It all starts abruptly when the musicians and several cast members surprise the audience in the foyer. An atmosphere of exploitation and degradation is built from the very beginning in this way, as well as being a wonderfully effective method of stripping the spectator of a critical eye. The world of Woyzeck plunges into the pre-show chatter and grabs your attention, without giving you the chance to settle in, have the house lights dim and sit there expectantly.

As the main performance begins it became clear that the director has chosen a very clever way to modernise the unfinished 1837 classic. Director Netta Yashchin represents the poverty, degradation and desperation of the time in which the play was written in a traditional realist manner. The shabbily dressed Woyzeck shaves his captain (brilliantly performed by Anthony Hunt) with a precarious razor and his poverty and social degradation is evident.

The costuming and the old militarism that is displayed grounds the play in a historical that setting we understand – whilst the themes of jealousy, lust and violence are presented in a rampant and disturbingly modern fashion. There are beatings conducted in WWE takedown style, playful scenes in whorehouses with the sexiest of modern pop music slowed to a walk, so you can laugh at each lusty image of desire. In addition to modernising the play, these sort of farcical inclusions serve excellently to keep the pace at a run, transforming what could be a gritty and brooding piece into a smooth, bouncing journey where the madness that Woyzeck experiences is somehow both incomprehensible and natural.

Posted by Justin Wolfers in Culture, Reviews, Uncategorized

Tags: Anthony Hunt, belvoir downstairs, Michael Pigott, Netta Yashchin, Rebecca Johnston, Woyzeck

It’s not unusual to feel a little scared of names like Chekhov, Brecht and Beckett. These are the heady men of capital “T” Theatre. It’s also easy tune out or find boring what we don’t understand, a trap I have sometimes fallen into myself.

And I’ve certainly had icy relationships with all those writers in the past but none so cold as Chekhov, who I struggled to understand and whose work I have generally had an impulse to avoid.

The Seagull is among his best-known work, along with Three Sisters and Uncle Vanya. It reflects some deliciously Chekhovian themes that deal in essence with personal stagnation (I’m simplifying because I don’t want this to turn into a theory essay). It’s not a short piece, but this new version by Christopher Hampton comes in at a handy 2 hours 20 minutes, which is more than bearable, even in the cold (but desperately charming) Sidetrack Theatre. Read more for the full review…

Posted by Holly Orkin in Culture, Reviews

Tags: century venues, chekhov, holly orkin, sidetrack theatre, siren theatre co, the seagull, theatre review

In the tiny town of Llareggub, the sun is rising and the people are starting to go about their day. “…blind Captain Cat listens to the busy world from his cabin window. Mog Edwards and Myfanwy Price smuggle letters of forbidden love up and down the street as Polly Garter sings to her babies under the washing line.”

Dylan Thomas’s seminal Welsh text Under Milk Wood is simply glorious, a rambling journey through and around the village and into the lives of the people that live there. There are sixty-four characters in this “play for voices” and in Bambina Borracha’s production at the Sidetrack Theatre, they all inhabit the one performer, Zoe Norton Lodge, whose father used to read her Under Milk Wood at bedtime. Read more for the full review…

Posted by Holly Orkin in Culture, Reviews

Tags: bambina borracha, dylan thomas, holly orkin, sidetrack theatre, theatre review, under milk wood, zoe norton lodge

So there’s this band called Jinja Safari – they supported Miami Horror and they played at the Annandale recently with Kyu and Cloud Control and We Say Bamboulee – they’re touring now and will be playing shows in Melbourne soon, and also they did a secret forest gig and asked people to come dressed as animals and bring video cameras which is pretty much an amazing idea.

Anyway! I like them, they’re like Fleet Foxes meets Simon and Garfunkel, and as this video proves they’re both very pretty and enjoy prancing around in the wilderness. It’s a really great clip and a really great song – it’s folky without overdoing the banjo, and the clip itself is so whimsical and peaceful and tribal that it makes a city girl like me itch for a bit of a wilderness escape. Oh hey, Splendour in the Grass…

Enjoy: pretty boys making great music and carrying a tree over interesting rocks and jumping in piles of leaves. Their Myspace here.

Jinja Safari – ‘Peter Pan’ from Jinja Safari on Vimeo

Posted by amelia in Reviews, Screen

Tags: annandale, Cloud Control, jinja safari, Kyu, miami horror, peter pan, Video, video clip

BANG! A new Australian work. BANG! A fantastically solid ensemble of natural and talented performers. BANG! A decisive female director. BANG BANG BANG! Dynamic risks taken, strong choices made, lighting and sound that compliments and a story that is worth telling.

Flashy special effects aside, this is truly and exciting piece of theatre presented by White Box Theatre in association with B Sharp. “Set against the global backdrop of religious inspired violence, Bang is an intelligent and accomplished exploration of faith and moral codes, a daring new Australian work that asks us all to question what we really believe in.” Read more for the full review…

Posted by Holly Orkin in Culture, Reviews

Tags: B-Sharp, bang, belvoir downstairs, belvoir theatre, kim hardwick, Reviews, scorched, theatre, theatre review, white box theatre

After seeing W;t at the New Theatre I had to ask myself a series of questions in order to frame my thoughts on the production. Firstly: Am I a pretentious wanker? Am I allowed to use the word “wanker” in a review? I think the answer to the first question is a resounding yes, however I don’t think that this is the reason I found W;t so severely underwhelming. I need to ask myself some more serious questions in order to get to the bottom of how beige I felt the play had been. Do I only like theatre that is new and “innovative”? Theatre that is trying to change something, that is different? Whatever happened to just telling a story?Read more for the full review…

Posted by Holly Orkin in Culture, Reviews

Tags: holly orkin, new theatre, w;t

What can’t Alisdair Macindoe do? He’s danced with some of the best companies in the country, composed electronic music AND studied break-dance with B-Boy Jay, the Australian Break Champion. Now he’s directed Bromance, dance/performance work that’s fresh and entertaining, with a wicked sense of humour.

Is it any wonder I was compelled to yell ‘Your dance work was AWESOME!’ at a bewildered Macindoe as I left Performance Space last Wednesday?

In Bromance, Macindoe and co-choreographer Adam Synnott (who you might have seen in Chunky Move’s Mortal Engine last month), draw on their personal experiences to explore brotherhood and intimate relationships between young men in a full-length dance work. Innovative lighting design, fluid, muscular choreography and jagged electronic sounds work weave together themes of trust, companionship, competitive drive and genuine love. Read more for the full review…

Posted by Lucy Fokkema in Culture, Reviews

Tags: bromance, loucy fokkema, performance space, review