Dry Land review

Amy and Ester share very little in common, apart from their place in the school swim team. But dive a little deeper and these two women discover they actually have many things in common, as well as secrets of their own. In Ruby Rae Spiegel's Dry Land, we are introduced to the (private) lives of schoolgirls and the real issues they are facing.



Luce Wirthensohn (Amy) and Cassidy Dunn (Ester) have a great ability in giving layered performances for their complex characters, but they are let down by a script that throws too much at them and the characters end up being driven by the narrative rather than driving the narrative. Dry Land would have been far more effective had we focused on the relationship between Amy and Ester, and by extension their individual lives, and not introduced to a number of secondary characters that add little to the story.

Top 10 Show of 2018

Every year I say to myself no more saying yes to going to all the shows in Melbourne and while I exaggerate, I do end up going to a lot. This year, I managed to get to 221 pieces of theatre and live performances (and being one shy of 222 is really going to bug me). Naturally I kept a list of all the shows I saw and below I present my top ten of 2018. If I reviewed the show then a link to the review is also provided.

This is also a great reminder that sometimes the most memorable and exciting experiences are not always the big budget, flashy ones but the ones that are only on for four nights at a small theatre venue. So remember to support your independent theatre makers and venues - some shows can cost you as little as $15 and can be one of the most original and though provoking theatre you might see.

Here we go:

Gravity & Other Myths. Photo Credit: Steve Ullathorne

1. A Simple Space - review

This was actually the first show I saw in 2018 and it still feels like I only saw it yesterday. With this show, Gravity & Other Myths perform a circus show with only a handful of props on a black mat roughly four metres wide and six metres deep. With our attention ultimately glued towards the seven acrobats, they work with the only thing that's left: their bodies. They demonstrate surprising feats on what the human body is capable of, through a variety of acts.
What is great to see in GOM that isn't often seen in other circus or performance shows is their personalities coming through and the camaraderie they share. While we are seeing a show, there is a sincerity and openness present where it's very clear that these people love what they do and are having a great time doing it. Can't wait until their return to Melbourne.

19 Weeks - Melbourne Fringe Festival preview

Creating theatre can often end up with the maker revealing the most personal details of their life to strangers. For Emily Steel this resulted with her award-winning play 19 Weeks, in which she opens up about terminating her pregnancy after her baby was diagnosed with Down Syndrome. Staged in a swimming pool at the Adina Apartment Hotels, this site-specific work has actor Tiffany Lyndall Knight performing the lead up and aftermath of Steel's decision.

It was the loneliness of facing an experience such as this that inspired Steel to write this show, and while it is of a highly personal nature, 19 Weeks was something that she felt she had to do. "When you go through something like that, it can make you feel very alone. And then it feels like you’re not supposed to talk about it, which makes the isolation worse. I wanted to talk about it. I wanted people with similar experiences to feel less alone. As a playwright, I’m particularly interested in challenging stories and complex female characters. This is one of those stories. If I hadn’t told it, I wouldn’t have been doing my job."