2007: Performance review

While I may not have cast my cinematic net especially wide in 2007, it was certainly a great year for live performance. From theatre to dance, and comedy to circus; I saw some wonderful shows this year: magical performances that were utterly transporting.

Highlights included the stark, simple and powerful Checklist For an Armed Robber, presented by Theatre @ Risk; Barry Kosky's rivetting production of The Tell-Tale Heart at the Malthouse for MIAF; the Malthouse's remounted production of Stuck Pigs Squealing's The Eisteddfod; and Adam J Cass' remarkable I Love You, Bro, and the equally delightful I've Written a Letter to Daddy (soon to have a short new season at the Butterfly Club as part of the Midsumma Festival), both at the Melbourne Fringe.

I was also enthralled by several dance works, including the masculine beauty of Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake; Angus Cerini's minimal, rivetting dance-theatre hybrid, Detest (this thousand years I shall not weep); the sublime beauty of Merce Cunningham's Split Sides; and most recently, the deranged genius of BalletLab's Brindabella, which is without doubt the single-most remarkable dance piece I have ever witnessed.

Honourable mentions go to the MTC's solid production of The History Boys and the Malthouse Theatre's production of Melissa Reeves' The Spook; Miriam Margolyes' Dicken's Women; and Julia Britton's play about Bloomsbury artist Duncan Grant, The Object of Desire, at La Mama during Midsumma.

On the cabaret front, I can't praise Kiki and Herb: The Year of Magical Drinking at MIAF highly enough; ditto Michael Dalley's wonderful satire of artists and the arts, Intimate Apparel, at Fringe (keep your eyes peeled for the return of his previous cabaret, Vaudeville X, which puts the middle class squarely in its sights, at the Arts Centre for Midsumma).

Highlights in comedy in 2007 included the Kafka-esque surrealism of The Receipt at The Malthouse for the Comedy Festival; the equally surreal and magnificent The Glass Boat at Comedy@Trades; Daniel Kitson's Barry-award winning It's the Fireworks Talking; Kate McLennan's The Debutante Diaries; Phil Nichol's The Naked Racist; and at Fringe, Every Movie Ever Made.

Then there were the productions that didn't work; the (very few, thankfully) shows I walked out of, and the gems I missed due to time constraints, workloads and other committments. *sigh*

Ah well, there's always this year; and with Midsumma 08 just around the corner, I won't have long to wait before I'm reviewing, blogging and delighting in some magical performances all over again!