Onstage Dating - Melbourne Fringe Festival review

The dating game is a hard one to keep up with, let alone win. With online dating apps more or less becoming the most common way in meeting someone, going on a first date and getting to know someone from scratch by face-to-face is a distant memory. In her Melbourne Fringe Festival show, OnStage Dating, Bron Batten is determined to change things, by having a first date with a member of the audience on stage - and the results are priceless.

The show opens in a colourful and attention grabbing way and from then on, we are all putty in Batten’s hands as she recalls memories of bad dates and describes the science behind dating and human interactions. Eventually she pulls out the pre-filled questionnaires from all the participants willing to be her date, and I am surprised by how many there are.

Onstage Dating | Bron Batten | Melbourne Fringe Festival interview

First dates can be pretty nerve-wracking. Have you dressed appropriately, are you going to a suitable restaurant, do you smell good, is your hair okay, will they be a good kisser, am I a good kisser? The questions and self doubt are endless. So what better way to kill the nerves than by going on a first date in front of a room full of strangers? Well that's exactly what Bron Batten is doing with her show Onstage Dating, performed as part of the Melbourne Fringe Festival.

The show features a different volunteer each night as they and Batten go through the awkward phases of small talk, flirtation and trying not embarrassing themselves. "I started 'research' for this show whilst on residence in Paris last year by going on dates with strangers. Over the course of the year I went on over 50 dates abroad and in Australia and was struck by the vulnerability and hope that accompanied each encounter," she explains. "Everyone I met was searching for some kind of intimacy, if only for an evening. And I began to realise there were some parallels to a night at the theatre, as an audience member I'm searching for that moment of connection to the art or the performers, just like the people I met 'in real life'. The audience witness the entire course of a relationship over an hour."

Manxious review

Manxious: the nerves and anxiety one exhibits while waiting for a man to text back. It's a serious affliction and something that Rachel Rai want to share with us in her cabaret show, Manxious. Despite its worrisome theme, it’s a fun show that not only showcases Rai’s ability to sing and perform, but also gives the audience plenty of laughs.

Rai intersperses a diverse number of songs throughout the evening as she goes through the excruciating process of waiting for a response to her perfectly created text. These numbers have been reimagined in ways that give them new life and celebrate Rai's versatility as a singer. Her inclusion of some iconic Australian songs would have to be the musical highlight of Manxious, including her audience rousing cover of John Farnham's “Pressure Down”. Another surprise was the theme from Home And Away, which was the last musical number I would ever expect to hear in a cabaret show, but Rai manages to make it feel like a genuine, heartfelt song.

A Lady's Guide to the Art of Being a Wingman

A wingman is a mate you bring along with you to parties or bars in the hope of "picking up" women. While the responsibility of a wingman can vary, the ultimate goal is to make the male look like he is a great catch and that the woman in question would be crazy to not fall for his charm. Despite so many hints and tips on being a wingman and scoring with the women, there is very little advice on what it means to be a good wingwoman, but The Desperettes are here to fix that.

Adorned with their large pink beehives hairstyles, The Desperettes (Natasha York, Belinda Hanne Reid and Lisa Woodbrook ) are coming together for A Lady's Guide to the Art of Being a Wingman, where they highlight the double standards that women face when it comes to dating. "We started writing it because we found the idea of women using "pick-up artist" techniques hilarious, but we quickly realised that hearing women using cheesy pickup lines and talking about how they're going out with the sole purpose of getting laid is still shocking for a lot of people, and it shouldn't be. It's about empowering women, regardless of age, appearance, sexual preference etc, to embrace their sexual side and have fun," Reid tells me. "With this show, we combine masculine mannerisms and suits with the hyper-femininity of bright pink beehives and girl-group choreography to try to subvert the gender norms."

Intoxication review | Midsumma Festival | La Mama Theatre

I still remember the excitement in my house when we signed up for dial-up Internet. It brought a new world into my living room with just a tap of the keyboard and a click of the mouse. 17 years later, the technological advances we have made have brought this virtual world closer to us, but has it pushed us further away from the real world? Presented as part of the 2016 Midsumma Festival, Christopher Bryant’s Intoxication analyses and raises questions about how our reliance on social media, dating apps and smart phones are hindering us from building honest and meaningful relationships with actual people.

The three performers - Ryan Forbes, Amy Hack and Bryant – each sit on an individual cube and, as if they are in a confessional, share their anxieties with us. Even though there is barely, if any, interaction between the three during these moments, the thoughts and emotions shared are very similar, building on Bryant's idea that despite all having these insecurities and feelings of loneliness, we seem to push ourselves further away from reality and into the digital world, where we are free to project the life we wish we had and want the world (wide web) to see.

FAG/STAG review - Melbourne Fringe

After rave reviews and an extended season at Perth's Fringe World Festival in 2015, Perth based theatre company, The LastGreat Hunt, have brought FAG/STAG to the Melbourne Fringe Festival. Written and performed by Jeffrey Jay Fowler and Chris Isaacs, it is the simple story of two best friends, one gay and one straight, who are going through some pretty challenging times in their lives. 

Jimmy (Fowler) and Corgan (Isaacs) each take a seat on opposite ends of the stage. At their disposal, they each have a mobile phone (to check their dating apps, grindr for Jimmy and tinder for Corgan) and a PlayStation controller. Using these two items, they recall the moments of their lives leading up to their friend Tamara's wedding. Tamara also happens to be Corgan's ex-girlfriend. Corgan is still not completely over their break up and Jimmy has just broken up with his boyfriend. Life is great.