Tag: Brandon Armstrong

Melbourne Fringe review: ACTRESS

On By rlsmithwritingIn ReviewsLeave a comment

I love a good drag cabaret show and ACTRESS, performed by Murdoch Keane, is up there with a unique concept and persona and great visual artistry combined with artistic talent. The audience went off. 

As the patrons enter Griselda von Fistenberg dances around a collection of cardboard boxes and other props under a red glow light. Her mass of golden hair sparkles and her opening lines are poetic. 

There’s one catch. She’s dead. Has been for five days after falling down the stairs. Her pool boy found her there. So are we seeing an old actress come back from the dead or has her besotted queer pool boy stolen her identity and put on a show?

This is Hollywood ghosts on steroids – think Judy, Marilyn, Joan, Bette, Liz T, Liza, Ethel and King Kong – bought back to life by Keane’s exceptionally good voice and high energy charisma. It’s queer cabaret delivered with ghoulish glamour.

ACTRESS, created in collaboration with Ozzy Breen-Carr and directed by Brandon Armstrong, is Keane’s debut solo show developed through a La Mama residency. I am confident we will see a lot more of Keane.

ACTRESS is showing at Melbourne Fringe Festival Hub, Trades Hall in the Meeting Room until 19th October. If you’re looking for a wild ride with some old stars and new themes, grab a ticket for this Fringe show now.

Theatre review: Dredge

On By rlsmithwritingIn Reviews1 Comment

Dredge:

To bring something unwelcome and forgot or obscure to people’s attention (Oxford Dictionary)

To remove something unwanted (like mud) from the bottom of a body of water (Cambridge Dictionary)

Dredge begins with seven amoeba like creatures pulsating around a well filled with fresh water. The bodies are diverse, but the costumes identical. It is quite a beautiful depiction of curiosity and discovery, initially.

As the show progresses, the well and the actors become muddied – corrupted – and what emerges is brutality, pain, violence, and exhaustion, to the point where the dancers frantic movement begins to destroy the very stage on which they perform – tearing at the curtains in desperation.

What is reflected through movement, water and mud, is the destruction of nature, gender roles, patriarchal systems, and escalating consumerism to the point where we not only consume the planet, but each other, and ultimately ourselves.

How did we get here? Where do we think we are going? And can we be redeemed?

My very smart friend who accompanied me very succinctly described the show as a depiction of the story from Genesis – the creation and fall of man.

What really stood out in this innovative physical theatre piece was the energy, physicality, and body confidence of the actors, who were bold in projecting the emotions the piece demanded of them.  

Dredge is an engaging, energetic and mesmerising piece of experimental physical theatre. Developed and directed by Brandon Armstrong, Dredge is a creation of Femmural Productions with support from The Anchor Theatre Company.

Dredge is showing at Theatre Works in St Kilda until 28th September, tickets can be purchase online.