Crocodiles review

Written by Vidya Rajan, Crocodiles follows the aftermath of an incident at an aged care home that leaves a number of people contemplating their role in the matter and who should be taking responsibility, including a migrant aged care worker and a doctor.

The strength of this production lies with its cast, and the performances by Rachel Kamath and Marta Kaczmarek provide the finest results with their scenes together. Most compelling is when the two of them open up to each other as migrant worker Sandhya (Kamath) gives aged care resident Helen (Kaczmarek), a bath.

Getting the inside scoop on being an outsider with Amelia O’Leary's new dance work A Certain Mumble

In 2023, Darebin Arts Speakeasy will celebrate a decade of ground-breaking and award-winning performing arts productions, with Amelia O'Leary's contemporary dance work A Certain Mumble making up part of its 2023 season. O'Leary, a First Nations Gamilaroi dancer and choreographer, will be working with Chinese Malaysian artist Janelle Tan Yung Huey as they explore what it feels like to be an outsider in Australia.

"Being an outsider in Australia means feeling different or like you don't belong," O'Leary says. "We particularly felt like outsiders by encountering indirect and direct acts and attitudes of racism. I also struggled with not belonging in certain institutions and social spaces. I can feel the eeriness and unsettling energies of so-called Australia. In a way, being an outsider helps broadens your perspective and makes you a more interesting and understanding person, but it can make you feel unseen, unheard and misunderstood."

Isolation Pod Floating

Entering Gravity Floatation Centre was almost like entering a different world. The waiting area is empty save for some chairs, a glass coffee table and some plants mounted on to the wall. There is some soft, calming music playing and as I wait to be called, and I start feeling nervous at the thought of being in a small pod in utter darkness and silence. Will the anxiety I often experience heighten? Will I have a panic attack in the pod? Will the lid get stuck and not open? I've seen Final Destination; death always finds a way. Before I can let my mind race any further (if that is even possible at this point), I am called. I enter the Endeavour room, all six rooms at the centre are identical, but they are named after 6 NASA space shuttles.

It's a private room with the pod and a shower. Earplugs, body soap, shampoo and towels are provided. The room temperature water and a highly concentrated Epsom salt solution (600kg of magnesium sulphate) are ready for me. The water is filtered and treated after every use and regularly tested by third parties. The pod has two buttons, a blue one to light up the pod in case I prefer it to the darkness, and a red one in case of emergency. I am also provided with a floating neck pillow and a spray bottle of water in case I get any of the Epsom salts in my eyes, which I'm thankful for after absent-mindedly having rubbed my eyes twice.