There's plenty of people from high school we would love nothing but sweet sweet revenge on for making our life hell. At least that's the case for Jake and Liv and their arch nemesis Patina Pataznik. In the comedy show We Forgive You, Patina Pataznik, the two find themselves at their high school reunion where a chance encounter leads to a rare opportunity to exact their payback...but at what cost?
Written and performed by Jake Glanc and Olivia McLeod, the show is packed with sass and laughs. The energy they have throughout complements each other's character and adds fun chaos to the ridiculous situations they find themselves in. They are not afraid to mess with genre and style and the French car ride is an absolute joy to watch. Their time travel back to high school is simply executed but highly effective, as is Jake's date with a fellow classmate.
In their award winning show Cactus and the Mime, Prickly Silence told the story of a young couple's relationship and dreams. With their new show Purgastory, we now follow the stories of various characters across time who are all in pursuit of their own passions in life. While telling stories with rich character building and surprise narrative turns in the same vein as their first work, Purgastory also has Caitlin Spears and Roby Favretto creating an overarching narrative that weaves through the singular stories that are presented.
What is evident with Purgastory is the dedication and flair that Spears and Favretto have in bringing characters to life. While most only appear for roughly ten minutes, they are all committed performances and authentic portrayals. The first story is genuinely touching and it's nice to see that in his role of a woman, Favretto treats it just as serious as when he is later playing a man on a construction site. Spears is at her best as the sexist and homophobic spouting construction worker while still managing to make the audience care about him.
The minds behind last year's critically acclaimed Cactus and the Mime return to the Melbourne Fringe Festival with a brand new show, or maybe that should be four brand new shows. PURGASTORY is the latest creation by Caitlin Spears and Roby Favretto in which the two perform four separate stories, in a time-warped anthology revolving around chasing your dreams, whatever they may be.
"PURGASTORY is a dramedy exploring passion and patience," Spears tells me. "The show features a range of characters from English maidens, Aussie tradies, a teenage songstress,
a LA music producer, a desperate senior and an android from the future, dealing with their aspirations in life versus their ability to achieve them. I think it's a concept that many of us can relate to."
Spears and Favretto had initially planned on taking on more roles than just four each but with the development of the show the two began to see that certain characters were just itching for more stage time. "We had thought to challenge ourselves with multiple characters in the beginning, but the stories then became about exploring a concept spanning time and how characters in different time periods connected with each other," Spears says. "In the end we chose these particular stories because we were drawn to the contrasting archetypes and how they could be subverted, from the 90s blokey Aussie tradie to the crazy cool LA music producer to the very posh English lady."
A Cactus and a Mime walk into a room and begin to re-enact their tumultuous relationship in the style of a children's television show. You would be hard pressed to get any more fringe than that. Written and performed by Roby Favretto and Caitlin Spears and presented as part of the Melbourne Fringe Festival, Cactus and the Mime is a hilariously fast-paced satirical look at the relationship between two people and the circumstances that have led them to present their story to us.
The show begins as Hi-5 as you can possibly get with Trevor and Mandy donning big smiling faces, adorable costumes and the staged decorated with brightly coloured props. However, as
the story progresses, there are glimpses of something darker at play
here. Yes, they're all smiles and cheeky banter but there's something brewing
underneath it all that Trevor and Mandy will ultimately need to face. As the jokes become more vicious and personal, the elephant in the room is revealed
and it is absolutely devastating. Suddenly, we don't care about how cheated Trevor feels about only receiving an honourable mention at his school talent show or about Mandy's career aspirations to becoming a famous mime. What we care about are these people, their relationship and what they are facing.
Within this re-enactment, there is a blurring of what is performance and what is real as Mandy and Trevor often break out of character to deal with problems arising in the actual show and discussing the logistical issues that occur. Should they ignore dramaturgical inconsistencies for the sake of theatre? What happens if someone goes off script? And is it acceptable for Trevor to block Mandy's offers? The idea that we are all constantly performing for others and how life cannot follow the same rules of theatre begins to seep through this work and support the darker tone that eventually envelops Cactus and the Mime.
He appears from the darkness, shrouded in an orange sheet. As he stumbles through the audience, knocking over chairs and tripping onto the stage, the sheet comes off to reveal a man in an orange hooded poncho, orange speedo, and orange socks and shoes. This is Poncho Orange. And in his self-titled show presented as part of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, this sensual Latin lover explores all things silly and absurd with his captivated audience.
The creation of Dani Cabs, Poncho Orange is a number of sketches around clowning, improvisation and audience participation. Cabs does well in creating a safe space for his audience where everyone feel comfortable in being part of the show. Some of the highlights come from the audience's unexpected actions and responses, and then seeing Cabs' surprise to this.
Dani Cabs is part Latin-lover and part human pleasure-machine who can't wait to unleash his unique brand of comedy and clowning to audiences during the Melbourne International Comedy Festival - or at least his alter ego Poncho Orange can't. The self-titled audience interaction focused show is unscripted and improvised with Cabs hoping that audiences open themselves up to go along for the ride in his unforgettable tale of passion, desire and pure silliness.
Cabs hadn't always wanted to be a performer and originally studied photography where he completed an Honours degree at the Queensland College of Art, and subsequently began lecturing on the craft. The change to performing was a gradual realisation but one that was a natural progression for Cabs. "While
studying photographic art I always came up with projects where I had to
put myself in front of the camera and play silly games with video, stop
motion, and so on," he tells me. "I guess my practice heavily involved self portraiture but it
wasn't until I was simultaneously working as a lecturer in photography -
performing to my students everyday - and studying my honours, that I
realised I was interested more in the performance aspect of my projects
than the documentation. So I've always been performing - the only
difference is - I now perform to live audiences as well as cameras."
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.
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."
In their award winning show Cactus and the Mime, Prickly Silence told the story of a young couple's relationship and dreams. With their new show Purgastory, we now follow the stories of various characters across time who are all in pursuit of their own passions in life. While telling stories with rich character building and surprise narrative turns in the same vein as their first work, Purgastory also has Caitlin Spears and Roby Favretto creating an overarching narrative that weaves through the singular stories that are presented.
A Cactus and a Mime walk into a room and begin to re-enact their tumultuous relationship in the style of a children's television show. You would be hard pressed to get any more fringe than that. Written and performed by Roby Favretto and Caitlin Spears and presented as part of the Melbourne Fringe Festival, Cactus and the Mime is a hilariously fast-paced satirical look at the relationship between two people and the circumstances that have led them to present their story to us.
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.
