Thy Thus ‘Twas | Melbourne Fringe Festival interview

Comedy trio The Travelling Sisters are returning to the Melbourne Fringe Festival as the travelling blokes in their new show  Thy Thus 'Twas . With their unique sense of humour and absurd comedy that is grounded in the banal, their upcoming show focuses on three mates, Darryl, Vinnie and Berrick, who are out to make their thespian dreams come true.

The brains behind the men, Lucy Fox, Laura Trenerry and Ell Sachs, spent a good part of the last 12 months touring their side-splitting hilarious show Toupe but are now looking forward to hitting the stage with their new baby. "It's like when you're shaking a bottle of bubbly, just before you pop the cork...it's the feeling on the underside of the cork," Trenerry tells me. "This show has been brewing in our collective fantasy world for over a year. It's always exciting when you're birthing a new one. How will it be received, what will it become, what is this new beautiful beast?! Who knows!"

12A - Melbourne International Comedy Festival review

There is a lot of superstition and dread around the number 13. So much so that buildings often go from level 12 to level 14 or the name of an apartment is listed as 12A, which fail to recognise that simply renaming something doesn't change what it is. Presented as part of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, James Hazelden's morbid 12A is a vignette of stories all taking place inside a suburban home that has the misfortune of being apartment number 12A.

The first of the three revolves around two friends (Brose Avard and Vaughn Rae) discussing the previous nights events as a woman sleeps awkwardly on a chair. Unfortunately this story creates little suspense for the audience and the long silences between them seem out of place given the context of the situation. There is no tension felt from the performances or the writing, so the pauses don't serve a purpose to the narrative. The final moments, while surprising, don't actually have anything to do with what we've been watching so there doesn't feel like there's a genuine pay off for the audience.

Toupé - Melbourne International Comedy Festival review

Hailing from rural Queensland, The Travelling Sisters and their wacky humour return to the Melbourne International Comedy Festival with Toupé. Armed with a clothes rack full of costumes and a suitcase brimming with wigs, Lucy Fox, Laura Trenerry and Ell Sachs present an hour of ridiculous characters, catchy songs and hilarious sketches.

Each sketch is well considered and provides strong backstories to the characters from the second they appear on stage. The three women at the open plan yoga studio change room all have individual identities in their mannerisms and language and the relationships between them are firmly established, and this is a constant throughout the show. The worlds The Travelling Sisters are creating might be odd and quirky, but the characters are so ably conceived, they make that world feel normal.

Rooman review | Arts House

Our ability to connect with people and find deeper meaning in our relationships is what lays the foundations for finding happiness. Without building these relationships, life can be difficult and incredibly lonely. In Fleur Elise Noble's ROOMAN, we follow an unnamed protagonist stuck between living the monotony of the daily grind and living her dream and the choices she makes in trying to lead her best life.

Noble uses a variety of visual techniques to tell this story, predominantly through puppet work, illustration and projections onto a moving paper set. The detail in all these is incredibly intricate and adds arresting layers to the two worlds being presented on stage, from the black and white corporate world our protagonist is stuck in, to the more coloured and fantastical world of her imagination. With the only glimmer of happiness she finds is in her dreams, where she meets and falls in love with a ROOMAN (a half-man-half-kangaroo), she becomes more entranced by her fantasy life and begins to gradually slip away from reality.

The Happy Prince review| Little Ones Theatre | Midsumma Festival | La Mama Theatre

Oscar Wilde's short story, The Happy Prince, tells the tale of a golden statue of a prince that overlooks a city. Along with a flying swallow that he encounters, the Happy Prince sacrifices itself in vain in order to help the people who are suffering from poverty. As part of Midsumma Festival, queer theatre company, Little Ones Theatre, have taken to Wilde's story but adapted it through a queer lens. The contemporary homo-erotic story now explores the desperation and futility that two women experience in order to remain with the one they love.

Dressed in a gold sequinned dress with gold nail polish and a smear of gold face paint, Janine Watson wondrously captures the innocence (and ignorance) of the Happy Prince. As the sacrifices become bigger, her determination becomes more evident in bringing happiness and good to the people, regardless how fleeting or thankful the act might be.

The Woman In Black preview

I have been a huge fan of Susan Hills' novella The Woman In Black since I saw its adaptation for the West End for the first time in 2008. The production is the second longest running in London, currently in its 27th. This atmospheric ghost story is cleverly told and the build up of the horror and the suspense is palpable from beginning to end, which terrorises the audience.

Earlier this year, independent theatre company, RedFox 3 staged this production in Healesville and Warburton, and next month will be giving Melbourne the opportunity to experience the horrors of  The Woman In Black for themselves, during a limited season at the Alex Theatre in St Kilda.

Blind Spot - Melbourne Fringe Festival review

In 1972, Edwin John Eastwood and Robert Clyde Boland, kidnapped six female pupils and their teacher in the rural town of Faraday. They demanded a million-dollar ransom but were later captured when the hostages  escaped. Fast forward 34 years later, and Daniel Santangeli's immersive theatre performance Blind Spot offers a fresh look at this crime and its related events for Melbourne Fringe Festival.

Blind Spot is a show for two people at a time (so bookings are absolutely essential) and begins at the end of the story as we work our back to the start. As we play the role of the two men, we are taken through various moments surrounding this event, located in prisons, courtrooms and homes. The less said about the story and the process of the show the better, as the element of surprise and the unknown works best here.

Blind Spot - Melboune Fringe Festival preview

Melbourne Fringe Festival is always an opportunity for not only artists to try new things, but also audiences, and this year, Blind Spot is definitely going to be one of those shows that is bound to have people talking long after it's over. This latest work by performance-maker Daniel Santangeli is a story told in reverse and is performed to an audience of only two people at a time.

"In Blind Spot, you experience a crime story in reverse order. It starts with the main character's release from prison and finishes 11 years earlier on the night before the crime. The audience are literally on their feet the whole time, being led through each episode and it's not until the end that they can piece it all together," Santangeli tells me. "Blind Spot is being made with sound designer Rosalind Hall so a lot of the work is experienced aurally: through payphones, hidden speakers and helmets with sound devices in them made specifically for the show."

The Woman In Black review

I will admit there was some trepidation as I sat down to see Redfox 3 Theatre Company's production of Susan Hill's much loved ghost story The Woman In Black. It was not due to the anticipated horror of the novella-turned-play, but the hopes that the newly established company would be able to tell the tale just as masterfully as it has been told in the West End for over three decades.

I remember seeing Stephen Mallatratt's adaptation of the play for the first time in 2008, and feeling something I have never felt in theatre before; terror and fear. A genuine emotion of unease rippled throughout the audience and the walk home that evening was not a joyous experience. This experience repeated itself upon my second, third and fourth viewing of the play, and it's fair to say that The Woman In Black is my favourite theatrical performance of all-time. 

House of Dreams review | Barking Spider Creative | The Johnston Collection

William Robert Johnston was a Melbourne based antique dealer and a collector of beautiful things, and he wanted to share these unusual and visually arresting items with the public. Upon his death in 1986, the not-for-profit museum, The Johnston Collection was established.

The Collection has had a rotation of guest curators including The Australian Ballet's Artistic Director David McAllister, milliner Richard Nylon and design studio Hecker Guthrie, who were given the opportunity to explore, regard and share the curiosities within the collection.

With its current exhibition, House of Dreams, guest curators Barking Spider Visual Theatre - a Melbourne-based multi-art form company – have spent the last 18 months designing the nine spaces to create a highly evocative and imaginative environment to be experienced. Led by Artistic Director Penelope Bartlau, the theatre company is known for its exemplary productions and varied methods of creating and sharing stories with audiences.

Little Wooden Caravan: Shared Table | Big West Festival interview

For something a little more intimate and a little different at this year's Big West Festival, then head over to Little Wooden Caravan: Shared Table; a ten-minute show for two people at a time. The story unfolds as each person follows a unique set of instructions to animate the objects on the table and create a story with unexpected twists and turns.


"It's up to them to create the performance for each other," explains creator, the indirect Object."The experience is a bit like being inside a talking book, where voices narrate a story and give each person different instructions. You are both watching and creating the performance at the same time, but you don't know what the other person will do next. What story you get to experience is all up to chance, it might be a tragedy, a comedy, or something in-between!"  

Wolf Boy and Zombie Dad | Big West Festival interview

Battling Narnia for the best wardrobe in town at Big West Festival will be Wolf Boy and Zombie Dad. With a combination of puppetry, mime, sound and image, father and son team, Anthony and Callum Crowley, will be taking audiences through a unique journey on life and time.

"The show is about how precious time is and how we choose to experience it, as it constantly moves through us and away from us," explains Anthony. "It's about children and how they consume it; the paradox of time. How you can dedicate hours of time to creating nothing and then how a second can reveal the universe if you are in tune to the moment."

Top 10 shows of 2015 Melbourne Fringe Festival

Well, it's that time of year again! After seeing a staggering 41 shows, (which is STILL only 10% of what was available), here are my top ten shows of the 2015 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. FAG/STAG - review

There are only three shows I have ever gone to see more than once. FAG/STAG is now one of them.
 It's a beautiful exploration of life, friendship and everything else in between. The way the story is told and performed is extremely natural and relatable. The two stars - Jeffrey Jay Fowler and Chris Isaacs - play the characters with such honesty, truth and vulnerability.
FAG/STAG really is the kind of theatre that I wish was made more often. FAG/STAG is the kind of theatre that people need to go and see.

Lost & Found review | Theatreworks

Having recently seen Daniel Keene’s brilliant Dreamers, I was looking forward to seeing more of his work in Verve Studios’ production Lost & Found. Performed by the second year Professional Actor’s Studio graduates and directed by Peta Hanrahan, the play looks at three short stories by Keene all dealing with loss or gain around life: “The Violin”, “Neither Lost nor Found” and “What Remains”.

By far, the most powerful performances among the three were in “Neither Lost nor Found”, in which an estranged mother and daughter are reunited. The two actors Nicole Morgan and Danelle Wynne were able to connect emotionally with the characters and offer some significant insight into the minds of these people.

Dreamers review

Originally commissioned for French theatre company Tabula Rasa, the English-language premiere of Dreamers presented by fortyfivedownstairs could easily be a narrative born straight out of current Australian politics and newspapers. The story follows a young Muslim refugee, Majid, who seeks work and acceptance from a community that eyes him with suspicion, disdain and aggression.

Majid (the impressive Yomal Rajasinghe) is waiting for the bus where he meets the lonely and much older Anne (Helen Morse). Through a second chance encounter their friendship deepens into a romantic relationship, much to the outrage of the town’s residents.

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.