY: Susie Dee
COMPOSITION/SOUND DESIGN BY: Kelly Ryall
AV DESIGN BY: Rhian Hinkley
LIGHTING DESIGN BY: Richard Vabre
STAGE MANAGEMENT BY: Jo Leishman

Ahmarnya Price - Photo by Sarah Walker

Have you ever pondered the relationship between The Big Bang and childbirth? Neither had I until I saw The Splendid Anomaly at Arts House this week. I am not saying that Ahmarnya Price's play is about childbirth, but then again, maybe it is...

In a projected and live blend of Price's drawings, writings and performance skills, The Splendid Anomaly begins with The Big Bang, travels with Price to the emergency ward with an unexplained illness, barrels along through COVID-19, and emerges into a world gifted with a woman of incredible talent and potential. Along the way we meet her stoic and incredibly informed mother, and her brother's brilliant mixtapes.

We tend to see anomalies and differences in a negative light. This is why, as a society, we are so afraid of disability. The Splendid Anomaly doesn't speak to disability overtly, but instead explores perceived catastrophe and a variety of management plans. 

It begins with the biggest anomaly we can comprehend. The Big Bang changed everything, but the outcome of that high pressure explosion was the Universe, life as we know it, and US! Not a bad outcome indeed - so far at least. 

Along comes another anomaly - Price is born without a hand. The doctors introduce her carefully to her mum, listing all the things she will not be able to do without two hands. Luckily, she has her left hand so she will be able to wear a wedding ring... Price spends a jam-packed 40 minutes allowing us to explore uncertainty and unexpectedness with energy, humour and an outrageous variety of talents the two-handed amongst us would love to have. 

Life is full of challenges and Price has had a few. Mystery illness right before a global pandemic was most certainly one of them. She keeps leaking and is secreted into quarantine, undergoing a barrage of tests and examinations as this latest anomaly is interrogated. 

Luckily Price has a brother who has thoughtfully prepared the best mix-tape ever in the eventuality of complete catastrophe. Now seems the right time to hit play. Price also has a mother with the equanimity of a saint and the skill of spouting Galactic minutiae to the point of distraction. Most people count sheep. Price counts hot doctors, and anything else within her orbit as she is probed and scanned to explain this latest anomaly.

Amidst quips, quick-drawn sketches, and stream of consciousness continuity Price links The Milky Way to microbes. Nightclub vibes blend with unexpected excretions. The craziness that is Life and Humanity puts disability into a more relevant perspective. What is catastrophe? What kind of things should we worry about? What are we worrying about? And how are we going to write about it?

The creative team around Price have done well in supporting the work without making it about them. Rhian Hinkley's projection work, in particular, really cleverly integrates Price's live drawings whilst keeping the large black box of the theatre alive. Richard Vabre's lighting gives the space dimension and texture, and Kelly Ryall's sound punches in all the right places. Susie Dee has applied a light touch to the direction and dramaturgy, helping Price to keep her body and performance energised and visually integrated.

The Splendid Anomaly does not answer all the questions. It questions all the answers. It delves and dives and swoops and soars around questions bigger than mankind, yet as small as the quantum realm. It questions judgement of good and bad and shows us on so many levels that nothing is essentially either. It is what happens after each anomaly which will define those qualities. Price shows us that we are all our own stories to write, and we are all the stars in our own movie. What will people write about yours?

4.5 Stars

Sunday, 21 July 2024

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM - Theatre Review

WHAT: A Midsummer Night's Dream
WHEN: 16 - 20 July 2024
WHERE: Bluestone Church Artspace
WRITTEN BY: William Shakespeare
DIRECTED BY: Mitchell Wills
MUSICAL DIRECTION BY: Carly Wilding
DESIGN BY: Zachary Dixon
LIGHTING BY: Jacob Shears
PERFORMED BY: Paolo Bartonemei, Lore Burns, Todd Costello, Jackson Cross, Liliana Dalton, Asher Griffith-Jones, Lucy May Knight, Frances Lee, Tony Rive, Maddie Roberts, Bridget Sweeney, Riley Street, and Amy Watts
STAGE MANAGED BY: Giacinta Squires

Tony Rive and Frances Lee - photo supplied

Midsummer is 24 June in the UK so you could argue this production of Williams Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, presented by Sevenfold Theatre Company at Bluestone Church Artspace, is a little late in the year, but the play is 428 years old and everything geriatric does move a little slower. On the other hand, we are on the other side of the world and are in another endless Melbourne winter so the weather turbulence which is supposed to encompass this play is something we are all in the middle of. At least the characters in this play get a bit of sunshine in the morning. We still have months to wait for that.

Let's start with the elephant in the room. Anybody who tells you they are doing something new and different with any Shakespeare play is woefully ignorant. The Shakespeare plays have been performed as is and torn apart a gazillion times over the last 400+ years and are pretty much in constant production somewhere on the planet every day of our lives. I know they say there are only 7 stories but it is time humanity recognised there was more than one playwright in the world...just sayin'. 

I do know why people like doing Shakespeare over and over and over and over and over again. Firstly, it's free - you don't have to pay him for his work. Secondly you can do anything you want to his writing - it's not like he is alive to stop you. Thirdly it is large group ensemble work, and, in this day and age, no playwright can even get looked at if their plays have more that 5 characters which means you don't get that same football team camaraderie you can get with a Shakespeare.

Mitchell Will's (Director) version of A Midsummer Night's Dream does not break down any tropes or open any doors of newness or originality. It is, however, a nice and solid production with good blocking and he has evidently worked with the actors to make sure they know what they are saying and why they are saying it. He does a cute gender swap between Titania (Frances Lee) and Oberon (Tony Rive) which works to create a sweetness with the relationship with Bottom (Todd Costello). On the other hand, this swap does nothing to promote the actual messages in the play overall and actually contradicts his interpretation of fairies as dark creatures. I will talk about this a bit later.

The great danger of remounting something as old and well-known as any of the Shakespeares is the failure to undertake proper and meaningful dramaturgy. There is little to no reflection of the strangeness of the stormy weather on a midsummer night in this production - Shakespeare always uses weather to develop unrest and tension. There is no sense of understanding the tensions in England which underwrite the play including the outcomes of the Reformation and the crushing out of the bacchanalia-like midsummer celebrations which had evolved over time. There are no inferences which demonstrate the likelihood that Hippolyta and Titania might be references to Elizabeth 1and everything this implies. There is no recognition of the threat to theatre after the plague and then the persecution of Christopher Marlowe for the Dutch church libel and his homosexual indulgences which could very well underly Puck's (Liliana Dalton) obeisant apology at the end of the show.

Having said that, given modern times, Wills has done some other fun gender swaps - or maybe it is truer to say it is gender blind casting? Riley Street as Lysander is probably the great standout of the show. Not because she is playing a 'male' character. It is because she is evidently a phenomenal young actor. Lucy May Knight holds her own against such a strong performance with intriguing physical nuance in her repertoire. Bridget Sweeney as Helena is also another great performance. Asher Griffith-Jones and Todd Costello do some excellent clowning although I think Costello only really comes into his stride from the point at which Bottom becomes the donkey and his version of Pyramus is roll on the floor laugh worthy. All of the actors could take a leaf from his book in establishing greater character definition when playing multiple roles.

What Sevenfold's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream excels at is the glorious set and costumes created by designer Zachary Dixon and a live sound design created under the musical direction of Carly Wilding. The publicity for this show said it was immersive. It is not immersive - it is thrust stage. It is, however, live surround sound. The music and the forest noises (created by the actors live every night) happen around the edges and behind the curtains which allow us to feel that this world is greater than the confines of the stage rostra and where Jacob Shears' beautiful shifting and shaping lights are pointing too.

This production of A Midsummer Night's Dream is fun and light. It hits all the marks. In the program Wills talks about fairies traditionally being 'gentle, dainty, beings' and how he has brought out a darker side. Again, there is a dramaturgy problem here. No creature of the nether realms of English culture are all sweet and light. Fairies have always been fickle tricksters - until Hollywood got hold of them anyway. Besides which, Shakespeare has written his fairies as quite troublesome so Wills could not have made them anything other than that even if he had tried. I do think their dialogue is some of what was cut though so they are fairly tame in this production. 

Wills also talks about this being Shakespeare's first play with supernatural creatures which is true. The play very heavily leans on his poem Venus and Adonis (his first published work, produced a year earlier). It is also worth noting that the comedy sequence between Lysander, Demetrius (Jackson Cross), and Helena is potentially a tribute to Christopher Marlowe and leans heavily on the themes of Marlowe's poem Hero and Leander. Remember, all playwrights were poets back in those days. It doesn't take a genius to see that the play in the play - the great, shining glory of this particular production and possibly the most original thing I have seen in a Shakespeare in years - is a parody of Romeo and Juliet - or more specifically a subplot of the Venus and Adonis story.

In the end, what I am saying is that if you have to go and see another Shakespeare play this is pretty good dramatically, and truly excellent on the production front. Dixon, Shears and Wilding work together to create a world of beauty, magic, and darkness. The actors are a reliable ensemble with some truly standout performances and even though we all know what is going to happen next this production makes it worth hanging around to see what that looks like when we get there. As I mentioned earlier, the big payoff is the play within the play at the end. If the whole show had been done like this THAT would have been a truly original and exciting version of the Dream indeed!

3.5 Stars

Tuesday, 16 July 2024

LA BELLE EPOQUE - Theatre Review

WHAT: La Belle Epoque
WHEN: 10 - 20 July 2024
WHERE: Theatreworks (Acland St)
WRITTEN BY: Future D. Fidel
DIRECTED BY: Budi Miller
DESIGN BY: Shana Mackay Burns
LIGHTING BY: Tim Bonser
SOUND BY: Jack Burmeister
PERFORMED BY: Nelly Kouakou, Tariro Mavondo, Effi Nkrumah, and Mike Ugo
STAGE MANAGED BY: Jade Hibbert

Effie Nkrumah, Mike Ugo, and Nelly Kouakou - photo supplied

Every so often you see a piece of theatre which makes you shout out to the world - Yes! This! This is what theatre is all about! For me, La Belle Epoque, currently playing at Theatreworks is one of those pieces of theatre. It has everything. It is current with all the weight of history behind it. It is urgent, and painful, but lets you laugh all the way through...until it really matters. It is a call to action lest we forget.

La Belle Epoque is the tale of a colonised Belgian Congo lived through the generations of a king and told through the eyes of the true descendent, Chris (Mike Ugo). Chris is a refugee - yes, the Congo is still a terrifyingly dangerous place to live - living in Melbourne with his boo Isioma (Effie Nkrumah). Isioma. Isioma is helping her friend, Tarisai (Tariro Mavondo) and her sidekick Bob (Nelly Kouakou), make a documentary about the history of the Congo as part of a university assignment. They have enlisted Chris to give an authentic Congolese voice to the show although they don't really understand why that is important. In the meantime, Chris and Isioma are also trying to plan a life together. Spoiler alert - one of the funniest scenes in the play is when Chris is brought home to meet Isioma's parents.

This all sounds very straight forward, and perhaps a bit dry right? Let me tell you, La Belle Epoque is not dry at all! Future D. Fidel (writer) has an incredible gift of storytelling. He weaves time and characters so that they blur with perfect clarity. One minute we are in a Melbourne living room in 2024, and within the space of a few lines, hilarious character work, and a lighting shift we have travelled back in time a century or more. Just as easily Fidel can pull us right back into the present with a script problem Tarisai has to solve for Isioma. Just as easily he can make us laugh in one moment with a Laurel & Hardy style routine between Tarira and Bob, and then slip us into a tense struggle for survival by a king turned slave. In Fidel's writing the dark is as dark as the bright is bright.

These transitions are not easy and one of the best things director Budi Miller has done is to keep the stage and staging clean and clear. Along with the artful use of projection, it is the clarity and dynamic breadth of Nkrumah's performance in particular which pushes the narrative forward and makes sure we know where and when we are in this epic tale.

I mention Nkrumah because she is truly amazing, but the rest of the cast are strong too. Ugo's monologues are powerful and unflinching as he speaks Fidel's words and experiences and history. In fact, the final moments of this play packs a massive punch as it becomes clear suffering is nowhere near ending in the Congo any time soon. One of the clever aspects of this show is Fidel's observations about the through line of progress on the fate of the Congolese. In the 19th century the people suffered because of a need for rubber for motorcars. In the 21st century the suffering is going to continue because of the need for cobalt for electric vehicles. We need to think about how we save the people as we also strive to save the planet.

There are so many layers to La Belle Epoque and yet all of the strands in the loom are clear, concise and insightful. In this play the whole is so much greater than the sum of its parts. It is not perfect - there was not enough time or money for perfection - but perhaps the rawness of this production allows the ideas and concerns to flow so much more clearly out to the audience. This play is so very much more important to see than I could ever effectively communicate.

4.5 Stars


Sunday, 7 July 2024

THE LONG GAME - Theatre Review

WHAT: The Long Game
WHEN: 28 - 13 July 2024
WHERE: TW Explosives Factory
WRITTEN BY: Sally Faraday
DIRECTED BY: Krystalla Pearce
SET BY: David Bramble
COSTUMES BY: Olivia Adamow
LIGHTING BY: Natalia Velasco Moreno
SOUND BY: Beau Esposito
AV BY: Eddie Diamandi
PERFORMED BY: Gloria Ajenstat, Petra Glieson, and Charmaine Gorman
STAGE MANAGED BY: Kate Weston

Charmaine Gorman and Petra Glieson - photo by Jodie Hutchinson

Walking into TW Explosives Factory for The Long Game you just know you are in for a night of polished and sophisticated theatre. Glieson-Faraday productions does not disappoint for a single second in this regard.

Flipping the standard modern end stage upside down, rather than raking the audience, set designer David Bramble has raised the main playing space for this production which is a much better seating solution for this venue, and also allows the team to play with the vertical space with ease and safety. The entire set is a wash of muted beige and white which is the perfect representation of 'safe' wealthy home aesthetics. Richly carpeted floors, floor to ceiling drapes and an external wooden deck are all there to tell us we are in upper class suburbia. Whatever ugliness is about to ensue is going to happen to the bright, shiny people of the world.

As if on cue, out comes Gay (Gloria Ajenstat) dressed in couture white and gold, wine in hand and dancing her cares away. Two women, her daughters, echo her dancing down in the dark abyss of the forestage. The three women speak intermittently, the mother engaging in gay party repartee whilst the daughters tell of two very different non-consensual sexual encounters which form the nexus of the story of The Long Game.

After this prologue the play begins in earnest with Esme (Petra Glieson) turning up unexpectedly at the family home. Esme is obviously the 'black sheep' of the family in her torn, worn jeans and Medusa t-shirt. We quickly find out she has been absent for 2 years and has a history of alcohol abuse. Once Gay and Esme have established their relationship Miranda (Charmaine Gorman) turns up and we learn that this younger daughter has followed her father's footsteps into politics with some assistance from long-time family friend Byron who we never meet. We don't need to.

According to interviews by playwright Sally Faraday, what is supposed to ensue is a searing interrogation of sexual abuse in the political arena. Riffing off the experiences of Julia Gillard and Bethany Higgins, apparently the driving ideas were of victim complicity, the challenges of 'coming forward' and public perceptions. These ideas and questions are, indeed, vitally important but in my opinion very little of that comes through. Enough to start a conversation perhaps, but it all gets muddied up in the socio-political dialogue and the overt reluctance of Faraday to take a position. In many ways the story gets lost in the taupe tones of the set and the pastels of the costumes (Olivia Adamow). The play looks good but lacks real substance and bite.

Don't get me wrong. The Long Game is a real horror story. My problem is that nobody ever escapes despite the many open doors the characters could run through. Evil in this story lies in that ambiguous force called Byron. Byron was the dead husband's political partner in crime and family friend. After the death, somehow Gay stays within Byron's orbit and the political party circles and watches her daughters bloom into womanhood. So does Byron.

Byron has become a love interest for Gay, but we learn he is at the heart of Esme's battles with addiction, and he is also a key player in Miranda's progress towards political leadership. Across the course of The Long Game the relationships between these three women - so close and yet so far away from each other - is interrogated and truths are revealed. 

This all sounds like the recipe for a gripping, on topic tale which could rip a large whole in the fabric of sexual assault culture, right? So why doesn't it pack the punch it should despite excellent performances, great design, and experienced direction? There are a few issues in my opinion. 

The first is that the story gets lost in trying to be too much about manoeuvring in politics. Is this play a story about how to get ahead in politics or is it a story about rape? 

Secondly, the characters leave the original concept completely unresolved, and they end up looking as if they don't care. If they don't care, why should we? Gay disappears at the end, but the daughters don't investigate. Esme walks out to avoid the issue which she has a history of doing, and Miranda is left to do whatever she wants or doesn't want to do with her story and her career. As far as the play goes, there are few consequences if she does nothing and no real incentive to do anything. As such, The Long Game fails as a vehicle to demonstrate a way forward for women drowning in these kinds of circumstances. We see a status quo and that is all we see.

Finally, there is little light and shade in the writing or direction (Krystalla Pearce) of these characters. We can't fall into the depths of despair if we never see the light of love and joy shine through. Everyone starts the play in a dark and tense place, and we are never released from that which leads to emotional fatigue and a lack of stakes. These three women are never happy and seem to not have been for a very long time. Nothing about being in each other's company sparks joy. Eddie Diamandi's film work does show Esme and Miranda playing joyfully as little girls, but the actors don't demonstrate any of that in the show. There are few, if any unguarded moments of being lost in their past playfulness to help us see just how far away from each other they have travelled. Everyone could have worked harder to find the pre-trauma family dynamics.

The Long Game tackles very, very difficult ideas and experiences and I do commend the team for addressing things we don't want to see or talk about. The show looks amazing, and everyone on the design team can pat themselves on the back for creating main stage perfection in an independent theatre context. Performances are strong and lively, and Pearce makes sure the playing space is used extremely well, wielding the design elements with confidence too. The Long Game certainly exposes something, I guess it is up to us (just as it becomes up to Miranda) to figure out what we can or will do about it.

3.5 Stars



Tuesday, 25 June 2024

THE EXOTIC LIVES OF LOLA MONTEZ: Theatre Review

WHAT: The Exotic Lives of Lola Montez
WHEN: 20 - 30 June 2024
WHERE: Chapel Off Chapel (Loft)
WRITTEN BY: Jackie Smith
DIRECTED BY: Moira Finucane
SET BY: Isaac Lummis and Joshua Weeks
LIGHTING BY: Gillian Schwab
PERFORMED BY: Caroline Lee, Piera Dennerstein, Maple Rose, and Iva Rosebud

Maple Rose, Iva Rosebud, Piera Dennerstein, and Caroline Lee - photo supplied

Full disclosure - I saw The Exotic Lives of Lola Montez in its premier season in Ballarat in 2017. As auspicious as that occasion was, resonant with the goldfield's heritage of the woman in question, I am going to blaspheme and say I had a lot more fun this time around. The original season was performed on the beautiful big proscenium arch stage of Her Majesty's Theatre but returning to Lola's (and Finucane & Smith's) burlesque roots, this thrust stage - pun intended - version of The Exotic Lives of Lola Montez at Chapel Off Chapel has a contagious joy and deshabille not possible in the more formal theatrical surroundings. 

Lola Montez (Caroline Lee) is an Irish woman who explored the world using her charms and her wits to beguile European nobility, the daring folk of California, and the brash Australians of the 19th Century. A woman brave enough and determined enough, to live life on her own terms Lola Montez became famous for her Spider Dance, and she and her troupe were not only talked about in their own time, but as Finucane and Smith tell us, she is still talked about today!

The original production did play with the burlesque genre with Holly Durant playing Lola's burlesque avatar and ensemble and other abstracted concepts. In this iteration of the show, Moira Finucane (director) has expanded this idea and Lola now has her troupe surrounding her, serenading her, and supporting her in her daring endeavours. Joining in the fun and titillation are burlesque artists Maple Rose and Iva Rosebud. Adding a bit of class to these saloon shenanigans is opera star Piera Dennerstein (who also kicks up her leg in a mighty fine Can Can).

I felt the original show was a bit long and wordy, although this was no reflection on Jackie Smith's incredibly clever and hilarious script. That production did have an artistic gravitas and beauty which was unforgettable too.This time around I didn't notice the time go by and was far too busy hooting and hollering at the women on stage as they entertained us all and each other. I also felt the energy of the other women lifted Lee to new heights whilst also adding a softness as she gazed adoringly at her women being everything they could be just as she was doing herself.

You might think the story of Lola Montez ends sadly with her body ravaged by syphilis, and very likely dying in poverty. Finucane and Smith refute this narrative though, celebrating Lola's energy, spirit, and the magnificence of choosing a life of freedom rather than gendered repression. The final line of The Exotic Lives of Lola Montez rings with the echoes of history and will continue to resonant across a future yet to come. Lola Montez is not a role model for the patriarchy, but she is THE role model for women everywhere, of every time.

4.5 Stars

Sunday, 23 June 2024

BLOOD IN THE WATER: Theatre Review

WHAT: Blood In The Water
WHEN: 20 - 30 June 2024
WHERE: La Mama Courthouse
WRITTEN BY: Jorja Bentley
DIRECTED BY: Tansy Gorman
DESIGNED BY: Bethany J Fellows
LIGHTING BY: Georgie Wolfe
SOUND DESIGN BY: Callum Cheah
PERFORMED BY: Chris Koch, Lana Schwarcz, Mia Tuco, and Karlis Zaid
STAGE MANAGED BY: Steph Lee

Mia Tuco, Chris Koch, Lana Schwarcz - photo by Darren Gill

It is sadly rarer than you might think but Blood In The Water, now playing at La Mama Courthouse, is a thoroughly engrossing play from start to finish. I guarantee you will not look at your watch once to see how much longer this is going to go on.

Written by Jorja Bentley, Blood In The Water is a play which investigates the life altering effect on a family when the son is accused of rape. Riffing off similar concepts to Duck Duck Goose, Blood In The Water takes a more intimate approach, focussing on the family. It delves deep into the murky waters of public perception, child rearing, and motherly love.

Bentley's script is almost impeccable. It keeps the ideas swirling and expanding, the characters shifting and evolving, and the relationships pushing and pulling across the hour and a half in which the tale is told. We never meet the son - the accused. We don't need to. The story is not about what he did. It investigates what is revealed about the people who are closest to him - or who thought they were closest to him - his family.

The story revolves around his mother Ruth (Chris Koch), his younger sister Jen (Mia Tuco), his stepfather Ruben (Karlis Zaid), and his aunt Sal (Lana Schwarcz). Ruben is a local politician who is running for Mayor, and he uses all of his political pull and questionable morality to keep everything quiet and try and keep his stepson out of jail. Ruth is ripped apart as she chooses which child to support and creates a narrative for herself which allow her to continue to fight for her son. Jen wallows in the morass of paparazzi pressure, online bullying and parental abandonment whilst trying to finish her schooling. Aunt Sal (Ruby's sister) is the port in a storm, objective outsider, and sisterly ear, trying to keep reason, logic, and safety front and centre in an ever-widening abyss of despair and distress.

Tansy Gorman has directed the show well, and helped the actors find great depth and nuance in their characters. It is this authenticity of performances which keeps the audience engrossed. The one thing which gets in the way of the show is that it seems as if neither Gorman nor designer Bethany J Fellows understand the power positions on a stage and this weakens the audience connection preventing the show from being truly cathartic.

The set is stunning, with golden hued cloths creating a faux proscenium set up of 2 sets of legs and borders and then a full cloth across the upstage wall. The problem lies in the impressive dinner table which takes up centre stage (and because of its size, most of the playing space). 

Centre stage is the most powerful place on stage. NEVER give it to a piece of furniture! As well as this, Gorman never uses down stage centre which is the second most powerful place on stage. Instead that just remains a black well of darkness with a couple of throw away scenes played in front of the proscenium in the far left and right corners. Just about everything else is played behind or beside the table. Once you put something between the actor and the audience the relationship is immediately weakened. Luckily, in this show the story and the performances are sooooo good they survive these big theatrical missteps, and the show is still riveting.

The entire cast of Blood In The Water is strong, but Schwarcz and Tuco really keep the energy and tensions sizzling. Zaid and Koch do keep up with them, but Koch needs to work on articulation (which is a weird thing to have to say as she is a voice coach). Luckily there are captions for this play so if you miss anything you can read the words on the screen. The set is beautiful, despite my issues with the table, and Georgia Wolfe lights the show elegantly to match it.  Callum Cheah's sound design is subtle and effective.

Blood In The Water raises a lot of questions about parenting, families, and living through crises. At one point I did think it was a bit heavy on the mum blaming. I can't even begin to imagine how you would navigate this situation without making big mistakes and there is nothing in the play which addresses the biological father and his role in... well... everything! The only thing I didn't get was the closing line by Jen. I think it needs to be set up better to land with the punch it is intended to.

There is a huge amount of really good theatre on the stages of Melbourne this week, but Blood In The Water is up there with the best of all of it. Don't miss it!

4.5 Stars

Saturday, 22 June 2024

THE LAST TRAIN TO MADELINE: Theatre Review

WHAT: The Last Train To Madeline
WHEN: 18 - 29 June 2024
WHERE: Meat Market Stables
WRITTEN BY: Callum Mackay
DIRECTION & AV BY: Hayden Tonazzi
DESIGNED BY: Savanna Wegman
LIGHTING BY: Spencer Herd
SOUND BY: Oliver Beard
PERFORMED BY: Ruby Maishman and Eddie Orton
STAGE MANAGED BY: Finn McLeish

Ruby Maishman and Eddie Orton - Photo by Liv Morison

It is rare in independent theatre to see sumptuous productions presented with all the quality of a major state theatre company because nobody has that kind of money. Somehow Fever103 has pulled it off with Callum Mackay's The Last Train To Madeline which is playing now at the Meat Market Stables.

The Last Train To Madeline is a coming-of-age story. Perhaps influenced by the title, at first it feels like it is Maddy's (Ruby Maishman) story. Maddy is an 8-year-old girl who pretends her dad is Bruce Springsteen which is why he is never home. He is always away on tour. She steals a video camera from a classmate, Luke (Eddie Orton). He figures it out and after negotiating their way out of the incident they become playmates. The plays cycles between the ages of 8 years old, 17 years old (when they are young and in love and planning their escape), and 23 years old when Maddy returns to find Luke happily ensconced in a quiet, 'normal' life.

About halfway through the play I realised this isn't Maddy's story at all because she never gets the space to develop any real insight into herself or her life. She is the manic pixie dream girl trope created to activate Luke's life and choices. Does it matter? Not really. And it is true to say there is nothing new or original about the story or the characters either, but that doesn't matter either, because the play does what it does really well and the actors are top class. Do I have a little niggling resentment of the traditional 'Eve' portrayal of the female screwing up the male's life? Yes, but I am fighting thousands of years of history when I try and break that down.

Savanna Wegman's set dominates breathtakingly and provides an isolated playground for these two characters to explore themselves and each other out of the prying eyes of society and acceptability. Ostensibly a concrete overpass from a long disused railway line reminding us of the history of Wangaratta where the story is set. The shape also references the streamlined facade of our modern bullet trains. All of this feeds into the long-standing tropes of trains and travel and the vagabond. 

This metaphor is one of the base concepts in American film making and just about everything about this production including the topic, structure and - most especially - the sound design kept reminding me of Sofia Coppola's work. If this play was a film, it would be the kind that would win awards at film festivals. This feeling is enhanced by the very cinematic sound design by Oliver Beard.

The Last Train to Madeline is directed well by Hayden Tonazzi. My one wish is that he hadn't given away all of the secrets of the set within the first couple of scenes. What it meant is that the play struggles to build truly intimate moments and the audience has nothing left to learn about this world as the play progresses. 

Part of this is Wegman's problem too because the set lacks any dynamic elements to allow the story to expand. Rather than all the greenery upstage, that space could have been much more cleverly calculated by both the director and the designer - perhaps have a more St Kilda influence... Spencer Herd's stunning lighting design works hard to carry the burden of maintaining a sense of reveal and newness in the latter parts of the play, but we already know what there is and how the space can be used so there is a 'more of the same' sense to the final scenes which makes the play feel a bit longer than it is.

Having said all this, as a theatrical production The Last Train To Madeline is about as perfect as you are going to get. It is visually stunning, has sophisticated performances and design elements which are fully realised. This production has evidently had money and time and the audience is the winner. 

4.5 Stars

LOVE ACTUALLY? A MUSICAL PARODY - Musical Theatre Review

WHAT: Love Actually? A Musical Parody WHEN: 6 - 23 December 2024 WHERE: Atheneaum Theatre WRITTEN BY: Bob and Tobly McSmith COMPOSED BY: Bas...