Dark Paths

Budgie Lung Theatre Company @ Fowler’s Live

12:00pm, Fri 5 Mar 2004

Score: 8

Short Review: Abrasive… in a good way

After being impressed by Budgie Lung’s ff2002 performance, Swallow This!, I thought I’d give this a go too. A collection of three stories, this was confronting stuff.

The first piece, Nil, saw Rachel Paterson play Karen, the “other woman” in an affair. Carrying both a shattered heart and a shattered mind, she turned in a performance very much like Glenn Close’s Fatal Attraction – but without the bunny-killing. Equal parts love, hate, joy, sadness, superiority, venom, Karen convincingly flipped between her bi-polar states on her way to total annihilation. An impressive start.

Then Cat (Michael Finney) appears for a raw, explosive and profane burst. Whilst I approve heartily of his mandate of cat-hate, his abrasive monologue – addressing the perpetrator of a heinous act – is unrelenting in its aggressive derision of the recipient, homogeneity, and cats.

The final act, Buried, is a belter, with Nick (Finney) helping Candy (Paterson) bury her child. A portrayal of manipulation and weakness (“You know your problem? You’re weak and pissy”), this act gathered steam to a wonderfully climactic finish.

Heather Frahn provided (frankly) sensational music throughout all three performances – creating a sinister backdrop, uneasy tension, or impact effects as required. Her singing voice was also striking, whilst providing a distraction between the second and third acts. As with Danny and the Deep Blue Sea, Casey Van Sebille’s set design was both functional and elegant – and the lighting was superb throughout, casting ominous shadows upon the back wall at Fowler’s at emotionally appropriate moments.

Briefly – well worth seeing. Another success story for Budgie Lung, and long may they continue.

Ed Byrne

Ed Byrne @ The Arts Theatre

10:30pm, Thu 4 Mar 2004

Score: 9

Short Review: Bloody funny scrawny bugger :)

Oh yes, thoroughly good stand-up.

Ed Byrne has a fabulous style, a not-unintelligible accent, is really quick on his feet, and tells some bloody great jokes.

What more do you want? He jokes about travelling, Australian-isms, and sex. And he’s really funny.

I don’t really know what else to write. Ed Byrne is bloody good VFM.

Suburban Motel – Criminal Genius

Bakehouse Theatre Company @ Bakehouse Theatre

8:30pm, Thu 4 Mar 2004

Score: 5

Short Review: Flat

Criminal Genius is the second of the two Suburban Motel plays by George Walker that Bakehouse is presenting this Fringe. Sadly, this paled somewhat next to Problem Child to me because of the less polished performances.

Rolly and Stevie are a bottom-of-the-barrel father-and-son team of petty criminals who “don’t do violence”. When they botch a job requested of them by their boss Shirley, committing a kidnap instead of arson, a twisted tale of multiple revenges ensues.

In general, the acting in this play was only adequate – Roger Newcombe’s Rolly was earnest, and once again Patrick Frost stole the show as he reprised Phillie. Anna Linarello appeared to be tripping all over her lines, and Emily Hunt was less convincing in her role as the rebelling Amanda than in Problem Child. On the whole, a flat and slightly disappointing piece of theatre.

Suburban Motel – Problem Child

Bakehouse Theatre Company @ Bakehouse Theatre

7:00pm, Thu 4 Mar 2004

Score: 6

Short Review: Disturbingly familiar…

Problem Child is the first of the two Suburban Motel plays by George Walker that Bakehouse is presenting this Fringe. And, for me, it’s the better of the two, due to the almost farcical script and solid character portrayals.

Denise and RJ are trapped in a small-town motel room – Denise yearns for her child (kept from her care by social worker Helen), and RJ is addicted to daytime talk-shows. Phillie, the motel manager, provides comic relief.

The performances were solid all round – Emily Hunt was great as a manic mother, and Nathaniel Davison played RJ with a small-town familiarity that I could identify with. The standout, though, was Patrick Frost’s Phillie – a well-weighted and funny delivery. This solid piece of theatre can hardly be considered essential Fringe viewing, but doesn’t detract from Bakehouse’s growing reputation.

A Dog’s Breakfast starring Joanne Brookfield

Joanne Brookfield @ Margaret Murray Room

6:45pm, Wed 3 Mar 2004

Score: 6

Short Review: Disappointing… but the potential is there

After having a lovely chat with Joanne (about life, the universe, and fringing) out on the Barr Smith lawns by FringeTIX, I decided to catch her show. And whilst she’s a lovely person in real life, “A Dog’s Breakfast” isn’t really her best side.

Initial impressions were good – as the audience rolled in, Brookfield lay on the stage floor, constantly cracking jokes about “stand-up” comedy. Unfortunately, when she did stand up, the laughs were a little thinner on the ground. It’s not that she can’t be funny – her delivery is great, and let’s face it, she’s as cute as a bug’s ear (even with the knickers her gran bought her) – but it’s the material that lets her down. I mean, when throwaway dead-spot lines like “I might as well just slap Pal on my vag” fail to get a decent audience response, you might have to tweak the show a bit.

To be fair, there was some good stuff though – her avid Googling raised a few good chuckles, and the image of Joanne accosting “serious” Festival-goers gave me warm tinglies. And it’s always great to see some creative swearing from a cutie. But, at the end of the day, there’s better comedy around at the moment.

Morphia Series

Helen Herbertson & Ben Cobham @ Secret Location(!)

6:30pm, Tue 2 Mar 2004

Score: 8

Short Review: Exquisitely subtle

The description in the Fringe Guide was sooooooooo attractive: “You are taken to a secret location, eat and drink a small exotic treat, enter pitch black, silence, as light grows you see a figure moving in the distance.” How could I not attend this event?

After jumping in a mini-bus (driven by lighting designer extraordinaire Ben Cobham), we were taken well outside the CBD to a shed in suburbia. Inside, after letting our eyes adjust to the absolute, inky blackness, we were guided to a small seating area. A bite-sized piece of polenta & mango, a snifter of Brooks Brothers muscat, and the actual performance began.

As with Herbertson & Cobham’s production in ff2002, Delirium, the lighting is really the star of the show. Every aspect of the performance (both lighting and movement) was exquisitely paced, with an utterly unique mood being generated over the three acts of the piece. And a real surprise in store for the ending, too :)

Back out of the darkness for the mini-bus ride home, and the experience is complete. No aspect of this event was “sharp” – but everything about it was carefully calculated, allowing to subtleties of each element to collect into a single, wonderful experience. I’m so glad I took a chance on this one :)

Canned Hamlet

Sound & Fury @ Little Theatre

10:20pm, Mon 1 Mar 2004

Score: 5

Short Review: A ridiculous mess

Three men do a necessarily abridged version of Hamlet within about 40 minutes.

That’s about all there is to it, really.

Yes, this is another one of LA-based Sound & Fury’s Fakespearean plays, which works hard to get the juvenile and slapstick laughs running thick and fast. There’s a fair few amusing bits, and the trio worked well together, but I always felt one step removed from the action – a kind of overwhelming feeling that I wasn’t in on the joke.

Which is a shame, really. Sound & Fury are obviously talented – the timing between them is immaculate – but I just wish that power could be used for good, instead of evil.

Music of Transparent Means

Music of Transparent Means @ Bakehouse Theatre

8:00pm, Mon 1 Mar 2004

Score: 6

Short Review: Patchy noise-fest

Entering the intimate Bakehouse Theatre, the first thing you notice is the variety of drums, keyboards, saxes, digital gear, and even old tube amps that litter the stage. 20 musicians appear and, all utilising tom-tom drums, watch a single computer screen for cues on timing and rhythm.

Backed by a video projection of various images, Music of Transparent Means is a collection of interesting noise landscapes. The second piece, “Second Presencing”, was deep, murky, and sinister, with wonderfully controlled swells of volume. “Emerging Like an Infant From the House of Truth” was another cracker, essentially just groups of notes repeated over and over by the small ensemble of musicians at different frequencies, building to a brilliant crescendo.

Still, sometimes it all went wrong – “Husk” once again tried to attain a phasic swelling of notes, but too often the sax and bowed guitars clashed, creating a discordant mess. And the first piece after the interval, a reworking of John Cage’s “Fontana Mix”, reminded me of a D&D night – four guys sitting around a table, twiddling their knobs, doing something that may have been exciting for them, but not for us.

But the important thing to recognise is that Music of Transparent Means is not just random noise, but is in fact as ordered (if not more so) than “normal” music. That said, ordered or not, it can still be perceived as crap – “Fontana Mix” proved that point admirably. Still, MoTM should be applauded for presenting such a brave piece of work.

The Blue Orphan

Catalyst Theatre @ Scott Theatre

5:45pm, Mon 1 Mar 2004

Score: 6

Short Review: Dripping

“The Blue Orphan”, a butterfly held in high regard in the storyline, is a very lush piece of musical theatre by Canadian group Catalyst Theatre. Lush. The costumes, the backing music, the songs all have a sweet weight to them – and this only exacerbates the overpowering feeling of melancholy that drowns the show.

First up – I was not expecting this piece to be a musical. That said, even with most of the story told in sing-song rhyme, it didn’t really detract from the show – save the effect of over-emotionalising the experience. Some of the characters were wonderful – Harold the paranoid child watching shyly over his love, Jim Tibue the town recluse, the bird-girl, the Robbie Coltrane-esque Sister of the Orphanage. Narrated by young Jonah, fleeing the Orphanage into town, there’s not so much a story, more a series of character pieces.

The lighting was superb – the back- (or front-) lighting of curtains onstage to hide or present characters was superb, and the projection of shadows was also used well – witness the bird-girl’s attempts to fly! Likewise, the sound was wonderful – as mentioned before, the instrumentation of songs were lush, voices (especially the singing narrator) strong – although the arrival of the storm wasn’t great for us tinnitus sufferers.

But in the end, the lack of plot and overly mournful feel of the piece was discouraging. A lovely spectacle in parts, but not a great show.