The Collector review

Tucked down a labyrinth of Fitzroy alleyways, The Collector invites visitors into a world where memories live through an assortment of whimsical curiosities. Crafted for two participants at a time, this production by Barking Spider Creative blends playful interaction with a raven-masked host, surprising contraptions, and objects that blur the line between treasure and trinket.



We meet outside a café where our guide gathers us and leads us into a tangle of winding paths. Whether by design or happy accident, the guide’s chatter keeps me distracted enough that I lose track of where exactly we’re going. By the time we stop, we’re in front of a compact corrugated iron shed. Before we’re allowed in, we’re asked three abstract questions that make you pause and reflect, while a scribe dutifully jots down our answers. Then, with a ceremonial ring of a bell, the door opens and we step in.



Enter an alluring bachanalian world with new immersive experience, When Night Comes

With much anticipation, Broad Encounters' new immersive experience is coming to Melbourne next month. After the record-breaking and award-winning production of A Midnight Visit and the recent, equally captivating Love Lust Lost, Broad Encounters are back with something different, something wilder, and something more rousing than ever before.

We spoke with the minds behind this upcoming theatrical adventure with co-creators and directors, Kirsten Siddle, Mike Finch and Scott Maidment.

 When Night Comes appears to be Broad Encounters' most ambitious and exciting project to date. Promising a unique, multi-sensory and intoxicating performance with theatre and cocktails, When Night Comes invites people into a tempting, intimate soiree with visions, sounds, smells, tastes and feelings to be met via its cast of sublime characters.



When Night Comes was born from an earlier work by Broad Encounters over two years ago, A Journey Most Unusual. "This was also for small groups only where they journeyed within a fantastical world where the senses were indulged and ignited," Siddle tells me. "I’ve often contemplated Hedonist and Dionysian philosophies and wanted to explore this more deeply in something that argued for sensorial pleasure and delight, both physiological and those of a magical and intuitive nature. Like much of our former work, When Night Comes, aims to be an escape from the ordinary, and an evening of marvellous extraordinary."

Love Lust Lost review

It's difficult to give a review of the immersive and interactive production of Love Lust Lost without mentioning all the specifically amazing things about it because a lot of the fun comes from the surprise of discovering things for yourself, and not focusing on searching for certain rooms or experiences and enjoying what you have in front you. But review I must, so while I am being intentionally vague, I will say that this is definitely an event that you do not want to miss. It's been over four years since Broad Encounters brought A Midnight Visit to Melbourne so the debut of Love Lust Lost was met with anticipation and it did not disappoint.

In this instance, we board the submarine E.V. Nautilus, piloted by Captain Anderson, and follow the residents of this subterranean world and the loves, tragedies and mysteries they each carry with them. We are led into a decompression chamber and eventually faced with our first of many decisions, will we go left or will we go right? And so begins the adventure and the exploring.

What Was That? review

It's not often a production gets to celebrate its 1000th show, but What Was That? did just that on Saturday 12 August. This immersive ghost tour through Werribee Park Mansion gives audience an overview of the home's history and the family that built it in the 1870s, the Chirnsides.



With permission granted by the production team to start the show five minutes late to watch the Matilda's win over France in the penalty shoot out in their World Cup match, the mood in the audience was in very high spirits and completely up for the thrills and delights our hosts had planned for us.



We are met at the entrance by the personable head maid Maggie (Alaine Beek) and the crabby butler Mr Duncan (Ross Daniels). As "we are all friends of the Chirnsides" we are led through the various rooms of this lush mansion.

Mansion review

We’ve all heard things that go bump in the night, and the majority of the time it is simply our imagination. But what happens when those bumps turn into a never-ending nightmare? That’s what Mel Walker and her two children find themselves facing after they move home following the death of her husband and father to Levi and Rachel. Presented by Bass Fam Creative, this second installment in a trilogy of works focusing on love, Mansion is an immersive dance theatre horror experience that explores what it means to love, grieve and mourn.

This site specific work has sourced the perfect location for Mansion: Labassa Mansion in Caulfield. Built in the 1800s, the Victorian era mansion has had over 135 people call it home, and at one point it was divided up into flats and housed Hollywood’s first Australian silent film star. There are countless stories to be told, and not just from the living. The dead have plenty left to say and through dance and circus, the family encounter – and are terrorised by - its previous inhabitants. We are guided by the ground's Caretaker, who leads us from room to room in this winding and maze-like property as everything starts to unravel.

A Midnight Visit review

It’s may be almost 170 years since Gothic literature writer Edgar Allan Poe died under mysterious circumstances but in Broad Encounters immersive theatre production A Midnight Visit, he is brought back to life and entice his audience to face their fears in an evening of macabre entertainment. Audiences are left to wander through the maze of 36 rooms as they come across various figures from Poe’s life, characters from his stories and even the writer himself. What happens next depends on the path you choose to take. 

We are initially greeted by an undertaker who prepares us for entry into an unpredictable and macabre dream world. With surgical masks over our faces to prevent us contracting any diseases (and to add to the unsettling anonymity of the evening) we begin our journey into the dark recesses of the mind. As many scenes play out simultaneously in this labyrinth, it is impossible to see everything unfold. This makes it difficult to piece together a structured narrative but choosing to see the evening as a series of vignettes taken from Poe's life and his writing, heightens the unease permeating throughout the production and allows you to focus solely on what is happening.

vigil/wake review

One indisputable fact is that we are all going to die. No matter how virtuous we are, how healthy we may be or how intelligent we are, we will not escape death. Yet for something that is so definite, we are constantly surprised by or ill-prepared for death. Presented as part of Arts House's Mere Mortals season exploring death, Peta Murray's vigil/wake is a pair of works that has us questioning what we know about death and how we remember those who have died.

The first part, vigil is delivered as an illustrated lecture with Murray presenting facts and statistics on death in a relaxed and personable nature. The six audience members are seated around Murray and an empty made-up hospital bed. We are informed of various facts to do with death; the biggest killer of men in their 20s and 30s is suicide and the older we get, the higher the risk of heart attacks ending us becomes. As Murray explains the various ways in which 95% of Australians are not prepared for their final days, such as having unwritten wills or not having a playlist for their funeral, she also shares her stories of her mother dying ten years ago, thus allowing us to connect on a deeper level with what Murray is saying and to then relate it back to our own experiences and preparedness with death.

The Infirmary review

There comes a point in life where it all ends. Life ends. While there are many theories as to what happens to us when we die, nothing is certain about what happens when we have breathed our final breath. Presented as part of Arts House's Mere Mortals season on death and all its facets, The Infirmary is a live art immersive experience designed to leave you questioning your death and what inevitably awaits us.

This is the first part of Triage Live Art Collective's Death Trilogy and in The Infirmary, we are prepared for our death and live through our final hours. This intimate show for a small number of participants begins with individuals being triaged by a clinical nurse. Once formally admitted, we are guided through a hospital corridor and numerous hospital rooms. Despite the movement that is occurring with the various nurses getting their "patients" comfortable, there is a quietness and stillness to my surroundings that I find immediately soothing.

The Book of Revelations review

Our memories are our most prized possession. They are a reminder of who we are, where we've come from and what we've achieved. But what happens when our memories are no longer reliable and begin to fail us? Initially performed at La Mama Theatre's 2013 Explorations season, Black Hole Theatre's The Book of Revelations is an immersive, performance installation on the disorienting experiences had by people with dementia and other mental illnesses. 

Alison Richards, who also serves as writer of The Book of Revelations, delivers a strong and captivating performance as Ada as she cleverly shares snippets of her memories and thoughts through operatic moments, utilising the beauty of the sung voice to contrast the internal horrors that are unfolding. The use of Tchaikovsky's "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" from The Nutcracker heightens the tension as the nightmare continues while exposing the vulnerability of Ada as she succumbs to her illness.

Passenger review

Immersive theatre performances seem to be growing in Melbourne, and I could not be more thrilled about this. The latest offering devised by Jessica Wilson, Ian Pidd and Nicola Gunn is Passenger, a show that takes place on a moving bus that drives us through the streets of Southbank and the Docklands where we observe two strangers strike up a conversation.

It all begins innocently enough, but as the trip progresses the conversation steers towards something darker and sinister that culminates in a highly intense and somewhat surreal ending. Gunn's text drip-feeds information to us and the way that earlier shared stories or anecdotes are used to bring it all full circle are clever, surprising and make full use of the local infrastructure to build on the environment and tone of the story.

Top 10 shows of 2016 Melbourne Fringe Festival

Well, it's that time of year again! After seeing a mere 61 shows, here are my top ten shows of the 2016 Melbourne Fringe Festival. 
Admittedly, there are shows I really wanted to see but timing and life meant that I just couldn't make it work!
If the show was reviewed, you will find a link next to its name for more detailed thoughts and opinions. 

1. Notorious Strumpet and Dangerous Girl - review

Winner of New Original Circus at the Festival, Jess Love's Notorious Strumpet and Dangerous Girl is a great mix of circus, theatre and performance that explores her relationship with her family, particularly Love's affinity with her great, great, great, great grandmother Julia Mullins and her addiction to drugs and alcohol.

It is an incredibly touching show and the way Love explores her addiction through the circus acts is extremely skillful and emotive. 
One of the most striking visuals of the evening occurs when Love dresses up to resemble what Mullins might have worn back in her time, and presents a cheeky but touching homage to her distant relative.
Directed by Ursula Martinez, this was an undeniable favourite of mine three days into the Festival.

Bordello review

Bordello, the newest production from The Owl and Cat Theatre, is an immersive theatrical experience revolving around one fateful evening at a brothel. We are free to explore the three storey building of the well-known venue and follow the interlocking stories between the two owners of the brothel, Yvonne and David, its three employees, Trisha, Frankie and Cherry, and two of its clientele, Harry and Mathew.

This is very much a voyeuristic experience as the audience wanders around the premises, watching secret conversations and some highly intimate moments take place. Audience members are required to wear plain black masquerade masks throughout the course of the evening, which feels like a buffer between passively watching the story unfold and spying on these character’s lives.

The Reality Event review - Melbourne Fringe

Led by Daniel Gough, The SuicideEnsemble presented an evening of 'fun and death' for the 2015 Melbourne Fringe Festival. The Reality Event is divided up in two halves, GAME and SUICIDE. GAME puts its audience in the driver seats of theatre creation whereas in SUICIDE, we are forced to confront the idea of 'safe' theatre and its boundaries between art and life.

In GAME, we are divided into five teams with one of The Suicide Ensemble (Pavle Banovic, Esther Dougherty, Finley Kube, Remi Roehrs and Sampson Smith) as the team captain. If the team loses a challenge, the team captain is publicly "shamed" and sent away. The "shamings" range from a public "dacking" to eating a tablespoon of wasabi. There is a pack mentality to the proceedings as we are encouraged to laugh and cheer while this is happening and despite its title, there is still a deliberately and grimly dark element to GAME.

My top ten shows at the 2014 Melbourne Fringe Festival

So another Melbourne Fringe festival comes to an end, and having watched 27 shows, I present to you my TOP 10!
If I reviewed the show on an official basis, the link to the review is attached.

1. FINUCANE & SMITH'S GLOBAL SMASH CLUB

So technically this was a free event at the Fringe Club BUT every single performance was amazing and I was thrilled to be able to see another Finucane and Smith show. I feel this shows encapsulates what Fringe should be all about, daring, bold, affecting, confronting and extremely entertaining.

Some acts I had seen before but with a show like this, once is never enough - still waiting to see a repeat of Finucane's act to U2's "With or Without You"- even after a year,  I still remember it so vividly. Highlight from this evening would have to be Anna Lumb's gimp hip-hop rap in response to what art is. 

Melbourne Fringe Festival Top 10 Shows

So another Melbourne Fringe festival comes to an end and so I present to you my TOP 10!
If I reviewed the show on an official basis, the link to the review is attached.

1. MKA: KIDS KILLING KIDS

Four young theatre makers take an adaptation of Battle Royale (an amazing Japanese movie) and create it for a Philippino audience. The response was something they never expected and here they tell us their story.

I really enjoyed this: it provoked some intelligent conversation about responsible theatre making and what in fact those responsibilities are. They are not arrogant to tell you the answers, but succeed in getting you talking about it.

This was very much a love it or hate it show as I know people who felt they were taking advantage of what had happened and trying to capitalise on it and had not really expressed any regret over what had happened. I personally, don't believe they need to.

Here is a clip I found on YouTube of "Battalia Royale"...

REVIEW