Tall Tales Of The Woodland

"Cute, yet filthy" is how my wife described 'Claire Hooper's Fables' after we had been to see the show, a description which is perfectly fitting for a show containing tales of anthropomorphised woodland and farmyard creatures engaged in acts which range from poor sportsmanship to filthy furry perversion.
Hooper walks on to the stage to the strains of 'Peter and the Wolf', smiling sweetly and gazing at the audience with wide blue eyes, carrying a large red tome of fables which she places on a stand and opens.
We are regaled for the next 50 minutes with hilariously silly and some downright ridiculous tales in which various creatures lie, steal, cheat and stomp their way to a (im)moral ending.
Hooper tells the tails with a lightness and humour which is immediately engaging as she begins and carries through to the final line, with relevant mimes which illustrate which animal she is voicing at any one instant.
Her audience was kept highly amused by her antics and we laughed throughout. The twisted variations on familiar morality tales kept the humour flowing and were all well told.
This show is on at the Fringe Hub in North Melbourne until October 5th.

Twice The Prejudice, Twice The Fun

Presented as a series of vignettes exploring what it means to be gay in the traditionally robustly heterosexual black community, 'Black Faggot' is a though-provoking, touching and often amusing performance at the Rehearsal Room of the Fringe Hub in North Melbourne.
There is the young man who is too scared to come out to his family and friends for fear of rejection (despite many of them being perfectly aware of his orientation), the happily married man who 'accidentally' finds himself in a gay bar and the gay couple who are very active in the bedroom, which has unfortunate consequences for any fabrics in the line of fire - so to speak.
The vignettes present as criss-crossing windows into the lives of several recurring characters whose stories gradually develop over the course of the 50 minutes we spend with them. Some characters resolve the issues in their lives which arise from them being gay and some have new issues develop, but they all are changed by what they encounter.
This is a highly entertaining and enlightening show with two excellent central performances and is showing until October 5th.

Confused Gender Comedy

The Butterfly Club is a fine cabaret and comedy venue which relocated from the South of the city into the very heart of it some months ago, bringing along its eclectic collection of dolls, trinkets, pictures, furniture and nick-nacks.
Last night I was there to see 'Corps(e)' a play with musical interludes concerning itself with the fascinating tale of Le Chevalier d'Eon who was a spy and bon vivant during the reign of Louis XV performed by drag artiste Simon Morrison-Baldwin.
Sadly, that's about all I can tell you about the story as my wife and I could make neither head nor tail of due to the rambling nature of the exposition, the forgetfulness of the performer and the sudden insertion of songs which did not appear relevant to the tale.
Perhaps I am judging this production too harshly as it garnered decent amounts of applause from the majority of our fellow patrons and perhaps it will improve over its run, but - given the brevity of the run and the fact that this was the second night - I have my doubts.
This show clearly needs further rehearsal time to allow Morrison-Baldwin time to become more familiar with the character and his lines. The accompanist was effortlessly professional, providing the necessary prompts throughout and leant the necessary air of refined restraint to the production.
All-in-all this was a disappointing show which could have been so much more given the time and effort.

Magical Moves

Today's Fringe adventure took me out to the South of the city and the Gasworks Arts Centre where two young female performers - magician Lee Cohen and acrobat Emma Shephard - have a show.

Titled 'Voila' this is a show the whole family can enjoy featuring dancing light people, hula-hoops, doves, songs, a mermaid performing aerial acrobatics and a guinea pig. There may also be a rabbit, but that all depends on how large your wand is, apparently.

The audience interaction is good gentle fun with a slight hint of pantomime and the occasional piece of participation on stage required.

Both Cohen and Shephard expertly hold the attention of the audience for the entire 50 minute runtime - no mean feat when much of the audience is under 12 - and have a warm, friendly stage presence.

If you're looking for something to keep the kids entertained in what remains of the holidays this show certainly fits the bill. There are two remaining performances on October 5th at midday and 5pm at the Gasworks Art Centre near Albert Park.

Circus Transformed

I had been invited by the mysterious Ella Bella to bear witness to something strange and wonderful.
My instructions were to meet at the Wonderland Spiegeltent in Harbour Town. So, leaving the relative warmth of the People's Republic of Brunswick, I ventured across and through the CBD and out to the windswept concrete and steel expanse that is Docklands.
Finding the Spiegeltent itself out behind the shopping precinct I stepped inside to discover what could possibly be worth all the cloak and dagger. I emerge into a space containing many foldable wooden chairs arranged around a central, circular stage with a larger, more conventional stage at the front.
'Papillon' commences with a balancing act in which the two usherettes and a stagehand drop whatever they were doing and perform some breathtaking feats of acrobatics and balance, culminating in a three-tier balance that has the packed house cheering and clapping madly.
Our ringmaster, Idris Stanton, then bounds to the stage and warms up the audience ready for the next act. Idris, dressed in a well tailored cavalryman's tailcoat complete with epaulettes and shiny gold buttons, is a consummate  showman who knows how to keep the audience entertained between acts without overshadowing any of the acts he introduces.
And what acts we get! The stagehand from the initial routine (a very agile and strong Vincent Van Berkel) returns and takes to the circular stage to perform some truly incredible hand balancing and aerial leg work supported only by two tiny plinths. This act culminates with a piece that had many parts of the audience wolf-whistling and clapping madly.
Petite, sultry chanteuse Minnie Andrews is next and blows the audience away with her silky smooth, rich vocal tones.
Act after act the audience is entertained by Elena Kirschbaum, Amy  Nightingale-Olsen, Joshua Phillips, as well as the aforementioned Stanton, Van berkel and Andrews.
This is excellent family entertainment which, as the title suggests (papillon being French for butterfly), will transform any evening into something wondrous.
Papillon is on at the Spiegeltent until October 5th.

Blood, Guts And Greasepaint

As the audience enter the room in which 'MKA: Kids Killing Kids' will be performed they are first offered some dried mango to chew on as they are directed to wander about the space for a few minutes, reading the pieces which have been posted on the walls and inspecting the various objects on tables before they take their seats.
An unconventional beginning to a show which is part lecture, part performance and part social commentary. The four actors on stage are the writers and producers of a production in the Philippines inspired by 'Battle Royale' - a book from 1999 by Koushun Takami and later adapted into a film - and the subsequent cult status it garnered, along with the consequent criticism including that from the UN. For those unfamiliar with 'Battle Royale', the story follows a group of teen students who have been drugged and dumped in an unknown location where they are given weapons and ordered to kill one another until only one survives.
This show, however, is the story of how a theatre group in the Philippines creates a production so involving for the audience that not only would getting too close to the action be hazardous to life and limb, but also that inspired near-obsessive levels of character worship from those who attended.

Using a variety of media and performance styles - monologue, rap, dance, collage, video, slide-projection - to get their message across, the performers - David Finnigan, Sam Burns-Warr, Georgie McAuley, Jordon Prosser - eloquently and effectively convey the bizarre nature of what transpires in Manila and acknowledge their own complicity in what becomes a discomfiting craze of hero-worship for mass-murdering school kids. Albeit - fictional ones.

This is a thought-provoking piece which looks at the relationship between art and real life and the possible effect one has on the other. There is no final judgement here, only a statement of the facts and the audience is left to make their own decisions.

'MKA: Kids Killing Kids' is on at the Warehouse theatre in the Fringe Hub, North Melbourne until Thursday 3rd October. 

We're All Going To Hell!

Take one room, seating about 60 people and fill it with an audience consisting mostly of comedians and other performers and the occasional unsuspecting punter who just wanted a show to see.
On the stage place two long planks of wood in a cruciform arrangement to which the arms of Josh Ladgrove are taped at the wrists.
Let the heckling commence!
'Come Heckle Christ!' was a one-performance show at the Imperial Hotel, Bourke Street last night which people either loved or hated. It is most certainly not for those whose idea of comedy or performance begins and ends with Morecambe and Wise.
Fifty minutes of insults and abuse were hurled at Ladgrove's messianic noggin, punctuated by some pauses as the crowd regrouped for another volley. As the show progressed Ladgrove had his Tech - Mary Magdalene - produce a Bible from which he would recite randomly selected passages and the heckling would grow louder.
The vast majority of people in the room were very much in the spirit of things with shouts and laughter aplenty from all sides, but there were one or two who appeared baffled and unstirred by the events surrounding them.
Were they Catholics? Lost?
This show is not for everyone. Actually - this show is not for most people, but I certainly found it funny as hell, appropriately enough. Let's hope he brings it back for the Comedy Festival.