Flying Trapeze Class at Circus Oz

Published: Trespass Magazine

It is essential that I preface this write-up by stating that I am afraid of heights. Hence, perhaps it was a little illogical that I decided to participate in the art of Trapeze, since it requires me to be above ground level. However, when the offer came up to be a part of the Beginner’s Flying Trapeze Classin Melbourne’s Circus Oz, how could I say no?

Circus Oz was founded in Melbourne in 1977 and has since toured nationally and internationally in over 25 countries. They are also a company with a high social conscience, and often arrange events to raise money for different social justice issues and the community. From September to December, Circus Oz has opened their doors to provide public classes for adults and children covering a multitude of different circus disciplines. 

Review: A Disappearing Number

Published: Trespass Magazine

During its inception in 2009, National Theatre Livebroadcasted their debut show, Phèdre, starringHelen Mirren in 22 countries, which was seen on 320 screens. The initiative was launched to showcase live British theatre performances in cinemas around the world, and this year, multi-awarding winning play A Disappearing Number made the line-up in the National Theatre Live’s second season.Although the showing of A Disappearing Number on October 26 in Melbourne’s Cinema Nova was not a live broadcast, the performance was recorded only a couple of weeks prior to the screening on October 14. The show was performed in Plymouth’s Theatre Royal and broadcasted to over 19 countries worldwide simultaneously. 

Creditors

Published: Beat Magazine

A mystery surrounds the plot of Red Stitch Theatre’s latest production, Creditors. Speaking to Dion Mills, who plays the part of Gustav in Daniel Grieg’s adaptation of August Strindberg’s original play, he says: “I can’t tell you the exact story because there’s a twist in the tale and I don’t want to give it away.”

Creditors marks the third Daniel Grieg play Red Stitch Theatre has performed in recent years. With direction from David Bell, the play is a naturalistic exploration of the relationships between men and women with betrayal, love, and vengeance rearing its head throughout the tragicomedy. 

Review: Class Clowns 2010

Published: artsHub

A blend of nerves and sophisticated comedic material invaded The Malthouse at this year’s Class Clowns National Grand Final. Founded in 1996, Class Clowns is a comedy competition organised by the Melbourne International Comedy Festival open to secondary students across the country. Each comic competes within his or her own home state; the winners of which get invited to the Grand Final. With five minutes of stage time, an array of acts from group sketch shows, to stand-up to musical comedy are performed by14 to 17-year-old comedians.

The venue was filled with supportive secondary students from all over Victoria, and hosted by Tom Gleeson (The 7PM Project), who provided humorous, entertaining interludes between acts. His stand-up material was successfully catered to a younger crowd, but was by no means infantilising. He poked fun at his ginger hair and the ubiquitous iPhone, which, according to Gleeson, is “like a penis – only fun to pull out when you’re on your own, not on the dinner table”. 

Review: Becky Shaw

Published: artsHub

It is of no surprise that Gina Gionfriddo’s play, Becky Shaw was nominated as a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and stirred critics into a bubbling frenzy during its debut in 2008. The script itself is hilarious and engrossing in its own right, and much of the success of the Echelon Productions’ play rests on this fact alone.

The quick-witted comedy is an observant and insightful look at the messy, and at times, devious aspects of human relationships unravelled through an absorbing plot – a plot centred on a disastrous first date.

The “delicate” Becky Shaw (Kate Atkinson, Blue Heelers and Playbox) and Max Garrett (Daniel Frederiksen, Fatboy) are setup on a blind date by newlywed friends, Suzanna (Amanda Levy) and Andrew (Alex Papps), Shaw’s co-worker. The pairing could not be more dreadful, that is, at least for Max who is also Suzanna’s ‘brother’ whom she previously had a one-night-stand with. What follows is the wrath of unrequited love – blackmail, stalking, and manipulation in its most cunning and unscrupulous forms. 

Review: Thyestes

Published: Beat Magazine

Seneca’s Greek tragedy, Thyestes tells the brutal tale of the King of Mycenae who unknowingly ate the flesh of his children fed to him by his brother Atreus. In the Hayloft Project’s (3xSisters, Yuri Wells) Malthouse’s version, the myth is given a contemporary rock ‘n’ roll theatre makeover, but the result is no less harrowing and absorbing thanks to the ingenious touch of the solid young theatre group.

The production, showing as part of this year’s Melbourne Fringe Festival, was co-written by all three performers (Chris Ryan, Thomas Henning and Mark Leonard Winter) and director, Simon Stone, with Anne-Louise Sarks (winner of Adelaide Fringe Festival Award for Yuri Wells) as dramaturge. 

Jack Druce: Wild Druce Chase

Published: Beat #1214

At only 19-years old, Jack Druce, a Sydney-sider originally from Canada, already has several awards under his belt including winning the NSW Kick Start comedy prize, and the 2007 Raw Comedy Best Newcomer award.

Initially with dreams of being a real-life action hero, one look at Druce’s dweeby frame and you know, that’s just never going to happen. And I don’t mean he’s geek-chic, or a guy who adorns ‘cool’ nerd spectacles – he is a dweeb in all sense of the word, but an extremely likeable one at that.

His stand-up show, Wild Druce Chase, is plenty pleasant and entertaining but by no means perfect. He’s a joy to listen to, and though he may touch on seemingly overdone topics like strange videos on YouTube, pop culture and personal experiences, he does well in approaching these issues in a unique way.  

Occupation: Ugly

Published: artsHub: Review

First published in artsHub

If you’re looking for a good time, or an audio remake of Schindler’s list (that is, Schindler’s lisp) or rap tunes sung to the melodies of rock classics, then enterOccupation: Ugly, the superbly bizarre and funny sketch show from Comedicate founders, Beau Fitzpatrick and Josh Ladgrove.

The performance had just the kind of creativity, quirkiness and unpredictability I expected from the comedy group having been previously won over by their two-man show, Metrosketchuals. Unlike the latter, Occupation: Ugly stars five actors (Anna O’Bryan, Al Newstead, Brenna Glazebrook, Beau Fitzpatrick and Josh Ladgrove) with the ability to morph and inhabit a range of different personas, each one loopier than the next. There’s no particular storyline, just random as hell short skits enriched by voiceovers and audio and visual narratives, which produce a good amount of laughter.  

Dave Thornton: A different type of normal

Published: Beat Magazine #1213: Review

It goes without saying that good comedy makes you laugh but very rarely does it move you; such is the case of Dave Thornton’s A Different Type of Normal, which brings you tears of laughter and a poignancy that may make one with weak tear-ducts grow misty-eyed.

A lot of the material for his show comes from Thornton’s own funny life experiences. He jumps from talking about performing, to being heckled, to his very Australian childhood and jokes about his family. It all sounds very ordinary at first hand but his ease on stage, natural charisma and ability to morph seemingly plain occurrences into insightful, hilarious telling observations made up much of the charm of this show.

Oddly enough, some of his best jokes were made at the expense of his late father, which was the real heart of the performance. In almost the same breath, Thornton managed to coax wild laughter from the audience before tugging heartstrings with a sombre note, as he told amusing stories about his father and expressed the evident pain of his absence.  

Sam Simmons: Fail

Published: Beat Magazine #1213: Review

After letting the audience in on a time he did a little poopsie in his pants during a show, Sam Simmons kicked started Fail, a show he promised would be just a bit silly.

The truth of the matter is, Fail is possibly one of the most delightfully crazy shows you’ll ever go to. You may be convinced that not just one, but several bonkus people live inside Simmons’ head. Here, the multi-award winning and Barry Award nominee presents a lightning-fast, erratic show that will get you gasping for air, and exhausted from its glorious weirdness.

Set in the cosy, circular barnyard-meets-carnival Bosco theatre (bring a cushion for your bum), a good portion of Fail involves Simmons talking about his own life, and a rather dark time in which he almost killed himself because of a tape dispenser. Luckily, bubbles and Thai green curry yanked him out of his slump. He also reads out of a giant book, telling a series of hilarious stories about ants and a rock ‘n’ rolla, and several other instances in which the story’s protagonists had failed. Furthermore, interwoven between all these skits are the absurd game show (in which impossible questions meet plausible but ultimately incorrect answers), fantastic use of audio narratives, and a slideshow of suspect photographs of the fail genre.