The Librar(IAN) review

If anyone was going to become a librarian, it would be Ian. I mean, his name is in the word librarian after all. Written and performed by Lochie Laffin Vines, The Librar(IAN) is a sweet, light-hearted look at Vines' own experience of working in a library without being saccharine.

Vines does a wonderful job in conveying the importance that libraries play in the community, one of the rare places where money is not needed to enjoy your time there. From the close-knit family that is formed within staff to the regular visitors who are sometimes there just for a chat and a sense of belonging instead of looking to grab a book and leave. Vines is an engaging storyteller who brings the world of libraries to life through his affection for his characters, who are no doubt drawn from his five years as a librarian.

House of the Heart review | Finucane & Smith | The Chinese Museum

It’s inside the Dragon Gallery of the Chinese Museum where the heads of three processional Chinese Dragons that have been used during city parades over the last century reside. Symbolic of strength and generosity, and as we celebrate the Year of the Dragon in the Chinese New Year, it is fitting that Finucane & Smith should also have their cabaret House of the Heart staged here.



The evening is full of heartwarming and heart-wrenching storytelling and musical performances from artistes including First Nations jazz blues legend Lois Olney. Accompanied by guitarist Dave Johnson, Olney delivers loving tributes to her deceased family members and recounts anecdotes with Finucane about their lifelong friendship beginning when they were just twelve. Home comes in many ways and can easily change, but as Finucane tells us at the beginning of the show, it's heart and love that keeps us connected.

A heart to heart with Moira Finucane and Sophie Koh

Finucane & Smith are back and painting the town red with a return season of House of the Heart, a cabaret exploring the themes of song, opera, storytelling and dance. With a line up of 13 extraordinary artists from varied cultural backgrounds, ages and life experiences, it's fair to say that co-director, performer and recently declared a Melbourne Fringe Living Legend, Moira Finucane is more than a little excited to be presenting this show in Melbourne again.

One of the many impressive elements of a Finucane & Smith show is the spread of talent they bring to the stage. While there's certainly challenges in getting so many performers together, when you've had a long and varied career as Finucane, having performed around the world and in countries such as Chile, China and Colombia, it certainly becomes easier. "We find our performers through travelling, putting on shows, directing, talking, touring, listening to lesser heard voices, taking risks ... so many risks!" she tells me. "People have told me throughout my art making career (even when I worked for free in nightclubs!) "Oh Moira, that will never work!" but I listen and I am curious, I look and I marvel, I am always marveling at people's diversity, and capacity to make beautiful art."

Choir of a Man review

Choir of a Man has nine men gathering at their local pub for singing, dancing and good times, all as they down a pint or two. Created by Nic Doodson and Andrew Kay, the show has been performed around the world since it premiered at Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2017.

The nine performers display great camaraderie and the direction and choreography by Freddie Huddleston ensures that the confines of the pub are used creatively and refreshingly with each song, while also making evident the familiarity these men have with each other.

ON/OFF review

We all have different parts of ourselves that emerge depending on our environment. This could be at work, home, social and anything in between. In ON/OFF, NICA’s third year Bachelor of Circus Arts students bring their on stage and off stage personas together in a distinctive production that allows them to present their skills and share their thoughts on what drew them to circus.

From the instant you enter the space, you can see this won’t be a traditional circus performance. Backstage has been transported into the theatre and you literally need to walk through it to reach your seat, getting up close and personal with the ensemble as they warm up, put final touches to their hair and make-up, and make any costume adjustments.

Nu-Disco! review (Melb Fringe)

Some of our most memorable moments happen here. We meet people who we instantly connect with while knowing nothing about them. People we may have never otherwise met. We also learn about ourselves and even how society functions. Welcome to the world of clubbing. Presented as part of the Melbourne Fringe Festival, Ellen Marning's Nu-Disco! takes us into the dark recesses of a pulsating nightclub and the people who go there.

The experience of sitting in a tiny theatre space and seeing it transform into a tight, crowded, sweaty space of bodies moving together with a single person on stage is quite surreal. Marning delivers an enthralling performance as she swaps between characters while covering a gamut of emotions, thoughts and encounters. There is a lot of care taken to tell these stories in a genuine manner, and while they may be funny, we are never laughing at them.

Ellen Marning is dancing the night (and the day) away with "Nu-Disco!"

You can dance. You can jive. Having the time of your life. That's what Ellen Marning was doing in Berlin earlier this year as she immersed herself in some fervent daytime clubbing. And she's bringing it to Melbourne. Presented as part of the Melbourne Fringe Festival, Nu-Disco! takes a look at dance culture and sharing "the moment".

"I was drawn to a show set in a club space because I love dancing and wanted permission to go clubbing as a form of ‘research’ and also having worked with award-winning audio artist Robert Downie in the past, I felt a lot of trust and excitement about working with him sonically to establish place, mood and character," Marning tells me. "Nu-Disco! explores one woman’s experience at a club over the course of a night. Time stretches and condenses in a club space (at least to me anyway) and it’s a metaphor for where she is at in her life. Late 20s, confused, horny, lonely, full of bravado, full of questions, full of rage she can’t quite place. It’s a celebration of the highs and an examination of the lows that can go along with these spaces."

Here We Are Amongst You review

I have not felt such sense of warmth and being cared for while watching a show than I have in the world premiere of Rawcus' Here We Are Amongst You. The Rawcus Ensemble began creating this in December 2019, looking into ideas around belonging, togetherness and being present in the moment, which is of particular significance now after the last few years, which for Melbournians has included a few hundred days of lockdown.

After a genuinely caring welcome by one of the cast, they begin walking through the space. Performed in the round, they enter and exit behind the audience, which makes you feel like not only part of the performance, but also part of this group. The smiles on their faces and the joy that they express as they walk and then begin to jog, run and skip with each other and around the audience is incredibly infectious.

Eclipse review

After roughly three years since their last live performance, the National Institute of Circus Arts (NICA) has brought together 12 of its students for its new show, Eclipse. Conceived by Sally Richardson, it is an exploration on how the pandemic has changed the world and how the world will continue to change because of it.

Richardson was inspired by Indian author Arundhati Roy's piece The Pandemic is a Portal, where she discusses the various ways COVID-19 has impacted India and what we need to remember and learn from as we attempt to move forward. It's quite fitting then, that the opening moments have hints of a Mad Max-esque dystopian future with a bedraggled tent cover and people living in imagined squalor milling around and endlessly passing time.
It is always exciting to see up-and-coming circus artists on stage and witnessing the beginnings of their careers.

The Johnston Collection presents "An Interior Life" exhibition

William Robert Johnston was a Melbourne based antique dealer and a collector of beautiful things from the age of eight, when his grandmother gave him a little teacup. As his collection grew, Johnston wanted to share these unusual and visually arresting items with the wider community. Upon his death in 1986, the not-for-profit museum, The Johnston Collection was established which comprises of 1,400 objects of mostly 17^th century English furniture, paintings, ceramics and objet d’art.

Part of the charm of the Johnston Collection stems from its revolving door of guest curators over the years which has included The Australian Ballet's Artistic Director David McAllister, milliner Richard Nylon, interior design studio Hecker Guthrie, and Barking Spider Visual Theatre company. Thse curators are offered the freedom to express their personal connection and response to what they display and how it is set up, giving people the chance to view these objects from different perspectives and ensures a great rotation of the collection.

Sick review | NICA

Mention the word hospital or being sick and the memories that most people will have will be negative. But NICA's third year students from the Bachelor of Circus Arts are here to change that with their final showcase performance, SICK. Directed by Gavin Marshall, the show is inspired by Marshall's two month hospital stay where doctors tried to determine why his body was falling apart on him.

With this personal experience, Marshall captures the mundaneness, the ridiculousness and the gravity of hospital life. Taking place over 24 hours at St. Nowhere Hospital, the show opens with a number of patients passing time in the waiting room as they keep themselves occupied. On the other side of this wall we observe doctors and nurses in the staff room, tired, overworked and hurriedly getting themselves prepared for the onslaught of what is behind those doors.

Dispersion review

You don't have to look too hard to notice that Melbourne has people from diverse cultures and communities living in it. We each have a story to tell and when you think about it, those stories are not that different from one another. Dispersion is a new circus show presented by the National Institute of Circus Arts (NICA) that gives an opportunity to its second year cohort to showcase their skills while exploring the idea of belonging and togetherness through some highly entertaining acts.

There is an intelligent and reflective narrative in Dispersion that emphasises identity and acceptance. Directed by Zebastian Hunter and Meredith Kitchem, all the acts are seamlessly integrated into the story resulting in a gripping emotional response from the audience. One of the highlights of this is how the opening and closing acts complement and contrast with each other and provide a satisfying and earned conclusion.

Never Ending Night - Melbourne Fringe Festival review

For years now, the Earth has been a site of devastation with humans now forced to live underground in various bunkers throughout the world. Cyprus Pod has been home to a community of people for 15 years, and all is as normal as can be until a Messenger arrives with a request for the pod to take on eight more people. With her, she brings three of the eight who are given the task to familiarise themselves with Cyprus Pod and endear themselves to the residents. With limited rations and space, the survivors must decide if they will allow these eight people to stay or turn them away. So begins Never Ending Night, an immersive theatre show presented by Libby Brockman and Russell Sims.

In this show, audience members are permitted to explore the pod and observe and listen to the various conversations happening between the residents, the Messenger and the Messenger’s guests. The nature of an immersive show such as this is that everyone will have a different experience depending on who they follow but the conclusion should provide enough information to put all the pieces of the puzzle together even if they have missed certain scenes. In this instance, I chose to shadow one of the messenger’s guests who tries to charm and manipulate his way into the pod. While initially an interesting character, his scenes and dialogue began to get slightly repetitive with his constant advances towards his female counterpart and in his belief that a place should be made for him because he is young, strong and fertile.

Never Ending Night - Melbourne Fringe Festival preview

Fringe festivals are a time for artists to present new work and ideas and be daring in the theatre that they make. But it also gives a chance for audiences to experience innovative theatre and to step outside of their comfort zone as a passive audience member. Presented by Libby Brockman and Russell Sims as part of this year's Melbourne Fringe Festival, Never Ending Night is an immersive experience in which each audience member determines the journey that they will take.

Performed inside the Collingwood Underground Carpark, audiences enter Cyprus Pod, which has been home to a small community of survivors for 15 years. However, when 8 more newcomers arrive, the survivors must decide if they will accept them or turn them away. For this project, Brockman enlisted three writers, Bridgette Burton, Amelia Newman and Keith Gow, to come on board and help create and guide the story.

"The collaborative process was really exciting, since all our writing styles are quite different," Gow tells me. "I'm working with Bridgette, whose work I have admired for years, and Amelia, who Bridgette has been mentoring, and we established a general concept for the play and then went off and wrote three different stories about life in this one pod. The big question of the play is whether or not this pod of survivors will allow others to come and live with them; they are so comfortable in their lives, they are initially reticent to accept newcomers."

House of Dreams review | Barking Spider Creative | The Johnston Collection

William Robert Johnston was a Melbourne based antique dealer and a collector of beautiful things, and he wanted to share these unusual and visually arresting items with the public. Upon his death in 1986, the not-for-profit museum, The Johnston Collection was established.

The Collection has had a rotation of guest curators including The Australian Ballet's Artistic Director David McAllister, milliner Richard Nylon and design studio Hecker Guthrie, who were given the opportunity to explore, regard and share the curiosities within the collection.

With its current exhibition, House of Dreams, guest curators Barking Spider Visual Theatre - a Melbourne-based multi-art form company – have spent the last 18 months designing the nine spaces to create a highly evocative and imaginative environment to be experienced. Led by Artistic Director Penelope Bartlau, the theatre company is known for its exemplary productions and varied methods of creating and sharing stories with audiences.

Mefetehe - Big West Festival preview

Australia prides itself on its multiculturalism and sharing these cultures with other people of our community. With much of the Ethiopia-born population in Victoria residing in the Western suburbs, it seems fitting that one of the performances on show at the Big West Festival, Mefetehe, is by renowned, award-winning Ethiopian writer/director Tesfaye Gebrehana.

In Mefetehe, a group of teenagers face off with the older generations in their family and community as they create a revolutionary plan  to build a new recreational facility. With this narrative, Gebrehana explores the differing opinions within the Ethipoian community regarding change and isolation. "It focuses on the broken connection between the older generations and the younger. It discusses the problems going on in our community and how we can come together to find a 'Mefetehe' (solution)," he says. 

Dumpster to Dinner Plate and End Sexism Now | Big West Festival preview

Presented as part of the Big West Festival, filmmaker and photojournalist, Melissa Davis has two short documentaries screening, Dumpster To Dinner Plate and End Sexism Now. The latter delves into ‘ordinary sexism’ and institutionalised misogyny that is so prevalent in our society. Dumpster to Dinner Plate on other hand, looks at one household’s approach to shared meals and "dumpster diving." While dealing with two different social issues, they are equally passionate issues that Davis has.

"End Sexism Now is from a much larger documentary I intend to make. The grabs you hear from speakers come from quite meaty, longer interviews, which cover a range of subjects from Tony Abbott, to men's rights, to the importance of language, to the right for a woman leader to be just average instead of exceptional," she says. 

Neighbours - Big West Festival preview

It's interesting that it's often the people you live next door to or across the road from that you know the least about. You may see each other in the mornings as you're going to work or pass them when you take your dog out for a walk and exchange pleasantries, but who are they really? Performed as part of the Big West Festival, Neighbours takes you on a guided walking along Nicholson street and into the homes of residents as they perform accounts of their lives.

Melbourne-based performers/performance-makers from This Side of The Tracks, Kerensa Diball and Yuhui Ng-Rodriguez, have spent two years working on getting this project ready. "We've spent many hours inhabiting the street, building relationships, door knocking, loitering, being inquisitive about everything, listening, watching. Through conversations over time, we have gotten to know locals and residents; this has enabled us to work with the skills, personality, quirks and expertise of each resident to create Neighbours," they say.

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.

Am I a Bad Gay?

I often joke to my friends that one day, my license will be revoked; my license to be gay. I know a lot of people who will read this and disagree with me and that's fine, but from my experiences this is how I see the gay community as a whole, based on my experiences. I've been a practising homosexual for a decade and I still feel no closer to the gay community than those days when I would borrow my next door neighbour's Dolly magazines to read but secretly lust after the shirtless nameless models in their pages.

There are a number of reasons why I feel I am a bad gay; the main one being I hate gay clubs. The clubs I have been to are generally a cruising ground for sex. Not that straight clubs aren't but in the gay ones, sexual advances are extremely direct and confronting (and at times, close to sexual assault). Two examples that come to mind; I was in the toilets of one club when a guy walked up to me and asked 'can I suck your dick' while I was literally standing at the urinal. Another time, a customer I had served when I worked in retail recognised me out and as he walked past me, grabbed my penis and smiled at me. I didn't appreciate that but yet if I was to create a scene about these moments, I would be looked at as making a big deal over nothing. The themed nights that various clubs have such as 'foam parties' implicitly condone such behaviour.

Continuing on with the overly sexualisation in the gay community, the amount of times I have started talking to - and even dated - guys and then find out they are in open relationships is unbelievable. I was at the Peel about six months ago and this guy approached me. We chatted for a while and had a bit of a snog (yes I said snog, deal with it) and then I returned to my mates. As I was leaving, I went back to him, chatted a bit more, exchanged numbers and I headed home (that's the PG version anyway). We spent the weekend texting back and forth and organising to go out that following Thursday until he sent me a text on the Monday saying "hey, I really like you but I think you should know I already have a boyfriend but I still want to see you". Delete. I'm not judging anyone that is in an open relationship (even though I don't get it) but it's treated like such a casual, normal thing to mention to someone, to the point where I was told by a friend that I should have asked him if he had a boyfriend! I'm no prude and I like to think I've had my fair share of escapades (yes, at times I have used Grindr to fulfil these needs) but in a gay environment, I feel sexual inhibitions disappear and anything is deemed acceptable which does not sit well with me.

There is a strong sense of competition between gay men. Much more than what I witness and hear about amongst my straight male friends. There's this feeling of having to be better than and superior to each other. Walk down Chapel St and you can feel the eyes burning through you, looking you up and down, judging what you're wearing, how your hair looks and who good your body is. We're so hell bent on creating a gay community yet we create these divides that are anything but positive. Why would anyone want to be part of that?

I'm also not a participant of gay festivals or events; I've never been to MidSumma, Sydney Mardi Gras and I didn't even go to any Melbourne Queer Film Festival screenings. I feel no connection or openess to any of these. A new magazine "about men who date men" called Hello Mr. was released recently, which has intelligent and well thought out articles written by gay men from around the world. Whilst it was far superior to the semi-pornographic DNA-esque magazines that are around at the moment, I still was not won over. There were only three articles I genuinely enjoyed and was moved by but the rest of it felt preachy and at times, quite pretentious - further enhancing 'competition' within the gay community.

It is for these reason why I guess I don't have a lot of gay friends, which I am fine with, as choosing your friends based on sexual preference is just as ridiculous as choosing your friends based on sex. My friends are awesome and never have I ever been made to feel uncomfortable about who I am, directly or indirectly but I've also reached the stage now - having just turned thirty five months ago - where what I would really like is a relationship. Having turned my back on so many gay avenues, what else is left? Where do people who don't fit the gay community mould go? I keep thinking that I will meet the perfect guy when I am at a cool little cafe in Fitzroy or at a comedy gig I may be at and I don't need to go to the Greyhound or join a gay sports team to meet him.

So...am I a bad gay?