Tag Archives: performance art

Review: We, The Lost Company‏ (Clockfire Theatre Company)

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clockfireVenue: Old 505 Theatre @ 5 Eliza St (Newtown NSW), Oct 13 – 31, 2015
Devisors: Emily Ayoub, Madeline Baghurst, Alicia González, Kate Worsley, Arisa Yura
Director: Emily Ayoub
Cast: Madeline Baghurst, Alicia González, Arisa Yura
Image by Geoff Magee Photography

Theatre review
Since time immemorial, we have danced in honour of the gods that watch over us. It is an acknowledgement of our vulnerabilities and reflects our hopes for better days during this time on earth. We, The Lost Company is an intertextual exploration into our relationship with water, finding inspiration from the paintings of Brett Whiteley to create a work of physical theatre informed by the disciplines of mime and dance. It is gently humorous but wildly imaginative. It touches on subjects of migration, ecology, community and ageing, revelling in the beauty of abstraction but powerfully connecting with its audience, if not in terms of meaning, then certainly with the level of engagement it manages to instil into what is usually a challenging form of performance art.

Music and sound by Ben Pierpoint is complex, evocative and spirited. His work controls our imagination, and leads us to grand and eccentric spaces within our minds that provide a context for the three dancers on stage. Charming anecdotes about water obtained from interviews with mature members of Sydney communities are woven into the soundtrack to anchor the production with a warm authenticity that keeps our shared humanity firmly inside what is being developed.

The dancers’ weird and wonderful physical language is a thoroughly amusing one that sustains a sense of intrigue and holds our attention for its entire fifty-minute duration. Their poetry is whimsical but ruggedly sincere, allowing us to understand its intentions from a drastically unconventional kind of theatrical expression. Arisa Yura’s very memorable but very short monologue in Japanese about childhood, the forces of nature, ice cream and beach balls, extends the theme of memory from the audio recordings, and touches us unexpectedly with its dramatically emotive and nostalgic pseudo drama. The production is full of adventure and sensitive innovation, but its lighting feels inadequate within the extravagance of its multi-disciplinary articulations. The space requires greater depth and colour to achieve a stronger sense of visceral lift off that is always just within reach.

To know something, does not necessitate the ability to put it into words. Call it a feeling, intuition, or a soul thing, art is fundamentally about communication and the modes through which communication happens. We, The Lost Company has vocabularies of its own that are refreshing, unique and dare we say, original, but what it speaks can be understood by all, and like the themes that it is concerned with, we are all embroiled in this mysterious undertaking as one.

www.venue505.com/theatre | www.clockfiretheatre.com

Tiny Stadiums Theatre Double Bill (PACT)

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friendshipbluewizardVenue: PACT (Erskineville NSW), Nov 13 – 23, 2013

Friend Ship
Devisor: Kenzie Larsen
Actor: Kenzie Larsen

Blue Wizard
Devisor: Nick Coyle
Actor: Nick Coyle

Theatre review (of preview performance, Nov 13)
Tiny Stadiums this year presents a double bill at the PACT theatre, comprising two pieces by two artists, both quirky, and both working around concepts of loneliness.

Kenzie Larsen’s Friend Ship is a thoroughly funny exploration into the nature of human connection. Larsen is an unusual but strong performer with a sense of fearlessness, and uncanny comic timing. She reads her audience well, and is able to pull us into her eccentric world quickly and effectively. Her use of multimedia is intelligent and measured, even though the visuals do not attempt to be polished or sophisticated. The short films interspersed throughout her performance are as comical as the woman herself, and they are woven effortlessly into the live action. Larsen’s material is not particularly poignant, but it is extremely playful and the level of whimsy she achieves on stage is truly delightful. Her voice is a unique one, and must be encouraged to develop even further.

Blue Wizard features Nick Coyle playing a Windex-drinking intergalactic wizard who babysits and breast feeds a baby alien. The show commences with Coyle singing extravagantly to announce his arrival on Earth. His performance style suits the cabaret genre well, but unfortunately, no further songs are introduced into the show. Coyle has endearing idiosyncratic traits that suit the live stage well, and his material bears an uncommon queer sensibility. His skills do need refining, but there are glimpses of genius evident in his work.

www.pact.net.au
www.kenzielarsen.com.au
www.twitter.com/nickcoyles

Inspiration Porn (New Theatre)

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rsz_24_inspiration_pornVenue: New Theatre (Newtown NSW), Sep 26 – 28, 2013
Performers: Hayley Flowers, Kiruna Stamell, Damien Noyce, James Cunningham, Josphine Lancuba, Asphyxia
Image by Jeff Tan

Theatre review
Inspiration Porn features six different acts presenting their individual works. Their common thread is the idea of inspiration, and what results is a moving night at the theatre.

Kiruna Stamell’s Coffee & Sheep is mainly physical theatre, although there are monologual elements. She also uses burlesque in her act, as well as a good dose of absurdity, which all adds up to a form of performance that resists categorisation. Stamell is simultaneously funny and serious, and the audience is never too sure whether a message exists in her work. What is certain though, is the irresistible magnetism of this performer, and the effectiveness of her work. She keeps you enthralled, bewildered, and wanting more. Stamell is the kind of artist that cultivates a loyal following, a natural star.

James Cunningham presents a highly unusual dance routine based around the loss of the use of his left arm. He also demonstrates an exercise involving a mirror that helps him negotiate his new physicality. Almost creating an illusion of symmetry using his functioning arm, Cunningham talks us through the process and we are thoroughly transfixed. In his presentation, we witness the strength of spirit that has been awoken by his unfortunate accident.

Finally, we are served an extract from The Grimstones, a gothic marionette performance that is truly sublime. These wooden characters by artist Asphyxia, possess a kind of hyper-reality and they convey emotions that no real actor can. Their story is simple but due to the way their world has been constructed and presented, every gesture they make becomes deeply touching. Even though their world is far removed from our daily lives, there is a sense of authenticity that connects with us, and we feel the puppet masters earnestly tugging at our heartstrings.

http://2013.sydneyfringe.com/…

A Feat Incomplete (Old 505 Theatre)

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afeatincomplete1Venue: Old 505 Theatre (Surry Hills NSW), Aug 21 – 25, 2013
Playwright: Erica J Brennan, David Buckley
Actors: Erica J Brennan, David Buckley

Theatre review
This is an honest and simple work that meditates on the nature of theatre creation. It deconstructs both form and content to get to the core of what it means to make a work for the theatre. It is the process of stripping down, rather than building up, that characterises this piece.

The run time is fairly short, which keeps the delivery of ideas sharp and fresh, and thankfully prevents things from being too drawn out and self indulgent, which is a fate that tends to befall many experimental theatre practitioners. There is however, a lack of elegance in the visual elements of the production. Aside from Brennan’s red eyes and horns, and Buckley’s nudity, more work could have been put into the execution of design aspects.

Attention is placed instead on the relationship between author and muse, resulting in charming sequences that explore love and intimacy, as well as the mystical space between “dreaming and death”. The artists also deal with the notion of “story” and the tension that exists in relation to narrative structures and lack thereof, in the creation of their art. A Feat Incomplete is brave in its conscious resistance against conventions of storytelling. This is a risky undertaking that can easily lead to an overly alienating experience, but both artists give performances that fascinate and intrigue.

www.venue505.com/theatre

Certain Men (Encyclopaedia Of Animals)

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322708_439295692788974_1011700878_o.jpg 1000×667Venue: Bondi Pavilion Theatre (Bondi NSW), Jul 26-27
Director: Christopher Brown
Actors: Brian Davison, Michael Gwynne, Tamblyn Lord

Theatre review
The audience is seated in a big circle, all facing inwards. The room is large, with no specific focal point and no stage. The actors constantly move around the space, and the audience finds itself in the midst of all the action, almost an intruder into the intimate setting, where three middle-aged men meet for a group therapy of sorts. This is a play about the issues that these men face, and the difficulty in expressing and articulating those issues. Certain Men is fascinating in its theatrical form, which aligns itself with psychological treatments that seek to deconstruct patterns and convention, in order to reach a breakthrough point of enlightenment.

The chemistry between the players feels solid, but the characters do not communicate well with each other. They talk about themselves, play lego, clean windows, sing, rap and dance; they try but do not form a strong connection. What takes place in this work is abstract and makes for challenging viewing, but it feels like witnessing real life. A sadness permeates these beings, and we get hints of their individual stories, but the main concern here are questions and not answers. Perhaps the intent of their therapy is only to ask, and not to conclude. In its artistic form, Certain Men seeks to create its own language. While not instantly gratifying, it is a commendable and necessary development away from theatre that is facile and obsolete, moving towards something fresh and intelligent.

www.encyclopaediaofanimals.net

This Is Beautiful (The Public Studio)

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The Public StudioVenue: Tower Theatre at Malthouse (Southbank VIC), Jul 19 – Aug 3, 2013
Playwright: Ming-Zhu Hii
Director: Ming-Zhu Hii
Actors: Jing-Xuan Chan, Pier Carthew, Terry Yeboah

Theatre review
Expecting experimental work in any art form to entertain is usually a lost cause, and performance art pieces are rarely crowd-pleasers. This Is Beautiful is composed of three performers spouting endless existentialist questions about the arbitrariness of life’s big meanings. There is no obvious context, and clearly no narrative for which to situate these characters and their constant inquisitions. The small amount of movement and facial expressions they produce seem to be guided by those big questions, giving the impression that the entire 50-minute piece is about one idea.

These questions are not frivolous ones, in fact, one could argue that they are fundamental and relevant to all lives. Only problem is, you would either have already thought about them a thousand times and are quite happy to leave them behind, or they are simply of no interest to you and a night at the theatre would take a lot more than three strangers’ declarations to change your mind.

A big element of this production is the video that plays throughout, which adds dimension to the activity in the space. They provide an interesting abstraction to the repetitive themes, and are visually captivating in their own right, providing variation and colour to the austerity of what is unfolding in the flesh.

It is interesting to note that the three performers are of different ethnicities, and that it takes an experimental work of this nature for this multi-cultural amalgamation to materialise onstage. They make a beautiful picture together, creating a landscape of purity and unison. It also conjures up the notion that this combination of skin colours seems to face constant resistance in mainstream Australian narrative-based storytelling, in theatre or otherwise.

www.thepublicstudio.net