Theatre Thoughts x 2

I've seen four different shows since last Wednesday, and there's not even a festival on - just Melbourne being its usual creative self. Some brief thoughts about two of the four shows I've seen in the last week, with the remaining two productions to hopefully be blogged about tomorrow:

SELF TORTURE AND STRENUOUS EXERCISE
By Harry Kondoleon Directed by Ben Pfeiffer
Presented by The Artisan Collective

Presented in the loft of Guildford Lane Gallery in the CBD, Self Torture and Strenuous Exercise is a black comedy of middle class manners which unfolds over a single evening, and concerns two middle class American couples: the complacent and forgiving Alvin (Mick LoMonaco), and his wife Beth (Kristina Brew) a failed poet; and the suicidal Adele (Marissa Bennett) and her unfaithful husband Carl (Josh Price) a popular but unimaginative novelist.

Opening at a dinner party at which under-the-table flirtations soon become obvious, events quickly unravel, with infidelity, angst, boredom and paranoia being served up for our entertainment.

While imaginatively staged, with the production making full use of the long but narrow loft space, this play failed to sustain my interest across its 60-odd minute running time. Ben Pfeiffer's direction resulted in an essentially one-note, borderline hysterical performance from all the cast, which drained most of the drama from the text. Bennett and Brew were the most impressive performers, and Pfeiffer's set and lighting design were also noteworthy, but otherwise this was not an especially memorable or enjoyable production.

Venue: The Guildford Lane Gallery, Guildford Lane, Melbourne
Season: March 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 &13 @ 8PM
Bookings: 0420 513 588 or artisanbookings@gmail.com


CATS
By Andrew Lloyd Webber
Based on Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T.S. Eliot
Presented by Lunchbox Theatrical Productions and David Atkins Enterprises

One of the best known musicals in the world, CATS first opened in London in 1981, and since then has continued around the world, a seemingly endless theatrical juggernaut fuelled by synthesisers, legwarmers and lycra. I auditioned (unsuccessfully) for the original Australian production back in 1985, when I was fresh out of performing in my high school's musicals and my dreams were matched only by my innocence, but for one reason or another I never actually saw the production when it first opened in Melbourne.

This new production, which has been touring Asia since 2006, opened in the appropriately glamorous confines of The Regent Theatre on Saturday night. I went along more out of curiousity than anything else, and while I was sporadically entertained (and truth be told, I still have one or two of the seemingly endlessly repeated refrains from the show stuck in my head) I was mostly struck by how dated the show now feels.

The score is very much of its time, saturated in synths that evoke the 80s without any of the charm of the New Romantic era; and its plot - which concerns Old Deuteronomy announcing the name of the Jellicle Cat who he has selected for rebirth to his fellow felines - is tenuous at best. Sporadic attempts to drag the show into the modern era - such as John O'Hara's Australian Idol-style rockstar take on the Rum Tum Tugger, and his correspondingly thin vocals in 'Mr. Mistoffelees' grated; while the Asian stereotypes presented in the second act song 'Growltiger's Last Stand' were quite frankly offensive.

These criticisms aside, the cast were generally strong, whether singing or dancing, especially Delia Hannah as the aged and outcast Grizabella; and save for a couple of flat spots - most noticably the first act patter song 'Mungojerrie And Rumpleteazer' - the show roared along at a fine pace. Had I seen it back in the 80s I'm sure I would have been blown away. As it was I was moderately entertained by this solid but dated piece of musical bombast.

Venue: Regent Theatre, 197 Collins Street Melbourne
Season: March 6 to April 4
Bookings: Ticketek

Rocking out in 2010

It's been a very mixed start to the year, musically. I've seen some fantastic gigs so far - The Meanies, The Drones, Spiderbait, Camera Obscura and The Decemberists - but sadly several of those gigs only came about because Victoria's liquor licensing laws now penalise as 'high risk' any venue trading until 3am, regardless of whether its patrons have a history of violence or not.

Thus, last week long-running Melbourne live music venue The Tote was forced to close its doors - going out with one hell of a bang - because running the pub was no longer viable in light of the increased liquor licensing and security costs which came with its farcical 'high risk' status.

I've been drinking at The Tote since 1990, and not once in 20 years have I ever seen a fight there. I have, however, seen some truly kick-arse bands; several of whom performed at The Tote last Monday, its closing night.

The Meanies played a brilliant, blinding set that made me feel 15 years younger; Spiderbait stepped in as a two piece at the last minute, replacing The Cosmic Psychos; and Joel Silbersher (formerly of precocious young punks GOD) joined The Drones to rip out a blistering version of Australian underground rock classic 'My Pal' as the last song of the night.



The sad, frustrating and infuriating thing about all this is that The Tote should never had had to close. The Victorian state government has rushed a flawed piece of legislation into place in order to be seen to be doing something about alcohol-related violence - just as they rushed a fatally flawed '2am lockout' policy into ill-fated action in 2008.

As I wrote in a recent article for Arts Hub:

The recent changes to the liquor licensing structure are based on a July 2009 report prepared by the Allen Consulting Group called Alcohol-related harm and the operation of licensed premises, which is freely available online as a PDF.

The report identifies the following risk factors that are likely to cause alcohol-related harm at licensed premises:

• Late opening hours;
• Patron intoxication;
• Hotel gaming; and
• Combination of late opening hours with patron intoxication.

The study’s great flaw, however – one that is repeatedly acknowledged in the report – is that its data is incomplete, specifically where different types of venues are concerned.

In compiling the study, its author/s were not able to differentiate in a substantial way between any one Victorian venue providing music entertainment (either live or recorded) and another:

Page 33 of the report reads, in part:

“It is understood that most gaming, adult entertainment and karaoke venues are identified in the data set, and therefore adequately captured by the relevant venue type categories. However, many live and recorded entertainment venues in the data are not captured by the relevant venue type category. Given this fact, results for the live and/or recorded music category should be interpreted with caution.”

Elsewhere, on page 45, the report states:

“Note that the findings for licensees with live and recorded entertainment should be interpreted with a high degree of caution. It is understood that the unknown group of venues, which includes 2,094 licensed premises, most likely includes many venues with live and/or recorded entertainment...”

“In particular, live and recorded entertainment represents 462 licensed premises in the data set. However, it is understood that there are far more venues across Victoria that have live and/or recorded entertainment. Therefore, the unknown group of venues must contain many venues that have live and/or recorded entertainment...”

“Given the data limitations, the risk associated with live and recorded entertainment is assumed to be captured by the late opening hours risk factor for the remainder of this analysis.”

In other words, the report only assumes – it definitely does not prove – that live music venues possess the same ‘high risk’ as other late night venues studied by the report such as bars and gaming venues.

(And I should thank David Blumenstein for pointing me in the direction of this section of the report!)

The only good news from all this drama and government-caused stupidity is that the huge public outcry over the closure of The Tote - which included over 2000 protesting in the street on its second-last day of trading, and hundreds of phone calls and emails to ALP politicians in once-safe but now marginal inner city seats - is that the government are panicking, and trying to rectify the situation. That it should never have happened in the first place, however, I'm sure will be remembered come the state election in November this year...

And on a brighter note...

As I said, The Tote aside, I've seen some fantastic gigs over the last couple of weeks. I'll cheat and include a great set by The Veils at The Toff in Town late last year, since I've been rather tardy in updating this blog over the last few months.

More recently, on Saturday night I caught Glasgow's Camera Obscura at The Corner Hotel, and then last night I sung and danced and swayed along to the piratical indie folk-rock of Portland's The Decemberists at Billboard. Great gigs all. Here's a taste of what you missed thanks to the magic of You Tube.

Listen Up!

So what have you been up to, then?

Quite a bit actually, and as usual I've been a bit tardy blogging about it.

In recent weeks, I've seen:

• White Whale Theatre's magnificent MELBURNALIA No. 2, featuring five short plays by five Melbourne playwrights, each set in a different suburb and exploring a different aspect of Melbourne life. My favourites were the two plays which bookended the show: Andrea James' Birrarung, in which an Aboriginal warrior wreaked havoc on a trio of Yarra Tram ticket inspectors; and Aidan Fennessy's beautiful Mentone, inspired by Under Milk Wood (and cleverly incorporating part of the poem into its text), which had me wiping away tears at its simple, beautiful conclusion. A solid ensemble cast, with a standout performance by Margot Fenley, who brought pathos and emotion you could taste to every role; and directed by David Mence. Season concluded at 45 Downstairs.

• The opening night of the St Kilda Film Festival at the Palais Theatre; a collection of superb shorts marred by projection and sound issues. Nonetheless, some wonderful films in the mix, especially Luke Doolan's haunting Australian drama Miracle Fish, and the confronting Scottish short about violence and redemption directed by Paddy Considine, Dog Altogether.

• The opening night of Optimism at the Malthouse Theatre, quite possibly the most fully realised presentation of the vision of director Michael Kantor I've yet seen. This contemporary retelling of Voltaire features Frank Woodley as the eternally cheerful Candide, a piece of casting which didn't quite work for me, as Woodley seemed sometimes hindered by a lack of opportunities to express his trademark physical comedy. Nor did some other elements entirely gel for me, such as a long monologue about rape and murder by Alison Whyte, or the inclusion of yodelling. Nonetheless, as an expression of Kantor's creativity, it's an intriguing and rewarding show, especially in the second half. Showing until June 13.

• The first of a series of four forums which I've curated and am presenting at the Arts Centre as part of the Full Tilt program. Called The Talk Show, you can read all about the next three forums in the series here.
  

• The opening night of Avenue Q at the Comedy Theatre, a musical that's best described as Sesame Street for grownups, complete with puppet sex, and songs about porn and being gay. A solidly entertaining show which will delight anyone who grew up on The Muppet Show, although if you've seen Peter Jackson's obscenely wonderful Meet the Feebles, you've seen this done before, and more originally. Nonetheless, some wonderful staging and performances ensure that this is a fun, albeit slight night out. Running in Melbourne for at least a month, maybe two, depending on ticket sales.

• A re-staging of Red Stitch's haunting and magnificent 2008 masterpiece Red Sky Morning at the Arts Centre, as part of the Full Tilt program. Written by Tom Holloway, and directed with devestating finese by Sam Strong, the play employs a series of intertwined monologues and superb performances by David Whiteley, Sarah Sutherland, Erin Dewar to explore the impact of depression on a small family in a rural town. One of the most memorable and powerful works I have seen this year, and highly recommended. At the Arts Centre until June 13.

• And finally, last night, the 2009 Australian Dance Awards at the Arts Centre's State Theatre. This was the first time I've attended the Australian dance community's night of nights, and it was a spectacular evening, with performances by numerous companies, including Melbourne's BalletLab celebrating the 10th anniversary of an early work, Amplification, a great piece by Tasmania's Stompin Youth Dance, and an awesome taste of work to come from Adelaide's Australian Dance Theatre.
  

It's been a busy few weeks. No wonder I've had no time to blog properly!

Revived hub of independent theatre has plenty in store

The Store Room Theatre, formerly home to some of Melbourne’s most innovative independent theatre companies, is preparing a dynamic new program for 2009 after being dark for over a year.

Based above the Parkview Hotel in North Fitzroy, the Store Room – an intimate, 63-seat venue – picked up a swag of awards, including a coveted Green Room Award, within a few years of opening its doors in 1999.

It quickly developed a reputation for staging exciting productions by emerging theatre makers, and became a meeting place for Melbourne’s independent theatre community.

“It became a very sought-after venue to present work at, and it was quite hard to get work on there,” recalls writer/performer Angus Cerini. “So even though they were a really small venue above a pub … it had a lot of cache to it; and that’s represented by the kind of shows that went in there and their kind of audiences. The audiences that the Store Room managed to attract in a very short space of time would put a lot of really well-funded organisations to shame.”

All that changed in 2006 when the Store Room’s management announced a new direction for the theatre.

“We remodelled the company to have a stronger, more dedicated focus on the development of new work,” explains Store Room co-founder, Todd Macdonald.

“Instead of being a venue for hire, the company became a core group of around 11 artists – our Artistic Associates – with the company focused specifically on those artists and developing their work.”

While Macdonald stands by the merits of that development model – during which time the company was rebranded as the Store Room Theatre Workshop – there was a cost: work continued on behind the scenes, but no new productions were staged. The theatre has been dark since November 2007.

Consequently, the Store Room’s profile has fallen considerably – as has the degree to which it is funded by Arts Victoria.

It was this loss of funding which spurred Macdonald to return to the Store Room and once again take up the Artistic Director’s role, having previously resigned from the position in 2005 following the birth of his children.

“I decided that the time was right for me to come back, and – looking at some of the funding challenges that we had ahead of us – that a restructure of the company would be best,” Macdonald says.

That restructure will see the company’s existing development model fused with a curated program of new productions, and a new residency program.

“It’s what excited me the most, to take the existing structure of us being a development incubator … and expand that and link that again with us being a vibrant independent company venue,” Macdonald explains.

A call for expressions of interest from companies wanting to participate in the Store Room’s 2009 program was issued earlier this month.

“There’s a two-pronged approach: we’re going to ask three companies to come in to three month residencies here, and we’re also looking – possibly with those companies, or otherwise with companies who present us with a proposal – to program a series of shows again in July through to October.”

Melbourne’s independent theatre sector has responded to the news of a reinvigorated Store Room with delight.

“I think it’s very good news,” says Liz Jones, Artistic Director of Carlton’s La Mama Theatre. “I think the more venues we have and the more vital the scene, the better. Because the smaller the scene, the smaller the perception of the importance of theatre.”

Sunday Age theatre critic John Bailey also welcomed the announcement.

“There aren’t many venues that offered the same kind of thing that the Store Room did,” he says.

“They were a hub, but there was also an aspect of community about it, in that at openings or otherwise you often saw the same faces, and you had people going because of the venue. There was a sense of artists with similar kinds of ideas or goals working together; not necessarily making the same kinds of shows at all but definitely sharing a certain kind of spirit, and all gathered there and managing to cross-pollinate and find each other’s ideas, which was quite unique.”

That sense of community which the Store Room fostered is something that Todd Macdonald is keen to renew.

“What’s brilliant is that we’ve got a venue, and it’s a really well known venue, and it’s a well loved venue. I’m looking forward to getting the heart of that beating again, and getting people back in here and creating more of a community around our artists in Melbourne and in Fitzroy again.”

An edited version of this article appeared in The Age on Wednesday February 18.

Dead or dormant?

Richard Watts explores the state of Melbourne's independent theatre scene

A few years ago, things suddenly started happening in Melbourne’s previously-moribund theatre scene.

A rash of new independent companies formed – including Theatre in Decay (established in 2000), The Eleventh Hour (2001), Stuck Pigs Squealing (2001), and Red Stitch Actors’ Theatre (2002) – presenting exciting new work and rapidly winning both critical and popular acclaim. New productions were being staged in inventive locations – cramped basements beneath inner city homes, and in the front seats of parked cars – or in brand new venues, such as The Storeroom in North Fitzroy and Fitzroy’s The Eleventh Hour Theatre.

Today, however, The Storeroom stands empty; and many of the companies who were part of Melbourne theatre’s new wave, including Theatre @ Risk and Theatre in Decay, have either folded or are on indefinite hiatus.

What went wrong? And where are the new theatre-makers of today?

Michael Kantor, the Malthouse Theatre’s Artistic Director, concedes that Melbourne’s “vibrant theatre scene” has “rested on its laurels that were established about five years ago”.

“Everyone’s been trying to, as much as they can, make more opportunities for those [independent] artists; but fundamentally it’s hit a bit of…” Kantor trails off, sighing.

“It either needs new people to come in now, into the independent scene; or it needs, I don’t know. It needs a kick, doesn’t it?”

Kantor’s programming approach has seen some of the best independent productions of recent years re-staged in the Malthouse’s Tower Theatre; an approach echoed by The Arts Centre, where the Full Tilt program was established in 2006 in order to support independent theatre artists and expose their work to a wider audience.

Vanessa Pigrum, who manages Full Tilt, points out that the so-called “explosion” in Melbourne’s independent theatre sector a few years ago was a response to events occurring a decade earlier.

“That explosion … in many ways was a reaction going back to the demise of Anthill, Woolly Jumpers, all those mid-level, medium-sized companies back in the early 90s,” she explains. “There was this vacuum of mid-range companies for young graduates to get their apprenticeships in, so my experience was that many of the young graduates coming out of the VCA, or young theatre-makers around the mid to late 90s went, ‘Ok, there are no companies to aspire to work with, so we’ll create our own’.”

It was this ‘do it yourself’ ethic which fuelled the much-vaunted creativity of Melbourne’s independent theatre scene over the last few years, but as Pigrum points out, such independence comes at a cost.

“When you talk about Theatre @ Risk and Theatre in Decay and Stuck Pigs changing, or going quiet, a lot of that has to do with the personal choices of the individuals involved, the driving forces behind the companies,” she says.

“By this stage, six to ten years down the track, people are in their mid-to-late 30s; they have different priorities and different needs in terms of finances and security. Perhaps for once they want to actually get paid for the work that they do. So then what happens to the company that’s potentially operating in name only, because the initial driving forces behind it have moved on to other pursuits?”

What happens, of course, is that such companies close down or change tack, as do the people running them.

Writer and director Chris Kohn is best known for his work with the independent company Stuck Pigs Squealing, including the acclaimed productions The Black Swan of Trespass and The Eisteddfod. Today he works as the Artistic Director of the well-established and government funded Arena Theatre Company.

“I certainly wouldn’t say that there’s more opportunity now in Melbourne compared to when I was … starting up a company and trying to make some independent work,” Kohn tells CANVAS.

But it wasn’t just opportunity that fuelled that creative boom, Kohn believes. There were other factors at play.

“Probably also around the same time there was a bit of a boom in making work in unusual spaces, in houses and shopfronts, as with Uncle Semolina and Friends and their shopfront, and Stuck Pigs with the basement we had; and our first shows in Melbourne were at Bar Open and Pony Bar.”

While such creativity is still evident in Melbourne today, the nature of making theatre has changed, Vanessa Pigrum believes.

“What I have noticed – and you’re right, I don’t see a lot of new independent companies coming through in that [early noughties] model, but what’s happening is this explosion of work that is in a different, shorter, more transportable form; that sits within a club setting, or an installation setting…

“It’s like there’s a lot of activity on the independent performance scene, rather than independent theatre; independent performance is flourishing, but the form is changing, to more bite-sized, free or short shows that you do six times in one night. It appears to be the generation that’s in their mid-20s that are doing that, so I’m really curious to know, in a way, what happens to that work now?”

Next issue: the future of independent theatre in Melbourne.

This article first appeared in issue #03 of CANVAS magazine.

Happy birthday dear Is Not...

A Very Happy 2^nd Birthday – Is Too!

“Even bigger than TV Hits when you unfold the Home and Away fold-out” ~ John Safran, TV Personality

Publishing oddity Is Not Magazine is all red in the cheeks to have reached its 2^nd birthday and is celebrating in style with another of their entirely fabulous fundraising parties.

Saturday 2^nd June seemed an apt date for a 2^nd birthday party, and the Is Not folks have lined up a spangled posse of solid gold entertainment for their party The Golden Years, at Miss Libertine, in line with their All That Glitters Is Not Gold issue theme. Performing show-stopping tap routines at two special times in the evening will be The Golden Girls, a troupe of women aged 65 and better! On the wheels of steel will be DJs Mafia, Barrie Glitter and Plump N Rosie, as well as rising bands of the indie music scene, The New Electric and Near Your House.

Is Not Magazine is a 1.5 metre x 2 metre billboard poster/magazine – that’s roughly the size of a double bed mattress! In fact Is Not’s status as the Biggest Magazine in the World is currently being assessed by Guinness World Records. The magazine gets glued to walls in and around the streets of Melbourne, as well as bars, cafes and laundromats. Its readers are a dedicated bunch, braving weather and tricky locations to stand in the great outdoors and read the magazine from crouching down to read the bottom, to tippy toes to read the top. Almost always the crossword is completed filled in by a variety of pens and handwriting.

Is Not Magazine is an independent, not-for-profit publication and carries no advertisements. Each issue is funded directly by regular parties that are legendary amongst their readers and supporters.

The five founding editors are Tash Ludowyk, Mel Campbell, Penny Modra, Stuart Geddes and Jeremy Wortsman. In October 2006, Is Not’s two design editors, Stuart Geddes and Jeremy Wortsman, won a prestigious Premiers’ Design Award for Communication Design.

Is Not Magazine’s striking design is due in no small part to Underware, the acclaimed Dutch type foundry who generously donate all their fonts to the project. Contributors to Is Not are as far flung as Helsinki, Buenos Aires and Michigan, and as of August 2006, Is Not has been gracing the streets of Sydney and stocked in stores across Australia as well as available for purchase through their website.

Is Not has been internationally recognised by Polish Elle magazine, UK based Computer Arts magazine and US based websites such as style.com (Vogue online), Gawker and Cool Hunting as well as being part of TypeCon, a New York Design Conference and CMYK Magazine Festival in Barcelona. The editors have participated in various writers’ festivals, workshops and conferences around Australia as panelists and speakers since the magazine’s conception.

Is Not has been everywhere man. It’s time you went to Is Not. Come party like you’re two years old, but remember, All That Glitters Is Not Gold.