Category: Festivals

The Last Temptation of Randy

By Lisa Clark

The couch looms large in this production, the heart of most homes it has also become iconic as being the manky centrepiece of most share houses and a symbol for Randy of his single state and stunted adult life. Beside it, in case we are in any doubt is a milk crate with a cushion on it. We walk into the theatre to find Randy sitting on the back of the couch humming while his housemate Jimmy (Stewart of the band The Miserable Little Bastards) described as the pirate-convict-musician, lies on the couch and strums his guitar. It is clear that this is not going to be a straight, one puppet standup show.

We’re used to Randy as the foul mouthed cunning purple puppet who speaks his mind and takes no prisoners. This shows us another side of Randy in a delicate sweet love story as told to his housemate. We know about Randy’s past struggle with alcoholism and this show is partly suggesting that love can be a similar kind of addiction. The story is fine tuned and the melancholy is outweighed by Randy’s insuppressibly left field humour and constantly peppered with wit, rib tickling similes and amusing asides.

So much impressive work has been put into this polished theatrical experience. There is a transformation at the centre of it all that is breathtakingly magnificent and has everyone talking on the way out, but I’ll not spoil it for you. As the poster suggests Randy cleverly employs the medieval device of Good Angel/Bad Angel to express his thoughts and conscience. Simon the housemate is there throughout providing moody music interludes with some beautiful songs and a little conversation. There are also some surprising side-splitting segues involving sharks and pigeons and a gentle interlude of gorgeous shadow puppetry.

Puppeteer Heath McIvor seems to be disappearing into Randy with no mention of Heath in any of the publicity or on Randy’s website and no bow from Heath at the end of The Last Temptation of Randy. You can’t help but wonder how much of Randy’s persona is Heath or completely made up. Randy certainly has a life of his own as a successful comedian, you can often forget that Randy is a puppet. I don’t know if this is the case with McIvor, but a puppet is a great mask for a shy person who wants to do comedy but doesn’t want the fame that goes with it. Heath deserves all the accolades that Randy and this show will bring him.

It’s always a joy to go to a show by performer who can be relied upon for a full hour of fun and non-stop entertainment and multi an award winning Randy has done it again. It is beautiful, funny and has a squirrel called Denis. What more do you want?

The Last Temptation of Randy is on at the Lithuanian Club until October 5
http://www.melbournefringe.com.au/fringe-festival/show/the-last-temptation-of-randy/

Wolf Creek the Musical

By Colin Flaherty

Wow! Where to begin in describing the wonderful lunacy that is Wolf Creek the Musical. It was a gleeful hour of murderous mayhem with tunes destined to be earworms, not so subliminal advertising and a mid play coup.

I can’t attest to the accuracy with the source material but they freely admitted that they played fast and loose with the movie plot. Straight-faced overacting (with the odd nudge and a wink) gave things a suitable cartoon flavour; a nice contrast to the darkness lurking beneath but there were still some moments where things almost became too dark (the excessive repetition of “rape shed” only just got over the line as an overly-long gag). Comical signposting and explaining of every single plot point, awkward stage directions, frequent obliteration of the fourth wall and bizarre plot devices gave the performance a hyper-real atmosphere. The laughs came hard and fast with little time to catch your breath.
From the moment you entered the theatre with James McCann using synthesised grunts to play some well known tunes, you know that you were in for a musical treat. All the musical numbers were hilariously demented with some very creative shoehorning of lyrics. You’re sure to leave the show craving seafood! The vocal deliveries were a delightful mixed bag ranging from speak-singing to school concert singing to full on diva extravagance.

All the cast did a brilliant job. Demi Lardner, Chris Knight and Hayman Kent played the hapless victims with extreme naivety, horror movie hysteria and some inspired gender bending. Kel Balnaves inhabited the psychopath role with hilarious creepiness while many guest stars take on the tiny but pivitol role of Clem (Ryan Coffey’s beard on beard disguise was a wonderful touch). Angus Hodge possibly had the most exhausting task of playing all the peripheral roles, even portraying inanimate objects.

The costuming and props were suitably silly and obviously had a lot of work put into them, even when they were only utilised for a fleeting moment. The script regularly commented on how these props couldn’t possibly be adequate analogues for real world items to garner huge laughs.

A beautiful piece of manufactured outsider theatre, Wolf Creek the Musical has been creating quite a buzz around the festival. Believe the hype and go see this awesome show!

Wolf Creek the Musical is on at the Lithuanian Club until October 5
http://www.melbournefringe.com.au/fringe-festival/show/wolf-creek-the-musical/

Braveface

by Lisa Clark

Sophie Kneebone performs a sketch show with a difference, more of a beautifully drawn character study in the style of Kate McLennan. You can see a little Chris Lilley influence here too but less strident and cruel.There are a lot of brash wacky sketch shows that are more miss than hit and it can be a chore waiting for a good skit. Braveface is a more thoughtful kind of sketch show, that still illicits plenty of laughter but also eventually forms a play. Most of the sketches are funny in themselves and seem to stand alone, but by the end you realise that all of the characters are connected by more than their brave face.

A chair and lace clothed side table with teapot and cup, then notably, a parrot’s perch and an artist’s easel.  The tiny stage is simply set as the sitting room of the main character Linda who we eventually learn is a career coach at a high school. She is at the centre of the story linking the characters but there are many deeper connections that are gradually pieced together like a quilt Linda might’ve made. Her crafty talents are also some of the comedy highlights of the show.

Other characters we meet include an Irish chaplain who’s not as groovy as he thinks he is, a psychic with funny made up tarot cards, a milk bar lady and a smartarse schoolboy. Only the school boy, though done well and completely believable (Sophie works in a school after all), seemed a bit clichĂ©d, but maybe this is mostly Chris Lilley’s fault and I always feel a little uncomfortable when middle class comedians parody working class kids. The laughs though, are plenty and Sophie never comes across as derisive or mean to the people she has created, no matter their follies or delusions.

Sophie Kneebone, who has no doubt honed her character skills as part of The Big Hoo-Haa, is a remarkably fine actress who pulls off all her characters with warmth, subtlety and good comic timing. The show has also clearly benefited from direction by Lee Naimo as the pace and flow work very well. There is a fine use of music throughout, a wonderfully lame rap and some rather less successful interpretive dance where I couldn’t quite work out what it was interpreting. So, not all the sketches work, but the majority that do are stunning, very funny, sweet, poignant and occasionally moving. This is a gorgeous play at Melbourne Fringe that  you can definitely take your mum to.

Sophie Kneebone is performing Braveface at The Portland til Sunday 29th Sept

http://www.melbournefringe.com.au/fringe-festival/show/braveface/#

Jude the Obscure

By Colin Flaherty

Despite the title, Jude the Obscure was not a theatrical staging of Thomas Hardy’s tragic novel. Using comedian Judith Lucy as a character in a story about space exploration was a strange premise that certainly piqued the interest of Lucy’s fans. They might expect a story with our hero Judith getting into some comical scrapes while saving the day with some dry, witty comments. The reality however was quite different.

This show was essentially the study of a woman unhappy with her life, wishing to become at one with the universe. It wasn’t exactly clear whether the journey was being described to us after the fact or that departure was imminent. There was speculation into what could be done in zero gravity and a very long scene describing black holes, all tied in with snippets from Lucy’s comedic work and recent “
Spiritual Journey” television series. One interesting section saw the verbatim accounts of trained astronauts describing the emotional view of Earth as seen from space. A perplexing dance routine to “Under the Milky Way” added some colour and movement and, just like Lucy, she was not embarrassed to look like a fool (in this case a bucket on her head as a helmet).

Alice Williams did a good job in mimicking Judith. She certainly looked the part, had a lot of the vocal inflections nailed and her gestures were close. There was something a little unworldly about her, the caked-on face paint and aggressive application of lipstick seemed to suggest that she was going for a sad clown character. Dry Lucy-esque quips tried to inject some laughs amongst the philosophical musings, some worked but generally the timing and delivery were off.

Lucy is known for savage self-deprecation in her comedy and this is what Williams has focused on, but the concepts behind Judith’s routines weren’t really used as a comic device. The topics that Lucy has often mined for comedy (her years of excessive drinking, eccentric adoptive parents and love-life full of pitfalls) were often only mentioned in passing by Alice to relate them to the space storyline. In doing so she paints Lucy as a pitiful character who’s full of self-loathing but has come to accept her lot in life. It’s a one note portrayal, laid on rather thickly, which many fans would object to and claim that this representation of Lucy is no longer relevant (Lucy’s most recent work leaves most of this “woe is me” schtick behind).

There were some interesting ideas to ponder in this forty minutes (not the advertised sixty) but one wonders if the same show using a wholly fictional character would get as many bums on seats. Fans of Judith Lucy will be disappointed by the treatment of her and not learn anything of value about the main character. Those who hate Lucy wouldn’t care to spend this amount of time in her company to learn about the cosmos. People who sit on the fence won’t get many laughs but will hear some nice facts about space and theories about human existence. Such is the beast that is Fringe theatre, the creators are bang up for subverting an audience’s expectations.

Jude the Obscure is on at the Tuxedo Cat until September 28
http://www.melbournefringe.com.au/fringe-festival/show/jude-the-obscure/#

5 Good Reasons to see Stuart Daulman is The Principal.

Stuart’s 5 Good Reasons are

1– Stu is not a qualified principal.

2– Stu was a state finalist at this years’ RAW Comedy Competition.

3– It’s an over the top highly random Zane brain off the wall story about a Principal at a “school”

4– You probably won’t be educated, but you’ll be entertained.

5– There’s a plot twist involving cups of tea.

You can re-live those nightmarish schooldays with Stuart at Revolt Melbourne in Kensington from October 1st.

http://www.melbournefringe.com.au/fringe-festival/show/stuart-daulman-is-the-principal/

Simon Taylor – Funny

By Elyce Phillips 

Simon Taylor’s ‘Funny’ is a new hour of stand-up comedy from someone who has been more renowned in the past for being an excellent magician but in this show he  presents exactly what it says on the label. With a keen observational eye and charming delivery, Taylor does nothing but bring the funny.

2013 RAW Comedy finalist Jay Morrissey did a short set first, warming up the crowd with a blend of self-depreciation and bravado. His performance was a welcome surprise. Morrissey was confident in his material and even managed to fit a little play into the spot. Not only was his set a joy to watch, it was also really great to see new talent being supported in this way. I’m certain Morrissey will earn himself a good number of new fans.

After the audience had been adeptly warmed, Taylor took to the stage, tackling topics from language to reality TV to relationships and bringing his deft wit to all. His breakdown of Australian accents is particular highlight, illustrating the strange poetic beauty of boganisms. Taylor was quick to establish a rapport with the audience. The atmosphere of the room was relaxed and Taylor’s interactions with the audience felt genuine. There was the odd joke about someone’s hometown or relationship status, but it was never mean-spirited.

‘Funny’ is a well-rounded piece of stand-up. Yes, there are explorations of how we function in society, but there are also jokes about Craigieburn. Taylor’s material is sharp and very clever, and he’s not afraid to show a bit of vulnerability as well – perhaps best illustrated in his bit about compromises in relationships. It makes for a show that is intelligent, endearing and all too relatable.

Taylor’s work building up his comedy skills at gigs around Australia and in the USA have paid off. Catch him while you can, before he starts getting the nightly sold out audiences his show deserves. You’ll even pick up some handy tips on how to deal with taxi services.

Simon Taylor – Funny is on at The Imperial Hotel until October 6.

http://www.melbournefringe.com.au/fringe-festival/show/simon-taylor-funny/