Day After Terrible Day review

I learnt a few years ago that the apparent inspiration for Miss Havisham from Great Expectations was an Australian woman buried at Sydney's Camperdown Cemetery. I'd never really given it more thought than that, but it is said that in the 1850s, Emily Eliza Donnithorne was jilted on the morning of her wedding and subsequently became a recluse. Thirty years later she died, still wearing her wedding dress.

In its latest production Day After Terrible Day, The Danger Ensemble make use of Donnithorne's story to explore the sorrow, grief and mourning that comes from falling in love and being unable to let go when the love ends. Director Mitchell Steven Wright builds a world that is macabre and disturbing from the very beginning when we are greeted by two real estate agents hoping to sell us a property. They are dressed in pink outfits with hair and make-up to the nines, but something about them doesn't look quite right. Once we enter, it is not long before we encounter one of the previous owners.

Twigs That Never Took review

It can be difficult to move forward when you can't let go of the past. Where you spend your time reminiscing about your younger years as you try to avoid the future that awaits. In Donna De Palma's Twigs That Never Took, a middle-aged woman grapples with her mortality and loneliness as she opens up to the audience about her two lost loves. 

There is so much potential for this to be a refreshing exploration on gender roles and ageism, however the show reveals few important or profound realisations. This is most noticeable in the first half that consists of our protagonist Bianca describing her two weddings as well as all the various things one must consider when planning a wedding. While there are humorous moments presented, very little of it leads to anything substantial.

Down The Rabbit Hole review | Forum Theatre | Melbourne International Comedy Festival

She won the award for outstanding emerging performer at the 2017 New Zealand International Comedy Festival for her show Down The Rabbit Hole, and now Angella Dravid has come to Melbourne to share her unique story of how she got married to a man 30 years older than her and then ended up in prison with a criminal conviction. 

Dravid's life is incredible fodder for a comedian and you can easily picture them becoming very animated with the audience and really playing up the experience, however Dravid has decided to go with a completely opposite approach. Her delivery for the entire show is completely deadpan, and in some ways this works in her favour as it allows the audience to focus on the story and to imagine the situation as it is being described. Some clarity and further details on the events leading up to her arrest are needed though, as the way it is currently described leaves some ambiguity as to what actually occurred.

Top 10 shows of 2017 Melbourne Fringe Festival

And so ends my favourite time of the year: the Melbourne International Fringe Festival. I'm constantly amazed by how many quality shows are put on during this time that challenge, entertain and surprise me. While I juggle full-time work and part-time study, I always make sure to block out my calendar for Fringe. 
After seeing a mere 58 shows, my top ten shows are presented below. There are so many shows I wish I had been able to get to but the fates were against us and I promise to make it to your next one.
If the show was reviewed, you will find a link next to its name for more thoughts and opinions. 
Enjoy! 
Can't wait to see what 2018 brings!

1. Cactus and the Mime - review 

A Cactus Mascot and a wannabe Mime decide to re-enact their relationship in the style of a children's show. What follows is a hysterical story of love and growing up that ends in heartbreak and looks at what happens when you are unable to move on when tragedy strikes.

Roby Favretto and Caitlin Spears as Trevor and Mandy have created a story that immediately draws you in, and one that finds just as much truth and honesty as it does with its humour and laughs. As the jokes become more vicious and personal, we begin to understand that there is something much darker lying underneath all this, something that Trevor and Mandy will ultimately end up facing head on.

There is also a blurring of performance and real life, which raises the question of how much performing do we do in our own lives and when are we authentic?

It's this blurring of themes and genres that Cactus and the Mime takes big gambles but it makes the work so much more impressive because of it.

The One review | Melbourne Fringe Festival | Arts House

With marriage equality a contentious topic across the country, you'd think the last thing you want to see on stage is a white, heterosexual, cisgender couple arguing whether they should get married or not. However, Jeffrey Jay Fowler's The One, is more than just a look at marriage, it's a candid scrutiny of what love is and how this is - or should be - expressed when you believe you have found 'the one'.

This two hander follows a man and a woman (Mark Storen and Georgia King) who are in a happy long-term relationship with each other and have all the cute romantic quirks that go along with it. Everything appears to be going great for them, until - triggered by his brother's upcoming wedding - the man proposes to the woman and she says no. She says no, not because she doesn't love him, but because she doesn't agree with the concept of marriage and what it stands for. 

The woman's disdain for holy matrimony is brilliantly captured by King, who effortlessly conveys the frustration and anger she feels at the man for failing to understand and accept her reasoning. As the man, Storen brings a vulnerability and naivety to the character in his belief that this is the natural next step in their relationship and how perfect their lives will be together when they are married. King and Storen's chemistry is palpable and with Fowler's stirring script, explore both sides of marriage with honesty and emotional rawness.

The One | Melbourne Fringe Festival interview

Back in 2015, Jeffrey Jay Fowler was part of the team that won Best Performance for Fag/Stag, an outstanding play about the friendship between two best friends, one straight and one gay. This year, Fowler returns to the Festival with his newest work, The One. Already receiving critical acclaim during its run at Perth's Fringe World, the show takes a timely look at the institute of marriage and how love can be one confusing concept.

"Two unnamed characters, a man and a woman (Mark Storen & Georgia King), meet at a garden party at the end of summer and fall in love. Across the next few years they remain in love and eventually he proposes, knocking their romance into turbulent waters," Fowler tells me. "Mark and Georgia commissioned me to write a show, and then I proposed the idea to them that it should be a show about marriage and love. Because I wrote the show for them, I wanted to use their talents and Mark's talents include playing blues guitar."

While some arts makers prefer to keep the roles of director and writer separate, Fowler prefers to direct his own work and so taken on this dual role for The One. "In fact I've only worked as a director a couple of times on other people's shows and only had one other director direct mine. I really am a writer/director at heart. I love the control to be honest. And the collaboration!"

Dan Savage and his "savage advice"

I happened to catch Dan Savage in Sydney give a talk as part of The Festival of Dangerous Ideas. Entitled "Savage Advice" he discussed the idea that infidelity is not the end of the world in the reality of long-term relationships and referred to his own "monogamish" relationship with his husband and how it can work for some people.

Savage informed us that 40-60% of men and 40-50% of women will cheat on their partners and as we invest so much time into relationships we should not walk away from them because of the occasional slip up. I could not disagree more. If you are going to commit to someone, you commit to someone. You don't commit to them part time. Firstly, creating a cute term like "monogamish" will not lessen the impact of what has occurred and I will not and can not accept "monogamish" into my life. Secondly, you either are monogamous or you're not. Just like you either are vegetarian, sexist or racist or not. No one is vegetarianish or sexistish or racistish.