Jun
3
2010
glenjplayer
This tricky piece – tricky because you don’t want to be too heavy handed with the subject material – is a somewhat refreshing attempt to bring some levity to an otherwise taboo topic – being overweight. With Australia no so long since being named the fattest nation in the world (ref The Age) it clearly seemed a timely opportunity to reflect back to us a bit of ourselves at our worse.
In this vein, a successful handsome young man meets and starts dating an over-weight young woman. How do we know she’s overweight? Well she makes several very tasteful jokes about it, that each draw laughs and girlish sighs in equal measure. Slowly they start to fall in love. The young woman is warm and charming and sexy, and yet, well, a fat pig – or at least we are led to believe she is from the young man’s mate, and ex, who each can’t stand the notion of him dating a fat girl. And indeed go to great lengths to mock and ridicule their friend. Some of the funnest and funniest moments can be found during these scenes.
But here-in lies its weakness. For an issues play it just doesn’t quite ring true. For although it did sit uncomfortably with me, it wasn’t because it challenged any notions of body shape, but instead because it didn’t quite accurately reflect the sorts of things men might think and say about an overweight woman. From the way other men in the audience were reacting, I feel I wasn’t alone in this view.
That said, women in the audience had a great time, and many said as much after the play was finished. The play seemed to be able to speak to them in ways that I just missed. Maybe my reservations are old man cynicism or perhaps more simply the play just isn’t aimed at me.
Despite these comments, I still had a good time, and certainly I applaud QTC’s choice. Indeed I would encourage girls looking for a show to go with their mates to pop along and see it.
Show watched. Preview. 31st May 2010.
Playing at the Billie Brown Studio until 26th June.
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May
27
2010
glenjplayer
Take a simple set-up, a man and a woman are in a facility where they are being treated by a Doctor and a Nurse for unknown concerns. Add a dose of love – the man and the woman fall in love. Then sprinkle with old man cynicism – the love goes sour.
And what do you have? Well – The Flu Season is one of those plays that catches you unaware. Like you’re playing a game a friendly game of touch football, it’s fun, you’re running about, you get to touch girls, then suddenly someone kicks you in the bollocks. It was an accident of course, but the shear shock of it jolts you into a giddiness where you want to go and have a lie down for a while.
Fortunately for you, if you’re lucky enough to catch this play, when this kick comes, you wont be caught with you pants down.
Indeed The Flu Season is at times a fun ride with a wistful humour, and at others a dose of cough mixture. Such material is difficult to pull off. However the students at QUT have done well showing an alertness to the text atypical for such a youthful cast.
This production is not perfect by any stretch, however, it is some of the best student theatre one can expect to see. It is an opportunity to see young people being pulled and stretched, sometimes beyond their skills, sometimes rising to the challenge. And I, for one, had a great time.
Recommended for lovers and haters alike.
Show watched 25th May 2010. Playing at The Studio, Kelvin Grove Campus, QUT until Saturday 29th.
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Apr
30
2010
glenjplayer
A couple, young and hip, the sort you’d be intensely jealous of were they not so sensuous and sexy (in equal doses) are planning a trip to Stockholm. But before they can get there they must first get past their own neuroses and jealousies.
This intense and deeply human two hander is a narration on love, neurosis, and co-dependency, all told through drama and dance – the text of the dance being that feeling you get when words escape you, and the only way you can express how you feel is to move – very appropriate when dealing with the subject of love.
It is a complex work, and yet at times very funny with a bawdy vitality more akin to a pub after everyone has had one too many drinks. I enjoyed this lowest common denominator humour and indeed for my mind it framed and humanised some of the seriousness that followed.
The production values are very high with a tangible design which reaches into the action forming and controlling the performers, almost capturing them in their roles.
Frantic Assembly in association with Sydney Theatre Company have devised a work of unabashed theatricality, a tipsy joy-ride into couple-dom.
Recommended for adults and couples.
Show watched 29th April, 2010. Playing until the 22nd of May
Stockholm @ La Boite
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Mar
17
2010
glenjplayer
This funny dark drama shows the joy and horror of drug abuse, framed through the wit and theatrical whimsy of this young and energetic UK theatre troupe.
Act One, seduction. In this beautifully theatrical proposition the play asks what happens to a group of young hip disjointed adults when Heroin – in shape of a hot Marilyn-esque blonde – is invited around for breakfast. The seduction is part lust, part desire, part need. Heroin wants to be wanted, needs to be in control of their lives. That they willingly secom only adds to the honesty of the work.
Act two, destruction. Now heroin must have her pound of flesh. Relationships come undone, old scars get reopened, and the horror that heroin causes to peoples lives comes to the surface.
This work was well performed by the young cast and was well received by the early twenties audience which filled the theatre.
With an adult eye for guidance this is just the sort of show I would strongly recommend to all young people as they face adulthood and questions of sex, relationships, peer pressure and mind altering drugs.
Show watched 14th March 2010, as a part of the Adelaide Fringe.
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Mar
16
2010
glenjplayer
Ostensibly for children this adaptation of the Hans Christian Anderson fable is expertly crafted by the people at Theatre Simple.
Taking multifarious roles the five actors weave this tale of love and courage, taking us on a young girl’s journey as she attempts to save her close friend from the snow queen.
It is a story of growing up, of finding independence, and of living with a honest heart.
Theatre Simple have taken this basic premise and turned it into something quite delightful. The afternoon I watched the kids and adults alike were enthralled as the actors with the simplest of changes created the world of the snow queen in front of us.
Indeed it is children’s theatre, but I defy even the most cynical of oldies to enjoy it.
Show watched 14th March 2010. Played during the Adelaide fringe.
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Mar
15
2010
glenjplayer
The Rap Guide to Evolution is exactly that, a comedy show on evolution rapped in rhyme. And a fun time can by all, if you’ll only open your mind.
Honestly, I really don’t know a lot about Rap. The whole thing comes off a bit alien. But that’s the joy of this show. Baba’s wit and clarity of thought both impresses and informs. I went from a Rap virgin in Baba’s capable hands to Gangster hip.
The teen girls in the front row mirrored my own learning curve only they came for the Rap and learnt about evolution.
Indeed Baba really knows his stuff, this secular monk draws parallels we can all understand, to take our hand on this narrative of scientific thought. He is a friendly on the battlefield of creationism vs evolution explaining it to us so we don’t feel like a drongo.
But it is his deaply humanistic ideals that is the real pleasure. Standing up and rapping for our common humanity. Bravo.
If you want to know more about rap or evolution, or how they inform each other, I highly recommend this show.
Show watched 13th March 2010. Playing at the Adelaide Fringe.
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Mar
13
2010
glenjplayer
Tucked away in a freight container at the back of the Garden, this alluring show packs some hidden punches, or perhaps not so hidden if you read the show blurb.
I hadn’t. All I had was a recommendation and some odd mumblings about an aged care nurse. Indeed Yuri Wells the title character in this one man show is an aged care nurse, he has a good relationship with his boss, and finds it difficult when his patients die. He also kidnapps a girl and puts her in a chest.
This delicate beautiful work of theatre is oddly easy going. Yuri Wells is so likeable and performed so winningly that despite the horror of this situation there is still a lot of love in the room.
It is this odd love that is most unsettling. And also why I applaud this work.
Recommended for those that like challenging and beautiful work.
Show watched 12th March 2010. Playing through the Adelaide Fringe.
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Mar
12
2010
glenjplayer
Part lecture, part performance, part event this monologue on communication is both an ironic meta-narrative on theatre and intimacy, and an off beat farce of our own mundanity.
The man in the light is a stage actor, he says as much. Our willingness to believe this and everything else he says just because he is the man in the light becomes the text for the next hour. And indeed it is a humourous text at times litered with theatrical in jokes.
The real interest is in the sub-text. The creators are challenging our understanding of what can constitute a play. Indeed challenging other artists to use dramatic conventions to explore non-dramatic forms. The strength of the argument resting on the success of the play.
But was it a play? Sure, we were told as much by the man in the in the light.
Recommend for theatre audiences.
Show watched 11th March 2010.
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Mar
11
2010
glenjplayer
Part physical theatre part meditation on mortality, this unique production contrasts the actors own mortality with the themes of death and loss found in Hamlet.
Using a countdown we understand that the end of the world is approaching and willing or otherwise this set of six physical theatre performers find themselves playing Hamlet.
It certainly helps to know Hamlet as the scenes whip by in raid procession. Personally I liked this, it’s a part of the joy of watching good physical theatre performers strut their stuff.
And indeed it is these self aware intensely honest performances that really grab you in this production. I’m not entirely sure they have managed to add anything great to the cannon of Hamlet, yet this original concept is entirely praiseworthy as much for where they succeeded as they didn’t. This is one of those rare exceptions in the fringe, where despite limited resources this small theatre troupe have created art from performance.
Recommended for those that know Hamlet, or have enjoyed physical theatre.
Show watched 10th March 2010. Playing through the Adelaide fringe.
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Mar
11
2010
glenjplayer
Dr Brown is a very naughty clown. First to dispel any confusion – when I say clown I’m not talking red nose and floppy ear kind that you see at kids parties, I’m talking stage clown, a performance craft dedicated to making us laugh through the sheer absurdity of the world they see.
Whether it be through sharing a banana with an audience member, having a cup of tea with a spoon to big, or playing homoerotic cluedo with yourself, Dr Brown gave the funniest and funnest night at the theatre I’ve had so far this fringe.
If you’ve never seen a great theatre clown before, see this show, if you’ve seen a great theatre clown before and thought you’ve seen it all, see this show, because Dr Brown is better.
Show watched 10th March 2010. Playing through the Adelaide Fringe.
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