Birds review | Melbourne Fringe Festival | Meat Market

From the second Birds takes flight, it’s clear this isn’t your typical beach getaway. With sharp wit, absurd scenarios, and a darkly playful edge, the show sets up a world that’s equal parts hilarious and unsettling. It's perfectly primed for Alex Hines and Sarah Stafford to deliver performances brimming with nihilistic humour and outrageous awareness.

The pair may be portraying ladies who’ve traded lunch for a beachside drink, yet they’re still very much in their (questionable) designer kaftans and planning their own brunches. Hines plays Shayna, a wealthy five-time divorcee who has lost her entire family to a blimp accident, but couldn’t care less. Stafford’s Beverley, on the other hand, is a mother of twelve boys who has escaped to the beach in frustration after her husband ruined her birthday. This unlikely friendship sees the ladies supporting one another through some of the toughest periods of their lives, from running out of sunscreen to guessing what the secret sound is on Smyle and Smacki-O’s radio program.

The Wrong Gods review | Melbourne Theatre Company

Set in a quiet village tucked deep in the Indian countryside, S. Shakthidharan's The Wrong Gods tells the story of four women grappling with change. As the push for development creeps closer, traditions begin to buckle under the weight of progress. What follows is a slow unravelling of relationships, beliefs and loyalties. It’s an intimate, character-driven piece that leans into lyrical dialogue and rich visual moments to explore what happens when the world you’ve always known starts slipping away.

Radhika Mudaliyar brings restless energy to Isha, a slightly naive and yet determined teenager desperate to escape her rural surroundings to see the real world and follow her dreams of being a scientist. Her portrayal of a young woman torn between honouring the past and embracing the future is compelling and layered, and her chemistry with Nadie Kammallaweera as her mother is genuinely heartfelt and believable, adding a tender layer to their complicated relationship.

Skating in the Clouds review

Summer and Autumn are two women in love, but despite appearances, all is not well in their fairy tale world. Written by Clare Mendes, Skating in the Clouds invites us into this whimsical space where fanciful skating parties are given the same level of urgency as our ever-growing environment and climate problems.
 
Rebecca Morton and Katrina Mathers play Autumn and Summer with great commitment. They distinctly show how different they are - with Autumn constantly trying to solve a leaking pipe whereas Summer remains fixated on the guest list for her decades away 70th birthday - yet also ensure we understand how they can be so drawn to each other.

Running into the Sun review (Melbourne Fringe Festival)

Before starting my review of Running into the Sun, I want to express how exciting it is that Nadiyah Akbar and Ben Ashby have relocated from Wellington to Melbourne and brought their dance and physical theatre company a2 Company with them, because we are going to be in for some amazing treats. It's actually a challenge to write a review that will do this show justice as there is so much to see, hear, think and feel, as this nine person ensemble take to the stage and through music, projections, movement, song and scripted scenes, explore how fucked up the world is while simultaneously leaving you feeling joyful and warm.

I Hope This Means Something review (Melbourne Fringe Festival)

I Hope This Means Something is Patrick Livesey's latest solo performance and boy, have they come a long way since their debut solo work, The Boy, George, from all the way back in 2018. Livesey plays a young activist Corinthian whose move to Melbourne for a job with an environmental NGO sets in motion their downward spiral into saving the planet from its biggest threat, climate change.

Livesey delivers a fantastic performance as Corinthian. Their gradual transformation into a zealous climate activist is evident and you can see how their physicality, facial expressions and speech begin to change, begin to be more frenetic and impassioned. Further to this, Livesey takes on the roles of all the other people in Corinthian's life, including their mother, work colleagues and grindr hook ups, and for the most part, they give equally authentic portrayals to these people as they do to Corinthian.

Lé Nør [the rain] review | Monash University

In the island nation of Sólset live a small group of people that has been experiencing a decade-long drought. However, that's not enough to dampen their spirits, particularly the residents of an apartment building, with each of them dealing with their own day-to-day problems of heartbreak, love, friendship and loneliness. But it is only a matter of time before the inevitable occurs and disaster strikes in this original climate change story conceived by Perth theatre company, The Last Great Hunt, Lé Nør [the rain].

This is a wonderful story full of suspense, drama and humour, and the cast take to it with such skill and commitment (with many playing multiple characters) that you easily form strong emotional connections to what is happening to the residents. To make it even more challenging for the ensemble (Gita Bezard, Adriane Daff, Jeffrey Jay Fowler, Arielle Gray, Chris Isaacs, Jo Morris and Tim Watts), the entire dialogue is spoken in the fictitious native Sólset language, with English surtitles displayed to the audience. And this is just the tip of the iceberg about what makes Lé Nør [the rain] an exciting piece of work.

Rebel review | Monash University

Playwright Fleur Kilpatrick did not set out to write Rebel, but this serendipitous act has resulted in a warm-hearted play that shares the stories of senior climate and environmental activists. From Queensland to Western Australia and to New South Wales, Kilpatrick met and spoke with several "rebels" and discussed how and why they were doing what they were doing to protect the planet while also bringing up the idea of what makes someone a rebel.

Being familiar with Kilpatrick's writing and having met her a few times, you could mot have picked someone better than Ayesha Tansey to portray her - except if Kilpatrick herself had taken to the stage. Tansey convincingly displays Fleur's sensitivity to the world around her and her curiosity about people and community. She brings forth Fleur's caring nature and kindness as she explores the state of the planet and how hope is not completely lost.

Kill Climate Deniers review

Back in 2016, I was given a copy of David Finnigan's play Kill Climate Deniers. In it, a group of armed eco-terrorists storm Parliament House and threaten to execute everyone inside including the Environment Minister unless the Prime Minister puts a stop to climate change. All this happens while Fleetwood Mac is set to perform in said building. Provocatively written with hilarious dialogue and challenging themes, it wasn't long until the play captured the attention of Australian far-right social and political commentator Andrew Bolt. 

Bolt criticised the ACT Government for granting $19,000 towards the play due to its terrorist plot and "killing" of people. Former Australian politician Brendan Smyth argued that if you were to insert killing any other group into the title, it would be deemed offensive and jokes about killing any people should not be accepted. Media scrutiny intensified with the play making international news before it had even been staged. Fortunately, Finnigan persevered, later winning the Griffin Theatre Award in Sydney with a full-scale production presented in 2018.

How Can You Sleep At Night? review | Melbourne Fringe Festival | Errol's

In How Can You Sleep At Night?, Christian Taylor delves into the world of climate change, death and insomnia. While I was initially uncertain on how one could cover these three topics in detail and with clarity in a 60 minute show, Taylor easily accomplishes this and much more with his debut solo performance for the Melbourne Fringe Festival.

Taylor is having somewhat of an existential crisis about the world while also dealing with what happened to Andy. He can't sleep at night and the only one that he seems to be able to talk about this to is to a sentient jellyfish, voiced by a different actor every night. On the performance I attended, Hayden Burke had the honour and his sassy banter with Taylor was full of laughs and deep thoughts. If there were an award for best non-human performance in a Fringe show, it would go to the jellyfish.

Blurring reality with Kill Climate Deniers

I first came across David Finnigan's work at the 2013 Melbourne Fringe Festival show, Kids Killing Kids. In this, Finnigan and three other playmakers responded to the worldwide response they received to their adaptation of the Japanese novel/manga/film Battle Royale. It was an incredibly thought provoking piece on the responsibilities theatre makers have to their cast, their audience and the wider community. Kill Climate Deniers, is Finnigans' most recent work, which despite not even been staged yet, has already received much media scrutiny.

Kill Climate Deniers revolves around one evening where 96 armed eco-terrorists who - while Fleetwood Mac are performing a concert at Parliament House - take over the building and threaten to execute everyone inside, including the Environment Minister unless the Prime Minister puts a stop to climate change.