Butoh Bar 番狂わせ OUT of ORDER review

Simply walking into ButohBar 番狂わせ OUT of ORDER is an experience on its own. It feels like we have entered an underground, post-apocalyptic dive bar. Chairs are scattered around the space, various art installations are positioned on the floor or projected onto the walls and drinks and food can be ordered at the makeshift counter. There are roving performers and there are resting performers - lying on chairs, sitting at an altar and even hidden within a box. These initial encounters immediately succeed in setting the scene for the artistic collective of ButohOUT! to present, inform, inspire and enlighten its audience with what butoh is and its potential to bring change.

IN-VOCATION たまおこし review | Yumi Umiumare | Dancehouse

After an utterly incredible show with Buried TeaBowl - Okuni last year, performance artist Yumi Umiumare returns with IN-VOCATION たまおこし, a potent pairing to the 2022 show. With its predecessor exploring time, ritual, the past and the present through her connection to Okuni, a 17th century Japanese dancer credited as being the founder of kabuki theatre, this new show digs deeper into Okuni's life, with a focus on releasing the "Okuni spirit" inside all of us.

Joining Umiumare are two Japanese artists, Kayo Tamura, a shaman in theatre and Kyoko Amara, a professional clairvoyant and singer. This trio perform music, dance, rituals and storytelling as they share and discover the many characters of Okuni. With the Japanese title of the show translating to provoking / awakening the soul, it's fitting that a shrine to the womb sits in the middle of the stage as the three build and release the female power and energy of Okuni. They go big and bold in their acts but maintain an intimacy and authenticity with their audience that allows us to open our minds and hearts to what we are witnessing.


Buried TeaBowl - Okuni review

I've seen Yumi Umiumare perform numerous times over the years but always as part of the ensemble in someone else's show. Buried TeaBowl - Okuni is the first time I have attended one of her full solo works and I am very disappointed I waited so long to have had this incredible experience. Incorporating dance, spoken word, song and a tea ceremony, this performance installation is an intimate and stirring passage through time, ritual, the past and the present.

These four themes are clear in Umiumare's inspiration for her show: a 17th century Japanese dancer, Okuni, who is credited as being the founder of kabuki theatre. Literally translated to "the art of song and dance", Okuni began performing kabuki around Kyoto in the early 1600s and formed an all-female troupe that portrayed both male and female characters. Kabuki eventually became equated with prostitution and immorality and in 1629 this outrage led to a Government ban on women performing kabuki that was not lifted until the late 19th century.

Absolutely Normal - Melbourne International Comedy Festival review

Showko - “Laughing Child” in Japanese - is the number one rakugo performer in Australia, and she returns to the Melbourne stage with her show, Absolutely Normal. Disappointingly, Showko is the only rakugo performer in Australia, as this art form is so rich on imagination and creativity that it would be great to have the opportunity to see it more often. Originating in Japan, rakugo is a 400-year-old traditional form of comic storytelling using minimal props with the performer kneeling on a cushion. Movement, action and characters are all conveyed through body language, voice and facial expressions.

Dresser in a shiny silver yukata, Showko warms up the audience with some anecdotes about life in Japan and Australia. They are stories of the everyday but her enthusiasm makes them seem far more exciting than they are, which could be considered a lesson in how to approach and appreciate rakugo. This pays off for the audience when it comes to her rakugo story about a cherry tree that allows us to easily be transported into the world she describes.

Top 10 Shows of 2017

Another year of some unforgettable theatre and live performances comes to an end, and what a year it has been, managing to get to a respectable 200 shows. Not quite sure how I stayed sane in doing that, but there you go. 
Naturally I kept a list of all the shows I saw and below I present my top ten of 2017. If I reviewed the show then a link to the review is also provided.
2018 is shaping out to be the time of innovative and exciting theatre, so make sure you go and see some of it. While it's nice to make a night out of seeing some big name performers and shows, remember to also support your independent theatre makers and venues where some shows can cost you as little as $15 per person.

Here is my list:

1. Angels In America
- review

Grant Cartwright and Dushan Philips. Photo Credit: Sarah Walker

What an epic seven-hour production this show was. Tony Kushner's Pulitzer Prize winning work, Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes was performed at fortyfivedownstairs under Gary Abrahams' brilliant direction.
Abrahams brings together a remarkably talented ensemble of actors to tell this story, which despite being set in the American 80s still has extreme relevance and prevalence today regarding social stigma of homosexuality and AIDS.
Some of the strongest performances of the year were present here including those from Simon Cornfield, Grant Cartwright, Emily Goddard, Helen Morse and Dushan Philips, with the evocative sound and lighting providing greater insight into the minds and thoughts of the various characters.
Also, can't not mention how amazing that wooden four-poster bed was by how it was utilised and what it represented during the show. If there were an award for best use of a single prop, this would be the winner.
Put simply, Angels In America was gripping, powerful and affecting theatre at its best.

Kagerou - Study of Translating Performance review

In 2011, Japan was hit by its most powerful earthquake ever recorded. With a magnitude of 9.0 - 9.1, it triggered a huge tsunami and resulted in the deaths of over 16,000 people and left thousands more injured. Referred to as "The Great East Japan earthquake" it was a devastating blow for Japan, with sympathies and aide coming from around the world.

In Kagerou - Study of Translating Performance, director Shun Hamanaka uses the story of Kyoko Takagi - a woman in her 70s who lost her husband in the tsunami - and attempts to explore how sympathy and connection between strangers can be born from a tragedy such as this. Hamanaka has opted for a minimal set design, having just three chairs on stage with video footage being projected onto a screen with some effective shadow work by lighting designer Hiroshi Isaka, emphasising the documentary-style of the performance.

Time's Journey Through a Room review | Arts House

The inaugural Melbourne festival Asia TOPA is the opportunity for Australia to celebrate the contemporary arts with its neighbouring Asian countries. Time's Journey Through a Room comes to Melbourne from Japanese theatre company chelfitsch, and is a meditative and meaningful exploration of life, death, the in-between and the hereafter. Written and directed by Toshiki Okada, the performance is set a few days after the 2011 earthquake and Fukushima nuclear accident, but if you think the performance is going to be about those events think again. Okada instead focuses on the relationships a young man has with his deceased wife and his new girlfriend.

The cast of three - Izumi Aoyagi, Mari Ando, Yo Yoshida - deliver deeply nuanced performances in roles that on the surface do not seem to demand much, but the subtleties of their characters and the delicate spoken nuances are where the complexities of hope and hopelessness are explored. There is a significant emotional detachment present by the performers throughout the show that is well-balanced and effectively manifested.

Sedih//Sunno review

There is so much I want to write down right now but I am unsure if it’s a critical review of the show I just saw or a visceral personal response. Such is the effect that Rani Pramesti has on you when you walk out of Sedih//Sunno. “Sedih” is Bahasa Indonesia for ‘sadness’ and “sunno” is ‘to listen’ in Fijian Hindi, so the show is an invitation to listen to our sadness. Or as one of the performers advised us, it is a meditation on such sadness. 

Sedih//Sunno is a collaborative performance installation piece by Pramesti, Ria Soemardjo, Kei Murakami and Shivanjani Lal, all sharing stories with us in this multi-sensory and multi-cultural show. As we take our seat in a room surrounded by gorgeous Indonesian batik fabrics, we hear the four women speaking over the top of each other in their various languages as if they are conversing at home with their family. I don’t understand any of it (except some snippets of Japanese), but it feels lively, fun and inviting.