Marys Seacole, LCT Online, 4 July 2021 ***

THEATRE - ONLINE

Written by  Jackie Sibblies Drury

Part of LCT Steinberg New Works Program

Recorded at Claire Tow Theatre, Streamed by Lincoln Center Theater until 4 July 2021

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

Stars: ***

 This short review is only published on this blog. KH

Quincy Tyler Bernstine as Marys Seacole

 

Jackie Sibblies Drury’s play, Marys Seacole, explores the life of Jamaican nurse, Marys Seacole, and her modern counterparts, in an episodic journey that visits 19^th century Jamaica and Crimea, and 21^st century America.

 

In Lileana Blain-Cruz's production of Sibblies' play, Marys, played compellingly by Quincy Tyler Bernstine, transports us to different times or locations by narrating parts of her story in monologues. Some of this interpolated narration has too much explication or is simply too long.

 

The first time shifts delivers Marys from Jamaica in 1850s, to present-day America and the action moves to a modern nursing home where an earnest, white woman visits her ailing, verbally unresponsive mother.

 

We meet other women of Jamaican background as modern nurses, mothers in a playground and nurses on the Crimean battlefield.

Glass by Rawcus Ensemble with Marc Brew, 8 July 2021 ***1/2

THEATRE  Rawcus

At Northcote Town Hall Arts Centre, until 11 July 2021

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

Stars: ***1/2

 This review is published only on this blog. KH

Rawcus Ensemble, GLASS. Photo by Pia Johnson

Rawcus Ensemble has waited over a year to be able to perform its latest production, Glass. This physical performance had its inception in Oakland USA during Rawcus’ momentous, 2019 visit to work with Marc Brew and his company, Axis Dance Company.

 

When the pandemic hit in 2020 and Brew was unable to travel to Melbourne, the project changed into an international collaboration choreographed by Brew via Zoom. Glass is the result.

 

Rawcus describes itself as ‘A long-term ensemble of 15 performers with diverse minds, bodies and imaginations who create distinct performance work and deliver exceptional arts experiences.’

 

This diversity is apparent in the performance which explores, in abstract, non-narrative and physical form, themes of confinement, freedom, conformity, repetition, playfulness, contact, separation and individuality, amongst others.

Talking Dogs, 2 July 2021 - Children's show - REVIEW

By Joel Salom

Roola Boola Children's Arts Festival (Stonnington )

Chapel off Chapel, Prahran

One show only online via Zoom on Friday 2 July 2021 

Reviewer:  Kate Herbert 2 July 2021

The producers decided that they wanted a review so here it is! Yippee! KH

Talking Dogs by Joel Salom is a cute and engaging, online children’s show performed on Zoom for children 4 and over.

 

Salom, a charming and skilful juggler, is not only juggling balls and clubs, he’s also juggling a live, multi-camera stream from his living room in Brunswick Heads with the support of his own offspring, Harper and Miro. It all works and the kids who are peering out at us in their Zoom screen from their own homes love it!

 

While everyone arrives in their Zoom room before the start of the show, Salom chats to his screen-captive audience, explaining to the kids that they should wave their hands onscreen if they want to participate by making suggestions during the show.

Talking Dogs, online, Fri 2 July 2021 (not a review)

By Joel Salom

One show only online via Zoom on Friday 2 July 2021 

Part of  Roola Boola Children's Festival (Stonnington, Chapel off Chapel, Prahran)

See programme for Festival: https://chapeloffchapel.com.au/whats-on/

NB: The producers of this show didn’t want a review, so I’m just making some general comments. (Pity, 'cos it's good. Oops! that's a review/value comment!) KH

 

Talking Dogs by Joel Salom is an online children’s show via Zoom for children 4+.

KNOT by Darkfield Radio, 23 June 2021 ****

 

AUDIO THEATRE

Darkfield Radio KNOT, 'Immersive 360 Audio'

Streamed on your phone. Fri- Sun at 5pm, 6pm & 7pm (All of these times) until 31 July 2021

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

Stars: **** (4)

KNOT, another in a series of immersive, audio performances by Darkfield Radio, is an evocative and unsettling dreamscape.

 

This is a solo listening experience in three parts. The audience listens to the performance through earphones on their mobiles. We experience Part One on a park bench of our choosing, Part Two in a car alone, and Part Three back in our own home. With eyes closed, the world is populated by a parade of characters, and filled with soundscape that evoke each location.

 

KNOT relies on the audience, as active listeners, being willing to be transported to other places and times and willing to believe in this new reality. We are not merely audience, but each of us is an intrinsic character in this narrative – silent, but still present and significant.

A Celebration of Student Songs, by Lincoln Center Theater, 17 June 2021 ***1/2

MUSICAL THEATRE/ONLINE CONCERT

Produced by Lincoln Center Theater (sic) - Songwriting in the Schools

Online Lincoln Center Theater via  Broadway on Demand until 20 June 2021

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

Stars: 3.5

This review published only on this blog. KH 

Songwriting in the Schools is part of Lincoln Center Theater’s Open Stages Education program during which students from High Schools write music and lyrics for their songs, ably assisted by their teachers.

 

This hour-long performance is usually performed on stage at Lincoln Center. However, for this year’s Pandemic performance, participants recorded video introductions to their songs and the singers performed them to a camera, probably from their own homes.

 

The songs cover issues ranging from the Pandemic to racial justice, gun control, LBGQT rights, love and pets.

BATS Improv Online, 5 June 2021 ****

IMPROVISED THEATRE

Canadian Horror Story by BATS Improv Online (San Francisco) BATS Online

On Facebook and Zoom, 5 June 2021 (Sun 6 June AET)

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

Stars: ****

Regina Saisi -Rafe Chase  BATS Canadian Horror Story, pic from Zoom show

Canadian Horror Story, the brainchild of Canadian improviser, Karen Brelsford, is the latest online improvised show from BATS Improv Online in San Francisco.

 

Brelsford, appearing in black and white, introduces the show in the persona of a late-night, horror movie host. From the audience suggestions – posted in the Zoom Chat – Brelsford decides that the story will be set in Doug Hollow, a small, bucolic, Canadian town that is visited by two cousins on a car trip.

 

This improvised horror show is variously hilarious, spooky, demented and gory. The story takes us, via virtual backgrounds, to a car interior, a rustic log cabin / gas station, the town bar, the interior and exterior of an isolated motel and a creepy forest at night. Joshua Raoul Brody’s music has echoes of the original Twin Peaks score.

The Lifespan of a Fact, MTC, 21 May 2021 ****

THEATRE

Written by Jeremy Kareken & David Murrell and Gordon Farrell, by Melbourne Theatre Company

At Fairfax Studio, Arts Centre Melbourne, until 3 July 2021

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

Stars: ****

This review is published only on this blog. KH

  
Steve Mouzakis,  Karl Richmond

 

The Lifespan of a Fact is bound to trigger arguments about the vices and virtues of literary non-fiction and the value of fact and truth in this purportedly non-fiction literary form that demands the same poetic licence as fiction writing.

 

Creative non-fiction colours and enhances a true story by imbuing it with literary flourishes and making it a more palatable story. From where I’m standing, if you don’t use facts, i.e. empirical truth, then it’s no longer non-fiction.

 

Evidently, facts don’t appeal to lots of people because they are dry and require effort to process. We need to be fed facts wrapped in a story to which we can relate. This is what myths and religious stories such as the Bible provide, and now, it seems, so does literary non-fiction.

The Royale, Lincoln Center Theater, online until 16 May 2021 ****1/2

THEATRE Online

Written by Marco Ramirez

Online- Lincoln Center Theater(sic) Private Reels via  Broadway on Demand

Available until 16 May 2021

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

Stars: ****1/2

 This review published only on this blog. KH

 

  Clarke Peters, Khris Davis

‘I’m gonna change things!” says Khris Davis as the charismatic, African-American heavyweight boxer, Jay ‘The Sport’ Jackson, in The Royale by Marco Ramirez.

 

But can Jay risk winning his bout against the white champion, Bernard Bixby, when it may change things for both the better and the worse for his African-American community?

 

Set between 1905 and 1910 in various places in the US, Ramirez’s confronting and compelling play is directed imaginatively and deftly by Rachel Chavkin who conjures a dramatic and conflict-driven world that seems to be even more perilous outside the ring.

Hamlet - The Radio Play, Online until 25 April 2021 ****

THEATRE – AUDIO ONLINE

By William Shakespeare 

Produced by Melbourne Shakespeare Company & Victorian Theatre Company 

Online to April 25 2021 2hrd 20 mins in 5 separate acts 

Tics at: MelbourneShakespeareCo (stream or download) 

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

Stars: **** (4)

This review published only on this blog. KH

 Brian Lipson (L) , Mathew Connell (C) pic by Jak Scanlon

 

Having seen multiple versions of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet in theatres, it is a treat to listen to this Hamlet –The Radio Play walking in the park or relaxing at home.

 

This audio production in five, downloadable acts, is deftly directed by Kurtis Lowden. It is evocative and colourful (Yes! Colourful!) with many fine performances of Shakespeare’s silken language, the stand outs being Mathew Connell as Hamlet, Brian Lipson as Polonius and Robert Menzies as The Ghost of Hamlet's father. These three are vocally impeccable and expressively interpret the poetic language.

 

Connell’s voice is honeyed and warm, subtly and intimately seeping into our ears. We can almost feel his breath on our cheeks as his Hamlet muses and struggles over his mother, Gertrude’s (Evelyn Krape) marriage to Claudius (Mark Wilson), his father’s brother, who is also his father’s murderer.

Berlin, MTC, 22 April 2021 ****

THEATRE

Written by Joanna Murray-Smith, Melbourne Theatre Company

MTC Southbank Theatre until 22 May 2021

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

Stars:****

This review published only in this blog. KH

Grace Cummings & Michael Wahr, pic Jeff Busby

 

Berlin by Joanna Murray-Smith is a two-hander that shifts from seduction to philosophical discussion before taking a turn into complex, social and political issues.

 The play, directed by Iain Sinclair, takes place in Charlotte’s (Grace Cummings) hipster apartment (design, Christine Smith) in an expensive part of Berlin. Having met Tom (Michael Wahr), an Australian tourist, in the bar where she works, she invites him to her home after he tells her he has no accommodation.

 

Their playful, confident and sensual seduction is a like a game of cat and mouse – or cat and cat – as they tease and entice each other with wine, poetry and half-truths.

Charlie and the War Against the Grannies, 14 April 2021 ****

CHILDREN’S THEATRE

Written by Alan Brough with Sarah Kriegler, based on book by Alan Brough

Melbourne Comedy Festival

At Playhouse, Arts Centre Melbourne Wed 14 to Sat 17 April

Fri 16 Apr: 10am,12pm; Sat 17 Apr: 10am,12pm,3pm; Sun 24 April 12pm is a Relaxed Performance

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

Stars: **** (4)

 This review published only on this blog. KH

 

Anna Francesca Armenia and Alan Brough

 

Charlie and the War Against the Grannies, written by Alan Brough with Sarah Kriegler, is an action-filled, fun and funny performance and the children were fully engaged and entertained from start to finish.

 

Charlie (Andy Conaghan) calls himself a digital orphan, meaning his parents are permanently attached to their iPhones and pay him no attention. Funny thought when you consider that we call youngsters digital natives.

 

Charlie spends his time with his friend, Hils (Anna Francesca Armenia), who wants to join the army and consistently barks orders in army lingo, such as, ‘affirmative’, ‘negative’, at ease’. Charlie translates Hils’ language for us.

Jungle Bungle ONLINE, 14 April 2021 ***

CHILDREN’S THEATRE ONLINE

Jungle Bungle written & created by Craig Christie

TheatreWorks streamed online 14 & 15 April 2021

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

Stars: ***

This review published only on this blog. KH

Meg McKibbin, Rhys Wilson

 

Jungle Bungle, written and created by Craig Christie and directed by James Coley, is a children’s musical adventure about Oliver’s (Rhys Wilson) first day at a new school where he meets Claire (Meg McKibbin), who becomes his new friend.

 

This performance was live streamed from Theatre Works, so some of the detail in sound and audience activity may have been lost in translation.

 

It begins with an introduction by Mitch Ralston, dressed in a safari outfit, who teaches the family audience their participatory words and actions. When they hear the words, ‘Life is crazy! Whoa-Oh-Oh. Life is crazy!’ they must do crazy dancing. When they hear the lyrics ‘Safari A, Safari O’, they must mimic their favourite animal: monkey, elephant, lion or snake.

 

Oliver has changed schools often and is considered to be ‘weird and freaks other kids out’. He uses his trusty, but now faulty, compass to navigate the new school which is a dangerous jungle to Oliver. (The compass, we learn, tracks his emotions rather than cardinal directions.)

 

 Meg McKibbin, Rhys Wilson, Mitch Ralston

Impetuous Oliver wants to go camping, but sensible Claire resists as she needs to be home by 4pm. They go to Oliver’s garden to play but Claire is annoyed and frightened when they become lost, and she can’t reach her mum by phone. The garden is a jungle populated by unseen creatures and freaky noises, and the two get separated.

 

Although some songs are less than successful, Look Before You Leap has a lively tune and clear message for kids, while Safari A, Safari O, is a part jungle beat, part rap.

 

Ralston, as Peter Pan, prompts the dance moves during his song, Life is Crazy! which is the most cohesive and entertaining part of the show, with the optimum participation for the live family audience.

 

The message in A Bit Unusual, is a little too obvious, but clear for kids: it’s OK to be yourself and a bit unusual. It becomes clear that Oliver is fearful and isolated and has been running away from fear itself.

 

Meg McKibbin as Claire has a pretty, tuneful voice but Rhys Wilson as Oliver slips off key on occasion.

 

The very basic introductory song and dance moves and Ralston’s directions suggest that the show is for very young children. However, Oliver and Claire are played older, perhaps Year 5 or 6. They are relatively independent, use mobile phones, and their songs have complex lyrics and melodies that do not encourage or include any participation.

 

The narrative needs stronger dramatic structure, the action on stage has little physicality apart from the dance moves during songs, and the dialogue sometimes rambles.

 

This production is probably more engaging in the theatre but, if you can’t or don’t want to sit in the glass boxes at Theatre Works, streaming is a good option for kids’ holiday entertainment.

 

By Kate Herbert

Que Será Será, Midsumma Festival online 14 April 2021 ****

MULTI MEDIA PERFORMANCE

Que Será Será: A Life’s Journey of Sexual Orientation and Gender Expression

By Zelda AKA Judith Z. Miller.  Part of Midsumma Festival (Online)

Online- 19 April to 5 May 2021

Tickets Free/Donation Requested: https://www.midsumma.org.au/whats-on/events/que-sera-sera-a-life-s-journey-of-sexual-orientation-gender/

Reviewer: Kate Herbert (14 April 2021)

Stars: **** (4)

 This review published only on this blog. KH

 Zelda AKA Judith Z Miller

 

The title of this gently confronting and evocative storytelling performance says it all. It is A Life’s Journey of Sexual Orientation and Gender Expression told by the charming and engaging Zelda (AKA Judith Z. Miller) who opens her heart and her life to the audience.

 

With her expressive face, sharp features and multi-coloured beaded hair, Zelda reads her equally colourful life’s story while standing at a lectern, imbuing her memories with passion, joy and melancholy as images of her younger self are projected behind her.