Tag: "theatre"

Uncle Vanya
0 Comments. 66 Views. Posted 7 May 2012 @ 12:40pm.
The world of this timeless play is hilarious while it is heartbreaking, endearing while frustrating, and baffling while delightful. Chekhov’s genius lies in shaping despair, longing and frustration into a play about hope and transformation, and that is no exception with Uncle Vanya.  The modern masterpiece is brought to life by a brilliant and unique performance ensemble of nine actors, led... Read More
Mark Watson - The Information
0 Comments. 45 Views. Posted 27 Apr 2012 @ 2:04pm.
As we reach the top of their stairs at The Forum Theatre, we are all handed a piece of paper with Mark Watson’s mobile number. All the stalkers in the house are ecstatic, but the rest are raising eyebrows. We find out mid-way through the show that many fans did indeed text Watson in response to his request for ‘The Information’ on their accomplices. It exemplifies just how much Watson values... Read More
Boy Girl Wall
0 Comments. 2 Views. Posted 22 Apr 2012 @ 8:13pm.
Boy Girl Wall is a cheerful, inoffensive, sweet-natured show that seems to break the fourth-wall every ten minutes and certainly makes the most of chalk drawings. There’s only one actor, Lucas Stibbard, and he does a fine job of bouncing between various characters. The two main protagonists, Alethea and Thom, live in two separate apartments right next to each other. They’ve never met, but the... Read More
The Axis of Awesome - The Axis of Awesome World Tour 2006
0 Comments. 73 Views. Posted 26 Apr 2012 @ 12:37pm.
It’s fairly presumptuous to name your musical comedy group The Axis of Awesome. What if it’s not awesome? What if it’s only average? But Jordan, Lee and Benny more than deliver, in the best show I have seen all festival. They’re used to playing in stadiums with fireworks, glitter and dragon-eating cars, they explain at the start of the show, asking the audience to imagine that’s all going on.... Read More
CRAIG HILL - BLOWN BY A FAN
0 Comments. 2 Views. Posted 20 Apr 2012 @ 4:49pm.
Direct from Scotland after his sold-out tour throughout the UK, South-east Asia, Europe, and South Africa, Craig Hill has brought his new show Blown by a Fan! to the 2012 Melbourne International Comedy Festival.  I've had the pleasure of seeing Craig Hill perform in his native Glasgow where he is hailed as a comedy god.  Twice as decipherable and just as funny is ... Read More
Ali McGregor's Western Lullabies
0 Comments. 47 Views. Posted 26 Apr 2012 @ 12:37pm.
Lullabies aren't necessarily something you'd associate with stand-up comedy. These songs are for children, not adults, and they’re designed to make them sleep, not laugh. Ali McGregor and her cast of talented friends use the term 'lullaby' loosely. They've chosen a bunch of vaguely soothing songs and thrown in enough banter to remind the audience they're at the comedy festival. Proceeds from the... Read More
Jason Byrne – People’s Puppeteer
0 Comments. 80 Views. Posted 27 Apr 2012 @ 2:04pm.
The only thing I regret about going to see Jason Byrne, People’s Puppeteer, is not taking a spare pair of pants. The man puts on a show, so sidesplittingly brilliant that it will defy even the strongest of pelvic floor muscles. Within the glittering glory that is the Athenaeum Theatre, the show begins with a rousing orchestral introduction, when Byrne appears dangling on the end of puppet... Read More
Cal Wilson is All Ears
0 Comments. 70 Views. Posted 26 Apr 2012 @ 4:07pm.
You’d think Cal Wilson was impossible to embarrass when hearing the stories she shares to packed rooms every night. Cal Wilson is All Ears is based around the premise that truth is more entertaining than fiction, and that sharing the most humiliating moments of your life can be the best way of getting past them.   Wilson shares stories of being chased by her ‘blind’ brother as a kid,... Read More
Tom Ballard - Doing Stuff
0 Comments. 82 Views. Posted 18 Apr 2012 @ 1:32pm.
Tom Ballard – crowd-pleasing chatterbox from Triple J’s Tom and Alex breakfast show – has not succeeded this time around. Doing Stuff is a show that seems as aimless as its title, whipping from politics to one-night stands to good-naturedly picking on audience members. He’s got a good on-stage persona, but it’s clear he’s not always at ease with the material he is using. The political jokes... Read More
Ad Nauseam: A Night Of Infidelity
0 Comments. 718 Views. Posted 20 Mar 2012 @ 9:14am.
  A relative newcomer to Melbourne’s theatre scene, Attic Erratic has quickly established itself among Australia’s growing ranks of promising, young independent theatre companies. Their latest show, Ad Nauseam: A Night of Infidelity has just finished an extremely successful season at Adelaide’s Fringe Festival, succeeding in achieving that golden balance of critical acclaim and happy... Read More
Zombatland
0 Comments. 1,090 Views. Posted 8 Mar 2012 @ 8:48am.
  Any team that’s been referred to as ‘Tom Waits meets The Mighty Boosh’ by The Guardian are a group we should all want to get to know. As luck would have it, they’re in Melbourne right now, on the brink of performing their first show down under in two years. You read right folks – The Suitcase Royale is back in town – and they’re about to kick off their Australian tour of their... Read More
The Wild Duck
0 Comments. 632 Views. Posted 5 Mar 2012 @ 8:26am.
Written in 1888, Henrik Ibsen’s The Wild Duck epitomizes modernist naturalism. In this adaptation director Simon Stone (of The Hayloft Project) has taken Ibsen’s text and distilled it to its dramatic essence, transposing its exploration of family, greed, jealousy and paternal inheritance into the present day. What immediately becomes apparent is the strength and longevity of the play’s emotional... Read More
MTC Lawler Studio Season 2012
0 Comments. 675 Views. Posted 2 Mar 2012 @ 8:52am.
  As Australia’s oldest professional theatre company, the Melbourne Theatre Company has in recent years gained a reputation for traditionalism. They may be one of the most popular companies in the country, taking a record 20,000 subscriptions in 2010, but they are not renowned for taking programming risks. MTC set out to challenge this perception with the launch of their Lawler Studio in... Read More
Cautionary Tales for Children
0 Comments. 781 Views. Posted 22 Feb 2012 @ 10:32am.
Cautionary Tales for Children is a steampunk cabaret, taking children’s musical theatre to a whole new level. The folks at Arena Theatre Company have put together an ensemble to get toes tapping, adults chuckling and kids screaming at the top of their lungs.  Cautionary Tales for Children is one of three performances presented by The Arts Centre as a part of their... Read More
The Wild Duck
0 Comments. 921 Views. Posted 14 Feb 2012 @ 11:46am.
  In Belvoir St Theatre’s promotional video for its production of The Wild Duck, a jittery soundtrack punctures scenes of a young family’s torrid internal affairs. But for a few brief seconds, a sexagenarian played by Anthony Phelan cradles a live duck onstage and all is unnervingly calm. Henrik Ibsen’s play heads to the Malthouse Theatre this month after a critically-lauded season in... Read More
Butterscotch
0 Comments. 722 Views. Posted 5 Feb 2012 @ 3:41pm.
With an imagination that’s both sweet and salty and deemed “utterly captivating...a superb songstress”, it’s no surprise that you need to share yourself with the world.  This month, Melbourne-based cabaret artist, Emma Clair Ford, is getting set to debut her latest solo creation Butterscotch in an exclusive Melbourne season before taking her show to Adelaide audiences for their Fringe... Read More
Good People
0 Comments. 710 Views. Posted 31 Jan 2012 @ 11:00am.
  David Lindsay-Abaire’s stage drama Good People may question the American Dream, but given recent world events such as the global financial crisis, it’s just as relevant to Australian audiences halfway across the planet. According to actress Alexandria Steffensen, who plays the character of Kate, at the core of the play lies the question, ‘Does one’s fortune come down to blind luck or hard... Read More
Crash Test Drama Melbourne
0 Comments. 409 Views. Posted 13 Jan 2012 @ 4:33pm.
You know you've got a good thing going when you have to turn people away at the door due to a packed house. Theatre industry event Crash Test Drama is attracting so many from Melbourne's fringe theatre community that after only two events at St Kilda's finest arts hub, Dogs Bar, it is getting set to relocate to the much larger MeMo Hall on Acland Street.  CTDM is a unique event that 'crash... Read More
The National Theatre Drama School’s Advanced Diploma Of Acting
0 Comments. 1,423 Views. Posted 12 Jan 2012 @ 8:42am.
There's never been a more exciting time to be involved in Australian theatre, according to Melbourne-based actor, director and filmmaker Mark Constable, who has recently been appointed new Head Of Acting (Theatre) at the National Theatre Drama School, St Kilda. A whole new brigade is coming through the ranks and the industry is changing at an ever-rapid speed - and Constable has found... Read More
Astor Theatre Unveils New Calendar
0 Comments. 708 Views. Posted 6 Jan 2012 @ 8:40am.
The Astor Theatre have just announced their new season calendar and we can't be more excited.  On the tip of the Astor iceberg, Jim Henson's beloved classic, Labyrinth, will be screened for Australian audiences in a theatrical quality presentation. They've got everything. From Princess Bride and Dirty Dancing to the original Fright Night to an Orson Welles... Read More
One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest
0 Comments. 1,475 Views. Posted 2 Dec 2011 @ 8:52am.
One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest - book, movie, play. There aren't many novelists that can claim one story has successfully spanned over 50 years, has been enjoyed, reread and recreated onstage and the screen. The 1962 release of the acclaimed novel was just the start of R.P McMurphy and his band of misunderstood misfits. In 1963 the play premiered on Broadway, 1975 saw the release of the... Read More
RAW Comedy 2012 registrations open!
0 Comments. 1,505 Views. Posted 22 Nov 2011 @ 9:12am.
Fancy yourself a bit of a comedian? This one's for you! You can find yourself on the same stage that produced comedic greats such as Chris Lilley, Peter Helliar, Claire Hooper and Tim Minchin.  Before becoming some of Australia's most recognisable names in comedy, they all spent their time fine-tweaking their routines, taking on RAW Comedy, Australia's biggest and most prestigious annual... Read More
Day One. A Hotel, Evening
0 Comments. 991 Views. Posted 17 Nov 2011 @ 8:23am.
Since its inception in 2001, the Red Stitch Actors Theatre company has created a reputation for staging new and challenging plays most main-stage directors ignore. At the culmination of its ten year anniversary season, the self proclaimed 'actors company' has programmed a new work by Joanna Murray-Smith. The playwright's notable collaboration with MTC's outgoing artistic director, Simon Phillips... Read More
Return To Earth
0 Comments. 1,465 Views. Posted 11 Nov 2011 @ 9:33am.
In a newly renovated building in Sturt Street, Patrick McCarthy sips from a drink bottle with his name printed on it. Around him, in the brand new rehearsal space, young actors are preparing for their imminent performance and Melbourne Theatre Company Associate Director Aidan Fennessy is immersed in his work. McCarthy absorbs the atmosphere. For him, being selected as Assistant Director of ... Read More
The Suitcase Royale
0 Comments. 1,081 Views. Posted 8 Nov 2011 @ 10:48am.
So what is all of this buzz about some thing called Harvest? No, it's not an eery neo-Christian gathering. Harvest Festival (known as Harvest Presents: The Gathering in Melbourne) is sure to be a kicker. The event - which is touring the east coast this November - has already received immense excitement from music enthusiasts with a lineup like no other. Paying homage to both the intelligent and... Read More
Arena Theatre Company Joins Forces With Seda
0 Comments. 604 Views. Posted 3 Nov 2011 @ 2:44pm.
Exciting news all ‘round! Arena Theatre Company will join forces and create a partnership with education provider SEDA in 2012.  This exciting new initiative will link young people, industry and the community, to engage VCE-level students in real-life learning experiences with the performing arts. Students involved will complete a Certificate III, IV and Diploma in Live Production and... Read More
Tunnel Rat
0 Comments. 1,494 Views. Posted 14 Oct 2011 @ 9:07am.
Malthouse Theatre, as always, is set to play host to another outstanding performance – Neil Cole's Tunnel Rat. Presented by Melbourne Jewish Theatre Trust, the performance tells the story of an American man, Ronnie Giles, who was selected to become a tunnel rat in order to spy and search for the enemy whilst serving in Vietnam, all because of his height.   At the age of 17, Giles was given... Read More
The Black Rider Hits Northcote
0 Comments. 1,180 Views. Posted 19 Oct 2011 @ 3:53pm.
Travel Art Dance Company is excited to announce its major performance work for 2011, and so are we! The company will present The Black Rider – the first time that it has been staged as a dance work since its premiere as a musical play in 1990. Based on the Robert Wilson/Tom Waits/William S. Burroughs musical play of the same name, and set to the album The Black Rider by Tom Waits, this... Read More
Ganesh Versus The Third Reich
0 Comments. 1,345 Views. Posted 27 Sep 2011 @ 12:37pm.
Copyright laws are pretty handy when it comes to Vanilla Ice stealing Queen and Bowie’s Under Pressure beat, rapping something about ice and babies on top of it and raking in the cash. Unfortunately, they’re not so great when it comes to ancient, religious symbols being misappropriated by angry, fascist groups. Nowadays, if you see the swastika, you’re probably going to think about racist Germans... Read More
Less Than <3 Three, Because I Heart U: The Overdramatic Life of Kyle Connelly
0 Comments. 1,014 Views. Posted 30 Sep 2011 @ 5:52pm.
Less Than Three is a satirical portrayal of the cliques and trends of the noughties. Written and directed by Jessica Marsh, the play is composed of a series of vignettes that lament the loss of the emo while sending up the development of Melbourne’s indie/hipster culture over the past few years. The aim was to create the impression of an indie film with a Disney Channel message – and that’s... Read More
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