These Things Take Wine review | Melbourne International Comedy Festival | The Butterfly Club

I don't like wine, never have, and after seeing These Things Take Wine and the effects it has had on cabaret performer Tash York, I don't think I ever will. However, this comedic alcohol-fuelled love song to wine is a highly entertaining show that I could easily go back to for seconds.

With her hair dishevelled, lipstick smeared on her teeth, black dress creased and with most certainly a myriad of alcohol stains embedded deep into the fabric, York looks a right mess. Yet we immediately warm to York, because we've all been there and we know exactly what that hangover feels like.

Notorious Strumpet and Dangerous Girl review | Melbourne Fringe Festival | Meat Market

Greeted with offerings of tea and coffee, we are welcomed into our Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. We all have stories we want to share in this meeting (whether we know it or not), but before we begin, Jess Love has something she would like to share, and that is how performance piece Notorious Strumpet and Dangerous Girl begins.

Throughout this deeply personal show, Love explores her struggles with alcoholism and drug addiction, and the effects it has had on her personal life and the disconnect she feels with her family. With a Christmas family photo projected on the screen - one that does not include Love - she informs us that while she is a queer carnie who drinks too much, the rest of her family are involved in the teaching profession and have also been Christian missionaries.

Mother's Ruin: A Cabaret about Gin review | The Butterfly Club

It’s no accident that a cabaret show about the history of the sordid spirit, gin, would instantly have attracted my interest. After all, who wouldn’t be interested in a cabaret show that deals with sexism, misogyny, colonialism and propaganda? That’s right, the history of gin covers all these issues and with Mother’s Ruin: A Cabaret about Gin, not only are we educated on these but also remain constantly highly entertained.

Performers and co-creators, Maeve Marsden and Libby Wood have joined forces with Sydney based gin aficionado Elly Baxter from The Ginstress, who has been writing about gin since 2012. This collaboration allows the audience to hear more of the lesser-known facts of gin, ensuring we are always interested and intrigued by what is being revealed.

The Long Red Road review | fortyfivedownstairs

The Australian premiere of Brett C. Leonard’s The Long Red Road follows six individuals all facing their own demons and struggles. Set in the heart of America, the name of the play is a Native American term for the journey toward redemption and inner peace. In this instance, the focus rests on the relationship between brothers Bob and Sam, and the effects of a tragic accident.

The first act begins with numerous mini-scenes peering into the lives of the six characters, and as such, the story moves at an incredibly slow pace. The attempts to provide insight into the turmoil and anguish they are facing result in actually knowing very little about these people, so until the end of the first act, I cared very little about these people. To be perfectly honest, I could have done without this act altogether and would have preferred to get right into the heart of the story found in the second act.

The Humble Tumbler and The Gin Queen gin masterclass

When it comes to alcohol, the only thing I drink is gin. Since I came across it at a London bar in 2010, it has become my drink of choice, which I generally drink with apple juice (yes, it sounds weird but give it a go and let me know what you think). Such is my love for gin that I currently have over three litres of it in my house just waiting to be consumed.

So when I came across The Humble Tumbler (Clare Burder) and the The Gin Queen's (Caroline Childerley) gin masterclass, I knew it was something I had to partake in. Throughout the course of the evening, Childerley and Burder take us on a journey through the early beginnings of gin and provide tastings of nine gins from across Australia and around the world, each with its unique distillation, botanicals and taste.

It is an intimate dinner party style setting for 14 people, all strangers except the two people I attended with. The table is adorned with the varieties of gins we will be drinking along with some mouth-watering olives and cheeses. I'm not a big cheese fiend but I immediately fell in love with the Meredith Feta and the L'Artisan Le Fermier. 

Wet House review

A wet house is a hostel for alcoholic homeless men and women, where they can drink and sleep as much as they want with no expectations for them to be rehabilitated. They are more or less, the people that society has given up on. In Red Stitch's production of Paddy Campbell's Wet House, we get an insight into the lives of three residents and three workers of a wet house, each one struggling with their own redemption and reason for being.

Wet House is based on Campbell's first-hand experience of working in a wet house and you can see how effective a story can be when the writer well and truly knows what he is writing about. Not a single scene is wasted, no dialogue is filler, no movement is pointless. Everything that happens in Wet House has a purpose, and with six different stories being told, the pacing is controlled well and is never difficult to follow.

It's GIN-tastic!

There are only three beverages that I drink; water, fruit juice (except orange) and gin. That's it. I don't like the taste of wine, coffee, tea and the rest of them. Weird I know. So when my friend advised me that a Bombay Sapphire inspired gin pop-up bar was opening in Melbourne for a limited time, I got more than a little excited!

Called Project Botanicals, Bombay Sapphire created a unique bar with ten brilliantly designed gin cocktails, each one specific to one of the botanicals found in Bombay, including juniper berries, coriander seeds and bitter almonds. Paired with these cocktails were some mouth-watering tapas style dish created by chef Gary Mehigan.

For a $38 entry fee, you received two cocktails and accompanying dishes, which is more than reasonable but I was a little disappointed by the lack of vegetarian options. There were two desserts that were meat-free but of the 8 'tapas' dishes, only two had a vegetarian alternative. Fortunately, you could mix and match your dishes, and so I ended up with:
Cubeb Berry Fizz and Tartine of Field Mushrooms and
Orris Root Aviation and Strawberries and Cream.

Homosexuals, Olympics, Russia and Vodka...

The news about Russia and its legislation that now bans "propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations to minors” with severe punishments for anyone who infringes on this draconian law, has been making headlines, and rightly so. With all the progress the world has made regarding gay rights for something like this to be passed in this day and age is so horrendously wrong that people should be talking about it. However, there have been two things that have really got to me regarding this legislation; firstly, the reaction of the International Olympic Committee and secondly, the boycotting of Russian vodka, Stolichnaya.

It's all fun and games in Russia

I have never been a fan of the Olympics. I have always seen them as being hypocritical in what they stand for with their claims about solidarity and uniting countries, yet it’s always about winning and who has the most medals. With the laws that Russia has just passed, it is now time for the IOC to take a stand and prove what the Olympics stand for. Instead they release a since proven erroneous statement that they have "received assurances from the highest level of government in Russia" that these laws that violate human rights "will not affect those attending or taking part in the games". Because that makes it all right does it? Out of sight out of mind? It is reminiscent of the 1936 Olympics in Nazi Germany. The Nazi party might not have been in at its peak back then and communication to the masses would have been a lot more difficult so I can see somehow understand (but not accept) how they would have still permitted the games to be held there, but with all the facts we have at hand about what is happening in Russia, it is unfathomable that the IOC can sit back and implicitly say ‘we don’t give a shit about human rights, just as long as the games go ahead”. The last time the games were cancelled was in 1940 and I can understand the importance of the games (even if I don’t agree with them) but find me anyone who is a supporter of human rights who would not agree with cancelling the games if Russia does not wake up to itself? Yes it’s an extreme reaction but this is an extreme discriminatory law. Forget about gay marriage for a second and remember that this law permits someone to be jailed for even discussing homosexuality with minors.

But if the IOC won’t do anything, at least the gay clubs will. Some of the biggest gay clubs in America, Canada, England and Australia - including The Laird in Melbourne and Gay Bar in Sydney, have begun boycotting Russian vodka - in particular Stolichnaya. Individuals have also chosen to no longer purchase the Russian brand as their drink of choice. Bravo! Bravo indeed! Let’s stop consuming a drink that obviously has Russian ties but whose headquarters are not even based in Russia (they’re in Luxembourg) and have no effect on the actual Government itself. Even the CEO of Stoli’s parent company SPI Group, Val Mendeleev, has issued an open letter to the LGBT community, in which he speaks of being a “fervent supporter and friend” of the gay community. Yes, it is raising awareness about the issue but it is not doing anything for the cause. It’s this “bedroom activism” that really infuriates me. If people really wanted to take a stand against this they would stop using/purchasing products that Russia exports. In 2007, Petroleum products comprised over half of Russian exports to the U.S. while iron, steel and railway equipment are the fastest growing imports into Russia from America. If we put a stop on such trade in response to Russia’s heinous legislation then this would actually have an effect on the country. Of course, this would require people to actually make some sort of sacrifice rather than getting on their morality horse by limiting their alcohol intake. Not drinking Stolichnaya vodka because of Russia’s gay laws is the same thing as “liking” a page on Facebook to end world hunger.

We – in Australia – are up in arms about the fact that we still don’t have legal marriage for all gay people. We think this is abhorrent and extremely discriminatory, but on the flipside, I am so relieved that we can openly hold hands, kiss and discuss homosexuality without fear of retribution. Yes we can’t get married (yet) but at least we don’t have the fear of going to jail or being murdered for being who we are. For this reason, it is imperative that the IOC and world leaders make a stand to Russia that this is completely unacceptable and will not be tolerated.

Tilda Swinton posing with the rainbow flag in Russia