A Night Of Gluck Operas - Opera Review

What: A Night Of Gluck Operas (Orphee et Eurydice/Iphigenie en Tauride)
When: 31 October - 4 November 2018
Where: Northcote Town Hall
Libretto by: (O) Pierre-Louis Moline (I) Nicolas-François Guillard
Composed by: Christoph Gluck
Directed by: Kate Millett
Conducted by: James Penn
Performed by: (O) Louise Keast, Alison Lemoh and Rada Tolchalna. (I) Andrew Alesi, Finn Gilheany, Piri Jakab, Jonathon Rumsam, and Erin Towns. (Repetiteur) Pam Christie.
Lighting by: Robin Czuchnowski

Finn Gilheany and Jonathon Rumsam - photo by Burke Photography

Usually when I ask myself why we don't have more opera on stage I realise for me the word opera means those hideous, overblown monstrosities created by Opera Australia and the answer seems obvious. Right now, however, there is a great double bill of Gluck operas presented by BK Opera at Northcote Town Hall which makes me realise we should be seeing so much more of it in this scale across all the stages of Melbourne.

It helps the season revolves around the work of Christoph Gluck. Two of his most famous operas - Orfee ed Eurydice and Iphigenia et Tauride - are perfect compliments to the kind of new work dramas and dance played out on smaller stages and Gluck was innovative in a manner which resonates so very precisely with modernism on stage.

Despite the neo-classical content, Gluck was all about creating reform in opera. He reacted against opera seria and opera buffa. He eliminated the da capo arias and he worked in direct opposition to secco recitative.

Gluck was tired of the dominance and improvisations of the singers. He wanted the music and the voice to be equal contributors. He wanted to reinstate a melody line and his operas were designed so that the music spoke to the psychological states of the characters. Gluck wanted story to dominate.

If you watch movies you understand what Gluck was doing with opera. He got rid of melismas and ritornellos. His librettists wrote lyrics more syllabically so that the words could be heard and understood. Most outrageously (and perhaps less interesting to our modern aesthetic) he got rid of subplots. He just wanted the words and music to tell the story and in Australia, on stages which rarely see this artform, this is exactly the kind of opera we need to see more of.

A Night Of Gluck Operas is a slightly daunting title but don't worry, Millett and Penn have pared both operas down to bare bones - which is quite a feat considering Gluck's own redactive approach. It is very successful in Orfee ed Eurydice but perhaps less so in Iphigenie et Tauride. I don't know if the jumps of logic are due to the editing process or the quite poor surtitles. Either way, I did find it a bit easier to get lost for short moments in the second show (the operas are sung in French).

Regardless, the running time is only 2 hours for both (including interval) so it is a perfect length for an evening of great singing and totally fabulous costumes. There is no design credit but the costumes are epic - as they should be in opera. In Orfee ed Eurydice there are glorious crowns, angel wings, and black caped furies galore. A veritable smorgasbord of sparkle and glamour! Iphigenie et Tauride is a little less glamorous and perhaps less logical but is still full of strong statement pieces.

Millett has taken both operas and given them a very modern alphabet interpretation. Orfee ed Eurydice has Lemoh playing Orpheus opposite Keast's Eurydice. They are both beautiful singers and their duet 'Vieni, appaga il tuo consorte' has the beauty and depth found in Puccini's Madame Butterfly. Casting this opera with a female Orpheus is not completely new - it has been done as far back as 1946 - but it is still intriguing, especially pared with this interpretation of Iphigenie ed Tauride.

My main issue with this opera is the direction. It feels as if it was directed in the round, but the auditorium has been set up as a catwalk thrust. Oddly, a lot of arias are sung to the upstage wall. I really didn't understand it. Having said that the chorus writhed all around the space as the furies so you do have something to look at. I recommend sitting in the main seating block though rather than the sides. This holds true for Iphigenie ed Tauride which, contrarily, was evidently directed for end stage. If you sit on the sides you really do miss a lot of Iphigenia's opening aria.

In Iphigenia ed Tauride Millett has taken the friends Orestes (Gilheany) and Pylades (Rumsam) and made them lovers. Interestingly it works really well - most particularly because of the excellent performances by the singers. On the other hand, as part of his rebellion against opera norms, Gluck deliberately wrote Iphigenie et Tauride without a romantic relationship, becoming the first opera to ever do that. I admit, though, I really liked this version and again, the duet  'Et tu prétends encore que tu m'aimes' was so beautiful it brought tears to my eyes - both of them arguing about which of them would die for the other. This is a bromance which really tugs at the heart strings.

I also need to mention the amazing singing and acting of Towns as Iphigenie. From the moment she steps on stage in only a white shirt with blood streaming down the front she has command of the room. Both in her voice and with her acting she is in total control. This is her world we are in and she will take us on a journey across seas of vengeance and wars of redemption leading to reunification and sacrifice.

A Night Of Gluck Operas is a wonderful night out. BK Opera specialise in creating 'black box' opera and developing young opera talent (it is exciting to see the upcoming talent in the chorus). What they do reminds me very strongly of the work Pacific Opera do in Sydney. Take a chance on this one even if you don't think you like opera. It will surprise you.

3.5 Stars

Heathers: The Musical - Musical Review

What: Heathers - The Musical
When: 26 October - 3 November 2018
Where: St Martin's Theatre
Written by: Kevin Murphy and Laurence O'Keefe
Direction and lighting by: Jack Wilkinson
Musical direction by: Peter Verhagen
Performed by: Elyse Batson, Matthew Bertram, Tess Branchflower, Antoinette Davis, Matt Di Nardo, Morgan Dooley-Axup, Houston Dunlevy, Edu Herrera, Alexandra Knight, Cody Leggett, Peter Levey, Grace Maddern, Jayla McLennan, Timothy Ian McMullin, Jack Michel, Amy Nguyen, Alexander Palamara, Madeline Pratt, Dean Robinson, Oliver Ryan, Edward Seiffert, Alison Shuttleworth, Sean Smyth, and Tess Walsh
Choreography by: Grace Maddern

Alexandra Knight, Jayla McLennan (keys), Grace Maddern and Morgan Dooley-Axup - photo by Matthew Howat

It's all about everything Heathers this spring. The cult 1988 movie never gets old, the spinoff TV series is all the rage right now, and Heathers: The Musical is popping up on stages around Melbourne. Right now you can see it playing at St Martin's Theatre in South Yarra.

This production of Heathers: The Musical is the latest offering by GJ Productions. You may recall my January review of their version of Twelfth Night which I really enjoyed for it's boldness of interpretation. Heathers is less successful for the most part because it lacks exactly that element.

Wilkinson directed both productions but whereas in Twelfth Night he committed to a Commedia del'Arte idea, there is no discernable point of view he has brought to Heathers: The Musical. I should mention there is great boldness in the technical elements and the scope of the production. At it's most overwhelming this production has 24 performers on the Irene Mitchell stage. There would have been 25 people but there was no room for the percussionist (Di Nardo) so he was relegated to backstage. Normally the Irene Mitchell feels like quite a large playing space but this production makes it feel like The Butterfly Club... almost.

Obviously this means there is not enough room for any big dance routines. Maddern is listed as the choreographer but to be honest it feels more like traffic management than dance. Having said that, nobody tripped over anyone else and some interesting shapes and groupings were created and that is definitely an achievement in this circumstance.

Heathers: The Musical is a spin-off of the 1988 movie starring Winona Ryder (Veronica) and Christian Slater (JD). Whilst the movie was a cutting and incisive black comedy commenting on the rash of teenage suicides and why it was happening, the musical is much tamer in philosophy although perhaps also much more direct about interpersonal struggles.

One of the key quotes in the movie is "Society accepts any horror the American teenager can think to bring upon itself". Screen writer Daniel Walters is talking about the pain teenagers inflict on themselves and others. It was the 80s and the boredom and ennui enveloping the youth in a world which had perfected consumerism is reflected beautifully when Walters wrote "teenagers are cruel and parents are unresponsive." Nothing anyone does seems to get the attention of the parents and so the kids just keep upping the stakes, desperate for someone to call a halt. In the end it takes one of there own to bring an end to the madness, but in an act of naive prophesy Veronica points out early in the film "Somebody else is just going to take her place."

It is not for nothing JD quotes Baudelaire. The premise of the movie Heathers has strong links to the poet's seminal work Les Fleur Du Mal. In this book he is critical of the new (1857), orderly streets of Paris and the rise of industrialism bringing a bourgeois cleanliness and order which was alienating to the ragamuffins and ne'erdowells of the old order. Nothing represents this more outstandingly in Heathers than the game of croquet which is the centrepiece, and the constant references to pate.

Heathers: The Musical focuses more on high school, putting the emphasis more squarely on the quote "...not because society didn't care but because school is society." As such, the story gets smaller, but what O'Keefe and Murphy have done is to make some of the smaller moments pack a much harder punch. Scenes such as the date rapes, bullying, peer pressure, and the father's accepting their sons' homosexuality stand out so much more than in the movie.

In the GJ Productions version, there has been a strong commitment to reproducing the 80's aesthetic in the costumes. The rest of the production elements have been kept to the bare minimum which is probably a good choice given the lack of space. I do wish Wilkinson and Verhagen had taken this approach with casting and musical arrangement. At least 5 actors did not need to be there and have no significant contribution to the show except as chorus, and whilst I love the ambition of Verhagen's musical ensemble I can't help but wonder why Tinder Tales can do what they did with 3 musicians and three instruments, but Verhagen needs 8 musicians and at least 11 (possibly more instruments)?

On the positive side, I was astounded at the technical ambition. This is a production where all 16 of the cast had radio mics, the band were reinforced, there is foldback, and conductor cam! If only someone had remembered to turn on the FOH sound...

Look, I usually don't mention production elements when nobody is credited for them but in this case I have a small rant. As I just mentioned, this is a complex live sound set up and until now I have never known anyone brave (or silly) enough to attempt this without having a live mix engineer. I say this because even when somebody finally worked out  there was no FOH sound and turned it on, it was clear nobody was monitoring it because we still couldn't hear a lot of the dialogue and some singing (a problem caused partly by the size of the band). In the end it didn't really matter the cast had mics on because nobody was there to listen to make sure they were doing their job. This is an easy fix and I hope GJ Productions learnt their lesson last night and bring someone in to mix the sound for the rest of the season.

This brings me to the point where I have to admit it is hard for me to say much about the production because I couldn't hear much of it over the foldback and the reeds. Davis (Veronica) gave a dynamic and nuanced performance and Maddern (Heather Chandler) was a powerhouse as head bully. She really comes into her own as the ghost. Pratt was also scene stealing at times as Heather Duke. Michel was good as JD but I felt he played the role too slavishly mimicking Slater in the movie. I was also extremely impressed with Knight as Ms Fleming and Batson's Martha was heartbreakingly sweet.

There were some great musical moments including 'The Me Inside of Me' and 'My Dead Gay Son' was an experience of great beauty and pain. 'Blue' was incredibly well done but the actual content was more than my particular palette enjoys. My plus one actually laughed at me when he saw the distaste on my face as the refrain of "swordfight in her mouth" kept being sung over and over again.

This production of Heathers: The Musical is solid if somewhat uninspiring. Sometimes less is more and you can't do a proscenium arch size production on a studio size stage without the whole thing being compromised. Having said that, if you love Heathers (in all it's remediated versions) you will get a kick out of this show.

2.5 Stars

Bohemian Rhapsody - Film Review

What: Bohemian Rhapsody
Release date: 1 November 2018
Written by: Andrew McCarten
Directed by: Brian Singer
Featuring: Lucy Boynton, Ben Hardy, Gwilym Lee, Allen Leech, Rami Malek, and Joseph Mazzello

Rami Malek and Gwilym Lee

We have been waiting a long time for Bohemian Rhapsody to be made and released but now the wait is over and on 1 November the people of Australia will get to walk in the footsteps of Freddie Mercury and his travels with the mega group Queen. A rhapsody itself, honoring the life of Mercury (Malek), Bohemian Rhapsody is Queen's homage to the man who pushed them into realms they were willing to explore.

Much of the publicity suggests secret insights into the life and times of Mercury but I admit I didn't feel I discovered much I didn't know. Not being British, I was perhaps not as aware of the racial slurs heaped upon him - he was constantly called a 'Paki' although in fact he is a Parsi - and this undoubtedly was a battle he had to face once his family migrated to England in 1964.

Mercury was 17, foreign and had a massive overbite so he was undoubtedly in for difficulty. He also managed to break into the music scene during the glam rock era which - along with his incredible singing abilities (rumoured to be 4 octaves although only 3 have been proven so far) meant he probably found the one place in the world at the time where someone with all of his incredible uniqueness could thrive and prosper.

Mercury (born Farrokh Busara) also managed to find a family with his band mates in Queen - May (Lee), Talor (Hardy), and Deacon (Mazzello). The magic which was Queen came from a synergy of great musicians who pulled, pushed, fought, and feted each other to bring out their best. Queen, like ABBA, explored not only their music, but how to layer it and manipulate it and cross over genre and defy expectations. It is no coincidence these are two of the biggest groups in rock/pop history nor why the music of both of these groups lives on and will continue to engage and excite into the far distant future.

The movie Bohemian Rhapsody celebrates Mercury's relationship with the band and it is not a surprise given Queen are the producers. It is not a deep delving biopic about Mercury although, as always, he is the bright, shining star we all tend to see. It is a very clever and important look at the life and times of the band as a whole. It is great for us to see how important and talented the other members of the band were, a point which is driven home when, in the film Mercury swallows his pride and the band is reunited just before the historical Live Aid concert in 1985.

Bohemian Rhapsody is something of a love story. It is a band living in a nirvana of success, a garden of Eden of light and life and like all Eden stories there must be the snake of temptation which tears down perfection and brings sin into the world. In Bohemian Rhapsody the snake is Paul Prenter (Leech). Prenter - according to this movie - leads Mercury down into the hedonistic belly of his homosexuality, indulgent lifestyle, drug use and eventually the break up of the band and Mercury's exile even from the "love of his life" Mary Austen (Boynton).

A lot is missed or glossed over in Bohemian Rhapsody. We never find out anything about how he became a musician or his previous experience with bands. We do meet his family and discover their Zoroastrian faith but it is hard to see how their mantra of "good thoughts, good words, good deeds" which are reiterated constantly throughout the movie really impacted his life. There is some effort to infer Queen's participation in Live Aid is an act of redemption for Mercury but playing one 20 minute gig for free on the biggest stage the world had (has?) ever known as a band come back event is hardly putting in a huge effort.

The film also makes a huge deal about Mercury's dental deformity, saying it is responsible for his range. Mercury was born with four extra incisors and he believed this was responsible for his singing abilities. Probably an oversimplification, but the architecture of the jaw and mouth definitely affect the tone and timber of the sound so it is not to be discounted.

Having said that, Bohemian Rhapsody could easily be renamed Freddie's Overbite. It appears as if  the director (Singer) and DOP (Newton Thomas Sigel) were obsessed with this unique feature. Firstly, whilst the dental prosthetic used might have been accurate, Malek's mouth and jaw are not evolved to deal with so much tooth matter and so it looks very, very fake to the detriment of his incredible acting and portrayal of Mercury. Secondly, the uptilted camera angles used accentuate this feature all the time. Thirdly there are a ridiculous number of closeups of Malek's mouth which really just serve to show how bad the prosthetic works.

I have watched a lot of video of Mercury since then to see if my impressions of him were somehow whitewashed in my memory, but no they arent. Mercury's jaw and lips were adapted to his unique dentistry (it is amusing that Taylor studied dentistry...) and as such whilst his overbite is prominent, it is not as outrageous and uncomfortable as the film suggests.

The acting is fantastic in Bohemian Rhapsody. Malek is wonderfully complex - both gentle and outrageous as Mercury was known to be. The other amazing performance is Lee as May. You can tell from the movie that May and Mercury were very closely bonded. There really believed they were family. Hardy's performance as Taylor is also wonderfully dynamic.

The movie itself is full of the great milestone classics. It travels from their first big hit 'Killer Queen', through 'Bohemian Rhapsody' to 'Another One Bites The Dust', et al. The Live Aid concert is amazing and I do remember at the time it took a long time for donations to really start rolling in which was a huge disappointment. I didn't realise it was Queen's set which got the ball rolling.

I also remember at that time AIDS was a guaranteed death sentence and people were afraid to be near or touch people with AIDS. It was dubbed the gay disease (which we now know is complete rubbish) and there was a lot of stigma attached. It is not explained in the movie, but Freddie's secret admission to the band would have been huge. I am not convinced their acceptance was quite as romantically perfect as the movie suggests, but it says a lot about the relationship of all of them for them to continue forward as they did.

Bohemian Rhapsody is a beautiful movie. If you love the band and love the music you will enjoy it greatly. It is not the epic biopic the band deserve to have someone make for them, but it is a really good film and after leaving you will want to go home and pull out your own Queen collection and listen to it all again.

4 Stars

Tinder Tales - Musical Review

What: Tinder Tales
When: 24 - 28 October 2018
Where: The Loft, Chapel Off Chapel
Written by: Mattie Mcleod
Composition and musical direction by: Thomas Bradford
Directed by: Clary Raven
Performed by: Thomas Bradford, Amy Cumming, Paige Easter, Gordon Li, Tom New, Ashlee Noble, Francesca O'Donnell, Edie Testro-Girasole, Callum Warrender, and Anna Wilshire
Choreography by: Kirra Sibel
Design by: Rachel Mclean
Lighting by: Jason Crick
Stage managed by: Kyra Von Steigler

Francesca O'Donnell, Tom New, Ashlee Noble, and Eadie Testro-Girasole

Tinder Tales is an energetic new musical being performed at Chapel Off  Chapel this week. A micro interogation of the online dating world Mcleod, with a lot of help from the musical stylings of Bradford, takes us on a Tinder journey which is perhaps more of a nightmare than it is living the dream.

Tinder is regular comedy fodder in the cabaret scene and there are at least two other musicals about the subject (Tinder! - The Musical and A Tinder Musical) but there is still more than enough laughs in this "love at first swipe" generation to play with the idea some more. The trick is to find a unique hook - or do it better.

Macleod's story follows Abby (Testro-Girasole) in her Tinder search for the "perfect for her" guy. Despite being plagued by Insecurity (O'Donnell) and Doubt (Noble) Abby manages to leave the house and meet up with Evan (New)...and hook up on the first date. After sex Evan admits he's not looking for anything serious and the awkward exit ensues.

One of the hilarities of Tinder is the surveys you can send. There might have been a bit of a connection between Evan and Abby - at least Abby thinks so. Evan casually invites her to a party, and thanks to the help of her two constant companions she drinks too much, kisses the wrong guy and...well... you all know where this is going, don't you? Not even another Tinder survey can save this sinking ship.

The performers are all very high caliber and cover the gamut of musical theatre training in Australia which is impressive (VCA, Monash, Griffith, WAAPA, APO, Federation) as well as a couple finding there way up 'through the traps' as they say. Noble is probably the strongest singer although Easter (Mum) gives her lungs a run for their money! Testro-Girasole is perfect as the lead though. Her voice has a wonderful range and a lyrical quality. It is still developing in strength, but what it lacks in volume at times, it more than makes up for in tone and versatility.

The rest of the cast double as minor characters and voices in Abby's head. Warrender has a wonderful comic persona which revels in playing mutiple supernumerary roles with flare and attitude.  New is also perfectly cast as Evan - sweet but not a pushover.

I really wanted to like Tinder Tales more than I did. Bradford's music is catchy and fun crossing styles similar to the work of Eddie Perfect. The actors were all lively and invested and the three piece band was full of attitude.

My problem was in the writing. Whilst I liked the concept of Insecurity and Doubt, Doubt in particular was mean and crass and incredibly unlikeable (no reflection on Noble!). The constant degradation and insults thrown at Abby from the voices in her head became awful to hear rather than funny. There was more than one time in the show when I heard the audience gasp in shock or moan in disapproval.

The songs generally bypassed most of this flaw and there are some great tunes including 'Love And All Your Wicked Ways', 'Perfect For Me', and 'Survey Song'. Unfortunately there was also 'Dick Is Dick' which was just too far on the wrong side of the crass line.

I enjoyed Sibel's clever and economic choreography in a very tight space, and Riven has done a good job with moving the cast around and keeping the space dynamic. Whichever one of them made the decision to have Warrender trying to force Wilshire to perform oral sex at the end of one of the routines should think seriously about what they are doing though. Not okay at all! - And definitely not funny.

Tinder Tales is only 70 minutes long so despite the flaws it is a good showcase of some serious musical theatre talent bubbling up in melbourne and bodes well for the industry. Mcleod needs to find a way to make her humour less overwhelmed by her pain and cynicism though. We won't laugh if we don't like the characters. It is good to have a moral or a point of view in the work but this may be a case of the right story being told in the wrong art form perhaps.

3 Stars

Jugg Life - Circus Review

What: Jugg Life
When: 18 - 21 October 2018
Where: Melba Spiegeltent
Created and performed by: Byron Hutton and Richard Sullivan

Byron Sutton and Richard Sullivan

Jugg Life is a juggling act which has been around since 2014. In 2016 Sullivan left to develop his skills in Europe, but he is back now and the show is totally fabulous. Playing at the Melba Spielgeltent as part of the Sidesault program, Sullivan and Hutton have a show which is witty, vibrant, and both adult and child friendly.

One of the aspects which sets this juggling performance a step above many others is the understanding that juggling is all about rhythm. Embracing this element Jugg Life incorporates the tom and the snare to set the marching orders of the juggling, and also incorporate the rings (and sometimes other objects) as percussive full stops and sonic players themselves. Add in sampling and looping and you have a full spectrum audi and visual feast.

The idea of a 50 minute juggling show sounds exhausting and it is - both for the jugglers, but also for the audience. Partly because even as a watcher concentrating on the juggling is tiring. The other fatiguing aspect is the amount of energy the audience expend on laughing as Sullivan and Hutton engage in juggling combat and endurance routines.

On the night I went Byron won the juggling games. Watching the two of them try to keep their clubs and rings in the air whilst also trying to interfere with their opponent was hilarious as well as tense.

As well as being master jugglers and great musicians, it turns out the Jugg Life duo also have a rare life skill. They can solve the Rubik's Cube! In amongst the many fabulous tandem work, the pair solve the cube after having an audience member mess it up for them.

There are a few more drops at the end then there were at the start but I am rather surprised their arms were still working at all to be honest. The 5 minute endurance juggle was a feat to behold, especially with a hilarious soundtrack designed to distract them and make them laugh themselves.

I totally loved Jugg Life. It is 50 minutes of great fun and both the kids in the audience and the adults had the best time. So much laughing in one show is rarely heard.

5 Stars

One And The Other - Circus Review

What: One And The Other
When: 17 - 28 October 2018
Where: La Mama Courthouse
Devised by: Debra Iris Batton and Sue Broadway
Directed by: Clare Bartholomew
Musical direction by: Teresa Blake
Performed by: Debra Iris Batton, Sue Broadway, and Teresa Blake
Designed by: Emily Barrie
Lighting by: Sarah Platts

Debra Iris Batton, Sue Broadway, and Teresa Blake

It feels like circus is everywhere at the moment. 'Sidesault' has taken over the Melba Spiegeltent, Rock Bang is about to explode into the Merlyn and One And The Other has just opened at La Mama Courthouse for two weeks.

What is exciting about this current fever of circus activity is the breadth and spectrum on display. From the newbies at the Speigeltent, to the master craftspersons in the Merlyn, and to the maestro pioneers at La Mama, the entire spectrum of modern circus - origins to outcomes - are filling the stages for audiences to marvel at and admire.

One And The Other is perhaps the icing on the cake as veteran pioneers of the modern circus form, Batton and Broadway, team up once again to remind us all how it is done, what it should look like, and to stamp their claim as the Aunties of the Australian circus world. It's not just circus though. Batton and Broadway are veterans of the second-wave feminist movement too. Inspired by the #metoo movement they have girded their loins to look back on what they did and how they did it as women and circus artists and to pioneer new ground, showing what being an older woman can and does look like in this brave new world...

Let me begin with the really important stuff first. Batton and Broadway are master clowns and from the moment the lights come up the audience were laughing their arses off. "Sorry. Sorry." I meant to say laughing their behinds off. Broadway is the straight man (person?) and Batton is the joker in this comedy duet of the caliber of all the greats - Lewis and Martin, Hope and Crosby, Laurel and Hardy, French and Saunders, etc.

Their hat juggling is as suave as it is hilarious and the afternoon tea routine is classic pie in the face humour of the best sort. What Batton and Broadway understand is the laugh is the thing, not the trick itself. If the trick doesn't land (which is rare indeed) they know how to continue to work the moment until the audience finds the funny side. You can laugh with them or at them. They don't care as long as you laugh and don't stop until they say it is time. They also understand it is not the number of tricks. Rather it is the quality of the set up and delivery which matters most.

Batton is the acrobat who can still do amazing tumbles off a vault and trampoline, backflips, carwheels - all the good stuff. Broadway is a balance artist and a master of legerdemain. She brings back classic prestidigitation such as the floating wand dance as she recounts her family pedigree in the circus arts.

Part of the conceit of One And The Other is a celebration of their achievements - both personal and also in the development of circus in Australia. Broadway was a member of the founding Circus Oz troupe and beyond that went on to AD Strange Fruit, currently working as AD for Westside Circus and being the Chair of the La Mama Committee of Management.

Batton was an award winning gymnast until she turned the ripe old age of 17 and aged out. Batton has a long and extraordinary career in physical theatre and circus including being AD of Legs On The Wall for a decade. One extraordinary skit in the show is when Batton emerges as a balloon of a person and slowly, one by one, strips away decades of gig tees until she reaches current times. I lost count of just how many there were (as well as being amazed she kept them all!).

All of these shenanigans and tomfoolery are accompanied by the sound stylings of Blake. Working with samples, sequences, looping and a bewildering array of live instruments (cymbals, high hats, a harp, a cello, recorders, et al...) Blake is responding to the action on stage and it is fun watching Batton and Broadway working with her throughout.

Blake sits above the action on an incredibly simple, beautiful, and ultimately effective set created by Barrie. Two black flats cover left and right of stage leaving a central entrance and exit arch for Batton and Broadway. The flats are actually workshop shadow boards on which she has affixed all of the props the performers need throughout the show. Their candy coloured vibrancy look like they are floating in the space, waiting to be selected, much like Broadway's wand floated in their pas de deux.

As I mentioned earlier, though, this candyland of magic and mystery has a feminist edge which gets sharpened as the performance continues. It is subtle at first. The 'sorry' sequence after the tea party hinting at how women are required to apologise for everything - even things they are not responsible for or even did not do. It culminates into a bludgeon at the end with the 'fuck you' sequence. Here the laugh stops and all of pain, humiliation, and frustration of living their lives against the grain emerges for all to see. Very unladylike indeed!

In One And The Other Batton and Broadway bare their souls (and their bodies) as they show us where we have been, where we are now, and where we have yet to go. Directed by another of our clowning greats, Bartholomew, One And The Other should not be missed. It also needs to be archived because the work these women are doing cannot be lost to the vagaries of carelessness. This is our living history and we must preserve it. Hugh Jackman are you looking for another film project?

4.5 Stars

Hell Is Other People - Circus Review

What: Hell Is Other People
When: 18 - 21 October, 2018
Where: Melba Spiegeltent
Created and performed by: Jess Love

Jess Love

You would almost not recognise Jess Love in her new show Hell Is Other People, playing as part of Sidesault at the Melba Spiegeltent this week Eschewing her fast paced hilarity as a genius of the hula hoop and skipping rope (amongst other apparatus), in this full length solo show Love bares her soul - and her body - as she takes us through a kaleidoscope of relationship experiences, a couple of which are not for the faint-hearted.

The quote 'hell is other people' comes from the Sartre play No Exit. Whilst often misrepresented, what Satre is talking about is the gaze of the other and what it does, what it signifies, and what it manifests in the self. Love understands this and in her show of the same name she exposes herself body and soul to our gaze as she lives and relives key relationships in her sexual maturity and talks about how she exposed herself to their gaze as well.

Although the hula hoop does not feature prominently in this show, Hell Is Other People is circles within circles as Love recreates each relationship by repeatedly 'birthing' naked from backstage. Each iteration involves her donning a new set of clothes (a new costume), and taking a new role for each partner. It is worth noting there were various name changes for this show, but in my opinion it could have also been called Love Is A Battlefield as each expulsion from the womb is accompanied by the sounds of war and every encounter leaves scars.

Some relationships are simpler than others. 'Frenchie The Clown' is a fairly harmless figure who enjoys imagining Love juggle dildoes. 'The Alpha Lesbian' helps her leave 'Bananaman' which is empowering until it is overpowering. Each relationship has a circus skill attached - hula hoop, clowning, rollerskating, corde lisse, etc. The circus element is not really the point though.

When I reviewed Feed The Horse I said Dadaism was anti-art and I wonder if Hell Is Other People is more truly of that genre than the Radish By Night show. There is a sense within this show that Love is not trying to 'entertain' and is working to minimal theatricality. That is not to say it is not highly complex and meticulously constructed. It is more that in a circus framing where we tend to expect in your face and over the top feats that wow and awe, Love treats it all as everyday ennui.

It all becomes clear when Love gets to the intermission which doesn't exist. After drinking herself to puking, Love lures us into a dark world of great pain. She introduces us to a lover from her distant past - 'The Paedo'.

In the show Love quotes the Oscar Wilde saying 'Everthing in the world is about sex except sex.  Sex is about power.' Having never spent more than 6 months alone, it is possible nobody understands this better than Love. Hell Is Other People is definitely adult content so don't bring the kiddies.

2.5 Stars

Feed The Horse - Circus Review

What: Feed The Horse
When: 18 - 21 October, 2018
Where: Melba Spiegeltent
Created and performed by: Radish By Night

Radish By Night

Feed The Horse is one of the three experimental circus shows which opened for the second week of the Sidesault festival at Melba Spiegeltent last night. I haven't been able to find out details of the cast members but they all worked as a very tight ensemble.

Feed The Horse is billed as being a Dadaist/Surreal/Butoh performance. It is supposed to be immersive and shock the senses. I am not convinced it lives up to the marketing but what I will say is Radish By Night have an incredibly strong visual aesthetic and some great circus skills.

Dadaism and Butoh were essentially created out the the same impetus although in different parts of the world at different times. Both movements were about breaking down the traditional ideas of what art (or dance in the case of Butoh) is/was. They are both a form of 'anti-art' movement. They are both about breaking taboos and revealing the ugly, the real, the visceral. Surrealism was born out of Dadaism and reached deep into the subconscious to make unexpected and absurd connections and bring them into the conscious world.

Radish By Night have certainly captured the look of Butoh, and the sequences around and beyond the hand balancing routine capture the look and feel of traditional Butoh - although I suspect more as an aesthetic than a movement. I was  impressed with the hand balancing routine although I think there were some problems with the stability of the apparatus. Having said that, the acrobat who performed it was extremely skilled and created the most amazing nightmare shapes.

 I am not convinced they touch on Dadaism at all as they stay well within modern post-dramatic performance forms (it is hard to be Dadaist in a post-dramatic age). The one exception may be the final sequence where the audience are made to stand in the middle of the room for apparently no purpose at all. I also think that is the closest element of immersion as well. I don't define running around the audience in a big top tent as immersion...

The great strength of the show lies in it's surreal vision. For those who don't know, the term "feed the horse" refers to stimulating and/or fingering a female for pleasure. The show begins with the most incredible visual sequence which links the idea of the womb, to the vagina, to the mane of the horse using the stunning natural locks of one of the male performers.  As I said earlier, the visuals in this show are phenomenal and Feed The Horse is worth seeing just for this aspect alone. I also suspect the performers have done some work with Viewpoints looking at how they use and balance the space and each other so endureingly.

The ideas and images are strong in Feed The Horse, and the circus elements are great too. This is the only show in the Sidesault series to use the tight rope and there is a simple, yet stunning aerial trapeze act. The simplicity in itself a Dadaist rebellion in a way. The manic skipping clown was fun too. The sound track to Feed The Horse was wonderfully otherwordly and helped create the idea of dreams and nightmares.

The show is short - only around 40 minutes which is great because as the last of the three on offer, it means if you see the whole set it is still not an overwhelmingly late night. It will however leave you with amazing visions to inspire your own dreamscape as you sleep.

3 Stars

Laser Kiwi - Circus Review

What: Laser Kiwi
When: 10 - 14 October
Where: Melba Spiegeltent
Created and performed by: Degge Jarvie, Zane Jarvie and Imogen Stone

Zane Jarvie, Imogen Stone, and Degge Jarvie

I don't know if I have ever had so much silly, ridiculous, outrageously dorky fun as I did watching the Colossal show Laser Kiwi at Melba Spiegeltent. One of the acts in the 'Sidesault' festival, I have to tip my hat to our neighbours in the land of the long white cloud who showed us how to have a whole lot of good, clean fun just for the purpose of laughing our heads off.

The name of the show, Laser Kiwi, comes from one of the quirkier entries in the flag changing referendum New Zealand held in 2015. Unsurprisingly, it didn't win (although it should have, I reckon). Colossal have taken the outrageous and audacious humour of this flag and turned it into a comedy/circus hybrid which - for all the same reasons boaty mcboatface won the ship naming competition in the UK - captures the imagination of everyone and puts a huge smile on the face, and a brings a disbelieving laugh (and occassional groan) to everyone's lips.

Laser Kiwi is much more comedy than circus, but Stone's aerial space walk on the silks is mesmerisingly beautiful, albeit continually interrupted by Degge Jarvie's prop puns. Stone is also something of a contortionist and the final routine 'The Perfect Match' is as funny as it is incredible to watch as she lights matches and candles with her feet whilst doing a handstand, amongst other incredible feats.

Zane Jarvie is the balancing aficionado. One of my favourite routines in the show is the recurring montage of the 'Planet Gobblers'. For those of you who don't know, there is a video game of the same name which involves a giant pair of lips eating planets which are tiny balls of different colours which look impressively like m&ms. Throughout the show the three of them come grunting out on stage and eat their planets. Zane, however, always tries (and fails) to be clever and toss the candy into the air to eat it. Eventually the other two have enough and Zane comes up with a fool proof plan. He has made a mousetrap style maze pillar which he balances on his face.

The idea is he throws it up in the air, it lands in the dish and rolls down this complicated series of tunnels and into his mouth. It was even funnier on the night I saw it. As you know, the nutty m&ms can be irregular in size and in a glorious irruption of reality, the candy kept getting stuck in several places in the tube. It was hilarious watching Degge try and nudge it loose whilst avoiding making the contraption fall off Zane's face.

The Colossal team are not afraid of irruptions of reality and a portion of the hilarity of their show is the way they abashedly share the humour of the fortunes of fate on their endeavours. Laser Kiwi is bursting with prop humour and puns. Some of my favourites were the incredibly accurate snail, the tape worm, and the final front ear.

Another very funny sketch is the one which parodies the Japanese game show Hole In The Wall. Instead of humans they bring up an audience member who plays against Stone with wooden mannequins. Perhaps the one sour note for me was when the last cut out was a pair of boobs. Pretty much everyone in the audience went quiet on that one which made me proud.

Unfortunately the Laser Kiwi season at Sidesault is over, but this week brings 3 new and amazing acts to the Melba Spiegeltent. Get on down and discover what other new adventures are happening in the world of independent circus.

3.5 Stars

Summer & Smoke - Theatre Review

What: Summer & Smoke
When: 3 - 14 October 2018
Where: Good Shepherd Chapel
Written by: Tennessee Williams
Directed by: Tanya Burne
Performed by: Alice Bishop, Helen Doig, Leah Filley, Joseph Green, Cecilia Low, Ryan Murphy, Cariad Wallace, and John Wood
Costumes by: Emily Harvey and Amanda Hitten
Lighting by: Natalia Velasco
Music and sound by: Julian Lyngcolm and Peter McKeown
Stage Managed by: Joey Burford

John Wood, Helen Doig, and Leah Filley

Summer & Smoke is a play written by Williams at the beginning of his golden era of play writing. It has never been a play produced in Australia, but White Horse Collective have changed that and have put on a season at the Good Shepherd Chapel in Abbottsford.

Produced on stage in 1948 (just after A Streetcar Named Desire), Summer & Smoke was made into a film in 1961. All of Williams' plays are considered to be autobiographical and Summer & Smoke clearly delves into his family situation.

Williams' mother was considered to be pretentious and was the the daughter of a minister (Wood), as is the protagonist Alma (Filley), and his grandmother was a music teacher as is Alma as well. Williams' sister was diagnosed schizophrenic and had a lobotomy, and the mother figure (Doig) in Summer & Smoke is suffering some form of serious mental illness which restricts Alma's life as she has to take on carer duties. Williams himself took on responsibilities for his sister and suffered from depression - again, reflected in the character of Alma. Williams' mother married a young shoe salesman and Alma ends the play going off into the night with...a young shoe salesman. You get the picture...

The story revolves around the transformation of Alma and John (Green) from one state to another. For Alma it is the journey from devout good girl mired in duty and faith and for John it is travelling from a hedonistic corporealist to a man of responsibility and conformity.

Summer & Smoke was not one of Williams' more successful works, and I think it is because the transformative journey for Alma is not quite credible. There is not quite enough in the writing to get the audience to change their view of her from saint to sinner. John's journey is much more clearly accounted for.

Much of this can be blamed on the writing, but in the White Horse Collective production there is a portion of blame to lay on the direction (Burne) and the acting. Williams spends a lot of dialogue capital talking about Alma's affectations including the use of the 'long A'. John mocks her about it, telling her he saw someone mimicking her, Nellie (Wallace) talks about taking up her affectations, and Alma even admits to a small portion.

Nothing of that comes through in Filleys performance. Yes, she does use the long A occassionally, but it is swaddled in a sea of realism and authenticity in the southern accent so at best she seems like the slightly nervous type and that is about it. The greater the affectation, the more scope there would have been for Filley to play with the breaking down of her sense of self and values and the greater the dynamics and tension possible between the cast members.

As well, John identifies Alma has a doppelganger and this is key to her descent. He is talking about a sensuous side which has been locked up under the watchful stare of the fountain angel Eternity. This is a bit harder for us to grasp because White Horse have decided not to include the prologue. I don't think they understood how important it was to help us understand both John and Alma and why they are like they are - how they could grow up and yet have such opposing beliefs.

Burne does not allow Filley the space to explore the battle within Alma. John teases and prods and pokes to release the doppelganger to join him in his own moral descent. The tension of the work really lies in Alma's failure to overcome. Rosa (Low) is the image constantly thrown in her face as the kind of woman John wants and until she allows her corporeal needs to overcome her spiritual constraints she cannot have him. Without this tension, her downfall is hollow.

The character of the mother is also woefully under used. One of the great tensions working on Alma from childhood is the caring of her mother who has debilitating and destructive mental health problems. Burne just keeps her sitting behind the action raising some verbal interference. We rarely see them fully interacting and we never get to fully appreciate the fear or love Alma must have for her. We never see the destruction she has on the lives of both the reclusive father and the overwhelmed daughter who has to put on a facade of superiority to hide her misery and despair.

The company in general do act out the play well and Burne has directed the story well, it just feels as though the intention was missed and, to be honest, I don't know how much more a playwright can do to tell people what the story is.

I love the accents. I rarely say that, but this is because they are rarely done well or consistently. This ensemble of actors have worked hard though and none of them miss a beat. This is essential for producing Williams' plays because he is a poetic writer and the rhythm of his work relies on the melody of the southern drawl.

The decision to present Summer & Smoke in the Good Shepherd Chapel is a stroke of genius. I just wish (again) they had included the prologue somehow because the fresco work could then be a much more powerful and active agent in the story and add to the overwhelming pressures working on Alma.

The sound and music was absolute perfection. Lyngcoln and McKeown play live and in particular they make the decadent scenes sing with power and potential. All of the production elements worked to do their bit although the lighting could have drawn on the iconography within the chapel more perhaps.

I did enjoy this production of Summer & Smoke. It is the fact it was so good which has made me frustrated because I can so clearly see the potential of the powerhouse it could have been. I don't know if it is a play which will get much more stage time in Australia because it speaks very little to the Australian life or current modes of society but I am glad I have seen it staged. Tonight is the last performance and I would recommend seeing it if you can.

3.5 Stars

Zelos - Film Review

What: Zelos
Digital release date: 13 October 2018
Written by: Claire J Harris
Directed by: Jo-Anne Brechin
Featuring: Shannon Ashlyn, Ainslie McGlynn, and Ben Mortely

Shannon Ashlyn and Ben Mortely

Zelos is the Greek work for both passion and jealousy and Harris' film of the same title is about that and so much more. Having won a slew of awards from film festivals across the globe, the film has its digital release today in iTunes Store, Amazon Prime, and Google Play.

Zelos is the first feature film for both Harris and Brechin. Originally a short story by Harris, the two of them developed the idea into a film script when they met at AFTRS. Two years after graduating they finally had the film in the can so to speak. In 2017 it was released on the big screen and now it is available for general consumption through your favourite digital outlet.

Zelos is the story of a thirty-something middle class couple who are literally crossing the threshold to live together. It could be said the details of the film are cliche; Sarah (Ashlyn) sleeps with someone while on holiday and Bernard (Mortley) spends the rest of the film trying to come to terms with it. Both of them are desperate to hold the relationship together.

It is said that one person in a relationship is always more invested than the other and in Zelos it is Bernard who is that person. We never really find out why Sarah went on holiday without Bernard although towards the end it becomes apparent there were miscommunications long before the moment the film starts the story.

Counterpoint to Sarah and Bernard's story is the relationship between Rebecca (McGlynn) and her husband. The desperation with which Sarah and Bernard are working to hold their relationship together is counterpoint to how carelessly Rebecca's marriage is allowed to fall apart. Add the subtext of Bernard having always had a secret crush on Rebecca and you have the ingredients for a fairly tried and true relationship drama (it is billed as a dramedy but I didn't find much to laugh about).

Don't worry though, there is a much deeper commentary in the film than first meets the eye. Having read interviews and publicity I am not sure Harris even knows what an incisive commentary on the relationship dilemmas of modern times she has written in Zelos. Underlying all of these people and their relationships lies the question of partnerships as property.

Historically marriage was always connected to transfers of wealth and property. In a world where everyone has an independent means of income (educated middle class Sydney for example), the financial transactions are no longer central to the need for partnering.

The other element of classical marriage contracts was the woman as being a element of property requisite to the exchange transaction. Getting in the way of that is that pesky feminist revolution which gained so much ground in the 20th century.

Finally, for women in the past sex meant children which meant an inability to provide due to pregnancy, birthing, and then nourishing multiple mouths. With the advent of birth control came sexual liberation. In the modern age and in first world countries the idea of woman as property is not incumbent.

It is this idea which Zelos incidentally explores and struggles with in an intriguing fashion. It raises bigger questions. As Rebecca points whilst disparaging When Harry Met Sally, we are expected to have sex with a lot of people and then get married and just sleep with one person for the rest of our lives. We can blame the Disney princesses all we like, but the manifesto for the role of women has been in place for millennia prior to us. Bernard's struggle, whilst seeming to be patriarchal bullshit is still subtextually wired into our society. It is no accident this is Bernard's story and not Sarah's.

I really enjoyed this film and the question it raises about what partnerships are in this new world, especially in light of gay marriage plebiscites, the religious right push for celibacy and fidelity, and the questions about the character and behaviour of far too many politicians to enumerate. We are struggling with these questions globally and at an intrinsic level.

Zelos is not a perfect film however. Sarah and Bernard are supposedly both writers. Bernard has lost his mojo and been swallowed by the corporate world of app development. In the course of his relationship struggles however, he pulls out his post-it notes and laptop and writes a screenplay.

There are some writer group scenes (which are meant to be comic relief I think), where he writes the screenplay for the movie we are watching. One of those 'the play within the play' kind of thing. In the group he is told it has been done before. The idea is stale.

I think this is a moment for Harris to thumb her nose at someone who may have made those comments about this film. Whilst I didn't like those scenes, good on her for going ahead with it. It works if you have something new to show, and in Zelos she does.

I adore the design palette and the colour grading of the film. It is so refreshing to see a film which is not blurange. It has a very sun-washed look with subtle sepia tones which gives it a kind of classic feel. It is like watching a bittersweet memory, but a fresh one..

Zelos is a great movie to download and watch on a quiet night in. There is something comforting about watching others struggle with what we are struggling with and this film provides some deeper food for thought and perhaps some insight as to why relationships really are so hard.

3.5 Stars