With a powerful rock score, the talent on display in the new Australian tour of Hedwig and the Angry Inch is phenomenal. With music and lyrics by Stephen Trask and a book by John Cameron Mitchell (JCM), the storyline is hardly conventional. The musical burst onto the scene off Broadway in 1998, before beginning a…
First up, a confession. I am not sure I really understood The Selkie Project. The whole thing felt experimental and somewhat repetitive, even though it only ran for one hour and 10 minutes. It is based around an ancient myth, whereby a seal-like creature removes her skin to take on human form and taste the…
Breaking up is hard to do. So it goes, as Karin McCracken and Simon Leary put on a slick show unpacking her characters’ angst at trying to put behind a series of broken relationships. And, I assure you, she struggles big time to put the past in the past. It is all about the inability…
Gender bending and a hallucinatory trip are the focus of Bloomsday in Melbourne’s playful, highly original work, Circe’s Carnival of Vice. Temptation and temerity make for compelling bedfellows in a colourful and creative piece drawn from episode 15 of Irish writer James Joyce’s novel Ulysses. The book, considered one of the most important works of…
There is a reason that Stephanie Lake is my favourite choreographer. In short, she is eternally creative in the work she produces. Her striking visual aesthetic elevates the art form. Fluid body movement is just the starting point. Beyond that, the key is the combination of formations she can extract from her dancers. That, together…
What is the price to be paid for progress? That is the conceit at the centre of the compelling drama with comedic undertones, The Wrong Gods. Nirmala (Nadie Kammallaweera) is a hard-nosed traditional Indian farmer who does what many generations before her have done. It is back-breaking work. She lives in a clearing in a…
The conceit behind the Australian premiere of the darkly comedic chamber opera Fat Pig feels all too real. What is it like to be constantly judged for being an overweight (I am talking morbidly obese) woman? No matter that you are smart, witty and a good communicator, the one thing you can’t shy away from…
Have you ever thought about playing mini golf with a tail? No, I am not off with the pixies. Swingers: The Art of Mini Golf, a nine-hole course above Flinders Street Station, gives you that experience. I kid you not. And, I should quickly add, it is far from easy swinging from the hips with…
POV (Point of View), is an extraordinary undertaking, unlike anything I have seen before. A 14-year-old – played by alternates on different nights (I saw Mabelle Rose, while the other is Edith Whitehead) – assumes the role of an 11-year-old girl. She, who is fully aware of the conceit of the piece, interacts with two…
Naked women, guns, pop and classical music, dancers, roller skating, shadow boxing, athleticism, a shrine and Russian ballet dancer Vaslav Nijinsky incarnate. That is what you are in for when you buy a ticket to see Kill Me, Argentine choreographer Marina Otero’s latest step off the deep end. The central conceit is mental health. In…
