By Sofia Monkiewicz
After a successful season at last year’s Melbourne Fringe Festival, Isabella Valette has brought her cabaret-style show Media Release to the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, with a few changes in place and many more laughs to be had.
The performance centres on April Fools, a fame-hungry actress who finds herself taking a couple of drastically wrong turns in an attempt to kick-start her career, and ends up down a horrifying path to reality television stardom. We meet her simpering agent, her arrogant British love interest, her in-the-closet, homophobic brother, his prim and proper wife-to-be, and several others, in a series of short scenes that take us through Fools’ life of faux luxury.
Valette has taken on even more ownership of this production since MFF, playing not only naïve April, but also the majority of other roles in the show, previously shared between three other actors. This change showcases her performance talents well, as she switches effortlessly between characters, adding a prop or costume piece to distinguish between them further.
While the concept of parodying reality television is far from original, Media Release does provide some comical perspectives. We watch as April transforms from a sweet drama school graduate with a big heart and bigger dreams, to a plastic, self-centred ‘celebrity’ with an inevitable plummet to infamy, and see how her newfound fame affects the lives of her family as she drags them, unwillingly, into the spotlight. It proves quite challenging to truly like or relate to any of the characters; they are outwardly funny, but are essentially nothing more than shallow stereotypes. Despite this, these stereotypes certainly achieve what they set out to do: make us laugh. The agent is a crowd favourite, with her cold smile and callous attitude, and the South Yarra persona of April’s sister-in-law is frighteningly familiar. A scene involving a hipster barista is a little stilted and not as polished as the rest of the play; the character only appears in one scene and doesn’t really add much to the overall performance.
Amid the sketches and monologues, Valette regularly breaks into song, changing up the lyrics of well-known pop tunes to describe the sad state of affairs surrounding April Fools. With a voice not unlike Australian songstress Kate Miller-Heidke, Valette hits the high notes and then keeps going, incorporating some impressively piercing shrills in almost every song she delivers. She also attempts to involve members of the audience in several scenes, which relies heavily on the enthusiasm of the chosen individual in order for it to work. Valette has little difficulty transforming herself from character to character, however some of the transitions between scenes are long and sloppy. One particular scene involves a long (and necessary) costume change, and no theatrical distraction is provided while the change is happening; instead the audience is forced to patiently wait several minutes staring at the empty stage, wondering if there is a technical problem or some other major production issue. Unfortunately, the scene transitions distracts from the enjoyment of the performance, which makes it harder to properly engage with the storyline.
Media Release is a fun and energetic production that delves into the dark side of reality TV, but it is let down by a lack of character depth and poor technical decisions. The catchy songs and witty one-liners, along with Valette’s talented and quirky efforts, are what renders this show entertaining, and with further tightening and editing it could be something really remarkable.
Media Release is on at Pleasance House Comedy until Sunday 5 April.
For bookings & further details visit the Comedy Festival Website:
http://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2015/season/shows/media-release-isabella-valette
