The Audition - Theatre Review

What: The Audition
When: 13 - 24 November 2019
Written by: Patricia Cornelius, Sahra Davoudi, Tes Lyssiotis, Wahibe Moussa, Milad Norouzi, Melissa Reeves and Christos Tsiolkas
Directed by: Irine Vela
Performed by: Sahra Davoudi, Vahideh Eisaei, Milad Norouzi, Peter Paltos, and Mary Sitarenos
Design by: Adrienne Chisholm
Lighting by: Gina Gascoigne
Dramaturgy by: Maryanne Lynch
Stage managed by: Genevieve Cizevskis

Peter Paltos and Sahra Davoudi - photo by Darren Gill

The Audition is a new production by Outer Urban Projects and is currently playing at La Mama Courthouse. The generative impetus is to correlate the uncertain life of the actor to the uncertain life of the refugee. Whilst I am not sure it achieves it goals, it has evolved into a powerful portrait of the refugee experience, pulling at the heartstrings and demonstrating the pain of the negligent cruelty of our Australia refugee processes.

Outer Urban Projects is a company which takes the voices of disaffected communities in the northern suburbs of Melbourne and finds innovative performance modes in which to amplify them into the general community. In many ways The Audition is, perhaps, the exception to the rule in that Vela (director) has chosen to use the short play format, so popular in Melbourne currently, to tell a sequence of unrelated and yet inherently related stories to highlight the uncertainty and impermanence and randomness of our refugee processes.

The Audition brings together the old Melbourne Workers Theatre team of Vella, Tsiolkas (writer - 'Ava and Vida'), Cornelius (writer - 'The Doll'), and Reeves (writer - 'You Made Us A Promise What You Told Us Today Would Be True') along with emerging artists to tell this tale of displacement and disempowerment. What makes this show different from other versions of this type of theatre is Vela has interwoven the stories so that they blend and merge, giving a strong sense of commonality and the idea - almost cubist in nature - of how this disenfranchisement and punishment for the mere act of wanting life is happening in so many iterations in so many places at the same time and across time.

The reason I say at the start the show does not reach it's goals is because I don't think the plight of the actor as a cogent analogy has really been explored. Instead, most of the scenes which address auditions focus on discrimination which is absolutely true and legitimate but speaks more the conversation about community integration rather than a parallel of otherness across two disparate communities. A painful truth, but not quite as advertised. It may perhaps be because the connection is tenuous at best and therefore better left behind as a seedling of possibility which was never able to thrive.

One of the things I really adore about The Audition is how Vella has chosen to use the qanun (played by Eisaei) as the primary musical accompaniment. It is not only beautiful but is a stunning meta-narrative about the richness and complexity of the Persian culture played on the backdrop of the impressively invoked vast red/brown earth of the Australian landscape created by Chisholm (designer). In fact, that other parallel of sparse, dry lands is also commented on in this aesthetic and provides a powerful backdrop for 'Woomera' (written by Lyssiotis).

Again, working on multiple levels is Cornelius' piece which shows the plight of an auditioning actor (Sitarenos) who is evidently of non-English ethnicity when trying to audition for a lead role in an the iconic Australian play Summer Of The Seventeeth Doll. Originally the concept was for the actor to be auditioning for Pearl which would have spoken strongly to the ideas in other pieces questioning whether there is a 'right' way to be, or do, or act in order to be given a place - either in the play or in the Australian community. Somewhere along the lines the idea changed though, and now the actor is auditioning for the lead role of Olive which narrows the narrative to only one of discrimination and removes some of the nuances of the original concept of both the monologue and The Audition I think.

What this does do, however, is embed the link between this monologue and Tsiolkas' scene. In 'Ava and Vida' the discrimination is spoken of more directly and includes a narrative about how young Australia is and how we don't understand the complexities and nuances of deep, deep history or the refugee experience. The great irony of this discrimination really comes to the foreground in Moussa's 'I Can Be Her' as Davoudi tries to audition for the the role of Hecuba in a production of Trojan Women.

Again, I don't know if this is entirely true as most of the Australian population is immigrant in nature and come from peoples which go back deep in time. What is different though is ours is a broken history and we are people who have been willing (and in some cases unwilling) to break our ties and begin a new iteration of life and culture. It is this iteration which embodies the newness and it is this which creates the tensions with refugees from the Persian Gulf (which is the focus of the refugee stories in this work).

Ironically it is this very newness which ought to make us more understanding and more welcoming. Instead we huddle closer so that nobody new can join the group and we inflict the worst pain available which is loss of identity and self through marginalisation and imprisonment. Please note, I am deliberately not speaking about our First Nations people because that is a whole different and much bigger conversation and outside the scope of The Audition.

I feel also that these three pieces miss an important point about acting though. It is redundant for an actor to say they 'know' the character when they don't know the production. Thus, the cry of 'I know who this is' is no justification for casting. I normally wouldn't comment on this except that it resonates so often across this show. A play is a motile creature in performance so you cannot 'know' a character before you know the vision for the production as a whole. You cannot make those judgements from the page alone. Having said that, my comments are not meant to detract from the truth of the unnecessary racial discrimination which has haunted our white, patriarchal stages for the entire life of this English colony.

There is so much to say about The Audition, but I will end by commenting on the lyrical beauty of Norouzi's 'Beautiful Jail' (written and performed by Norouzi). Rather than looking at the fences as happens in the earlier piece, 'Woomera', Norouzi focuses on the sky above. Looking up he sees light and space, hopes and dreams rather than his incarceration in the middle of nowhere. Gascoigne's gentle yet ingenious lighting comes to the fore as he wanders vast spaces in his mind, although only a few steps in his body.

Whilst The Audition is not entirely what I was expecting, it is a beautiful and painful piece of theatre trying to help us understand the plight of refugees generally, and their experiences in trying to become Australian. I was especially moved by Davoudi's comparison of death to losing her 'voice' should she have to return to her country in'Seven Days'. Women across the world can relate to this - even Australian women. Hear these stories and then think about what we have done, what we are doing, and what we can do better from tomorrow.

4 Stars

La Boheme - Opera Review

What: La Boheme
When: 12 - 21 November 2019
Where: Wesley Ann
Composed by: Giacomo Puccini
Libretto by: Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica
Directed by: Kate Millett
Conducted by: Joseph Hie
Performed by: Andrew Alesi, Jordan Auld, Pam Christie, Belinda Dalton, Daniel Felton,Alicia Groves, Dominique Musico, James Sybren Penn, and Peter Tregear

James Sybren Penn, Belinda Dalton, Daniel Felton, Peter Tregear and Andrew Alesi

La Boheme is one of the favourite operas of the 20th century, filling opera houses across the last century and well into this one as well. BK Opera bring us the pub version this month at the Wesley Anne in Northcote and I have to say after seeing it this way I can't imagine ever wanting to see it in a proper opera house ever again. The local pub really is the natural home for this tale of bohemian camaraderie.

Puccini's La Boheme is based on a series of stories which became a novel and then later a play by Henry Murger - Scènes de la vie de bohème (also the inspiration for Rent). The original text is a series of stories which follow the escapades of a group of poverty stricken bohemians who called themselves 'the water drinkers' because they were too poor to afford wine.

Relating to these stories through his own life during his poverty stricken student days (the one herring between four moment in the opera came from his own life experience), Puccini took several characters from the book, and the structure of acts 1 and 4 from the play and filled in the rest. What he ended up with is a funny and feisty romp which ends in tragedy as the heroine dies a long, painful death through respiratory disease (as is the fate of so many women in opera tales).

Millett (director) has taken this story and really brings into focus the absurdity of the myth that poverty is the artist's muse by placing this group of ever optimistic friends in a local pub to drink and laugh and play and die amongst us ordinary folk. This is even more appropriate given that Puccini was just on the verge of entering his verisimo period and what BK Opera highlight in this production is that transitional edge from romanticism (the declamatory style and highly emotional singing) into realism (with the everyday dress and humble surrounds).

La Boheme relies on energy to work and Hie (conductor) keeps the singers rollicking along at an exciting pace which allows the comedy to really punch. I have to say that Christie's work on an old and battered baby grand piano is quite magnificent too, keeping pace with the performance yet bringing to life the famous beauty and nuance of Puccini's composition.

Watching this ensemble perform is like watching a high octane episode of Friends. Dalton (Mimi) is an entrancing soprano with an ability to act which many a fully trained actor would envy. Finally I saw a death scene which didn't make me cringe!

Auld (Musetta) is an incredibly powerful soprano and is such delightful comic relief in this production. With a stage full of tenors and baritones Auld could easily get lost, but there is no chance of that with her strong vocals and brilliantly outrageous costumes.

The real story of La Boheme is the camaraderie between the men and the family they create between themselves to get through their hard life of creativity, dilitance, and unrelenting poverty. With the previous BK Opera shows I have reviewed (A Night of Gluck Operas and Bluebeard's Castle) Penn has been conducting but for this season he steps onto the stage to sing Rudolfo.

Penn has an incredibly powerful voice definitely trained for the big opera houses and his acting, whilst lacking in realism, is bold and clear. I suspect he is not too accustomed to working in such intimate proximity with the audience. His singing is sublime though - especially his drunk singing - and I really wanted more typing (when have you ever heard anyone say that?) although he does need to learn which way the paper goes in...

It's a tough task, but his entourage (Alesi, Felton, and Tregear) keep up with him vocally and spiritedly. I admit the quintet at Cafe Momus was my favourite moment of the night although there are so many good times in this opera that was a hard choice to make. Even Musico, who had a non-speaking role as a waitress, was feisty and owned her moments on stage!

I was less convinced about the casting of Groves as the landlord and the old gentleman. There was no value to be had in shifting the gender and the roles are written for a bass. In fact it was confusing to have those characters as female and Groves struggled vocally. It didn't help that the surtitles weren't working well and it was hard to keep up with who she was playing.

What I am trying to say is this production of La Boheme is a blast. Grab a hot toddy, pull up a pew and have a rollicking good time at the Wesley Anne. The show is chock full of drinking songs and bonhomie despite the sad ending. In these times of high unemployment and unaffordable cost of living this 19th century tale is as true for millennial Australia as it was for Parisian beatniks of the past.

4 Stars

SPIT - Circus Review

What: SPIT
When: 7 - 10 November 2019
Where: Melba Spiegeltent
Created and performed by: Angelique Ross

Angelique Ross - photo by Tony Caroll

This first week of the Circus Oz Sidesault festival has had a strong feminist edge and Angelique Ross' show SPIT fits nicely in the trio presented this week. Tonight is the last night for this first week of programs though, so get down there this evening if you want to get your feminist itch scratched with this degree of satisfaction.

SPIT kicks off the evening of fire and brimstone which includes Invisible Things and Never (ever in the history of calm down has anyone calmed down by being told to) Calm Down! Ross' energy and strength and sense of humour is the perfect start for this program of power.

Accompanied by femme power rock anthems Ross starts with that quintessentially women's work icon, the blender, which sounds impressively close to a chainsaw. A simple juggling routine with tomatoes follows which ends with them in the blender, mildly spitting their juice but no harm is done...yet!

Ross then pulls out the next standard piece of female accoutrement - the FMBs (Fuck Me Boots). I said in my review of Wunderage I had never seen stilletoes on a tight rope. Well, now I have so it is not surprising this second time around I wasn't quite as in awe. On the other hand, Ross is incredibly strong with core strength Xena would be proud of. In a way, this is why it was less impressive - because I had no doubt at all Ross could stay upright and do her tricks.

This is perhaps the great weakness of SPIT. Ross is a superb acrobat and her tight rope walking and trapeze work are fantastic. Traditionally, however, tight rope acts work because of the tension as to whether the walker will fall, mirroring the tension of the rope between it's 2 anchor points.

Ross has fed into this tradition but it is impossible to hide her strength and power and given this is part of the metaphor of the show I would rather she just celebrate her skills and abilities and own her magnificence. She also has one of the best levels of showmanship I have ever seen too, owning the work and her audience.

Whilst frailty, uncertainty, and error are an integral part of strength, in this intimate setting it pays to keep it real. Be strong and capable when you can and keep it authentic such as what happens in the juggling routines. The juggling is possibly Ross' weakest circus skill but that could be because the level of difficulty is up around 10 with juggling squishy tomatoes and trying to get them to fall into a blender to satisfy a craving just like the Solo Man of yore.

I found it hard to follow a narrative in SPIT but just enjoyed watching a great performer do her thing. There was one dance piece with an overdubbed narrative about hating suits which was probably the weakest part of the show. It was too long, too slow, and poorly contextualised but perhaps with a stronger narrative framework it might work better.

There is audience interaction and it is a whole lot of fun. It begins with one poor victim but by the end just about everyone can get in on the act with vigour. There are so many tomatoes!

SPIT is messy, spirited fun. It's on at 6:15 tonight so get down to the Spiegeltent and see all three fabulous shows in this first week Sidesault program.

3 Stars

Invisible Things - Circus Review

What: Invisible Things
When: 7 - 10 November 2019
Where: RR1, Circus Oz
Created and performed by: Alex Mizzen
Technical design by: Michael Maggs
Sound design by: Anna Whitaker

Alex Mizzen - photo by Krystal Beazley

Coming to Melbourne audiences after a 2018 season at The Powerhouse in Brisbane in 2018, the Sidesault experimental circus festival brings Invisible Things to The Melba Spiegeltent. A combination of circus, dance and performance art, Alex Mizzen takes us on a journey of investigation into her inner world and has us questioning our own 'Little Boxes' too.

Recovering from injury, Mizzen took a look at herself and her life through the writings in her journal. What she saw only she can know, but the investigations and discoveries and revelations she experiences in Invisible Things is something we can all understand - assuming you are willing to look at yourself rather than the rest of the world for a change...

Mizzen begins in a plastic wrapped cube. Dense smoke fills her space making her only visible when she is near the edges, but when she is seen Mizzen is wearing a long, formal gown and is tied up in the ends of aerial silks.

She moves around, finding her self confined by the box and the knots in the silks. Unwinding her way out of the ribbon is the first steps towards her journey of self-knowing.

Layers peel away as the smoke starts to clear. The dress gives way layer by layer, revealing more of Mizzen's body while lights in the space reveal more and more secrets held in this little room she finds herself in.

There are boxes within her big box and she opens them, finding tools to explore herself even further. They also allow her to hide away the items from the past which have kept her hidden and entangled.

Strength is found in the contortions of hand balancing. A skipping rope builds stamina and, when used as a whip, begins to show us the fragility of this cage/cube Mizzen finds herself confined in.

The whole journey escalates but does not stop with the exultation of fresh air. Once freed of her confines, the big surprise is what happens when faced with the choice to leave or return. At this point I will say Mizzen is an aerial artist, but I will leave you to discover how Mizzen explodes into her true universe.

Invisible Things is visually stunning and the lighting (Maggs) and sound (Whitaker) work powerfully to tell the story and expose Mizzen's journey - literally full of ups and downs, highs and lows, peaks and troughs! The sound pulses and throbs and flows just as Mizzen dances, and undulates and explodes inside herself.

The lighting reveals invisible writings which could be a code, could be rambling, could be a breakdown of 'form' and 'order' - kind of like Sidesault perhaps... In fact Invisible Things may be the perfect allegory for the Sidesault festival!

Invisible Things is supposedly a promenade although in truth you don't need to move around because Mizzen performs in the round. The cube does break free of it's moorings, but the performance space is large and the audience tended to stay on the outer edges.

I did wonder if we were missing something by not getting up close and personal - something visceral perhaps? Oh, and Circus Oz is committed to accessibility so if you use a mobility device you can use it with complete freedom (I took my scooter in and it was fine).

Invisible Things is as much a work of art as it is a visceral and exciting performance. Join Mizzen on her journey and you may just discover an urge to take one of your own when you leave.

5 Stars

Never (in the history of calm down has anyone calmed down by being told to) Calm Down! - Cabaret Review

What: Never (in the history of calm down has anyone calmed down by being told to) Calm Down!
When: 7 - 10 November 2019
Where: Melba Spiegeltent
Created and performed by: Rebecca Church, Maude Davey, and Anna Lumb

Circus Oz is presenting it's two week experimental circus festival, Sidesault, over the next fortnight and one of the powerhouse shows kicking off this first week is a show with the longest (but most brilliant) title which I - along with others - will shorten to Never...Calm Down! Experimental circus is a bit like live art - nobody really knows what it is. Yet that is what is so exciting about it and this show really does push the boundaries...or does it?

Never...Calm Down! is the brain child of three of Melbourne's cabaret doyenne's Lumb, Davey, and Church (who you may better recognise as burlesque artist Becky Lou). The reason I say this show is experimental circus is because the circus elements - aerial work, contortion, acrobatics - are so seemlessly woven into the narrative and shape of the show you could easily come away saying it isn't circus at all.  The reason I say it is not pushing boundaries is that these women have been pushing these boundaries throughout their entire artistic career.

Never...Calm Down! is a dreamscape. Or more accurately, it is a nightmare. It is the nightmare we women live our whole lives long. Beginning with a vignette which is something of the lovechild between Marilyn Monroe Hollywood glamour and the 'Beauty School Dropout' sequence from Grease you know instantly what this evening is going to be about.

Davey loves working with surrealism and with her and Lumb starting wearing lightshades over their heads, acting as living furniture to the lazily lounging Church, the hallmark beautiful irreverance which is about to ensue is hinted at before the show even begins. As predicted, Never...Calm Down! becomes a crying, shrieking, hilarious, and painful ode to the plight of the female psyche in the modern world.

This work was always going to be feminist in nature - this is what these women do. I think, though, the trauma of the actions of those St Kevin's College boys crystalised the nexus of the work and Never...Calm Down! riffs on that horrible song and why even the strongest women, at their core, are taught to feel like shit. Literally poo as Davey shows us in a hilariously painful manner.

Amongst the plethora of Monroe wigs and sequined gowns, mixed in with the contortion hoop and aerial pulley, is a fierce splattering of blood, guts and tears. Do you want to know how strong women are?

We are so strong we keep standing when the world tells us we will always be worth less then men - any man. We are so strong we keep walking even though blood pours out of our bodies every month (I have hit my 40th year of non-stop bleeding so think about that!). We are so strong we can hold each other up rather than drag each other down. We are so strong we can finally allow ourselves to cry and scream and laugh publicly and unashamedly about the situation we find ourselves in.

This is what Never...Calm Down! is about. It is about what a woman's life looks like when you stare at it in the face without the veneer of patriarchy trying to gloss it over and cover it up. It is the living nightmare men don't want to face. It is the hysterical woman who has something to complain about without the chemistry of valium to smooth it out.

Did you watch Q&A last week? The one with all the women? The episode has been pulled down from all platforms because women speaking the truth is one of the most dangerous things in the world.

This is the conversation Never...Calm Down! is engaging in. Do we have to have the civil war the suffragette's never got to finish before you will acknowledge women as equal? I hope not.

Don't worry though, Never...Calm Down! won't be pulled down like the TV show was, but it is a very short season so make sure you get down to the Melba Spiegeltent this weekend before it is gone.

4.5 Stars

That Time Everything Went Well And We Were Totally Fine - Comedy Review

What: That Time Everything Went Well And We Were Totally Fine
When: 1 - 16 November 2019
Where: Bluestone Church Arts Space
Written and performed by: Belinda Campbell and Jennifer Piper
Directed by: Kate Cameron
Design by: Chelsea Maron
Lighting by: Jamie Turner
Sound by: Avery Hutley
Stage managed by: Henry O'Brien

Belinda Campbell and Jennifer Piper - photo by Jack Dixon-Gunn

That Time Everything Went Well And We Were Totally Fine is a new sketch comedy created by Wit Inc founders, Campbell and Piper. It is running for the first two weeks of November in their home venue, The Bluestone Church Arts Space.

Mental health is on everybody's radar at the moment (even the Prime Minister's!) and the Wit Inc team have chosen to take a look at anxiety in their new sketch comedy That Time Everything Went Well And We Were Totally Fine. Waiting for a train at Panic Station, Frankie (Piper) and Gerry (Campbell) manage to miss every train which comes by on their way to see a show in the city.

In between trains we flash to a range of sketches, most of which are TV show parodies such as morning shows and Jeopardy and The Voice. There is one great sketch a little out of the pattern in which we see Frankie trying to get some sleep - if only that annoying little munchkin would stop making her want to pee, turn off a light which wasn't on, etc...

Both Frankie and Gerry have anxiety. Gerry just broke up with her boyfriend. Frankie is bisexual and is having dating problems.

The show bounces around scenarios which are very good at allowing us to see and understand various symptoms of anxiety such as apologizing all the time, crying over everything, and constantly feeling like you've forgotten something. Disappointingly, it gives no strategies on how to deal with the problem - no positive ones, anyway. They do smoke, wallow in their grief, use passive aggression - all the staples.

Although it is a sketch comedy show, Piper and Campbell have created a through line which references the absurdist play Waiting For Godot by Samuel Beckett. It could have worked it they hammed it up more and committed to the comedy.

The waiting for the train scenes are a bit confusing because they are played with the traditional fourth wall, but then out of the blue in one of them Piper starts doing her responses to Campbell's conversation in direct address to the audience. This is a detail Cameron (director) should have picked up on.

There is also a problematic tonal difference between these scenes and the other sketches and this goes to the heart of the bigger problem. The scripts needs the help of a dramaturg. It feels as if it can't decide if it wants to be drama or sketch comedy although the publicity says it is the latter.

There are also a lot of faults of logic and credibility which become too numerous to slip by unnoticed. For example they miss one train because Frankie takes off her boots, deciding she doesn't want them anymore. Why? And then when the train arrives she has to put them on again. Gerry tells her to put them on in the train but she refuses. Why? The conceit just doesn't hold up.

The morning show cooking sketch is funny and well done. Jeopardy was good too, although predictable and I found myself asking why choose a show which doesn't appear on Australian TV? Surely there would be a greater audience connection if they parodied something like Celebrity Name Game or something like that?

All of the production elements are great - the design (Maron) is strong and the sound (Hutley) is fantastic. There are some really clever lighting solutions by Turner (lighting). There is also a puppet. I don't know why there is a puppet, but Campbell operated it well.

Maybe one of the biggest hurdles for getting more audience laughter is the pace. Piper, in particular, doesn't have the timing right. Comedy needs pace. Witty repartee has to be snappy as well. If you leave too much space between words the jokes fall off the rails because the audience has too much time for their logic to impose itself.

All in all That Time Everything Went Well And We Were Totally Fine has good bones but needs more time in script development with a dramaturg. Decisions need to be made. Questions such as what is the dramatic style and what is the performance style just haven't been interrogated enough. It is a fun show, but I think it's next iteration will be much more fulfilling for audiences.

2.5 Stars

29 Days To Say Goodbye - Theatre Review

What: 29 Days To Say Goodbye
When: 23 October - 2 November 2019
Where: The Burrow
Written and performed by: Louise Richardson
Sound and lighting by: Luke Schlesinger

Louise Richardson

The Melbourne arts scene is engaging in a lot of discussion about death and grief lately. With the planet in a climate emergency, the world flooded with refugees for a number of reasons, and with a record number of people entering/in retirement in Australia - which means there will be a record number of people dying in the next decade or so - it is no wonder. Richardson has entered this arena with her own story of loss and grieving with some great guidance for anyone who thinks they are or will be experiencing it in their lives in her solo show 29 Days To Say Goodbye at The Burrow.

29 Days To Say Goodbye is an 'ode to grief' as it says in the program. Richardson has lost both her dad and her brother, but this show focuses on her experience with the former.  The time line is a little confusing because at one point she says it was 7 weeks from diagnosis to death, but the show revolves around the 29 days she had to deal with the impending loss. It probably doesn't matter though - the point is it was quick.

The show flashes around time and situation in a cubist manner and combines acting with body art. In that respect it was very reminiscent of The Disappearing Trilogy recently on at La Mama. Richardson though, has managed to integrate her tools in a much more cohesive way, exploring the things said and showing us the things which are beyond words.

In a way this is what Richardson is trying to tell us. We have words to explain things and communicate things but sometimes they are not enough, and sometimes they are just plain wrong. We know about the 7 steps of grief, but what few of us understand is we all move between those stages at a different pace and usually in a different order. People toss around platitudes to make us feel better - words which are meaningless and in many instances causing their own level of pain.

The rear of the stage is lined with four full length mirrors reflecting the audience back at itself just as Richardson is reflecting back on her experiences. On one is a list of these platitudes and it is powerful when she brings that mirror downstage and crosses them off one by one as she explores why those are not the right words. Things like 'at least he is with the angels now' and 'you'll get over it' and 'I feel your pain'.

Perhaps the most beautiful part of the show is how Richardson links the triumphant premiership of her father's football team that year to her memories of him. The one thing he asked for on his death bed was for this to happen because they never had. It all came down to the last 29 seconds at which point they became unbeatable. "29 seconds to win the game, 29 days to say goodbye." This moment is the one which best illustrates the confusing contradiction of emotions which are the core element of grief.

As beautiful as this show is, I did find myself a bit abstracted from it, I have been thinking about this a lot and I think it is because of the measured, almost lecture-like (or storytelling?) delivery.  Her point across the show is that everyone experiences grief differently and you should not measure yourself against anyone else or even who you were before. Cry when you need to cry. Do what you need to do when you do it.

Thus, my disconnection is going to sound ridiculous after saying that but I think I needed to see some of that control break to really connect emotionally. Richardson has beautiful and clever ways to show how survival is all about taking one step at a time and how time warps when you are grieving, but it felt as though she was letting us in to the story but not into her pain. It's a tough thing to do and I don't begrudge any holding back but it is the one element which stops the audience from crying with her.

29 Days To Say Goodbye is a beautiful and delicate show. It is only on for one more night for this season but Richardson has indicated it will be back in another iteration in the future. When you see the ads, buy a ticket. It is a very beautiful journey.

4 Stars

Thigh Gap - Theatre Review

What: Thigh Gap
When: 30 October - 10 November 2019
Where: La Mama Courthouse
Written by: Jamaica Zuanetti
Directed by: Alice Darling
Performed by: Lauren Mass and Veronica Thomas
Design by: Sophie Woodward
Lighting by: John Collopy and Georgie Wolfe
Sound by: Raya Slavin
Stage Managed by: Jordan Carter

Lauren Mass and Veronica Thomas - photo by Jack Dixon-Gunn

Thigh Gap is a comically absurdist play showing at La Mama Courthouse for the next couple of weeks. Playwright Zuanetti takes us through a string of moments between two flatmates as they negotiate each others' oddities and obsessions within the cocoon of pop culture stereotypes, pop psychology and pop self-help.

Iris (Thomas) is bored, unfocussed and strapped for cash. She gives up her painting studio and brings in a flatmate, Gemma (Mass). It seems as if things will go off the rails from the very first day when Gemma brings a rabbit she never mentioned in the interview and insists on reading Iris' tarot cards even though Iris is a full blown sceptic. Iris never says sorry and Gemma never stops saying sorry.

The two women survive the teething pains and find common ground in the struggle to meet societal demands  of what a woman should be like, act like, and look like.  Iris has man troubles and Gemma is a focussed career woman who deals with work pressures with OCD-like tendencies such as having specific shoes for each day of the week. All hell breaks loose when she can't find her Tuesday shoes!

Zuanetti has created a really good echo of Sartre's No Exit although the first half played a bit too heavily into the comedy genre for my liking. At first I was worried I was going to be sitting through another comedy routine just like the thousands which haunt the comedy festivals and fringe festivals of the world. 

Thankfully the show moves more strongly into the absurd and a nightmare vision emerges of two women trapped in cycle of self abuse they, in theory, could choose to leave but never will - much like Estragon and Vladimir in Beckett's Waiting For Godot. This is scarier though because Iris and Gemma are the Everywoman which means millions of women fall into this self-destructive cycle and will never get themselves out.

Darling's direction helps get us to the horror gently, scene by scene. You really can't see it coming at the beginning and then the axe falls like a hammer at the end. This is really helped by Collopy's and Wolfe's lighting which switches between the ordinary and haunted regularly but not in any way predictable. In a play where most directors would fall into the trap of endless blackouts, this team avoid it and I thank them from the bottom of my heart. Slavin's sound design was also creative and supportive of the ideas in the production although I think there could have been more of it.

Woodward's design is far less successful in my opinion. The set is clever, with all surfaces covered/upholstered in pink yoga mats. Although untidily finished it is clever and works well within the construct of the play. It really resonates in the exercise scene where Gemma is trying to get her arms to look like those of Gwyneth Paltrow because then she will have the life Gwynnie has, right...?

The costuming, however, is appalling. I can live with the incredibly unimaginative black casual attire. Standard blacks are the actor solve all aren't they? The pink evening gowns, though, are atrocious. They should be thrown out and replaced immediately. They do not say what the performance is saying and they look terrible. I mean really, really bad! Seriously, just go to KMart and get anything and it will be better.

As much as I do like Thigh Gap and it is totally up my ally in terms of ideas and content, I will say I wish it had gone a little deeper, The play kind of goes for the easy targets - models, eating disorders, makeup - but it only touches on the truly systemic situations causing the disfunction. These are the symptoms, not the causes. This is what makes the situation Absurdist. You can't cure an illness if you only treat the symptoms. You have to eliminate the cause.

There are some important references. Gemma's work situation shows us clearly how she falls into her OCD and her reliance on mystical predictive devices. It is a lot harder to work out what is going on with Iris. I suspect it is her poverty which causes her to not be able to pursue her art but the script doesn't really let us in on that. All we really know is she is a party girl.

There are fun references (fun meaning scary but true) such as not eating/eating white bread, self-starving, miracle creams which not only moisten your skin but also solve all life's problems, etc. The rabbit is a fun reference to the movie Fatal Attraction but the prop is not used enough as a bunny and is moved around way to much to become other props like a coffee table, etc. It becomes amazingly irritating because of it's size and how it stands out as a big black object in an all pink set. 

At times it is evident they have explored what to do with it too far, such as when Iris is resting her feet on it on the couch. The denouement would be so much more powerful, however, if we got to see a relationship forming between Iris and the rabbit.

Thigh Gap has a lot of laughs and some good, serious conversation. I haven't mentioned it so far, but Mass and Thomas are fantastic actors and they keep us engrossed from start to finish with not a moment of flagging energy or rhythm. It is wonderful to be in the hands of such a capable team, a team you know you can trust to take you on the journey they have promised. (Oh, and the pop video scene will have you falling on the floor laughing!)

3.5 Stars

Othello - Theatre Review

What: Othello
When: 25 - 26 October 2019
Where: The MC Showroom
Written by: William Shakespeare
Directed by: Lenora Locatelli
Performed by: Paul Barry, Claire Duncan, Cadi MacInnes, Roisin O'Neill, Gabrielle Rando, Madeline Rintoul, Nic Stephens, Ismail Taylor-Kamara, and Jett Thomas
Sound by: Sheridan Killingback
Stage managed by: Mitch McDonough

Ismail Taylor-Kamara and Nic Stephens

Beating the Christmas rush, Dionysus Theatre kicks off the summer Shakespeare mania with the dark tale of envy, Othello. This production had a short season in their home on the Peninsula last weekend, and this weekend they have brought their work to The MC Showroom for the rest of us to engage with.

Othello is a late-mid career play by Shakespeare, coming a little after Hamlet and a little before Macbeth. As with so much of Shakespeare's work, he is merely remediating somebody else's story - Un Capitano Moro by Cinthio).

For me this is also probably one of his most coherently constructed works although it is also perhaps the most overtly racist. The outrageous and unapologetic racism is exactly why we shouldn't be staging this play anymore, but the excellent construction is why we should continue to study it as part of the craft and history of theatre making. Personally I don't think the craft outweighs the ideas when deciding to stage a play, but we are still stuck in an anglo-centric, white patriarchy so expect to see it again far too often in times to come as our social system struggles to maintain its supremacy.

Othello is really the story of Iago, a senior soldier in the Venetian army (yes, this is also Shakespeare's trademark cultural appropriation...). Iago hates Othello because 1. Othello is black, 2. Othello outranks him, 3. Othello promoted junior officer Cassio above him. Iago spends the rest of the play plotting and carrying out Othello's utter destruction and happily hurting and killing a lot of other people along the way just because he can. Each step of Iago's puzzle is immaculately placed in this play and as a work of plot construction it is awe inspiring.

In my opinion Othello is also one of Shakespeare's least sexist plays, but my comfort in that was destroyed upon reading Locatelli's (director) program notes. In them she asserts Iago is a woman. Why? Because 'A man would not be capable to orchestrate such a complex plan ...[for]... each character Iago is manipulating.' Thus we find ourselves right back in the middle of the Eve and the apple myth which has been used for centuries to oppress women. Only women are capable of vile acts of deception and betrayal and all the bad mojo of the world falls at our feet. Mea culpa.

The act of changing Iago's gender pronouns in the play ended up having little to no effect in terms of elucidating anything about the story or the character as it turns out (much like MTC's Queen Lear several years ago). Locatelli does not appear to have a vision which either supports or denies Iago as a woman although Shakespeare's dialogue does resist this interpretation, and Stephens was so far outside her acting capabilities at this stage of her career she was unable to imbue the character with anything one might identify as feminine beyond her physical female body.

The truth is, this production of Othello is little more than an off-book staged reading of the play. The actors stand when it is their turn to speak and they sit on the sidelines when they are not in the scene. I was actually quite excited with the possibilities when I walked into the the theatre and saw the set - a series of different sized black boxes randomly set around the stage and a huge red ribbon draped across the floor. The potential was boundless in a play which has so many depths of human character and emotion to be embodied.

Locatelli does have some strong and striking ideas but is not yet at a point where she can incorporate them into the main action of the play. Instead there are random vignettes of great power involving terrifying masks, blinking torches, and marionettes but they are just little photo galleries strewn across the time line of the play at this point. I will say that act 2 was staged and realised much more strongly then act 1 and, if it weren't for Shakespeare's trademark cheesy death scenes, would have been a powerful finish for an otherwise quite tedious night.

Having said all of this, there are some amazing actors in the cast who have instincts which allow us to imagine a production beyond the scope of this director. O'Neill's Rodrigo was passionate, Barry's Cassio was full of energy and eagerness, and Duncan's Montano was cannonball of energy.

I found myself wishing any of these three had been cast as Iago because their connection to their body would have meant we could have traveled the journey of deception the play takes us on. Stephens does all her acting in her head, with her body as stiff as a board. It begged the question who is the puppet - Othello or Iago?

The rest of the cast did a fine job although there was way to much looking down at the floor. Taylor-Kamara's Othello has great moments of strength and power, but he does slide into unperformativeness when his character softens and for some reason Locatelli had him upstaged for pretty much all of act 1.

As much as I don't believe this play should be staged anymore, it is not a play for beginners. There is so much going on: the racism, the workplace politics, the family dramas, the drunkeness, the domestic abuse, the ambition. It is a dramaturgical feast but, as with eating, a director's eyes can be bigger than their belly and such is the case with this production of Othello.

2 Stars

Rebel: A New Musical - Musical Review

What: Rebel: A New Musical
When: 18 - 20 October 2019
Where: The MC Showroom
Book, music and lyrics by: Drew Downing
Directed by: Clary Riven
Musical direction by: Tyson Legg
Performed by: Frank Kerr, Tyson Legg, Peter Nguyen, Aaron Syrjanen and Conrad Tracey
Design by: Betty Auhl
Stage managed by: Janel Gibson

Frank Kerr

Are you a fan of country music? If so, you better mosey on down to The MC Showroom to experience Melbourne's newest musical, Rebel: A New Musical this weekend before it closes!

Beginning it's life as a cabaret show in 2014, Downing recently had a burst of inspiration which has allowed him to expand the story and music into a full two act show. I don't know if purists would call this a real musical because there is no dancing and has a character cast of 1, but it certainly is of the ilk of historical figure musicals which frequent venues such as The Palms at Crown and The Athenaeum.

The story revolves around the life and loves of David (Kerr) who comes to also be known as Rebel. His family hits hard times and moves to Texas to live on his uncle Randy's farm. Yes, this musical is unapologetically targeting the American audience...

Anyway, Randy has a farm hand, Jimmy Ray, and the twinkle in their eyes gives away the true depth of their 'friendship'. It turns out that Rebel has the same inclinations as his uncle and after a violent incidence with his father after coming out Rebel takes the guitar Randy bought him and hits the road for California in search of rock and roll.

There are a lot of references to rock and roll in this show and this might be confusing for some until you realise that rock and roll came from the country and western genre in the 60s. In fact, the time period for this musical is very important and to be honest had me confused until the very end.

To clear things up, the 'concert' Rebel is giving is the day after the Stonewall riots in 1969 and by that time he is in New York City. Therefore, most of the story goes back to a much earlier era - unspecified although we are told it is before "The King" was a thing. Kerr gives an amazing performance and has all of the sexiness and insouciance of Elvis Presley but his youth is a bit confusing in this particular regard.

Homosexuality was most definitely behind closed doors in that era, but Rebel is a surprisingly gentle and beautiful homage to the Daisies and Jimmy Rays of that era. Most of the emotional violence actually comes from the hidden gays as we learn in the power rock anthem 'That's What The Stars Told Me (Hollywood)' in act 2.

I wouldn't say Rebel led a charmed life, but he had more than his fair share of brushes with fame before garnering his own. James Dean, Rock Hudson... need I say more? The most beautiful and touching love story is the one with his sister who he leaves behind on the farm though.

The music is the real strength of this story and if this was America it would get airplay and there would be some huge hits. 'Just Off The Road' and 'Ordinary Cowboy' would be on everybody's tongue and 'Western Bar' would be the iconic pub song for sure. The ballad 'I'm Not Coming Home' is enough to bring tears to your eyes. If 'Jimmy Ray' doesn't become a Joy FM frequent play hit then what the hell is going on Melbourne????

Perhaps the biggest flaw with this show is the beginnings of both acts. They are clumsy and messy and it is a combination of poor direction (Riven) and bad stage management (Gibson). If there is one thing American's know, it is how to make an entrance. If there is one thing this musical doesn't do, it is make an entrance. Also, whilst I love 'Say What You Know', I don't think it is strong enough as an opener.

The show has been on for 3 nights now, and there is a lot of smoke in the room (although it is appropriate and well done for a change), and Kerr's voice is starting to show the strain a bit. Having said that, he is right on pitch for most of it and he is so god damn lovable and sexy I would sit there and watch him and listen to him even if he couldn't sing a note. Believe me, though, this man can sing!

With cabaret seating and a bowl of pretzels at every table, The MC Showroom is the perfect place for this hoe down. Auhl's wooden barn house set and really intelligent use of space is perfect and the band is sublime. Legg's musical direction is superb and you will be completely blown away by Syrjanen on the slide guitar, the banjo, and his very impressive use of the wah wah bar.

For something a bit different and a whole lot of fun get on down to The MC Showroom. Grab an ale and whoop along with your friends for Downing's latest shindig.

4 Stars

Savannah Bay - Theatre Review

What: Savannah Bay
When: 17 - 27 October 2019
Where: La Mama Courthouse
Written by: Maguerite Duras
Directed by: Laurence Strangio
Performed by: Brenda Palmer and Annie Thorold
Lighting by: Clare Springett
Stage managed by: Julian Adams

Brenda Palmer and Annie Thorold - photo by Jack Dixon Gunn

In a lovely programming curation, La Mama is presenting Duras' Savannah Bay alongside The Disappearing Trilogy for the rest of October. Both plays look at the disappearing actress and in the case of this play, the disappearance comes through time and dementia.

The play gets it's name from a mythical bay in Siam where the lead character (Palmer) supposedly made a film (of the same name) with Henry Fonda. The play is about love and death and connections lost. It is told through the portal of a woman at the end of her life, a point where you can choose to forget but you can't choose what you remember.

Duras was obsessed with broken love and death and spurred by Edith Piaf's Les Mots d'Amour, she has spun a tone poem tale of great passions and great despair, a tale shared by an aging woman and her granddaughter who is forced to watch as the memories wash away like the ebb tide. Memories and connections recede just like the sea waters on the white rock the old lady has become.

The play begins with a young woman (Thorold) visiting an old lady. They share the song and the young woman tries to encourage the older one to share her stories - perhaps desperate to stay connected as the threads of memory fray dangerously. One of the intriguing questions left lingering by this play is does the older woman even want to remember and is it fair to make her do it?

The great strength of Strangio's production (director) is the great affection, delicacy and care with which the younger woman treats the aging diva. Palmer presents a feisty, if failing, old lady, but Thorold's tenderness is a thing of absolute beauty. In a world were we are engaged in a Royal Commission into the care of the elderly, this production of Savannah Bay is a portrait of just how to care for our senior citizens regardless of your relationship to them.

Duras is not a realist writer and this is perhaps the place where this production falls down a wee bit for me. It may be a fault in the translation (Duras wrote in French) but regardless of whether the tone poem is recognised there are some key motifs in her writing which I feel have been ignored.

A savannah is also the word used for a sub-tropical grassy plain with sparse trees, just as sparse as the memories the old lady is able to link together. The text is also repetitious, washing backwards and forwards like the waves in the ocean. The whole thing is made to sit on the stage and in our ears and our minds like an impressionist painting - indistinct yet clearly pointing to something, some moment(s), some time(s). It is no coincidence that Thailand is referred to as Siam despite the script having been written in 1982...

The play also switches between the women in the room, and the women as actors. The line is constantly being blurred between representation and presentation. Again, the 'acting' presence was, for the most part, ignored in favour of keeping us in the here and now. None of these omissions diminish the beauty of this production, but perhaps they deny us the full impact of the pain so abundant in the script? It also would have made the marriage between The Disappearing Trilogy and Savannah Bay so much stronger and more poignant for those who choose to see both works in tandem.

Having said that, this production of Savannah Bay is really beautiful. Palmer is delightfully feisty and sad and contrary in that way that older people become, and Thorold demonstrates such a beautiful depth of love and quiet despair as she tries to hold on to the lady who is slipping away from her.

3 Stars