The art of deception with "Heather"'s Michelle Perera and Kristina Benton

You shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but should you judge a book by its writer? Thomas Eccleshare's Heather attempts to answer that question in the Australian premiere of this play at this year's Melbourne Fringe Festival. A reclusive author is hesitant to go public despite her agent (and her fans) desperately wanting to meet her. A cat and mouse game emerges between the two with one trying to coax the other to achieve their own end.

While the plot of the play might be mysterious and ambiguous, the roles that actors Michelle Perera and Kristina Benton take on are just as vague in this thrilling drama with a twist. "I play multiple roles, which is intended to perplex, and hopefully, only for a moment, disorient the audience," Perera says. "I love that the play plays on the multiple personalities we often harbour." It's a sentiment shared by Perera's co-star, Benton. "It's what drew me to the play. That there is this exploration of the struggle to accept both the light and the dark within ourselves."

Dyslexic Cowboy review (Melbourne International Comedy Festival)

Who is the Dyslexic Cowboy? In Lachie Ross' Melbourne International Comedy Festival show, Dyslexic Cowboy, it really doesn't matter. In 50 minutes, Ross performs a variety of sketches, stand-up and all that’s in between in his absurdist leaning solo comedy debut.

 

Ross is on the ball from the moment the show begins. His enthusiasm and dedication to his characters and each sketch is refreshing, particularly given the short duration of each skit. His ability to switch between “performing” and being himself because something has gone wrong, when it’s all part of the show, is well executed and entertaining to watch.

Love, Hugs + Kisses - Midsumma Festival preview

Nestled in a laneway near Elizabeth and Londsdale streets, queer underground nightclub, Hugs + Kisses, opened its doors in 2010 and for nine years it was a supportive space for LGBTIQ+ people to get together and make it their own. Music, dancing, liberation, open-minds and self-expression were all welcome. In January 2019, it closed its doors for the last time.

Photographer Nik Epifanidis was at Hugs + Kisses on its closing night. Set up outside the club, he spent the evening taking portraits of who was there, capturing the mood and tone that was present in the crowd. Only able to spend a few minutes with each person, Epifanidis asked them to focus on the emotion they wished to convey to the camera. The result of that is the Love, Hugs + Kisses exhibition, which acts as a compendium to a documentary on the club that is scheduled to be released in 2020, and begin presented as part of the Midsumma Festival.

While not personally connected to Hugs + Kisses, Epifanidis understood the importance and relevance of this venue closing, and was keen to be involved in the project when the film makers of the documentary made contact. "I hadn’t been to Hugs + Kisses, but I've always been intrigued by counter culture and how this is communicated. There is usually a good reason these places come into existence that speaks about people feeling the need to show themselves and be heard in a way they are unable to in the current mainstream," he says.

Mrs Robinson Crusoe - Melbourne International Comedy Festival review

Comedy duo Chelsea Zeller and Samuel Russo return to the Melbourne International Comedy Festival with their new show, Mrs. Robinson Crusoe, a time-travelling romp of sketch comedy spanning 70 years. It is 1950 and Betty Robinson, a wealthy socialite on a cruise, bumps into James, the 18-year-old (19 in March) son of her friends. Their romance is passionate but brief as the ship is involved in an accident with Mrs Robinson thrown overboard and waking up on a deserted island, or so she thinks.

Through times' trickery, Mrs Robinson has somehow ended up in the future, on an island where Survivor is being filmed. In one scene she finds a washed up bag with a number of curiosities, such as an iPad that she assumes is a serving platter and mistaking another item as a fancy drinking cup that you definitely do not want to be putting anywhere near your lips.

Mrs Robinson Crusoe - Melbourne International Comedy Festival preview

Trying to get Samuel Russo and Chelsea Zeller to describe their new sketch comedy show, Mrs Robinson Crusoe, is like getting two kids to talk about what they want for Christmas. They want to have it all and are excited about seeing what they actually get. Presented as part of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, the two art makers and performers are collaborating once more in a clowning / drag production where a 1950s housewife finds herself marooned on the set of the hit reality TV show Survivor.

In this fresh sketch-fable-parody-party, Zeller and Russo play with ideas around space and time, sex and love, rock, roll and a bag full of wigs. But that's not all. "Audiences will be seeing two performers playing a shit tonne of characters from different worlds all colliding in our crazy little island paradise," Russo explains. "Lots of ridiculous accents and funny walks. You know. Classy, sophisticated stuff like that. Like Survivor meets Little Britain."

Worth It - Melbourne International Comedy Festival review

If you go to Worth It expecting "a post-industrial, consumer-based, sustainable comedy show for the new economy", you are going to be sorely disappointed. Canadian comedian DeAnne Smith informs us at the very beginning of her show that she won't be talking about this and instead looks at other equally fun conversation topics like phobias, depression and death. Yay!

Fortunately, Smith has a plethora of incredulous experiences to share that fill the room with laughter. Ranging from first date disasters (that I still find difficult to believe), responses to when animals attack and to parents who have passed away, her casual approach in telling such stories is a winning combination.

Worth It - Melbourne International Comedy Festival preview

One of Canada's finest comics is returning to Melbourne for the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. After wowing audiences last year with Post-Joke Era, DeAnne Smith's new show Worth It, will be "a post-industrial, consumer-based, sustainable comedy show for the new economy", or will it?

"Expect the unexpected! I wrote that description long before I had actually written the show, which is usually how these things go," Smith tells me. "Turns out, this show centres on the time I was trapped in a room with an angry pitbull outside the door. (That may or may not be a metaphor for anxiety, and is also completely true.) With me, you can always expect tons of laughs, spontaneity, silliness, and - I have to say it - damn good jokes."

Tree of Codes - Melbourne Festival review

When choreographer Wayne McGregor, composer Jamie XX, and visual artist Olafur Eliasson come together for a new contemporary dance production, expectations are high. Taking inspiration from Jonathan Safran Foer's 2010 book, Tree of Codes, this production of the same name is a stunning collaboration of movement, lighting, sound, and stage design.

Interestingly, Foer's book was inspired by another book, Bruno Schulz's The Street of Crocodiles, a collection of short stories of a merchant family in a small town. Schulz story is full of metaphors, mythology and a blurring of fantasy and reality, and for his book, Foer cut out a large number of words and sentences from Schulz's stories and re-arranged them to form new stories and ideas. Even the title itself is made up of the letters from Schulz's book title.

Cowboy Mouth review - Melbourne International Comedy Festival

Comedian David Quirk has had four different women located around the world dream about him. These women all contacted Quirk to tell him about their dreams and from these communications, Quirk has created his stand-up show, Cowboy Mouth, which is being presented as part of this year's Melbourne International Comedy Festival.

Quirk cleverly uses the four encounters as touchstones for his anecdotes, in which he takes a step back from the dream and looks at the bigger picture or implications. The first one involves a woman reading a review about one of his shows and talking about this, which leads Quirk to recall a memorable encounter he had with a fan. Watching Quirk on stage for the first time, this story immediately gave an indication of the type of personality he has and the misadventure and trouble that seems to follow him wherever he goes, and subsequently set the tone for the rest of the show.

The Birds and The Beats review - Melbourne International Comedy Festival

Have you ever wanted to know something about sex but were too afraid to ask? Well thanks to The Birds and the Beats, you need fear no more. Presented as part of this year's Melbourne International Comedy Festival, Grant Busé spends his time informing us on the truth about the birds and bees through his unique fusion of stand up, storytelling and music.

What is striking about Busé as a performer is his utmost honesty and openness. Even with his parents in the audience on the evening attended, he doesn't shy away from any topic or question, especially when he bravely asks the audience if they have any questions for him about his own sex life. There is a good pacing to the show, where it creates a casual and relaxed atmosphere while also having an awareness of how long to keep a story and when to move on.

The Birds & The Beats - Melbourne International Comedy Festival preview

When you're growing up, sex can be a curious and foreign concept. You may have a lot of questions but where do you go to source reliable and honest answers? Returning to the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, with The Birds & The Beats, Grant Busé has you covered. While his previous show, The Late Night Sexy Show looked at the joys of sex, this show goes right back to the beginning with Busé's hilarious, educational and cheeky night of a sing-a-long sex ed. class.

"With The Birds & The Beats, I'm aiming to get a little bit deeper - pun intended - than The Late Night Sexy Show which was a celebration of feeling sexy and being comfortable in your own skin," Busé explains. "The more and more I did The Late Night Sexy Show, the more I saw a huge disparity between audiences with sexual openness, awareness and education. Some nights people had no idea about some of the terms I was talking about and the show transformed into an educational sex seminar. I also had a surprising amount of parents come up to me after the show checking if it was ok to bring their teenage kids along because of the positive body image themes. That kind of prompted me to look into the topic of sex education. In a way, The Birds & The Beats can be seen as a sequel to The Late Night Sexy Show."

Little Emperors review

In was in 1979 when - in order to control its population - China implemented a One Child Policy per family. While there were a number of ways that families could still have a second child, there were strict rules and regulations that had to be adhered to. In a society were males were more favourable, this law resulted in the murders of many female babies or families having to keep the existence of a second child a secret. In 2016, the Chinese government formally ended its One Child Policy.

Presented as part of Asia TOPA, Lachlan Philpott's Little Emperors is a look at one such family - while being representative of many - and the impact this law had on their lives and continues to do so. Alice Qin - making her Australian stage debut - is the standout as Huishan, who is in her 30s, single and still living with her mother in Beijing. Qin finds a delicate balance of guilt, frustration and resentment at the pressure of being the eldest child and the expectations placed upon her: that she marry and produce a grandchild for her mother, played by Diana (Xiaojie) Lin.

The Bombay Talkies exhibition

Peter Dietze opening The Bombay Talkies

There is much to experience during the inaugural Asia TOPA Festival, a festival which celebrates the artistic and creative talent of our neighbouring Asian countries and Australia's connection with these countries. One such event is The Bombay Talkies exhibition that is currently on at ACMI, which offers a glimpse into a movie studio that changed the film industry in India.

Founded in 1934 by Himanshu Rai - a pioneer of Indian cinema - and Devika Rani - an actress who has been widely acknowledged as the first lady of Indian cinema, The Bombay Talkies produced 40 films in 20 years and lifted Indian films to that of international standards. 

This free exhibition consists of over 3,000 cultural artefacts once owned by Rai and highlights the impact that the studio had on the country during this time. The multitude of newspaper clippings, letters, invitations, stills and photographs all show the fascination (and even obsession) that audiences had for its films and actors, including Ashok Kumar, who became the star of the studio and an icon of Indian cinema.

#Dragformation - Midsumma preview

Aaron Walker's latest exhibition, presented as part of Midsumma, looks into the world of drag and what it represents. #Dragformation aims to capture and document what 'drag' is, what it means, and who the people who engage with it are through before and after portrait photography of the performer.

Walker's conceptualisation for this project came through photographing the performers of a drag show backstage. "As I was shooting, what really struck me more than the show was the transformation process itself. After the show I knew I had to see if I could capture this on film in a way that needed to be a natural everyday look but also fabulous and spectacular. That’s when I chose to use a diptych to convey the effect of the drag artist’s look and persona from the street to the stage," Walker explains.

The Sparrow Men - Midsumma preview

From humble beginnings in July 2014 to now being a Premier Event at the 2017 Midsumma Festival, The Sparrow Men - aka. Andy Balloch and Marcus Willis - have garnered a reputation as one of Melbourne's most esteemed improv acts. The two have been performing regularly with no script, no direction and no idea on what is going to come out of their mouths for 2 and a half years and could not be more excited to be returning to the festival where they debuted their first full-length performance in 2015.

"Improv is such an incredible art form, and the only one where the process is the actual product. Every night we get to write, direct and star in our own play. And like plays, they can be funny, sad, dramatic, absurd, linear, non-linear, thematic based, premise driven, tackle important issues, non-important issues, it can be meta, non-meta, interactive, non-interactive, in English or not in English. We can play humans, birds, or anything in-between, play 1 character each, or 20, maybe there’s a narrator, maybe not," Balloch tells me.

The Happy Prince - Midsumma preview

Oscar Wilde's The Happy Prince is a short story for children around friendship, love and compassion between a statue of The Happy Prince and a swallow flying to Egypt. However, the story is also a critique of a society insensible to the world around it. As part of Midsumma Festival, the proclaimed purveyors of high camp, Little Ones Theatre will be producing this tale but with their own queer interpretation. 

"It’s funny, because I only read this story as an adult, so I guess I’ve always seen it as a queer allegory. I never had the innocent response to it that those who read it as children had. It has always had a 'queer take' in my mind. That is why I was drawn to it," explains director Stephen Nicolazzo. "I always saw it as an opportunity to further explore my obsession with sexuality and gender, but in this case, what was unique was that it was a love story. I am a romantic as heart and I think what I have always been draw to about The Happy Prince is its unashamed romanticism. It is tragic and it is indicative of the experiences of queer people throughout history and it manages to do this in the space of ten pages."

Heaps Gay Heaps Yummy preview

Melbourne Music Week is nearly upon us (11 - 19 November) and the queers are coming out to play with Heaps Gay Heaps Yummy. For one night only, Kat Hopper (director and founder of Heaps Gay) and James Welsby (creative director and founder of YUMMY), will be hosting this event, which will see queers and their allies taking over the State Library of Victoria for what promises to be a night of spectacular music and fabulous performance.

Fresh from hosting "a deliciously twisted cabaret of queer-lesque delights" with YUMMY Up Late at the Melbourne Fringe Festival, Welsby is more than excited about his upcoming collaboration with Melbourne Music Week and Heaps Gay. "The scale for Heaps Gay Heaps YUMMY is like nothing that I've coordinated before. We have booked over 30 performers, and are taking over an iconic venue in Melbourne," he says. "It feels so amazing to have that level of support for an indie queer event. The skill and diversity of all the performers we have scheduled is completely out of control. It is going to be huge."

Eli Matthewson : Faith - Melbourne International Comedy Festival preview

A wise man (George Michael) once said, "'cause I've got to have faith". Eli Matthewson had that. The New Zealand comedian grew up in a devoted Christian household but eventually turned his back on Jesus for a life of "guilt-free sinning". His show at this year's Melbourne International Comedy Festival, Faith, recounts his journey from being a believer to a non-believer.
 
"My family were pretty conservative when I was growing up - 5 kids, Christian family driving around in a van listening to Christian cassettes. I sung in the church band, and my first ever play was a show set in a Virtual Reality Basketball world which we did for Sunday Schools," he says. "I was never really "feeling it" though, and showed up mainly for performance opportunities. I went to Church less for Jesus and more so I could try and be the centre of attention. I stopped going in High School and now I have no religion, just a constant looming fear of death!"

Mae Martin: Us - Melbourne International Comedy Festival preview

Canadian-born, London-based Mae Martin is debuting her solo show in Australia at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. Called Us, the show explores the labels that people give us and the labels that we give ourselves. Martin's look at a variety of themes including identity, sexuality and loneliness made her one of the breakthrough performers at Edinburgh Fringe and she is more than a little bit excited to be heading over to our shores with Us.

"I've always wanted to do the Melbourne Comedy Festival because everyone raves about it and I'm so excited to have been invited," she says. "I'm also a huge fan of very long flights. If I don't get served at least 3 meals on a flight I don't feel I've got my money's worth, so this is perfect for me. I'll watch 17 films."

Butt Kapinksi - Melbourne International Comedy Festival preview

Butt Kapinski. The name alone drives fear into the hearts of the coldest of criminals. This Private Investigator, means serious business when it comes to solving crime. Their no holds barred approach in this comedy film noir murder mystery puts the audience as active participants in the show but with more emphasis on having an immersive experience rather than the dreaded audience participation that so many fear!

"Audience participation shows usually involve somebody getting dragged up on stage and made a fool of. That never happens in my show," Denna Fleysher, the US-based performer of Butt Kapinski confirms. "Nobody gets out of their seat. It's more like The Rocky Horror Show. It's fun to be a part of, nobody gets embarrassed, and everyone has a lot fun.