A Year Without Summer review | Rising: Melbourne | Arts Centre Melbourne

Florentina Holzinger's A Year Without Summer takes its title from the extraordinary events of 1816, when the eruption of Mount Tambora in present-day Indonesia triggered a global climatic disaster. The resulting crop failures, famine and unseasonably cold weather led to what became known as the "Year Without a Summer", exposing both the fragility of human civilisation and the unpredictable power of the natural world.

Among those affected by this turbulent period was Mary Shelley, who spent the summer of 1816 confined indoors near Lake Geneva with Percy Bysshe Shelley, Claire Clairmont, and Lord Byron. Inspired by conversations of science, mortality and the possibility of creating life, Shelley began writing Frankenstein, a novel that continues to shape understandings of humanity’s relationship with technology and scientific ambition. Holzinger draws on this as the foundation for her production’s exploration of the body and its transformation through medicine and technology.

Ghostware review | The Motley Bauhaus

The reach of AI into everyday life is becoming both alarmingly blatant and quietly ingenious. We’ve grown used to fabricated videos, fake news and dodgy deepfaked interviews cluttering our feeds. In Cat Finch and Rose Bishop’s Ghostware, that same technology is recast as something at once unsettling and strangely tender, giving the audience room to consider death, grief and the stubborn persistence of love through AI.

Jordan Barr steps into the role of Gertrude, with sharp comedic timing and genuine emotional depth, letting us feel every wobble in her world as she continues to live in the shadow of her sister’s death. Then the impossible happens, she gets a phone call from her sister, or at least an AI imitation of her. These so-called GriefBots let the bereaved cling to their loved ones, whether out of guilt, longing or plain old affection. But when the AI version of Beatrice starts spruiking discounted Ray-Bans and cut-price therapy sessions, Gertrude sets out to have the GriefBot shut down, only to discover that getting rid of it is far tougher than she ever expected.

Crisis Actor review | Arts House

The performance space for Crisis Actor would be pitch black if not for dozens of phones lighting up the room. A cardinal sin in theatre etiquette: a glowing smartphone in the dark. Except here, it’s the point. In this interactive work, audience members are not just permitted, but encouraged to participate and engage with their devices, using them to swipe, click and scroll deeper into the unfolding chaos.

The show begins with the audience gathered around a large, ominously illuminated flower sculpture. Events leading up to a disaster impacting the world are recounted by an anonymous narrator and displayed on four screens surrounding the sculpture. Periodically, the narrator pauses mid-sentence, and options appear on our phones for us to select. These selections then pop up on the screens. They don’t change the story about this Flower Attack, but they help build the illusion of a communal experience, where we feel involved even if we’re not steering the narrative.

Love Machine is turning oversharing into coded confessions (Melbourne Fringe Festival)

Tom Richards is stepping into new territory with Love Machine: his first installation, first hardware build, and first time coding. The project, presented as part of the Melbourne Fringe Festival, pairs humans with a slightly clunky computer, inviting participants to share, reflect, and explore the nature of intimacy in a digital world. It’s equal parts experiment, theatre, and cheeky curiosity, with a touch of AI.

Richards has faced plenty of hurdles and even a few tears along the way in bringing this project to life. "There were loads of firsts with Love Machine!" he laughs. "Straight out of the gate, coding and hardware. I was relying heavily on AI and LLMs (Large Language Models) while learning Python in parallel."

"Now I know that AI is a bit of a dirty word in the arts industry, and rightfully so, I don’t trust it either, but it has been an interesting process nonetheless," he tells me. "For clarity’s sake, AI did not create this idea, it is not designed by AI, I designed it and I am using AI to achieve things out of my technical range. It's been the biggest obstacle and boon, because the amount of back and forth with AI has been incredibly time consuming, far more than it would have been with a programmer or creative technologist, someone I didn’t really have access to."

The Robot Dog review | Melbourne Theatre Company

Janelle, a woman of Cantonese heritage, and Harry, a First Nations man, are a seemingly happy couple living in Australia in 2042. When Janelle's mother dies, she and Harry move into her mother's home as they attempt to clear out the house. But this is 2042, so there are a few distinct additions to this home, such as an AI system that controls their daily movements (sometimes literally), and a robotic therapy dog.

As they begin packing and cleaning, the two are forced to confront their own cultural identity and the way it has shaped them, even if they feel little attachment to it. Written by Roshelle Yee Pui Fong and Matthew Ngamurarri Heffernan, The Robot Dog, offers a quirky exploration of how technology has become an inseparable part of our lives, particularly in an ever-changing world.

Cull review - Melbourne International Comedy Festival

There's no denying society is ruled by social media, a place where people can share their every thought through video, photos or in 140 characters. From the mundane to the downright ridiculous, everyone is getting in on it, hell, even the Leader of the Free World is using twitter to troll the FBI. Honor Wolff and Patrick Durnan Silva are sick and tired of social media and in Cull, they decide to purge their Facebook friends one by one.

The two methodically work through a long list of annoying social media users in weird and wacky sketches. At the same time however, these sketches manage to humanise the people they are portraying and show the anxieties and longing they have to be connected with other people. This includes the Instagrammer who shares millions of photos of her cat on a daily basis, the Facebook couple posting love-affirming statuses and the zany You Tubers creating videos that are purely attention seeking but who are like, totally doing it for their adoring fans you guys. No one is safe in this cut-throat exploration into the black hole that is social media and its cult members.

F. review

It's probably rarer now for parents to need to sit down and speak to their children about the birds and the bees. Books such as "Where Did I Come From?" now seem obsolete, and by the time teenagers are learning anything to do with sex education in high school, they already seem to know it all. Presented by Riot Stage as part of the Poppy Seed Festival, F. attempts to explore how a group of teenagers come to terms with sex and sexuality as most people of the last decade have - through technology.

Unfortunately the execution is not always successful, as the production's central concern with how technology is used with sex is at times completely ignored, or does not explore issues raised to any great depths. Thus, one of the main story lines - where two friends enter into a sexual relationship - is surprisingly developed without the use of any social media or technology whatsoever apart from one scene where the male character refers to the three voicemails he left her. In contrast, a female character's revelation that an ex-partner has put a naked photo of her on the internet is initially met with mediocre disgust by her friends but is immediately dropped and never mentioned again, nor do we see any impact this has on the character.

Hands Over Eyes review

There were times while watching Hands Over Eyes that I felt like I was watching a live episode of Black Mirror, a TV series that looks at how our over-reliance on technology can have far darker consequences than we could have imagined. Presented as part of La Mama Theatre Explorations season for work in various stages of development Peter Danastasio's Hands Over Eyes raises discussion on perceptions of truth and honesty and how the impact this can have on people.

Danny Carroll plays Paul Havour, a conversationalist who works for a company that conducts simulated experience sessions to assist patients with their past traumas or phobic treatments. Through the course of the week he begins to question his beliefs and work ethics while attempting to assist his patients with treatments he finds troubling.

Undertone - Melbourne Fringe Festival review

Produced by Black Carnation Productions, Undertone is a circus show that - while presenting some impressive tricks and laughs - also explores the relationship between the body and sound. With a live electronic score, it pushes the boundaries of what circus can be, creating a different show at every performance.

There is a strong physical demand throughout Undertone, which the four performers make seem effortless as they jump through the air, climb on each other and fling their bodies across and under tables. Due to the concentration and focus of these tricks, the performers have also included a good dose of clowning throughout. Under the direction of Avan Whaite, this allows them to break the tension so the audience can breathe calmly and invite us to create a bond with them. 

Pixel review

Fans of contemporary dance are in for a real treat with Mourad Merzouki's Pixel performing in Melbourne for a very limited season. Mixing dance and interactive video images projected onto a black scrim screen, it is a poetic blending of two worlds - technology and nature - and how they must find a balance to co-exist in harmony.

The light projection by Adrien M / Claire B Company is perfectly executed and visually captivating. There are exciting moments occurring throughout, at one point a wall of digital white pixels come crashing down outward towards the audience and crushing the dancers on the stage. There are scenes where the dancers struggle to pass through the haze of pixels and overpowered but then there are also moments of whimsy and nostalgia as the pixels gently fall through to the floor. It is this mutual respect that is being explored throughout Pixel.

Undertone - Melbourne Fringe Festival preview

Circus artist and choreographer Avan Whaite, is bringing his unique circus style to the Melbourne Fringe Festival this year with Undertone. This award-winning show reinvents the idea of what circus can be, with its use of live triggering creating soundscapes from the performance itself. This interactive process allows for Undertone - and its performers - to create a unique performance for every show.


"I came by the idea through some conversations I had with a couple of people who were making music using a program called Ableton Live, which is a software music sequencer and digital audio workstation. After thinking about it, I realised that the real-time functions of this program were perfect for integrating with physical performance, which always has an element of unpredictability," Whaite explains. "When I spoke to Zoltan Fesco, our musical director, he immediately resonated with the concept and had a number of suggestions of how to realise it. His prior experience with experimental electronic instruments was invaluable and the process of putting it all together is ongoing, so it is a constant learning experience between the artists and Zoltan."

Sex With Strangers review | Q44 Theatre

In Laura Eason's Sex With Strangers, a female novelist meets a male blogger at a bed and breakfast in rural Michigan. She loves books, he prefers ebooks. She likes reading the classics, he prefers living writers. She prefers to keep her private life private, he lives his life on-line. Despite their differences, the two are drawn to each other and are forced to question the choices they've made in their lives and the ones they are going to have to make in the future.

Will Atkinson offers a strong performance as Ethan, finding the right balance of brashness, cockiness and arrogance to his sweet, charismatic and endearing nature. Ethan is the type of guy that many of us despise but secretly want to be and it's Atkinson's work in Sex With Strangers that really has you debating this position.

Intoxication review | Midsumma Festival | La Mama Theatre

I still remember the excitement in my house when we signed up for dial-up Internet. It brought a new world into my living room with just a tap of the keyboard and a click of the mouse. 17 years later, the technological advances we have made have brought this virtual world closer to us, but has it pushed us further away from the real world? Presented as part of the 2016 Midsumma Festival, Christopher Bryant’s Intoxication analyses and raises questions about how our reliance on social media, dating apps and smart phones are hindering us from building honest and meaningful relationships with actual people.

The three performers - Ryan Forbes, Amy Hack and Bryant – each sit on an individual cube and, as if they are in a confessional, share their anxieties with us. Even though there is barely, if any, interaction between the three during these moments, the thoughts and emotions shared are very similar, building on Bryant's idea that despite all having these insecurities and feelings of loneliness, we seem to push ourselves further away from reality and into the digital world, where we are free to project the life we wish we had and want the world (wide web) to see.