Tag: Melbourne Fringe

Melbourne Fringe review: No Seasons

On By rlsmithwritingIn ReviewsLeave a comment

No Seasons is a unique experimental show by Oliver Ayres that explores gender, IVF, disability, and parenthood.

Upon entering the theatre audience members are asked to take a pair of headphones, color coded based on your lived experience:

– you are a parent already

– you are not a parent, but you might be one day

– you are not a parent and never will be

Before the performance even began, the artist had set up the tension. I experienced a low level of curious FOMO (fear of missing out) all the way through the show. I kept wanting to know the story people with different colour headphones could hear. And no, I’m not telling you my colour.

While multiple narratives played through headphones, the artist performed silently in and around what looked like an old bathhouse. At 19 Oliver had 22 eggs retrieved prior to a gender transition. 22 stones represented those eggs as Oliver’s dilemma unfolded in our ears and on a fragmented visual display.

The effect was beautiful. No Seasons is without a doubt an original work. A vulnerable, intimate and immersive insight into Oliver’s experience as a transgender man with a disability contemplating the possibility of becoming a parent.

If you are like me, you will get an itch to go back and experience the other narratives.

No Seasons is produced by SKINT. Sound design is by Justin Gardam and Rachel Lewindon, lighting design by Sidney Younger, and set design by Ashley Reid.

Tickets are available via Melbourne Fringe website. No Seasons is on at the Meat Market Stables, 2 Wreckyn st, North Melbourne until 18th October. Highly recommended.

Melbourne Fringe review: Annie and Lena Have a Talk Show

On By rlsmithwritingIn ReviewsLeave a comment

The gals from Annie and Lena Have a Talk Show are on before the show even starts. Ushering the crowd in, hustling, trying to make us take sides. Annie and Lena are talk show production assistants with passion, drive and ambition – the narrative arc that ties the show neatly together as they take us behind the scenes of their work.

There is a great vibe between Annie and Lena as they make their way up the ranks and introduce the audience to a range of talk show hosts and their guests. Annie and Lena transform smoothly from one character to another to deliver skits scattered with references to ‘real’ talk show hosts and known celebrities, including Steve Irwin’s unknown third child. There is also the purely fictional, including a six year old gamer with a disturbing ruthlessness.

As their careers progress for production assistants through to video editors, script writers and eventually to hosts of their own prank show, Annie Lumsden and Lena Moon keep the energy high and the gags flowing ranging from fart jokes, to great impressions of southern American show hosts, to feminist fails with Betty Boop-Oop-a-Doop.

Produced for Melbourne Fringe by Kaite Head of SKINT Productions, and sound design by Olivia Mckenna, Annie and Lena Have a Talk Show runs till Sunday 20th October at Trades Hall Festival Hub in Carlton. Grab a ticket, catch the show, have a laugh, and get a drink at the bar afterward.

Fringe review: Spunk Daddy

On By rlsmithwritingIn ReviewsLeave a comment

I’ve heard a few stories from women friends about having a baby conceived through IVF. However, I’ve never given much thought to the donor of the sperm, jazz, spunk as it’s variously called. Then last night I saw Spunk Daddy, on as part of Melbourne Fringe at The Butterfly Club, a cozy venue perfect for settling in for an intimate story.

Enter the theatre and a young man, Darby James, is sitting there dressed in a sailor suit next to a ships wheel looking a bit like Bob Denver, the hapless first mate of the S.S. Minnow on 60s TV series Gilligan’s Island.

Spunk Daddy is a sweet, heartfelt and funny cabaret that takes us through the story and vulnerabilities of a young queer man deciding to become a sperm donor. From clicking on a random link on Facebook about donating sperm and grappling with the decision, to writing a letter to an unborn child who may never eventuate and that he will probably never meet, and all the dilemmas in between – which I will not venture into as it could spoil the experience.

Spunk Daddy is a clever, fast paced cabaret show. James leaves no stone unturned and fully exposes the ethical and moral dilemmas of having children or of donating sperm so that someone else can. His willingness to expose his inner thoughts and experience uncensored is refreshing and moving.

The Butterfly Club is quirky, kitsch-crammed parlour with a bar. Go early or stay late for a drink while you peruse the decor, and if you’re looking for a close by spot for a bite to eat, I can recommend Little Ramen Bar, a short walk away.

Spunk Daddy runs until the 22 October, so go on, support Fringe and the arts and grab a ticket here.

Fringe review: Leather Lungs: Happy Ending

On By rlsmithwritingIn Reviews1 Comment

It’s not often I see a show that gives me a full visceral response, but last night I laughed, I cried AND I laugh-cried.

I turned up at Trades Hall expecting just another drag show. I have seen a few over the years and I can confirm whole heartedly that Leather Lungs: Happy Ending is not just another drag show.

Sure Leather Lungs: Happy Ending had its share of bawdy jokes, rampant silliness, and of course a great frock made by Leather Lungs’s (aka Jason Chasland) mum, but the show was also a genuine heartfelt and powerful personal story of survival and backing yourself.

The biggest surprise of all was their voice. Beautiful, powerful and with a range that spans four octaves they belted out songs by ABBA, Whitney Houston and Queen selected to accompany their story that talks about serious issues delivered with humour to lighten the tone.

Trades Hall is a great venue for Melbourne Fringe with all its nooks and crannies. I made a night of it with friends by popping across to The Lincoln for a meal and then catching a late show at 9.30 as well – Ned Kelly: the Big Gay Musical – a joyful singing and dancing re-imagining of our iconic bushranger.

So get your Fringe on for an artistic feast. There is so much art on offer to expand, affirm and challenge your thinking – a night of escape into the creative arts is food for the soul.

Leather Lungs: Happy Ending runs untill 15th October so there is still a chance to catch this amazing talent. Tickets available at Melbourne Fringe.

Fringe review: De-Tours of Melbourne

On By rlsmithwritingIn ReviewsLeave a comment

I love going on walking tours when I travel – It’s such a great way to really see a city, discover its nooks and crannies, learn about its culture, and get the lay of the land.

De-Tours of Melbourne, part of Melbourne Fringe, turns this idea on its head. Imagine trailing Seraphine (comedian Jenna Schroder), a French detective brandishing a baguette and marching around the CBD trying to solve the mystery of who controls the city. And she was pretty impressive – saved the Amazon rain forest with only one anaconda apparently.

You’ll debate what’s going on behind some of Melbourne’s secret walls, strut down hidden alleyways, visit some of the CBD’s oldest buildings and boutique businesses, pick locks and find out what your comrades favourite TV shows are.

De-Tours of Melbourne is a wacky romp through the laneways and history of the city we love – exercise, fresh air and a good belly laugh. There’s a big dose of clever improvisation in this ‘show’ and it’s just plain old fashioned fun. Plus you’ll get your 10,000 steps in.

So go on, shake off a day at the office by choosing your own adventure and seeing our city through different eyes. I did the mystery tour, but you can also go on a rom-com or spooky stories adventure – and there’s a discount for your second and third outings! But you have to go on your first trip to find out how that works.

De-Tours of Melbourne runs till Saturday 21st October. Tickets at Melbourne Fringe.

Theatre review: HYSTERICA

On By rlsmithwritingIn ReviewsLeave a comment

I’m popping out a couple of extra posts this month as Melbourne Fringe is on and we all need to get out and support the performing arts in Melbourne…go on…

Women have always made history in equal measure to men, but with only about 0.5% of them traditionally appearing on the historical records, their contributions were often forgotten – that is until women started to rewrite the records…

In Melbourne Fringe show, HYSTERICA, actors Tess Parker and Mary Steuten deliver a piece of historical revisionism through monologue to tell the stories of four extraordinary women – Alice Anderson, business woman, garage proprietor and motor mechanic (1897-1926); Joy Hester, artist and member of the Angry Penguins movement and the Heidi Circle integral to the development of Australian Modernism (1920-1960); Elizabeth Gould (1804-1841), botanical artist and illustrator, much of whose work is believed to have been attributed to her husband naturalist and author John Gould (sigh); and the more contemporary story of Dawn Faizey-Webster who developed locked in syndrome after suffering a brainstem stroke that left her only able to communicate by blinking her left eye. Faizey-Webster still went on to complete a degree, a Masters and commence a doctorate.

Despite challenges with the shows lighting (the lighting deck got drenched in yesterdays downpour so the actors had to work under fluorescent strip lighting to avoid electrocuting anyone), Parker and Steuten put on thought-provoking performances that made me want to find out more about the characters they inhabited. Tess Parker’s portraits of Alice Anderson and Elizabeth Gould were particularly expressive and engaging.

HYSTERICA is showing at Theatre Works new venue, the Explosives Factory which is down a back alley and up a flight of stairs into a warehouse space in St Kilda. Running 4-8th October, tonight is the final show, so get in quick.

I stand on the sacrifices of a million women before me thinking what can I do to make this mountain taller so the women after me can see farther

Rupi Kaur

Theatre review: Batsh*t

On By rlsmithwritingIn ReviewsLeave a comment

Difficult women have long been pathologised as crazy. Hysteria was the standard diagnosis applied by male doctors who couldn’t work out what was wrong when the fairer sex behaved in ways that deviated from their idealised feminine norm. Of course, the norm was defined as being male, and by comparison women were fundamentally unstable, a problem that manifested as hysteria.

Women were weaker than men – it was their vaginas and uteruses that were the problem. The (male) medical gaze (mis)diagnosed, locked up, electrocuted and medicated women by way of treatments to relieve the symptoms of female existence until women were compliant. Making women crazy was a means by which to regulate and control – the message from doctors was in essence, don’t be a pussy.

Batsh*t is a solo show performed by Leah Shelton and directed by Ursula Martinez as part of Melbourne Fringe. The show explores what was at the root of women’s distress, how the pressures of women’s lives and their limited choices may have often led to their misery.

A disturbing, funny, physical interrogation of female madness and a tribute to Shelton’s grandmother, Gwen. Batsh*t is a wild ride worth a visit, and don’t forget your pussy hat.

Batsh*t is on at Northcote Town Hall Arts Centre as part of Melbourne Fringe from 5 – 15 October.