For as long as man has existed, there has always been a rivalry between Melbourne and Sydney. Even the recent news that Melbourne has overtaken Sydney to become Australia's largest city by population has been met boastfully by Melbourne and with derision by Sydney. Two people who have contributed to this "win" for Melbourne are Melbourne-based New South Wales-raised comedians Lotte Beckett and Lily Hensby.
In their comedy show, We're New Here, the two examine the intricacies of Melbourne culture and lifestyle, from our unhealthy obsession with good coffee and the unique experience of hunting for a rental property. There are some brilliant sketches, including scarily accurate digs at Melbourne's impro scene and the premier performing arts school of this city, VCA. Their description of Sydney and Nowra – with extremely detailed and intricate maps - are also a highlight, giving the audience a very clear indication of where they came from.
There's nothing more important than family, let that be the family you are given or the family you make. In Tommy Murphy's Strangers In Between, a young man dealing with his sexuality escapes from his small city of Gouldburn to Sydney's Kings Cross in order to find himself, but in the process ends up finding a family to support and guide him. While this production was first staged in Sydney in 2005, and there are elements of it that are still relevant to today's society, its place in 2018 is difficult to pinpoint.
Murphy's script shoots out genuinely funny gags and witty one-liners like rapid-fire, but in return we rarely spend any time getting to know the supporting characters that are far more of interest than the protagonist. This might be Shane's story, a young, white male coming to terms with his homosexuality, but in 2018 his story is nothing we haven't heard before and so audience engagement wanes. Shane's naivety also begins to wear thin very quickly, particularly with the inconsistencies of his character where he is able to find a job and get his own one-bedroom apartment but then has no idea what his medicare number is or how to even get one.
There are not many people who can say they've never sexted before, the fine art of texting and being sexual at the same time. It's a practise that has only been around a few decades, but had it been available 200 years ago or even 100 years ago, how would relationships have been different? This is just one story being performed as part of The Ultimate Lesbian Double Feature during the Midsumma Festival.
In Love in the Time of Sexting, playwright Zoe Brinnand imagines a world where Emily Dickinson didn't write letters to Susan Gilbert and Virginia Wolf's letters to Vita Sackville-West never existed. Instead, Brinnand explores how this intimacy would have been created and maintained through the use of mobile phones and sexting. "I hope that this play encourages more lesbians to loosen up about sex," Brinnand laughs. "And to sext more! Sexting can be funny, and should be fun."
