We meet outside a café where our guide gathers us and leads us into a tangle of winding paths. Whether by design or happy accident, the guide’s chatter keeps me distracted enough that I lose track of where exactly we’re going. By the time we stop, we’re in front of a compact corrugated iron shed. Before we’re allowed in, we’re asked three abstract questions that make you pause and reflect, while a scribe dutifully jots down our answers. Then, with a ceremonial ring of a bell, the door opens and we step in.
Explaining what Hot Brown Honey does isn’t easy. For over a decade, they have presented feminist productions that span dance, comedy, circus, spoken word, and music, all while confronting racism, colonialism, and gender inequality with clarity and power. Their Hive City Legacy project has BIPOC femmes in the arts join forces to create original work that reflects the unique talents of each city’s cast.
Following earlier seasons in London and Dublin, the third instalment - Hive City Legacy: Naarm Chapter - arrives in Melbourne. Here, seven local BIPOC femme artists share their stories and voices in a performance grounded in genuine collaboration and mutual support.
Upon arrival to Zaffé, we are greeted by a host who tells us to take a seat inside. There are six long tables on either side of the room and there is plenty of conversation and chatter taking place. Once all the guests have settled, we are officially welcomed to the zaffé with a chorus of Arabic call and responses.
Stemming from the Muslim culture, zaffé is traditionally a procession at a wedding that is filled with love, warmth and energy. Except tonight's wedding has no bride or groom. The people in this room are the bride and groom and we celebrate this community and the love, warmth and energy that is present here.
It's been almost ten years since Rebecca Church debuted Seen & Heard - a variety show which gives voices to performers who do not have the opportunity to often speak due to their chosen careers. Think circus and burlesque performers, drag queens and sex workers. In this format, these people share personal stories that surprise, entertain and inform us as to who the person behind the persona is. After a six-year gap, the show returns to Melbourne Fringe for a new season, new storytellers and new stories under the direction of Church.
Wes Snelling is our host for the evening and he does a wonderful job of making sure this mixed bag of misfits stay on track. Of course, Snelling's alter ego Tina del Twist is a different story, causing a ruckus in the audience with her fishbowl of wine. Snelling's recount of his Rock Eisteddfod dreams is quite affecting and a reminder that no one puts Wes in the corner and there is no such thing as a small role.
Lazy Susan, recently announced as a cast member in the upcoming season of Drag Race Down Under, is a sheer delight as she discusses the reality of getting old and whether Botox is the way to go. This has Lazy Susan recalling how much she has pushed herself to achieve drag success and how her mother's cancer diagnosis impacted one of the biggest successes of her career. These performers are always so fierce and in control on stage and you can be caught off guard seeing them be genuinely vulnerable and emotional.
Victory Lap
is a semi-autobiographical one-person show by Mashaka Gunnulson that gently and
sensitively explores mental health and suicide with a nostalgic look at
friendships gone by, and what saying goodbye feels like.
There isn't much new to say about Ruth Bader Ginsburg. She was the second ever woman - and first Jewish woman - to serve as a justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, where she spent her time as an advocate for women's right and gender equality. In RBG: Of Many, One, playwright Suzie Miller traces Ginsburg's life from her Brooklyn-based childhood in the 30s through to her death in 2020, at the age of 87.
Miller covers many of the milestones in Ginsburg's life, whether they be personal or professional, negative or positive. Telling the life of a person whom most people know can result in a paint-by-numbers structure as we move towards their death but in this play, Miller has Ginsburg constantly moving from the past to the present and swapping emotions and storytelling devices without notice. It builds tension and surprise, where even though we know what happens to Ginsburg, we don't know how it is going to unfold and how it will be presented in this instance.
It's not often you go to a 50-minute show and have a comedian open up for the main act. But that's what happened in Still Dry White, where the enthusiastic, loud and animated Bron Lewis came out for a few minutes to get us all hyped up for Nick Schuller. Once he's on stage though, you realise it's time to wine it down, as his energy could not be any more opposite to Lewis'. He barely moves, is monotone and very very dry. It's a bit jarring at first, but it's a smart way for Schuller to subvert expectations of what stand-up has to be that makes Still Dry White a ridiculously fun evening.
Schuller doesn't reach for anything too dramatic in terms of material and stories he tells. He's not talking about politics or making grand statements about the state of the world, but small everyday things, like golf (presumably), uber deliveries and sex education. With the tone and pace that he sets, it actually makes these jokes quite intriguing and ending them with unexpected punchlines.
