Nightsongs - Music Review

What: Nightsongs
When: 16 - 19 August 2018
Where: La Mama - Trades Hall
Composed by: Natasha Moszenin
Performed by: Jai Luke, Natasha Moszenin, Claire Nicholls, and Lara Vocisano
Lighting by: Kate Kelly

Claire Nicholls, Jai Luke, and Lara Vocisano - photo by Dan A'Vard

Nightsongs is a song cycle which is in its fourth iteration at La Mama - Trades Hall (the alternate venue whilst a new way forward is being created by the La Mama team after the tragic fire). Playing for only four nights, this time Moszenin has eschewed the theatrical elements and is presenting the piece in concert as a meditative experience on the difficulties of sleep in the modern age.

I first came across this project in it's second iteration as a fully produced show called The Insomnia Project at La Mama Courthouse and I loved it as my review clearly stated. Weaving the tales of four sleepless souls and the strategies they try to employ to engage in sleep was very relatable and egged us on to laugh at ourselves in our agonies of insomnia as well as opening up the closed doors of night to show we are not alone in our struggles.

The music has developed and progressed as Moszenin continues to explore minor key arrangements, unsettling sevenths, and decending scales, much of it disrupted intriguingly with her jazz aesthetic. She has also taken the opportunity to work with lyricists Leo Taylor, Charles Mercovich, Antonietta Morbillo and Antonella Salvestro on a couple of numbers which works really well.

The opening number 'From The Shadows' (Taylor/Moszenin) is sophisticated and beautiful and brought to mind Starlight Express for me for some reason. Similarly, 'Too Many Nights' had a certain Puccini-esque beauty which was mesmerizing and beautifully sung by Nicholls and Vocisano.

I have to admit I did not enjoy this concert version as much as the theatrical production but this was mostly because without the visuals it was impossible to really experience the contiguities of the situations between the characters, or even discern who the characters were. This may only be a problem because my history with the work told me there were characters and there was just enough dialogue between songs to make me believe these story lines still existed.

As a concert, it also lacked some interpretive layers and so, whilst the music is still masterful in using descending scales and working with the emotional dialectics of rhythm and tone to create a visceral response subverting logic, the meditative focus on anxiety provided little relief for the audience which - like a night when you just can't get to sleep - made it feel somewhat longer than the one hour show actually is. Having said that, I think I just also said it is a really successful experiment!

There are some cracking moments of humour, and songs such as 'It Don't Bother Me', 'Five Years' and 'Detox Queen' break up the night and are delivered with flare and energy by the cast. Luke in particular is the centre pole of charicature in the comic moments with a face so lively and engaging I thought it was going to play the fourth original character all by itself! 'Five Years' has been edited down over time which made me a bit sad because it is my favourite moment from The Insomnia Project and I really was looking forward to hearing it again and felt a bit cheated when it was over so quickly.

Moszenin's lyrics work well in the humorous songs because her words are so literal. This doesn't work quite so well in the gentler numbers because the spoken rythm of the plosives tends to contrast with the longer, flowing musical notes and clever harmonies. Articulation choices by the singers can help, but when you contrast it to Taylor's lyrics, for example, you can hear the difference in form and construct. Having said that, English is always a difficult language for song and opera has centuries of English translations which prove how hard it is to make sound musical...

It is exciting to see an artist continue to work on a project and develop it over time. Slow dramaturgies are becoming a regular part of the arsenal of Melbourne performance makers and it is projects like Nightsongs which helps us understand what the process does for a work.

3 Stars

Oil Babies - Theatre Review

What: Oil Babies
When: 8 - 18 August 2018
Where: Northcote Town Hall
Written and directed by: Petra Kalive
Performed by: Kali Hulme, Jodie Le Vesconte, and Fiona Macleod
Set by: Andrew Bailey
Costumes by: Harriet Oxley
Lighting by: Lisa Mibus
Sound by: Darius Kedros

Fiona Macleod and Jodie Le Vesconte - photo by Lachlan Woods

If you want to see a show which will make you think and feel in spades head down to Northcote Town Hall for Oil Babies. A new work written and directed by Petra Kalive and produced by Lab Kelpie, Oil Babies brings together all of our existential angst about extinction theories, continuation of the species, and the biological clock ticking away in womens' DNA within a lyrical dystopia of love, confusion and despair.

Having unexpectedly fallen pregnant herself, Kalive began to ponder and reassess what it would mean for her and the planet to bring another child into the world. In the script (which you can buy at the box office) P (Hulme) talks about 'Adding more little consumers to the planet.' Meanwhile X (Le Vesconte) and C (Macleod) plan their future - a vision which has unexpectedly changed from a picture of 2 to a picture of 3.

Essentially, Oil Babies is a post-truth study of pressure. Starting with the Dinosaur extinction theory, Kalive debunks the myths about what happened when the meteor hit the earth and reveals what really happened. Millions of tiny shards of flaming glass gas falling down on the earth - 'A furnace of glass rain'. How is glass created? Under great pressure.

How do we know this is what happened? Because if we dig down in the layers of the earth there is 'This one grey line. It represents the day that asteroid hit.' The pressure of layers and layers of empty dirt pushing down on that line is a testament to it's suddeness - 'Within an hour or two.' If the dinosaurs had looked up at the stars they would have see it coming.

At this point the play transitions to contemporary times. P and C are in a loving, lesbian relationship and lie looking up at the stars and quoting Oscar Wilde. Suddenly C drops a bomb - she wants to have a baby. This had never been included in their partner plan and the play wrestles with coming to terms with the idea as individuals, a couple, and as part of a species which has created it's own extinction event through the development of plastics. The pressures of being a woman, keeping fit, saving the planet, and reproducing all bear down.

This is where the title settles in. Plastics are created through polymerisation, or the extreme heating of monomer molecules to create groupings - much like the act of heat and pressure on gas to create glass or diamonds. One of the fun dramaturgies in the work is one type of polymer is a trimer, which is a set of three monomers combining, and recombining. These trimers can also cycle and re-cycle to form tetramers (4) and so on. It is no coincidence the cast of three use spin bikes in the telling of this story - as well, of course, as the illusion to the human race and going nowhere. Also, PCX is the acronym for a type of phenolic polymer plastic sheet created under high pressure.

Kalive's hypothesis about the meteor not causing the original extinction event is the conceit upon which the hypothesis of plastics lies in the show, and it's contribution to the extinction of the human race through the uncontrolled prevalence of microplastics. It was not the creation of plastic which has caused the problem - it is the unexpected side effects, detritus, and environmental inter-connectedness which is the problem. Yes you need plastics for your computer's motherboard, but the e-waste ends up in the water and the fish consume the microplastics instead of food and they die off, or produce food up the predator/prey ladder which is lacking in nutrition, etc.

And just like what happened with the dinosaurs, once the exstinction event is initiated, it cannot be reversed. In this regard the play is quite bleak. Riding on their spin bikes in the gym, P and X and C talk about their efforts to recycle but find themselves constantly returning to a state of despair, crying out 'What more can I do?'

Oil Babies is created for women to perform and it is a play where gender is central to the meaning and intention of this work, as well as integral to its phenomenal impact. Juxtaposing artificial insemination with extinction with parthenogenesis is genius. We watch biological clocks ticking down in competition with the extinction clock - both applying opposing forces of pressure.

Kalive asks questions about a mother's aspirations for her child contiguous with an overwhelming understanding that we are destroying ourselves so there is no future, just like the dinosaurs. Do you want to bring a child into that? Do you want to add another human to the virus contributing to that very same catastrophe?

As well as being a play with an amazing array of intelligent and heart wrenching questions and interogations, Oil Babies is a really beautiful and lyrical play. Taking a minimalist post-dramatic approach Macleod, Le Vesconte and Hulme twine, intertwine and untwine continually in this trimer of physics, history and humanity.

The relationship between Macleod and Le Vesconte is tender and tortured as they struggle to understand what is happening between them. Hulme on the other hand, has a kind of Everyman role. Perhaps my one disappointment was the character of P is not directorially integrated well. There are times Hulme is just kind of pushed out of the scene, sitting with her back to the audience or having  to leave the stage.

To help us wend our way through the maze of ideas and emotional dynamics Kedros has created a fabulously layered soundscape which carries all the nuances of the written text. Add to that the phenomenally evocative lighting by Mibus and in Oil Babies you have a play which is a transitioning portrait as well as a social interogation. The bleakness and beauty of the frame reflects the bleakness and the beauty of the performances. Bailey's set design creates a textured architecture for Mibus to work with - a landscape which is timeless yet spreads on into infinity.

For me, Oil Babies is the hit show this winter. Intelligent, gentle, horrific, terrifying, and a work of great love and humanity.

4.5 Stars

The 3 Musketeers - Theatre Review

What: The 3 Musketeers
When: 1 - 11 August 2018
Where: Bluestone Church Arts Space
Adapted and Directed by: Natasha Broadstock
Performed by: Lore Burns, Craig Cremin, Joti Gore, Victoria Haslam, Scott Jackson, James Malcher, Angelique Malcolm,  and Lucy Norton
Costumes by: Romy Sweetnam
Lighting by: John Collopy
Sound by: Patrick Slee

Craig Cremin - photo by Michael Foxington

The 3 Musketeers is a swashbuckling night of swagger and swank taking place at the Bluestone Church Arts Space in Footscray. A stage adaptation of the epic novel by Alexandre Dumas, the show sets out to take the chill out of winter with galloping sword fights, gorgeous gowns, and gallant knights of yore.

The story of The 3 Musketeers - Dumas' musketeers that is - is the story of young D'Artagnan who sets out to join the King's Guard and manages to bumble everything. In spite of himself, and with the burning desire to right wrongs and save the world, he hooks up with three real Musketeers. Together, over the course of 67 chapters, they manage to right wrongs, seek revenge and save the world... well France, at least.

A 'Boys Own' adventure, it is a tale of camaraderie, love, loss, revenge and justice. The men are all lusty, the woman are all luscious, and the nobles are all lost souls. It is a tale of loyalty, despair, and coming into one's manhood.

Unfortunately, Broadstock's adaptation never reaches these heights although there are a lot of fun sword fights and great costumes. Sweetnam really does all the heavy lifting to set this play up and keep us watching. Her textured, layered, deconstructions give us all the glory of the French 17th century court whilst also bringing us into the 21st century with a floordrobe chic which is totally portrait worthy.

Broadstock gives us the key events but she never really tells us the story of D'Artagnan (Burns). Partly because the script is unwieldy, and partly through some unfortunate casting choices. Before I go any further I should mention on the night I attended Gore was ill and Broadstock stood in and played Athos. Regardless of anything I say about the writing and directing, I will testify to the fact that she is a magnificent actor and I really didn't care that Gore wasn't there. I didn't feel I was left wanting anything more from her fabulously looming, broody Athos.

One of the big trumpets in the promotion of the play was that is was cast gender blind. I disagree. This cast was certainly gender bent, but if it was gender blind then the roles would have been cast based on acting skill and ability and they just weren't. Burns does not have the vocal ability to carry such a key lead role and in a space as live as the Bluestone is, her voice just got lost. I truly believe I did not hear at least 80% of her lines.

Luckily I realised quite early that I could rely on my memory of the 1993 film to keep me up with what was happening with a lot of help from Porthos (Jackson) who was narrating. And here's a hint for budding directors - do not put songs in your show if you don't have singers. Please!!!!!

Jackson is an actor with the energy, stage presence and ability to work an audience to rival Syd Brisbane. Anybody who knows theatre knows those are mighty big shoes to fill, but he does it. Jackson is also trained in stage combat and was the fight coordinator for this show. The sword fights themselves are fun and feisty and are part of what makes it worth sticking around for the whole two acts.

The play is way too long. It is in two acts and lasts around 2 and a half hours with interval. Not starting until 8pm, this makes is a very late winter night and the pay off at the end just isn't worth it. Whilst I am not a fan of the tyranny of dramatic action, and I quite like the narrator construct in this case because it harks back to a different, older story-telling aesthetic I really think Broadstock should have found time in the 17 years between writing and production to run the script past a dramaturg.

Directorially the play is a mish mash of styles, careening wildly between melodrama, farce, satire, film noir, greek tragedy and - most oddly - lyrical interpretive dance? When it all got too much for me (pretty much the whole second act) I just focused on the costumes and the fight scenes. I told you they were good didn't I?

Moving past the bad casting of D'Artagnan and the appalling interpretation of Constance (Malcher), there are some amazing performances in The 3 Musketeers. Cremin, who plays Milady, pretty much steals the show. In this instance, the gender bending works and Cremin reveals much about Milady which we may never have noticed had she been played by a woman. This is the power behind gender blind casting when you get it right. Similar praise can be placed on Norton as Rochefort, and Malcolm's Aramis is compelling as well.

Broadstock's idea of bringing classic yarns to the stage is a great concept for long, cold Melbourne winters but she needs to work with people who know how to craft a script. This was an incredibly ambitious project. I don't know many trained and experienced writers who would be willing to tackle Dumas on their own.

Despite what sounds like a slightly gloomy review, I admit I didn't ever feel like walking out. There is a lot going on and this production of The 3 Musketeers is definitely heavy on spectacle. As Aristotle tells us, spectacle can save a production. Between Cremin, Jackson, Broadstock (the actor), Norton, Malcolm, and Sweetnam The 3 Musketeers is quite watchable. Just bone up on the plot before you go...

2 Stars

Philtrum - Theatre Review

What: Philtrum
When: 13 - 29 July 2018
Where: The Portable
Written by: Anthea Greco
Directed by: Peter Blackburn
Performed by: James Cerche, Emma Choy, Louis Corbett, Stephen Francis, Anthea Greco, Faran Martin, Jessica Martin, Tasha Sanders, and Annie Stanford
Designed by: James Lew
Lighting by: Lachlan McLean
Sound by: Justin Gardam
Stage Managed by: Mark Salvestro

Faran Martin and Emma Choy

Philtrum is an exciting new Australian play being presented by North of Eight at The Portable in Brunswick. Whilst celebrating family, playwright Anthea Greco has created a chilling portrait which shows us how badly we hurt the ones we say we love the most.

Philtrum is the story of an average Australian family - well, maybe not average. Whilst it starts off feeling a lot like the movie The Castle, with a boisterous family enjoying a bouncy, shouty dinner time with the TV blaring, we find out they are actually in Toorak, not Sunshine. It is a shame because I think the Toorak issue is central to the idea of facades and I am most disappointed with Lew for not getting this even close to right.

But I have jumped the gun. The word philtrum means that little valley which joins the middle of the nose to the upper lip and gives our mouths the cupid's bow. Whilst it is just a vestigial depression for humans, folklore tells us it is where angels touch us when we are born to remind us to keep the secrets of universe from the ears of mankind.

Every family has secrets, and this family has really big ones. For all their garrulousness and chatter, it becomes clear that everybody is holding something back. This is highlighted by Laura (Sanders) who is autistic and says and does everything in the moment she is thinking or feeling it.

The family are all grown up but the locals have gathered to send Laura out for Halloween. She eagerly awaits the arrival of her costume, but it is the prodigal daughter Cathy (Jessica Martin) who turns up instead with her new boyfriend Rob (Cerche). Everyone has a different response to her arrival and when the other daughter Nikki (Faran Martin) leaves in frustration the gates of hell open to reveal the secrets the angels (or in this case Bill (Francis)) have insisted be kept.

Greco has written an amazing play so far although I would say it is not finished. Her understanding of family nuance, keeping secrets, and the games relatives play is detailed and undoubtedly comes from living a two family childhood. She also has a degree in psychological science which probably helps a lot too. The play is effectively two acts, and I admit I was also quite surprised at the authenticity with which she presents the legal process in the second act.

Director Peter Blackburn has done an excellent job of respecting Greco's writing whilst also helping problem solve some of the more obvious elements missing from the script, or distracting us from them at least.  Don't get me wrong. The script is brilliant, but it needs another act. We don't need to know the ending but we do need to know more about the characters and where they sit in the story.

Things which I would love to see expanded include the relationship between Cathy and Bill, what happened to Rob, and I worry about the tokenism of Laura. If Greco takes the time to ween out these aspects Philtrum is a play which would be perfect for the main stage theatres of Australia and has the potential to become part of our canon.

The acting is great. The ensemble all hail from Howard Fine and therefore there is an evident cohesion of process and style which, for this play, works nicely. Jessica Martin is a powerhouse actor whose energy radiates every moment she is on stage and Francis is brilliant as the real ocker pseudo-politician. Faran Martin and Standford have a delicacy of character development which act as beautiful foils to the more dominant actors.

I strongly recommend going to see Philtrum. You will leave you demanding Greco take this play and expand it so we can find out more about this sad, scary, but oh, so recognisable family. Talk about the ultimate teaser!

3.5 stars

Empty Bodies - Circus Review

What: Empty Bodies
When: 6 - 14 July, 2018
Where: National Circus Centre
Created by: Zebastian Hunter and Stephen Sewell
Composed by: Ian Moorhead
Choreography by: Meaghan Wegg
Design by: Stephanie Howe

  Empty Bodies is a reboot of a National Institute of Circus Arts (NICA) production created in 2016 for their second year ensemble. NICA has remounted the show with a smaller cast of graduates for this year's Provocare Festival in Prahran.

Empty bodies is a circus event conceived by Zebastian Hunter and Stephen Sewell and is described as a circus-drama fusion. It draws on the choreographic talents of Meaghan Wegg to pull it all together, and a powerful composition by Ian Moorhead to provide the ambience.

I recently visited Norway and had the opportunity to wander through The Vigeland Park which was created by Gustav Vigeland across the span of World War II and was completed in 1949. If Empty Bodies is not at least partially referencing his work I will eat my hat - if I had a hat that is...

The Fountain at the Park is ringed by 20 tree groups and beneath the crown of each of the trees is the eternal life cycle of man from cradle to grave, and this is exactly the story of Empty Bodies. Beginning with a couple who decide to have children, we watch the family travel through life. We see the child learn and grow in a beautiful hand balancing routine, we watch it develop into adulthood with a straps routine and one of the few hula hoop routines I have ever truly enjoyed.

One of my favourite moments is the wedding scene. It is a clown act of the absolute finest caliber in the world. There are some gender fluid references throughout the show but most of them seem to be purely nominal. In this clown act however, the issue is handled with cleverness, maturity, hilarity and it is down right erotic too! Ironically, although the original show was created in 2016, this particular act brings the marriage referendum of 2017 back into sharp focus with a wonderful nose tilt.

The show is not just about the child though. We watch as the father is tempted by another and the mother loses herself in a beautiful aerial routine. She later dies, but we see the nascent life forming in the world surrounding her funeral, showing us the circle of life repeating itself just as it does in the fountain.

The chair balancing act at the centre of the show mirrors The Monolith at the centre of The Vigeland Park too. Carved in granite rock, Stephanie Howe's silver chairs echo the massive sculpture, and the bodies of performers are layered into the layers of chairs as if piled up like Vigeland's imaginings. You could also suggest a reference to Dante's Inferno, but I think Vigeland is definitely the true progenitor. Beyond that, the set and costumes didn't really thrill me.

Unfortunately I have been unable to find a cast list anywhere on line and there was no program produced so I can only talk in fleeting terms about the performances. The cast was much smaller than the cast of the original production in 2016 and this time they were graduates rather than current students.

On the plus side, their skills and professionalism were manifest and it was wonderful to see this crop of young circus artists who definitely have the talent and commitment to go on to be prominent circus performers of the future. On the negative side, the show felt like it could be renamed Empty Stages because a show created for 28 performers has a lot of gaps when performed by only 8 or 9.

I am not fully convinced this circus-drama fusion worked and I think it is actually the circus element (and the audience) which lost out. There is a lot of debate about the use of narrative in circus. Usually I am on the side of it and I cite Cirque Elioze (Cirkopolis) and Circus Oz (But Wait There's More...) as companies who do it well.

In Empty Bodies, though, I think less would have been more in the creation of the work. For me, like with cabaret, the audience response is a key element and there just didn't seem to be any way to let the audience into the show. Circus is a revolving door of amazing tricks and athleticism and is built upon the idea that each trick gets harder and more daring as the audience respond with delight and awe.

Moorhead's dense and sombre sound track gave no permission to be happy and delighted as his droning, pounding rhythms shook through the space. Whilst the soundtrack was a true work of art, it erred on the side of fourth wall drama where the audience is a voyeur, not an activated and essential part of the event.

This leaves the tricks stranded in space and time because whilst Wegg's choreography moves the performers forward (you can definitely see the influence of her time with Cirque Eloize), each trick itself is a timeless classic and there is little logic for the circus artist to move on to a higher value proposition without the gasps and applause. It also means they have no information about the audience and it shows. It always shows.

The text - snippets of internal monologues narrating thoughts about life - were rather irrelevant in my opinion and only really served as a means to bring dynamics to the aural architecture. I admit they may have been more intriguing with a larger cast, but for the most part they came across as banal.

There were some signs of Sewell's wry perspective at the start when he talks about people having children because they are in love, drunk, or stupid. It re-emerges at the end when he speaks about wanting to be remembered for being ordinary. Overall, however, the rest is just existential angst sound bites which we have heard a trillion times before with more impact.

Empty Bodies is a good night of theatre with a certain level of commentary on recycling and the fluidity of the human experience, but in the end it left me feeling empty and mourning the lack of ability to share with the performers. I think circus-drama hybrids can work, but it is really important to respect the heritage of both forms. It is also important to remember the audience.

2.5 Stars

Reuben Kaye - Cabaret Review

What: Reuben Kaye
When: 7 - 15 July 2018
Where: The loft, Chapel off Chapel
Created and performed by: Reuben Kaye

Reuben Kaye

Reuben Kaye has come back to Melbourne for the Provocare Festival in Prahran and seeing his show at Chapel off Chapel is to experience a beaming light of wonder and genius wrapped up in sequins and rhinestones. Kaye is here to entertain and just like his historical namesake, Danny Kaye, he will leave you in awe and stitches of hilarity, albeit with a very 21st century point of view.

To watch Kaye do cabaret is to watch a true master of the craft although you may be so swept up with the pace, humour and depth ('is that how you pronounce it?') which will beguile you beyond belief in the actual moment you may not realise everything you were given until later. Insisting on being the 'placenta of attention', Kaye plays with the audience in an experience not unlike a bondage session and, yes, he is the whip.

A Balwyn boy, Kaye tells the perhaps typical school boy tragedy of growing up gay but nobody celebrates those experiences in quite the way Kaye does.  His erotic tale of locker room romance makes 50 Shades of Grey pale into insignificance - or would if there was anything significant about that book (or movie) in the first place...

Kaye's schtick is not a smarmy, low brow, gender fluid, cliche. Not in any respect. Covering literature (the Bronte sisters), fine arts (Caravaggio, Bernini), opera and ballet, Kaye stamps his mark as a complex and not to be ignored cultured artist. His brow can be as high or low as anyone's and he moves it every which way but loose.

Whilst touching on the music of Celine Dion, Kate Bush, and others, he points out that it's not plagiarism - it is parody, parody is satire, satire is art, art is subjective so you can't judge! Whilst he mocks however, you can see that Kaye is trained, talented and has honed his skills beyond any level of criticism as well as having razor sharp insight and creating a work which is infinitely layered - which he will explain endlessly as the performance progresses.

Kaye lives in the 21st century and is not a creature of the past, so whilst he embodies the true art of cabaret with socio-political layers underlying the hilarity and indulgence, he also understands the world we are living in now. Kaye invites you to take as many photos as you like and share them on social media because that is how the world works today, not last century. Beware the use of flash though, as Jo unfortunately found out at the top of the show on the night I went.

There is no fourth wall for Kaye. Comparing the Loft to a coffin with exit signs, he seeks to share every inch of his very special crypt with as many of the audience as he can touch (literally) and bring the black tomb to life with a party bigger than any room can handle and we are right there with him every step of the way.

Remember to take your drinks in with you and prepare for the midwinter blues to turn mardis gras as you are swept away with one of the best shows you will see this year. Provocare Festival always brings the best to Melbourne and Kaye is everything cabaret has ever promised it could be.

5 Stars

Bully Virus - Theatre Review

What: Bully Virus
When: 16 - 27 May 2018
Where: La Mama Theatre
Written and directed by: Kate Herbert
Composition by: Anna Durham
Performed by: Jenny Lovell, Carole Patullo, and Geoff Wallis
Stage Management by: Emmie Turner

Jenny Lovell and Carole Patullo - photo by Joe Calleri

Bully Virus is the new play currently being performed at La Mama Theatre and I urge everyone to go and see it. Written and directed by renowned theatre director, writer and critic Kate Herbert Bully Virus looks at the endemic problem of workplace bullying.

Using verbatim techniques, Herbert brings us 5 harrowing stories of workplace bullying. Not surprisingly, there is an over representation of the health industry. More surprisingly perhaps, given everything which has been happening in the Melbourne theatre industry over recent years, there is no representation from that quarter. It is irrelevant though. The collection - along with an array of vox pops - produce a terrifying catalogue of workplace behaviours which are evidently designed to damage the people who have been targeted.

Whilst Herbert keeps the general tone light throughout with little comic windows into the HR and management perspective, the horror lies in us knowing these are real stories. These things, this damage, happened to real people. This truth is constantly reinforced as the acting trio read the victims stories from files and folios despite them being in the first person.

The play begins with Lovell, Patullo, and Wallis entering with great verve and energy and revving up the audience with rousing statistics which point out Australia is the world leader in workplace bullying (aussie, aussie, aussie, oi, oi, oi) and that 1 in every 2 Australians has been a victim of work place bullying making us world leaders (aussie, aussie, aussie, oi, oi, oi). We Australians do like to achieve on the world stage! Dressed in grey suits they go on to be a comedy trio of HR executives scoffing at wingers and whiners. There are some great moments as they impersonate  a Marx Brothers style comedy schtick and the always amusing elevator chat scene.

The times between though, are dark and deadly. Five victims tell their tale with the story of man bun wearing, beard dragging hipster office worker (Wallis) holding the narrative throughout most of the play, plastering the other four stories into a pastiche of pain and confusion.

An intriguing aspect to Herbert's choices is most of the stories do not contain the overt physical or verbal violence we probably tend to associate with bullying. Herbert illuminates the subtle bullying. She shows us how people are 'managed out' of their jobs. She demonstrates how Human Resources are not our friend. She reminds us they are paid by the company so why would they ever be on the side of the victim? As someone who has had the misfortune to experience both the overt and subtle styles of bullying too many times now I can tell you that every word of Bully Virus is true. You may laugh. You may find it funny. If you have been a victim though, this is a trigger warning. It will be hard to watch if you bare those scars yourself.

All three actors are great although I would have liked Lovell and Patullo to create more physical diversity between their victims. The only real way to keep track was by looking at the big labels on the files as they pulled them out and read from them. I know they are capable of more because their work when they were free of the scripts was great.

Herbert uses the small space at La Mama Theatre extremely cleverly and it seems a whole lot bigger than it is - an effect supported by spot lights and floods expanding and contracting the space. Kept in a clean open white, the simple lighting was extremely effective and I applaud the restraint used.

Durham's sound design is absolutely magnificent and pulls a good play into the realms of a great play. Again, there is restraint, but every sound and every moment of non-sound is so carefully constructed and so perfectly etched it creates the architecture of the world Herbert has crafted.

Bully Virus is only on for a short time but this is important stuff and if you can you really must go and see it. Bullying will only stop once we learn to recognise it and tell the people around us it will not be tolerated. When you are a victim it is hard to speak up for yourself and it only makes things worse but if you are a witness it is your duty to speak up for that person or those people! Bullying doesn't just harm and change the target, it harms and changes the entire community because of how that person then interacts with the world once they are damaged.

4 Stars

Personal - Theatre Review

What: Personal
When: 24 - 29 April 2018
Where: Arts House
Created and performed by: Jodee Mundy
Directed by: Merophie Carr
Design by: Jen Hector
Sound by: Madeleine Flynn and Tim Humphrey
Video by: Rhian Hinkley

Jodee Mundy - photo by Bryony Jackson

The world is changing. Australia is changing. One of the great aspirations of our emerging NDIS is to evolve into a society which allows people with disability to live their lives as fully and independently as a human being. This means working and playing. This means dreaming and achieving. This means every space is a space for everybody. In Personal at Arts House Jodee Mundy shows us how to make the stage and audience spaces just such a world.

Whilst not having a disability herself, Mundy grew up as the only hearing person in a family of five. Even now, days later, I have trouble getting my head around the extraordinariness of growing up with parents and two brothers who can't hear. Mundy tells us she did not even realise/understand that the rest of her family was deaf until she was 5 years old. She was separated from her mother in KMart and despite the staff doing all the right things being reunited was a long and traumatic experience because (of course) her mother could not hear the announcements.

This was the light bulb moment for little Jodee and this is also the point when her life became something seriously other than normal - whatever that is - as she began to take on speaking and hearing duties for the family, especially on the telephone. It is not unusual for children who have disabled parents to grow up quicker than we would wish for them. In Mundy's case having to translate very adult conversations was very confusing and at times frightening.

Whilst Mundy doesn't dwell on this overly long, it becomes apparent as the performance progresses that there are scars. They are scars, though, which are smoothed and oiled by the intense love evident across the family.

Mundy does not allow us to linger on the painful moments which come with this oddly isolated childhood and she never wallows for a moment. Conversely she is a talented humourist and mime and I found myself laughing out loud a surprising amount of times as Mundy let us into the absurdity of her world. It is important to say we got to laugh with her, not at her.

Hinkley has created some fantastic animations as we explore nightmares which have a touch of Where The Wild Things Are about them, and there is even a little bit of Family Guy going on at one point. The video sequences are projected on 6 large boxes which Mundy moves around the stage. The images were sometimes separate and sometimes integrated, and often at unexpected angles and places. I enjoyed the Brady Bunch tribute which was one of the most beautiful moments - a moment when Mundy serenaded her family. I wanted to look around and find the projector set up to understand how it was being done, but I couldn't bare to tear my eyes away from the stage which is a testament to how good the performance was.

Another intriguing aspect of this show was it's dual language structure. I was especially excited to see that it was the Auslan which was privileged. One of Mundy's expressed intentions as an artist is to use 'art to redefine and skew the notions of inclusiveness' and to look for a future 'beyond inclusion'. The academics will probably call the next era Post-Inclusion.

In Personal Mundy succeeds beautifully. It is us, the hearing audience who have essentially been invited into a Deaf space and whilst it is fully inclusive, it is a shared space where we are not privileged.

It is also a sharing space but not a voyueristic one. The program refers to people's voyeuristic apetite to delve into how the deaf live their lives, and whilst Mundy gives a nod and some answers she sets boundaries. We catch glimpses of other people but Mundy stops at being too explicit and is careful to tell her story and not the story of those around her. It is her Personal story.

There absolutely is sound throughout the show and Flynn and Humphrey have created a complex soundscape. Mundy allow us to hear it and plays with sound all the way through, but what is really revealed is how sound is received. For deaf people sound is mostly experienced through the eyes or through physical sensation such as the low bass beat of techno, or using lights to indicate a ringing doorbell, etc. It is touch and sight and in some ways this makes sound bigger. As a live sound technician I used to always imagine the waves bouncing around the room. For deaf people it really does.

At this point I need to confess on the night I went there were some serious technical problems with the sound and video. It was not enough to make me unsatisfied with my evening and I still enjoyed the show immensely and laughed a lot, but it is enough to make me envious of those who will see/hear the complete show.

I also found the moving of boxes became tedious in the extreme. I understand it and, let's face it, every show which uses boxes ends up moving them around far too much. It is just the nature of the beast I suppose.

Told in a picaresque style and with a bathetic narrative, Personal will not give you every answer you ever wanted about what it is to be a CODA (Child of Deaf Adults). What it does is give you insight into one person's story whilst highlighting some universal issues, experiences, and prejudices. It is funny, sad, scary, and beautiful. It is also another brilliant example of post-truth theatre and post-inclusion theatre. The future is here and it is Personal.

4 Stars

Alexis Dubus Versus The World - Comedy Review

What: Alexis Dubus Versus The World
When: 10 - 22 April 2018
Where: Hairy Little Sister
Created and performed by: Alexis Dubus

Alexis Dubus

Alexis Dubus is a very funny man. He is a man of many talents, many accents and many words and we get the exquisite and unusual experience of being able to enjoy a great deal of them because he has brought us two very funny shows this Comedy Festival season. My last review was of his hilarious alter ego's show - Marcel Lucont's Whine List and here I am about to regale you with the intelligent humour of his spoken word routine called Alexis Dubus Versus The World playing at Hairy Little Sista.

Dubus calls Alexis Dubus Versus The World a spoken word show because it kind of breaks all of the comedy category tropes. It is a little bit stand up, a little bit pantomime, a little bit cabaret, a little bit punny, and he even throws in a little bit of burlesque just to shake the apple from the tree. All of it definitely falls into the category of spoken word though because all of it contains...well...words.

As fine a comedian as Dubus is (and he is very fine indeed!), he is also an accomplished wordsmith. Swinging effortlessly and unexpectedly between high Shakespeare to gutter trash you are expected to listen well to get the full joy and hilarity out of his work. At times his vocabulary exceeded that of the audience but for those of us who knew what homophonic means, there were wonderful nuggets of gold to embrace intellectually.

Dubus' performance included a lot of wonderful poetry as all good spoken word shows do and he is not afraid of the rhyming couplet, using rhythm and accents to make the predictable leap into hilarious and beyond. It is not possible for me to say I had a favourite poem but I intend to visit Wookie Hole if I ever get back to England and I will probably avoid getting a massage next time I am at the Singapore airport.

Some of the poetry moved into the territory of music and his observations about bananas has a definite reek of the Fresh Prince about it. There was also a very strong Monty Python influence to some of his music which is always a winner of course.

Alexis Dubus Versus The World is an eclectic mix of content but all of it is incredibly satisfying. Dubus was last here four years ago. In that time he has managed to get married and his foolproof advice on how to propose is certainly unique but, as he says, in his experience it has a 100% success rate.

We are really lucky he has chosen to return and even luckier he has brought us two iterations of his fantastic comic mind. See both shows in tandem. You won't regret it.

3 Stars

Marcel Lucont's Whine List - Comedy Review

What: Marcel Lucont's Whine List
When: 10 - 22 April
Where: Beckett Theatre, Coopers Malthouse
Created and performed by: Alexis Dubus

Marcel Lucont

Marcel Lucont's Whine List is a kind of humour which definitely appeals to people who watch the world in despairing wonder - people like me. Lucont (Dubus) is playing in The Beckett Theatre at Coopers Malthouse for the next two weeks of the Comedy Festival and I really recommend it.

Lucont has a fine stand up routine, disdainfully and yet elegantly delivering observations about the curious things he encounters as he travels around the world. If you watched Tonightly with Tom Ballard a week ago you would have seen Lucont do a guest appearance. In that segment he comments on the intriguing way each state welcomes it's guests on the signage. He is completely mystified and miffed that only people named Vic are welcome in Melbourne.

The true genius of his show though, lies not in his stories, but the stories he elicits from the hapless audience. Before we entered we were asked to fill out a questionnaire where were asked for our worst day at work, worst amorous encounter, and worst overseas experience.

I often talk about the issue of consent in relation to audience participation and Lucont deals with the problem perfectly. When the audience is given the form they are warned Lucont will choose the ones he likes best to use in the show. Ergo, if you fill in the form you are giving implied consent to be engaged as a participant. It is too late after the fact to act all coy and reticent so be warned.

The body of Marcel Lucont's Whine List lies in his selection of responses and his languid and unrelenting interrogations to find out more.  The truth is, he really doesn't have to do much to make the audience laugh. It is quite eye opening to see just how wrong some people's life go.

On opening night it was also very illuminating with regard to college life in Melbourne. Have you heard of the 7 Wonders? It is 7 places in the University (I won't mention which University) couples should have sex whilst being a student. Here's a hint - there is a lawn and a tower...

It is the patronising air of gallic superiority which makes Lucont's show work. Dubus is an Englishmen, and we all know about the rivalry between the French and the English. Lucont is a construction of all the great prejudices about the French - their arrogance, love of wine , and always being right.

I have to admit despite the arrogance, Lucont's insouciance and fake accent are still outrageously sexy. What is it about the French? Even faux French people have it!

The format does get a bit repetitive, but the variety of idiotic and outrageous situations people have found themselves in means the laughs just keep coming. Between categories Lucont also graces us with some of the best responses across the course of his travels in the UK and even without the interrogation they are stand alone hilarious. Oh, the things people get up to!

Marcel Lucont's Whine List is a late show, but the Malthouse has food and drink caravans and festoon lighting out in the courtyard as well as their usual offerings indoors. Go along, have some dinner and perhaps a couple of glasses of wine, and then take in a lovely red to sip along with Lucont as he gets you looking at the world through a slightly more jaded set of eyes than our own. Don't spill the wine laughing though!

4 Stars

Massive Bitch - Comedy Review

What: Massive Bitch
When: 2 - 8 April 2018
Where: The Butterfly Club
Written and performed by: Chelsea Zeller
Directed by: Samuel Russo

Chelsea Zeller

I first came across Zeller in last year's Comedy Festival when she wowed me with her performance in High Achievers. I was very excited to find out she was back for this year's festival with Massive Bitch at The Butterfly Club.

Zeller didn't disappoint. As I commented in the High Achievers review, Zeller has an amazing ability to perform multiple characters without a single misstep. She totally understands the connection between voice, body and character and in Massive Bitch she once again demonstrates her world class skill playing somewhere around ten characters in this TV talk show parody.

Massive Bitch is satire in the vein of ABC's Get Krack!n although Zeller's work is not farce. Perhaps a closer pairing can be found in Chamber Made Opera's production Crossing Live in 2007.

The story is the taping of the 50th episode of a morning show and the last one for Victoria the 'bitch' producer who expects a promotion and the ability to move on. Victoria uses controversy to win the rating's war and takes credit for advising Sonia Kruger to admit to be honest about her opinion of Muslim immigrants would make good TV. Victoria spirals between patronising, obsequious, and a raging bull to get this episode on air, but the more she pushes, the more things spiral out of control.

The supporting characters are fantastic, with the laconic camera man, John, getting the show started, a fun parody of Scary Spice in the Jenny Craig ads, an astrally disfunctional psychic guest, and Hugh - a cohost who gets his very own Tootsie moment littering the stage. Zeller switches between them all with mastery, commitment, and a delicate understanding of who they all are and why they are there. Well almost.

Where the show falls down is in the dramaturgy. Zeller wrote this piece herself this time, and whilst her acting is phenomenal, she needs to work on story structure and the proportional weight of characters. Oh, and titles too. I hate the title of this show and would never have come if not invited for that reason alone, but then I would have missed some fabulous ideas and brilliant acting.

Victoria is the 'massive bitch' in question but she really doesn't get a lot of stage time in this manic morning show filming schedule. Because of that, we don't get to really understand why she is a bitch (to me it just looked like a frustrating day - but then I have been called a massive bitch many times too...). This only really matters because Zeller has created a beautiful and touching and quite unexpected ending - but it kind of comes out of nowhere and as an audience member it jars rather than being satisfying.

Russo's direction did not impress me much. Last year in High Achievers the transformation between characters was aided with jackets and other acoutrements. This year they have forgone any costuming or props (except a stool). This is fine because Zeller is skilled enough to do all the work herself without even the hint of confusion or vagueness.

Sadly, Russo did not trust her enough so he has incorporated the 'turn away from the audience so they know there is a new character' technique which really gets in the way and becomes very tedious - much like theatre productions which use blackouts between every scene. Some of the transitions are cleverly handled but as the pace picks up they become more functional and obvious and irritating - and completely unnecessary.

Zeller never disappoints as a performer. She creates clear, clever and hilarious characters. The rest will come.

2.5 Stars