Queer and trans fairytales come to life in "The Story Keepers" - Midsumma Festival

While there's plenty to see and do during Midsumma Festival for the adults, there's also just as much fun to be had by families and children, including the magical, fun, queer fairy tale show, The Story Keepers. Written and directed by Em Chandler, the show has a group of fairy tale collectors who record the fairy tales of the world with queer and trans representations in its key characters. In this upcoming production, they share three overlooked fairy tales from Germany, Spain, and Iceland.

The Story Keepers has been a long time coming for Chandler, who has spent years selecting, preparing and devising these works. "The basic premise of fairy or fairy like beings telling fairy tales has been with me since 2017. So, in various ways it’s been floating around my brain for five years. But I’ve been writing, refining, and working on it over the last three years. I had been sitting on the idea of a troupe of fairy or fairy-like beings coming together to share, perform and act out fairy tales for a long time, but had struggled to find a way to start," they tell me.

Theatre Works 2020 Launch

This Bitter Earth. Image credit: Matthew Predny

Theatre Works has launched its 2020 program and it looks set to be an impressive year of theatre. For forty years, Theatre Works has consistently supported and cultivated emerging artists and theatre companies while being particularly encouraging of new Australian works, something it has once again accomplished. "Theatre Work’s history is steeped in hard work, built by the aspirations of countless artists and passionate creators as they continue to deliver what can only be recognised as powerful, relevant and vital performances," General Manager, Dianne Toulson says. "In 2020, we celebrate and uphold the values that Theatre Works is built on with a provoking, playful and proud program." While all 20 productions can be seen on the Theatre Works website, we have a look at a number of the offerings that are on the table.

The Kick Inside - Melboourne Fringe Festival review

Kerensa Diball is 38 and has no children. She's in a long-term relationship and is able to have children but she's chosen not to have any. They're simply not what she wants from life. As part of the Melbourne Fringe Festival, The Kick Inside has Diball unpacking her reasons behind this and looking at the responses she's received from those around her and the judgements from society.

Deciding whether you have children or not, is a difficult choice to make. There are many issues to take into account and there are pros and cons with both outcomes. Unfortunately, we are not informed about the factors leading to this in satisfying detail. With the show running at just under 40 minutes of an advertised 50, you're left wondering why Diball has raced through so much surface level material and not taken the time to share these more intimate musings regarding her decision-making process and whether there were any moments when she has regretted this. There are a lot of thoughts being expressed but none of them appear to be fully fleshed out.

At one point, Diball mentions her apprehension in telling her mother and grandmother that she won't be providing the family with a next generation but sadly does not return to this. Recorded phone messages from herself and her mother play as interludes between scenes but they are absent of dramatic tension or engage us adequately. Exploring the pressures and anxieties of this situation would make for some interesting stories and conversation while keeping at the heart of the subject matter.

That'll Teach Me review | Melbourne International Comedy Festival | Loop Project Space & Bar

Max Atwood has been a primary school teacher for five years and is living, breathing proof that while you can take the teacher out of the classroom, you can't take the classroom out of the teacher. So, before we begin today's lesson with his comedy show That'll Teach Me, Atwood advises us what our learning objectives are and how we will achieve those.

While Atwood shares anecdotes from his career (life?) as a teacher, the focus with this show rests with an incident between a student at a summer camp. When Atwood unintentionally offended a student by calling him a certain word, he allows the student the rare opportunity to call his teacher any name he wants - just once - without any form of punishment or consequence. It's a child's dream come true to tell their teacher he's a dickhead or an asswipe and not get a detention.

Super Amazing Giant Girl review | Melbourne International Comedy Festival | Melbourne Town Hall

While there are plenty of shows for adults during the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, it's worth noting that there are also many geared towards the younger end of the population. In Super Amazing Giant Girl, circus performers Anna Lumb and Jez Davies take their audience on a fantastical journey of a super amazing giant girl who learns to not only accept her difference but embrace it.

Lumb is full of energy on stage and it often feels like she might actually be a child trapped inside the body of an adult. In her portrayal of super amazing giant girl, Lumb quickly establishes a character that we can all relate to and keen to support. Her hula hooping and circus tricks are as nail biting to watch than any circus production with some highly entertaining clowning and exaggerated physical comedy.

Baby Cake - Next Wave Festival review

There aren’t many women in the world who can say they’ve never thought – or been asked - about having children. Regardless of the answer, it is a question that ultimately needs to be answered with the ramifications of that choice coming into effect for the rest of their lives. Kerensa Diball and Yuhui Ng-Rodriguez are two friends, one is a mother and one is not, and in Baby Cake, they look at what it means to be a woman and a mother, with a little help along the way.

Ng-Rodriguez has a 2-year-old son, Mori and throughout the show she discusses the changes in her life, particularly in how she balances this with her career as an art maker and the compromises she has had to make to continue working while being a mother. On the other side of the spectrum, Diball has no children, but she did acquire a parasite called blastocystis hominis after eating some raw goat’s cheese in Turkey so she has some idea on what’s it like to be a mother.

For The Ones Who Walk Away - Melbourne Fringe Festival review

Do we accept the happiness of the majority, at the expense of the few? This is the question raised in For the Ones Who Walk Away with its immersive and interactive live art performance performed by over 50 children aged 9 - 18. Presented by St Martin's Youth Arts Centre, it's an ethereal yet dark exploration of humanity and the choices we make.

Audiences are initially separated into groups and led to a workroom to experience their first performance. From here, we are free to wonder around and enter whichever workroom we gravitate towards. The interactions in each room vary and I find myself playing the role of observer, participant and creator throughout the course of the evening. We are told there will not be enough time to visit each room, so I don't rush and walk through the hallway until I see a room that takes my interest. 

I approach a teenager girl who hands me a rock and begins to ask me numerous questions about my life. I respond by placing the rock along a chart on how accurate that statement is. I'm also asked to share my life story with her in less than a minute and not only do I find myself questioning how honest I should be with this stranger but also how honest I am with myself. Another room has attendees and performers going through the futile act of separating flower petals into colours while being dealt with some difficult "would you rather" questions: would you rather be sexist or racist?

Cactus and the Mime review | Melbourne Fringe Festival | Lithuanian Club

A Cactus and a Mime walk into a room and begin to re-enact their tumultuous relationship in the style of a children's television show. You would be hard pressed to get any more fringe than that. Written and performed by Roby Favretto and Caitlin Spears and presented as part of the Melbourne Fringe Festival, Cactus and the Mime is a hilariously fast-paced satirical look at the relationship between two people and the circumstances that have led them to present their story to us.

The show begins as Hi-5 as you can possibly get with Trevor and Mandy donning big smiling faces, adorable costumes and the staged decorated with brightly coloured props. However, as the story progresses, there are glimpses of something darker at play here. Yes, they're all smiles and cheeky banter but there's something brewing underneath it all that Trevor and Mandy will ultimately need to face. As the jokes become more vicious and personal, the elephant in the room is revealed and it is absolutely devastating. Suddenly, we don't care about how cheated Trevor feels about only receiving an honourable mention at his school talent show or about Mandy's career aspirations to becoming a famous mime. What we care about are these people, their relationship and what they are facing.

Sugarland review | Arts Centre Melbourne

Sugarland, the latest production by the Australian Theatre for Young People, is a play that revolves around the experiences of a group of teenagers living in Katherine, Northern Territory. With an upcoming singing competition as its focus, it’s a gritty and honest look at the challenges and difficulties teenagers in rural Australia often face, including homelessness, domestic violence, drugs and suicide.

The young cast played by Narek Arman, Xanthe Paige, Calen Tassone, Jonas Thomson and Dubs Yunupingu, have a deep understanding of the characters and their motivations, and develop them carefully into complex human beings. Under the watchful direction of Fraser Corfield and David Page, the five actors explore who these people are as the characters figure out where they belong in this mixed-up world. The choreography of the boxing fight between Jimmy and Aaron (Tassone and Arman) in particular is impressively directed, with both actors clearly in the moment and allowing their characters to take control of the situation.

How I Met My Son

A parent's love for a child should forever be unconditional, and that's exactly what Yolanda Bogert has displayed to her son Kai his entire life.Her new book How I Met My Son: A Story of Love that Transcends Gender looks at the moment when Bogert made worldwide news, when in December 2014, placed a birth notice in the Courier Mail.

It read: ‘A Retraction: In 1995 we announced the arrival of our sprogget, Elizabeth Anne, as a daughter. He informs us that we were mistaken. Oops! Our bad. We would now like to present, our wonderful son – Kai Bogert. Loving you is the easiest thing in the world. Tidy your room.’

How I Met My Son looks at that moment of accepting her transgender son and the impact the story had on their lives, ‘the sky didn’t fall, and our family didn’t fall apart. We just started using different pronouns. Oh, I had to change the name stored in my phone with his number. That was a bit of a pain,’ Bogert says.

Despite the positive awareness of transgender issues it raised, it is something that Bogert now regrets doing. One quick Google search of ‘Kai Bogert’ will quickly alert any potential employer of Kai’s transition, which means Kai will never ‘pass’ as being born male.

The launch of her first book coincides with International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia, and to celebrate, Bogert and her son Kai, will lead a panel discussion with a focus on parenting trans kids at Hares and Hyenas. The event will include parents and transgender people including head of Transgender Victoria, and winner of 2015's GLBTI Person of the Year award Sally Goldner and writer Fury.

Blood! Death! Show! - Big West Festival preview

Halloween may have come and gone, but there is never a wrong time to experience a haunted house. Created as part of the Big West Festival, Blood! Death! Show! is a haunted house by Joseph O’Farrell (JOF) in collaboration with 11 year old children in which adults and children are free to view and interact with the work. 

O'Farrell, a multi-art performer, creates large-scale installation and theatre works with, and for, the community. With a focus on accessibility and inclusivity, these works aim to celebrate diversity and bring people together in hilarious and unlikely situations.