Love Letter to Heephah review | Amelia Pawsey | Melbourne International Comedy Festival | Trainscendence

Amelia Pawsey has been living in a sharehouse with three others: her two housemates, and Heephah, a 60cm-tall taxidermy fox purchased from the Art Gallery of Ballarat. The fox has been watching - and not-so-quietly judging - Pawsey and her housemates for several years, so it was only natural that her debut solo cabaret would be dedicated to it in Love Letter to Heephah.

The structure is straightforward enough, with Pawsey discussing an event or situation in a sharehouse before performing a song. We get numbers about how cutlery should be organised in a drawer, and the realities of privacy in shared living, including “Hymn 69”. She uses a mix of live guitar and pre-recorded tracks, which allows the storytelling, physicality, and songs to move into spaces that would not be possible with guitar alone.

Laughing through sharehouse horrors with Amelia Pawsey | Melbourne International Comedy Festival | Trainscendence

Amelia Pawsey has spent years immersed in Melbourne’s performing arts community, thriving in ensemble work and collaborating with a range of directors and artists. Now, she’s stepping out on her own with her first solo production, Love Letter to Heephah, a playful and poignant blend of comedy and songwriting drawn from her experiences in a share house where everyday moments of chaos, absurdity, and everything in between are revealed with humour, honesty, and a bit of mischief.

"I absolutely cherish ensemble work, in particular, within the Melbourne independent theatre scene. I have worked with many talented artists since graduating drama school and have always felt inspired by the work of Aussie creatives! I've had a lingering thought for years to give stand-up a go but I've been too scared to back myself, making excuses why I wouldn't be good at it," she explains. "Then this year I thought, that's not a valid reason to not try something! It was in conversation with my housemates about Heephah the random fox statue in our living room, where I realised I could combine my passion of songwriting with stand-up, that Love Letter To Heephah was born, and I could not be more excited to share this with MICF audiences."

The Roof Is Caving In review | La Mama Theatre

There's nothing quite like the excitement of moving into your own home and the freedom of doing what you want when you want. But there's always a dark cloud looming over you as you are at the beck and call of real estate agents and trying to foster a mutual relationship of respect between these strangers you have chosen to live with. In The Roof is Caving In, two university students move into their first share house and face the internal and external struggle of constantly compromising to hold on to the serenity and exhilaration of being in their first home away from home.

Written by Matilda Gibbs with Belle Hansen and Jack Burmeister, The Roof is Caving In is a highly entertaining absurdist look at the challenges in renting such as rent prices, housemate dramas and the vulnerable position renters are regularly in. The narrative moves at a rapid pace but still takes the time to highlight these issues while building towards its inevitable climax.