MAN ABOUT TOWN

Another busy year this year. In 2008 I attended 88 live performances; in 2009, I saw 102 live performances, including comedy, dance, circus and theatre. And better yet, I saw a hell of a lot that I liked. I was, to be honest, fairly discerning this year, and consequently didn't see a lot at the MTC, as I was fairly certain that there weren't a great many of their productions this year that would appeal to me. Reading reviews by my fellow Melbourne arts bloggers, nine times out of ten it seemed I was right. On a more positive note, there are several productions in the company's 2010 season which already look interesting, so I hope to have some positive reviews to post in the coming months. I also missed quite a few shows I actually wanted to see due to increased Board commitments this year (as well as continuing as Chair of Melbourne Fringe, I also joined the Boards of The Store Room Theatre and BalletLab this year, but more of that in the next post), including several shows...

I've been meaning to get around to blogging for more than a month, but time has continued to slip away from me for a variety of reasons. It's only now, on the last day of 2009, that I've finally found the time - and the motivation - to post a few catch-up comments. I figure I'll approach my review of the year in three parts: film, performance and personal stuff. Let's start with cinema, shall we? Compared to 2008, in which I only saw 33 feature films at the cinema, this year I had a much better year, seeing a grand total of 77 new release features, as well as a few good shorts. Given my diverse tastes, it's no surprise that I took in everything from homegrown arthouse treats to big budget blockbusters, and everything in between. Overall it's been a pretty good year, especially Australian films, as various pundits have been discussing at length over the last few weeks. But who cares what they think? This is all about what I think, isn't it? So, in no...

I've had a Fairfax journo call me asking permission to reprint a photo from the Melbourne Zombie Shuffle, but they need a hi-res version of it ASAP, and would also like to credit the photographer responsible. If you took it, could you please drop me a line ASAP? My email is burntime (at) netspace.net.au

Just when I'd started to think that RTD had run out of steam, based on the previous two Doctor Who specials, which had their moments but were overall, kinda naff, tonight I watched - and loved - The Waters of Mars . Brrr. What a cracker of an episode. It's scary to see how far hubris can humble a man, and I think we're about to see just that in the next two specials, which The Waters of Mars has set up beautifully.

I had the pleasure of seeing the opening night of Bangarra Dance Theatre 's 20th anniversary celebration, Fire - A Retrospective at The Arts Centre on Friday night, and god, what an amazing show it was. The only other Bangarra production I've seen previously was last year's Mathinna , and it didn't especially impress me - it felt far too literal a work. But in Fire , the company's memorable and remarkable fusion of contemporary and traditional Indigenous dance traditions are beautifully and memorably showcased. The production opens with a traditional dance from the Yirrakala Community performed by cultural consultant Kathy Balngayngu Marika and the full company ensemble, while the penultimate work is a gloriously euphoric piece from the Torres Straight Islands. Sandwiched between these pieces are a remarkable range of dances, some haunting in their beauty, others confronting in the sense of anguish they swiftly and viscerally convey. And given that this was a grea...

Normal programming will return as soon as I can drag myself away from catching up on season three of Heroes . I skipped season two altogether on the advice of several friends, and jumped into season three yesterday, only to find myself watching eight episodes back to back (my excuse being that it was hot outside and, being a delicate, retiring sort, I needed to stay indoors). There's all sorts of things I should be doing instead - reading through the 273 emails in my inbox, planning my radio show for the next few weeks, listening to the pile of CDs I've been sent and the masses of unread media releases that are building up into a dangerous heap on the coffee table, lugging a pile of washing to the nearest laundrette, vaccumming, dishes, etc - but I think today all I can be fucked doing is watching more TV. It's a bit indicative of my life these last few weeks since I quit MCV , and I'm justifying it by claiming that it's some much needed downtime. In the last two we...

So, I quit my job at the gay and lesbian publishing company MCV this week. Well, not this week exactly. I gave notice three weeks ago and finished up on Monday, which is an odd day to have your last day at work but hey that's production cycles on a weekly fag rag for you. The reasons for my quitting were many and varied; indeed I'd been contemplating the move since the start of the year; but the thing that ultimately forced my hand was a request from the boss in Sydney that I change the days I worked for the company from Mondays and Fridays to Thursdays and Fridays. Since Thursday is the day I do my radio show on 3RRR, I said no. The rest is history . Last night, Friday, was my very low key farewell drinks from the job. I'll miss the people I work with, especially the editorial team, Andrew and Rachel, but not the job itself. The income, on the other hand... Hopefully I'll be starting a new part-time job freelancing for Citysearch.com.au within a couple of weeks. Lucki...

In which I finally get around to briefly blogging about the rest of the performances I saw at this year's Melbourne International Arts Festival. I haven't blogged about any of the visual arts events this year as I didn't see very many of them, save for Callum Morton's Valhalla , which was a great piece of work though I think the location it was placed, and the fact that it was placed on a plinth, did it a diservice. These last few notes are perforce brief, written more as a reminder to myself than for any other reason, so you might want to skip this unless you're especially fascinated by the festival, or my life... The Dictionary of Imaginary Places This transcendent work was a piece of verbatim theatre, a collage of Melbourne mapped out through a series of real life conversations on trains that were recorded and then turned into a script performed by Heather Bolton, Christopher Brown, Rita Kalnejais and James Wardlaw. Violence and threat rubbed shoulders with comed...

Finally, with Brett Sheehy's first Melbourne International Arts Festival now officially over as of last night, I am at last finding the time to jot down some thoughts about some of the events I saw. Better late than never, I suppose! The Abbey Theatre - Terminus Ireland's national theatre company presented this powerful and surprising work by playwright Mark O'Rowe at The Malthouse , a gritty and grotesque piece of dark magic realism written and performed as a series of three interlinking monologues. An older woman working at a telephone counselling service and her alienated and unhappy adult daughter are caught up in the affairs of a vicious serial killer who goes on a murderous rampage after selling his soul to the Devil and getting cheated in process. Written in lyrical verse evoking both the language of the street and gothic fantasy, this was an engaging albeit grim piece of entertainment, and featured an outstanding performance from Karl Shiels as the sweet-voice...

Just a quick note to say that I will be trying to catch up with some micro-reviews of the remaining shows I saw at the Melbourne Fringe Festival over the weekend (I saw 32 shows in all this year, so have been struggling to find the time to write about them) as well as the first couple of MIAF shows I've seen, the Abbey Theatre's gorgeously grotesque Terminus and the Hofesh Schecter Company's dance works Uprising and In Your Rooms , both of which I very much enjoyed. So far so good for MIAF, in fact, though I was interested to see Peter Greenaway's take on The Last Supper , and his claims about visual literacy, roundly criticised by Robert Nelson in today''s Age . I suspect Greenaway might have a bit to say about that tonight at the Q+A after the screening of his film J'Accuse !

Clearly I'm not going to get around to reviewing the remaining 16-odd shows I saw at this year's Fringe. Apologies to all the artists concerned, but 42 performances was a lot to see, let alone blog about! Here's a list of the remaining events I saw, just for posterities' sake. Those marked with an asterisk are the shows I recommend you see if they return at the Comedy Festival next year... What a Little Moonlight Can Do Ghostboy with Golden Virtue The List Operators for Kids* Take Off Your Skin (TOYS) Antics Shop* The Bedroom Philosopher: Songs from the 86 Tram The Caravan of Love - Pure Kunst Attract/Repel * Dead River Andrew McClelland's Somewhat Accurate History of the Fall of the Roman Empire * Hannah Gadsby - Kiss Me Quick I'm Full of Jubes Anyone for Tennis - Cutthroat Newspower Daniel Kitson and Colleagues The Last Gasp

Oh dear. I seem to have fallen hopelessly behind on blogging about Fringe, but hopefully I'll get a chance to do a brief round-up of the most recent shows I've seen tomorrow - which now number 26 in total - on my afternoon off. Right now, I just wanted to post a photo that made me go squee . It's from the first epsiode of the new series of Doctor Who - yes, that's right, the one that hasn't aired yet. They're filming it in the UK as we speak. So, wanna see it? Beware spoilers! Ok. You were warned. Here it is! Yep, Matt Smith as The Doctor, and Karen Gillane as Amy Pond. Ain't it grand? Photo taken on set - presumably with a very long lens - by Alun Vega .

So, as you've probably noticed, I've fallen well behind when it comes to blogging about everything I've seen in the Fringe Festival this year. I blame the fact that I kept going to see stuff instead of sitting at home blooging. Anyway, in an attempt to make up for my tardiness, here are a plethora of quickly-written micro-reviews of some of the other shows I've seen to date... Bart Freebairn - A Breathtaking Magical Journey into the Ordinary In which Bart awkwardly but endearingly discovers the magic of everyday life. Loose and not especially adventurous stand-up, but with a certain relaxed charm; especially the stories about family members and farting. Working with a director to tighten up his material would greatly assist Bart's work, methinks. Three stars The Hounds Frentic pace and frantic mugging didn't work to The Hounds' advantage on their first preview night, which was when I saw this show, although working with a director who specialises in physica...

Disclaimer: the opinions expressed in the following reviews are made in a private capacity, and do not represent the opinions of the Melbourne Fringe Board, of which I am Chair. And oh boy are these reviews running well behind schedule. Here are some increasingly brief comments about the three shows I saw on Sunday... FELICITY WARD READS FROM THE BOOK OF MORON There are several comedians who are utilising/exploiting the Fringe audience in order to test out new material for a fully realised show for next year's Comedy Festival; but then there are people like Felicity Ward, who is experimenting with her craft in interesting and creative ways and testing out a new approach to performance. Here, Ward reads essays from the comfort of a large armchair, evoking both David Sedaris and the sort of mythical uncle who would smoke a pipe and regale you with fanciful tales of their youthful shennanigans in days gone by. She has a pipe (and a great gag involving an open fireplace at the start of...

Disclaimer: the opinions expressed in the following reviews are made in a private capacity, and do not represent the opinions of the Melbourne Fringe Board, of which I am Chair. THE POST APOCALYPTIC USERS' GUIDE Xavier Michelides first presented this highly enjoyable evening of stand up at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival earlier this year. I liked it then, and I like it now, even though it is exactly the same show as far as I can tell. Linked together by a struggling comedian MCing a comedy club in a world where aliens have just invaded, Michelides deftly switches through a range of characters, including the 'End of the World is Nigh' man who has a direct line to God, a half-man half cockroach, and an Evil Mastermind of the sort James Bond and Superman regularly come up against. While not constantly, side-splittingly funny, The Post Apocalyptic Users' Guide is a consistently entertaining show, exceptionally well structured and strongly delivered. Definitely ...

Disclaimer: the opinions expressed in the following reviews are made in a private capacity, and do not represent the opinions of the Melbourne Fringe Board, of which I am Chair. WHILE I'M AWAY A short, simple but utterly charming production, While I'm Away sees writer/performer Telia Nevile build a solo show around the Poet Laureate character she's developed over the last 18-odd months at The Last Tuesday Society . Gently mocking the pretentions of bad performance poetry while simultaneously using poetry to explore themes of love, life and contemporary angst is no mean feat, but Nevile manages it with aplomb, while simultaneously screening a series of antique slides which counterpoint and compliment the verses and stories she presents. There's a bittersweet tenderness to this production that I found utterly disarming, as well as a sharp, dry wit and subtle, goofy, fragile charm. Highly recommended. Rating: Three and a half stars ASLEEP IN A SECRET A solo performance by ...

So, as I mentioned yesterday, the 2009 Melbourne Fringe Festival is upon us. Huzzah! Featuring over 4000 artists and more than 300 shows, it's a public expression of Melbourne's creativity; and is unique among Fringe Festivals in that over 85% of shows staged are by Melbourne artists, rather than by performers from interstate or overseas. The plan is to post reviews of Fringe shows here on a daily basis - hopefully. Knowing my schedule I might not always find the time, so I can't make any promises. Other places to look for Fringe reviews are the new blog by 'John Bailey', Capital Idea , Express Media's Buzzcuts program, and the excellent Spark Online ; while The Groggy Squirrel is running reviews from the comedy stream of the Fringe program. Before I get underway, just a quick disclaimer - the opinions expressed in the following reviews are made in a private capacity, and do not represent the opinions of the Melbourne Fringe Board, of which I'm Chair. Wit...

Had you noticed? I haven't blogged about anything for the past month, because quite frankly, I didn't have much to blog about. I mean, I could have written about the night I drunkenly decided to start inventing details, characters and a history for a Melbourne branch of the Torchwood Institute after listening to James Goss ' excellent Torchwood: Golden Age radio play; or how I faced the couple-world that is Ikea to buy new bookshelves, but such events didn't strike me as particularly blog-worthy. But now, all that's changed. No, I won't be telling you how I bravely sneaked past the Single Police who guard the borders of Ikea, where lone homos without partners, such as myself, who dare to enter are shot on sight as pair-bonded hetero and homo couples watch on cooing and arguing over matching tableware named after small Danish streams. Though I might, if you're very lucky, one day reveal the secret location of the Torchwood Institute (Melbourne branch) circa...

STARRING DEMETRI MARTIN, IMELDA STAUNTON DIRECTED BY ANG LEE 3.5 stars Woodstock, the music festival which became the crowning moment of the hippie era, would not have happened were it not for Elliot Tiber, a young gay man trying to save his parents’ struggling motel. Exploiting his position as the youngest ever president of his local Chamber of Commerce, Tiber (comedian Demetri Martin) gives permission for the concert be staged on a local farm in order to ensure customers for the El Monaco Motel, setting in motion this low-key but charming comedy-drama about family and finding yourself. Rather than focus on the festival itself, the film – based on Tiber’s own account of events – looks at the people behind the scenes who made Woodstock happen. Performances, especially from the supporting cast, are excellent, with Liev Schreiber (recently seen as the villainous Sabretooth in Wolverine ) particularly charming as a transvestite ex-marine who teaches Tiber a valuable lesson about life. Ang...

One of Australia's most important cultural institutions is under major threat. I've talked about it a lot already on 3RRR but it suddenly occurs to me that I haven't written about it yet on this here blog. Bloody remiss of me. There's gonna be a big rally tomorrow to help save the Victorian College of the Arts from Melbourne Uni's new, economic rationalist educational model (a new model which has already axed the VCA's puppetry and musical theatre courses. What next?) under which academic breadth will be considered to be more important than hands-on expert teaching. Who was it who said we don't need dancers who can write essays, we need dancers who can dance? Rally tomorrow at the VCA at 10am and march on Parliament at 11am. Details here. See you there.

I've been spoiled for entertainment over the last week. Last Friday was the opening night The Ballad of Backbone Joe , the latest but all-to-briefly showing production by The Suitcase Royale at the Arts House Meat Market, North Melbourne. A clever combination of film noir and Fisher's Ghost , it was another fine example of the Suitcase boys' 'junkyard theatre' aesthetic, and a wonderfully entertaining show, though to my mind it felt a little undercooked - something I also felt about their Chronicles of a Sleepless Moon when I saw its first incarnation at the 2006 Next Wave Festival, mind you. Given time, and fine-tuning, I have no doubts Backbone Joe - a rib-tickling tale of boxing and butchery - will reach similar heights of success. It already has the same quotient of unhinged tomfoolery! On Monday night I saw a preview of the new Australian film by director Jonathan Auf Der Heide, Van Diemen's Land , a beautifully rendered story about terrible events ins...