Saturday, September 16, 2006

SmartArts

On the show this week, I talked with:
  • ACMI's Kristy Matheson, about their Focus On Early Hitchcock, which is now showing until Sunday 24 September
  • Luke Mullins, actor and creator of the one-man show Autobiography of Red, a homoerotic retelling of one of the labours of Herakles, together with the show's sound designer and composer, Jethro Woodward. Autobiography of Red is running at The Malthouse until Sunday 24 September.
  • Mario De Pasquale, from Mario's Cafe, about the new art lending library they've established in conjunction with the Footscray Community Art Centre.
  • Lachlan Plain, the director of Lament: Candles and Compost, a show about resurrection and decay that utilises shadows, puppetry and sound, and which is running from September 16 - October 1 at the Abbotsford Convent. For details on this and other independent theatre please visit www.theatrealive.com.au
  • Olivia Allen from new theatre company Ignite came in to chat about their production of the 'unstageable' surrealist play Jet of Blood by Antonin Artaud at Theatreworks in St Kilda.
  • The charming Morganics joined me, to chat about his one-man hip-hop stage show Crouching B-Boy Hidden Dreadlocks, on this weekend at the Arts House Meat Market in North Melbourne as part of their URBANology program.
  • And Peter Rose, editor of Australian Book Review, joined us for our monthly look at the world of letters, and discussed Angela Bennie's book Creme de la Phlegm.

3 comments:

TimT said...

So what's the verdict on Creme de la Phlegm? I'm quite enjoying it, though less for Angelie Bennie's irritating editorialising, which is far inferior to some of the excellent reviews held within. It's worth it for the two hilarious takedowns of Patrick White by A D Hope and Hal Porter alone.

richardwatts said...

Well, Peter certainly gave it a thumbs up (although he disliked the title)...

TimT said...

The title is great - though misleading. The tone of many of the pieces within is fairly moderate. And many of the negative reviewers are more witty than hostile.

I've read three reviews of 'Creme de la Phlegm' so far, and the first two - in The Australian and The Age respectively - give me the distinct impression that neither have actually read the book. They focus on what they see as the 'unending bile' and hostile tone of the reviewers, which is not really true; but you could easily gain this impression from the title, the cover, the back-quotes, and the essay by Bennie which prefaces the book.