Melbourne Fringe Festival – Page 49

Xavier Toby – 2013: When we were idiots

By Elyce Phillips

The year is 2113 and we are living in an environmentally-sustainable socially-harmonious utopia. You are a member of a tourist group exploring North Melbourne circa 2013, wondering how they got it all so wrong. That is the premise of Xavier Toby’s novel comedic walking tour ‘2013: When we were idiots’ – a refreshing, bizarre and often fascinating look at the Fringe’s home town.

Meeting in the foyer of the Fringe Hub, hi-vis vests are doled out to attendees and you are instructed to follow the penguin (Toby) outside. After hearing a quick safety chat and being informed that everyone on the streets around you is an actor, you set off for some learning.

Toby deftly weaves fact and “fact” as the group trundles about the streets of North Melbourne. You hear about the old Benevolent Asylum, Scrap metal merchant Old Ma Dalley and the history of the Hotham Football Club, but are also reminded of things like how we use waterslides as public transport in 2113.

There’s a strong social message throughout the show. Toby underscores the problems of 2013 with tales of how we are doing it right in 2113. In his utopia we’re working less, creating more and are generally a more caring lot. But for all its moral aspirations, the show never feels preachy. After all, we’re from 2113 and all these wonderful changes have already occurred, so there’s no need to harp on about it. Everyone’s already on-board.

Micah Higbed is glorious as a series of historical special guests, ripped from their own times and sporting some questionable costumes. His “mystical” psychic, whose name seemed to be some sort of high-pitch shriek, was a highlight of the tour. There’s also a quick stop for some poetry with Emily Andersen. Her ode to hipster boyfriends is a perfect little slice of 2013 Melbourne.

Some of the best moments came from the group’s interactions with strangers on the street – all of whom were remarkably good-natured about being set upon by a large group of neon gigglers. A beautiful sense of camaraderie develops and at the end of the 90 minutes, you do feel a bit like a group of travellers from somewhere better, out of your own time.

2013: When We Were Idiots starts at the Fringe Hub – Lithuanian Club Foyer and is on until October 5.

http://www.melbournefringe.com.au/fringe-festival/show/2013-when-we-were-idiots/

5 Good Reasons to See Ben Pobjie: Wearing A Towel

5 Good Reasons to See Ben Pobjie Wearing A Towel:

1. You know from the title and the poster that I’ll be showing some skin. You’ll be getting your money’s worth as far as acreages of flesh go.

2. This is the first time I’ll be devoting an hour to exploring my own feelings, stripping back layers of pretence and artifice to reach a place of true honesty on stage. As such it is possible that during the show I will suffer a nervous breakdown, and you KNOW that’s gotta be entertaining!

3. In their review of my last show, Australian Stage wrote “Pobjie bundles all kinds of comic devices together into a brilliant hilarious mess.” And that’s coming from Australian Stage. They review actual, proper plays and stuff. They know what they’re talking about. I am indeed a brilliant hilarious mess.

4. I give out hugs to people who come to my shows. Good hugs too. I’ve got these enormous arms. It’s like being hugged by a gigantic plush orang-utan. Really the hug will be worth the price of admission alone. The jokes are just a bonus.

5. Because there is nothing like hearing about another person’s problems to make your own seem less daunting.

You can see Ben Pobjie at the Lithuanian Club at 9pm til the 27th

http://www.melbournefringe.com.au/fringe-festival/show/ben-pobjie-wearing-a-towel/

The Experiment

By Elyce Phillips

If you’re anything like me, you’ve been wondering for years why there is not a comedy show that is also a dog show. It’s such a hassle trying to attend both all the time. Why not bring them together? Well, lucky for us, our prayers have been answered by ‘The Experiment’. Hosted by Asher Treleaven, Geraldine Hickey and the constantly-grinning Oliver Clark, the late-night show is the perfect opportunity for comedians to get weird.

The trio of hosts complement each other perfectly. Hickey was wonderfully deadpan, giving us some animal facts and reading out a very pertinent letter to our new Minister for Women’s Affairs, Tony Abbott. Clark manned the sound effects and ran interference, dressed like an electric-blue nightmare – the lovechild of Tony Barber and Tony Clifton. Treleaven bridges the divide, holding the reins and fostering an enthusiastically supportive atmosphere that ensures the special guests are met with rapturous applause, regardless of the material they try out.

On the evening I attended there were four guests, all of which were fantastic. Anne Edmonds performed some great new material about Nazi fancy dress, Dave Callan busted some serious moves to Britney Spears’ ‘Hit Me One More Time’, Claire Hooper treated us to a suite of Fables from her upcoming Fringe show and Charles Barrington delighted with his tale ‘The Ugly Natalie Portman’. Alas, on this evening there was no dog show. A lady in the audience did bring a small toy dog, which Treleaven received with the disdain it rightfully deserved.

‘The Experiment’ is brilliantly unhinged and a great chance to see some comedy from the stranger end of the spectrum. With new guests every night, it’s certainly a show that I’m going to check out a few more times. A really great way to top-off your night at the Fringe.

A final note- the call-out for small dogs is entirely serious, so bring your small dog if you have one. As of right now, the prize money has jackpotted to $45. Hot dang!

The Experiment in on in The Ballroom at the Lithuanian Club until October 5.

http://www.melbournefringe.com.au/fringe-festival/show/the-experiment/

Lisa-Skye – Art, Sex and Snacks

By Lisa Clark

Late night interview shows pop up all over the place during festivals, Art, Sex & Snacks is very much your alternative talk show that fits perfectly into the fringe of the Fringe that is The Tuxedo Cat. It really is the kind of frank talk show that will not be finding itself on mainstream TV anytime soon.

In a room suitably draped in red crushed velvet, we enter to discover the brightly clad host and her guests are chatting informally with each other off mike on stage which gives a friendly atmosphere. Lisa-Skye is a relaxed and skilled host, keeping the pace up and the balance of giving each guest their time to shine, while occasionally shining out herself. Her guests are encouraged to open up about their art, their sexuality and their favourite snacks. I’d had no previous knowledge of any of tonight’s guests, but by the end I felt we had all shared a fairly intimate, if at times raucous experience.

Lisa-Skye brought together four artists from widely varying parts of the Fringe Festival who were all very entertaining with fascinating shows on. The night I went we had Rennie McDougall who’s dance performance Yes Dance (Deeply Superficial) works against the idea of dance as storytelling and celebrates the body. Nell Kentish of the theatre company Big One Little One is doing a Live Art piece that is performed for one audience member for one minute – Confetti, the rest is a secret for you to discover. Simon Morrison-Baldwin who was giving Lisa-Skye’s outfit a run for her money in his drag persona as Lady Diamond is doing a cabaret show called Corpse about an 18th century transgender spy who spent half his life as a man and half her life as a woman. Finally there was gay comedian Hunter Smith whose show Apprentice Heterosexual explores feigning heterosexuality.

If the aim was to familiarise audiences with artists and encourage them to see the shows of her guests that was achieved. Starting out with performers completely unknown to me, by the end I wanted to see all their shows. Except for maybe dance, which is not my cup of tea, despite Rennie’s charm and humour, that would take some extraordinary persuasion. I’m sure each evening depends on the guests involved but we had an uproarious time of laughs and confessions. Topics included food during sex, sex toys, the gay hankie code and an excellent legal drug to take while giving birth. None of this is surprising while Lisa-Skye is at the helm.

It’s a short run and I’d recommend you catch it while you can.

Lisa-Skye – Art Sex and Snacks
is on at 10.45 til Sept 24th
Tuxedo Cat
http://www.melbournefringe.com.au/fringe-festival/show/art-sex-and-snacks/

There is a Podcast of these shows available here:

http://artsexsnacks.podbean.com/

Rennie McDougall – Yes Dance (Deeply Superficial) [Dance]
Fringe Hub Warehouse
http://www.melbournefringe.com.au/fringe-festival/show/yes-dance/

Nell Kentish of Big One Little One – Confetti [ Live Art]
North Melbourne Town Hall
http://www.melbournefringe.com.au/fringe-festival/show/confetti/

Simon Morrison-Baldwin (Lady Diamond) – Corpse (Le Chevalier d’Eon and the Mystery of His Sex)
Butterfly Club [Caberet]
http://www.melbournefringe.com.au/fringe-festival/show/corps-e/

Hunter Smith – Apprentice Heterosexual [Comedy]
Tuxedo Cat

http://www.melbournefringe.com.au/fringe-festival/show/hunter-smith-apprentice-heterosexual/

We’ll Always Have Paris

By Colin Flaherty

Comedy walking tours have been popping up as alternatives to theatre based shows over the past couple of years. One such tour is Jacqueline Mifsud’s We’ll Always Have Paris. This event requires the participants to suspend their disbelief as Mifsud uses Melbourne landmarks in place of Parisian ones while presenting a very accurate yet amusing commentary about the history of Paris.

First to put a preconceived notion to rest: you won’t have to navigate a thick comical French accent, she is not playing a snooty French woman. It was interesting to learn that she spent four years living in Paris and conducted tours for English speaking tourists, demonstrating that she knows her stuff. Including all the humorous lines into this fact heavy script and remembering it all was an impressive feat. She was able to make light of some of the more horrific data about French history with a witty disarming quip.

Numerous pop culture references are thrown into the narrative at every opportunity to add some giggles of recognition. The source materials vary wildly and span many years so it’s unlikely that you will recognise them all, but many will make you smile even when shoehorned into the topic at hand. Also making up the humorous content were plenty of innuendo and self-deprecation which added to her crazy tour guide persona. She generally kept up the fascade of us being in Paris by explaining away many of the Melbourne things staring us in the face which was a nice touch.

Jacqueline had a rather scatty ADHD demeanour to her performance. The constant verbalisation of her inner dialogue and frequent asides gave the show a very loose feel amongst her well executed spiels but also disrupted the flow at times. She was also easily distracted by events around us which gave her opportunities to make amusing off the cuff remarks but more often than not she lost her place in the script.

I was part of the Sunday morning tour (a rather leisurely stroll between the landmarks) and had heard that due to increased foot traffic the evening tours are a little bit chaotic, just like a European city crowded with multiple tour groups and hundreds of lone tourists. If you want to have a more authentic experience the 6pm tour fits the bill. Also note that the route includes a number of staircases so those with mobility issues may experience problems in keeping up with the group.

A wonderful Edu-taining event that appeals to history buffs and comedy fans alike, Jacqueline has created a fun way to kick of your day / evening at Fringe.

We’ll Always Have Paris departs from outside the Melbourne Arts Centre each weekend until October 6.
http://www.melbournefringe.com.au/fringe-festival/show/we-ll-always-have-paris/

Songs for Europe – Two short plays about Eurovision by John Richards & Lee Zachiriah

By Lisa Clark

It warms the heart to see such fabulous intelligent, funny and moving Australian theatre being debuted at Melbourne Fringe. Songs for Europe – Two short plays about Eurovision, is what the title suggests, but don’t go expecting a glitzy, trashy Eurobeat style parody, ‘cause you will be disappointed. This is a more poignant look at how Eurovision has influenced the world and the people involved.

The first play Nothing by John Richards is an intimate portrait of an encounter between two people in the basement dressing room of a nightclub somewhere in Eastern Europe, while the sounds of bombing can be heard in the distance. Patrick, played with straightforward simplicity by Nicholas Colla is an English hipster freelance journalist writing an article about Eurovision. He’s hunting down certain ex Eurovision performers and is here to meet up with Sonja despite her disinterest and downright refusal in granting him an interview. Sonja is an aging Eastern European diva magnificently and intelligently played by Marta Kaczmarek. Their feisty parley is witty, clever and ultimately powerfully moving.

The second play is about revolution and Eurovision’s association with war and hope for peace in Europe. The Carnation Revolution by Lee Zachiriah is set in Lisbon in 1974, three men are waiting in a café waiting for a signal over the radio to start a revolution against a dictatorship. The signal is a song from Eurovision and it is based on a true story. A mysterious, menacing customer enters the café. Chris Broadstock as Diego is bland and unassuming on the surface, yet creates unease with word play that becomes tension you can cut with a knife. The performances here are all excellent, though you can’t help but notice Jack Beeby who has a small part in the first play and then is barely recognisable as the young keen, sweet, naive revolutionary Carlos who has the audience completely on side. Petra Elliott is also excellent as the capitalist café owner, wary of Diego and his potential for trouble but willing to sell her wares to whomever wants to consume them.

The stage is simply set with a drabness that suggests being back stage at a theatre that perfectly complements both plays’ themes of backstage / behind the scenes to Eurovision; and the reality behind a glamorous front. There are two televisions on each side of the set that play vision from Eurovision before and between the plays and they give the audience members a taste of Eurovision as well as setting up the next play.

Songs for Europe is a production of contrasts, inverse expectations, conflict and peace. Where the first play is intimate and personal the second is about the world stage and they complement each other well. The dialogue is clever, and all the performances in this production are excellent but Marta gently soars above the rest, her experience and conviction in the role evident. Her riveting nuanced, portrayal of Sonja will stay with you long after the play is over. Whether you are a fan of Eurovision or not, this is definitely worth hunting through the back streets of Brunswick for.

Songs for Europe is on at Broken Mirror til Sept 29th.

Note: Broken Mirror off Sydney Rd is actually a more comfortable performance space than many Fringe spaces. Not hot and stuffy at all.

http://www.melbournefringe.com.au/fringe-festival/show/songs-for-europe/