Listening Acts review | Melbourne Recital Centre

Chamber Made have long been shaking up Melbourne’s performing arts scene, constantly challenging and surprising audiences with what live art can entail, particularly in the realms of music, sound, and contemporary performance. Their latest project, Listening Acts, was a series of works - some live, some recorded - that reshape how we respond to aural experiences and technology, and how these elements connect to memory and identity. The three live performances in this program each carve out a distinct realm, yet together, they form a fluid, thought-provoking journey through acoustic textures that pushes the boundaries between audience and performance.

Aviva Endean's Tactile Piece for Human Ears is an exquisite meditation on sound and perception. Three binaural dummy heads, equipped with microphones, “hear” audio created via the custom ‘Hear Muffs’ that twist and transform the way we normally process sounds. These altered waves are then streamed directly to each audience member’s Bluetooth headphones. In the opening moments, Endean covers the dummy head’s ears, and the resulting noise feels like I'm rushing through the sky with the wind blowing in my face. It presents an invitation to enter with a clean slate and simply exist in the present as Endean interacts with the heads, generating a variety of sounds.

Scream Star review

Worlds collide in Speak Percussion's new collaborative performance, Scream Star, where three artists from around the globe have come together with three pieces of live music that intersect sound, the moving image and percussion. London-based Matthew Shlomowitz, German Johannes Kreidler and New Yorker Jessie Marino present unique compositions that investigate the playfulness and creativity of sound and music exploration.

The opener by Shlomowitz is an imagined variety show called Hey Hey It’s Tuesday. Archival footage of people lining up for shows, on stage, backstage and everything in between is projected onto a screen as the composers play with a number of percussion instruments including cymbals, drums and xylophones. Through this, we discover  ways of how the moving image can interact with new sounds and to appreciate new ways of hearing sound. The segment involving the Kiama Blowhole, the largest in the world, is a particular highlight.

Flux Job review

The world premiere of Lucy Guerin Inc.'s Flux Job is an enthralling piece where four dancers navigate the personal and the shared experience of going through a traumatic event. Created during the Melbourne lockdowns as a response to the pandemic, while not explicitly referring to it, the piece provides an opportunity for the audience to consider how we have changed and how we can come together in this strange new world we are living in.

The collaboration with Flux Job is evident with its design team consisting of Paul Lim's lighting, Andrew Treloar's vibrantly flowing sheer fabric costumes and Jethro Woodward's sound completely supporting each other. Along with Adena Jacobs' dramaturgy in the scripted word portion, and the choreography, the purpose of the show and the thoughts raised in it are fully fleshed out, giving us plenty to think about.

Jupiter Orbiting - Next Wave Festival review

As you enter Jupiter Orbiting, creator and performer Joshua Pether is nervously decorating a table with Lego blocks, coloured paper and animal figurines. It feels like we are watching the preparation of a child's party, however with the rest of the stage empty and dark, there is trepidation in the air.

Using a science fiction narrative, this performative piece explores childhood trauma and grief, which Pether juxtaposes with scenes that are equally representative of innocence and naivety. From a distance, the coloured pieces of paper used at the beginning of the show resemble crushed origami cranes, a symbol of hope.  There's even contradiction in its title, alluding to the 12 years it takes for Jupiter to complete its orbital period. This could easily be the age that Pether is portraying, one that is full of liveliness and zest, yet the planet itself is desolate and void of any life.

SEER - Next Wave Festival review

Using Edgar Allan Poe’s short story Shadow – a Parable as its inspiration, experimental theatre artist and stage designer House of Vnholy's SEER is an immersive exploration of darkness and silence and a study on being alone. Performed as part of the Next Wave Festival, this site-specific show at the Darebin Arts Centre combines ritual and poetry to encourage us to consider not only our life and our death but also the part in between.

The most powerful part of SEER takes place inside the main theatre of the Darebin Arts Centre where you took a seat in a specially designed booth facing the stage. There was something very eerie about being the only person in a theatre that can seat almost 400 people. I constantly felt like figures were emerging from the stage, standing up from the seats and staring at me through the darkness. No doubt the haunting soundscape designed by Jannah Quill contributed to this disorientation, and along with the light images being projected onto the stage, I was continually questioning if I was experiencing a painful death or an uplifting rebirth.

Earshot review

Long gone are the days where a conversation between two people stayed that way. With advancements in technology, private conversations can be captured, recorded and shared to the masses within seconds of being had. However, the age-old art of eavesdropping has been around for much longer, where by leaning back just a little bit further on your chair means you can catch the argument a couple sitting behind you are having, or the joy a person is expressing on a phone call seated on the train next you regarding their recent engagement. In Earshot, Kate Hunter has created a show out of the conversations she has overheard in which she and fellow performer, Josephine Lange re-enact.

There are a variety of conversations in this live performance including death, being Jewish, domestic violence and gardening and the conversations and topics range from laughable to horrifying. So while we are provided with an array of people's conversations, you can't help but begin to question what is the purpose of hearing these conversations? Why have these conversations been specifically chosen over others? And unfortunately no answers are provided, which leads to a sense of dissatisfaction and frustration with Earshot.

The Dark Chorus review

You don't notice it as you first enter the Meat Market, but then a shadow catches your eye and you stop and take a second glance. And it's then you see a figure cloaked in a black gown, head down slowly walking in the darkness around a circle of light. And then you see another, and another, and another, until it’s all you can see, and you wonder how you didn't see them in the first place, which is the perfect way to describe the thoughts and themes explored in Lucy Guerin's brilliant dance work, The Dark Chorus.

Presented as part of Melbourne Festival, the show is an intimate look at the darker thoughts and voices in our heads and how they can consume us. Throughout the performance, The Dark Chorus can be heard whispering and chanting and while you can only make out some of what is being said, feelings of dread and fear slowly seep inside you.