I Am Seaweed review (Melbourne Fringe Festival)

It always seems like a badge of honour when someone asks you how you are and respond with "I am so busy". Working hard, learning a new craft, up-skilling, upselling, educating yourself. Constantly moving and doing. In I Am Seaweed, Cheryl Ho contemplates what it would feel like to just be and enjoy what is.

Sheryl with an S - played by Cheryl with a C – is a teacher who thinks that by being busy she will find satisfaction in life. By being like seaweed, something that expands under pressure, her super zestful positive attitude and her "Slay Everyday Era" mantra, she's sure she can.

While only a portion of the space at Theatre Woks is utilised, director Tan Hui Er keeps the full stage open and visible. The black, empty areas serve as a reminder of what Sheryl is trying to avoid as well as offering a visual representation of what's happening in her mind with her thoughts projected as images along the wall.

Happy at Times review (Melbourne International Comedy Festival)

Musical comedian Sarah Gaul is on a mission to improve her happiness levels. But what does it take to actually be happy? With Happy at Times, Gaul performs a number of delightful songs and shares her unique perspectives with her audience on how we can all increase our happiness ratio.

Gaul radiates warmth on stage and her personality shines through as she makes sure she greets everyone as we enter and take our seats. She is personable and friendly and when she recreates her passport and drivers license photo IDs she becomes someone we could sit there and listen to all night and still be entertained.

In A Cage That Looks Like Freedom | Melbourne International Comedy Festival preview

Last year, comedian Isabella Valette told us just how far she'll go to get the job done in How Far I'll Go. Now, with her upcoming Melbourne International Comedy Festival show, In A Cage That Looks Like Freedom, Valette not only shows us how far she'll go but also how far she's come as she unpacks all of the mistaken ways we try to bring meaning in our lives.

"I wanted to create a show that encapsulates my fascination with what I like to refer to as ‘the glorious sea of the crowd'; events where people come together and fuse into one energy. What happens when we celebrate as a collective?" Valette asks. “I’m also interested in people who think of life as a game with different hacks to make yourself and your life better and be happy. My own ideas of happiness changed in the past twelve months, which was the impetus to write this show and it forced me to clarify what happiness is, but if you want to know the answer, then you’ll have to see the show," she laughs.

What's Wrong With You? - Melbourne International Comedy Festival review

Anne Edmonds has a lot she wants to get off her chest and in 2019, the three time Barry Award nominee returns to the Melbourne International Comedy Festival for an hour of new stand-up with What's Wrong With You? This time, she looks at the people and moments that come into our lives for the sole purpose of breaking us down, but Edmonds is not giving in that easily.

There are a range of subjects covered that set Edmonds off, including people who carry plastic bags to put their belongings in instead of backpacks, Pauline Hanson, ukulele players and the Catholic Church. Clearly some are more justified than others but all are just as triggering. However, this isn't a show where Edmonds simply goes through her list of bad people, but it is about looking beyond that and trying to find the humour in something rather than letting it bring forth a rage.

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?

The Resilience Project: Gratitude, Empathy and Mindfulness

My smile hides a lot. It hides my fear, my sadness, my loneliness and my anxiety. It hides the fact that I still feel like my life has had little accomplishment and always wondering when my break will come. When will I feel accepted? When will I feel loved? When will I be happy?

A year ago, I wrote about my (self-diagnosis of) depression after having watched Bryony Kimmings's "Fake It Till You Make It", and it was about then I started seeing a psychologist. While Dr C determined I did not have depression, he did diagnose me with severe general anxiety disorder. Great I thought, I've been diagnosed now I can get fixed. I saw Dr C fortnightly - sometimes weekly - for a year, and we would discuss different techniques and exercises I could do to manage my anxiety and while I always walked out of the session determined to do them, I never did.