Sleeping Beauty

STAGE :: Sleeping Beauty
By Michael Scott
VIC | 18.07.2007

Fairy tales have lost their punch. The versions we are fed today seem innocuous to us as we grow up - they are pretty and safe and they have happy endings. Disney has a good deal to answer for. Gone are the days when Cinderella’s sister hacked off her heel to try and fit her foot into that dainty glass slipper. The Malthouse’s latest production of Sleeping Beauty attempts to drag the fairy tale back to its less sanitised beginnings.

You know the story: girl pricks finger, girl falls asleep, girl dreams her life away, girl is woken up by a charming young prince; you’ve heard it many times before but this time you’ll hear it to the tune of Bowie, Elvis Costello, Nick Cave and the Divinyls. Michael Kantor and Maryanne Lynch’s production is the bastard love child of a concept album and a mix tape come to life, and it has the strengths and weaknesses inherent in both.
Read on if you can be bothered.

Know No Cure (for The Program)

STAGE :: Know No Cure

By Michael Scott
VIC | 25.06.2007

On a nondescript operating table in some nondescript O.R., in some nondescript location, Cyber lies, ready to receive a nondescript operation. The procedure that follows sends him on a whacked-out, tripped up journey into an unravelling subconscious so fraught with nonsensical happenings that even a cursory attempt at explanation would appear futile.

Read the full play-whipping at The Program

Review: Shining City @ The Mechanics Institute (for The Program)

STAGE :: Shining City
By Michael Scott
VIC | 04.06.2007

When John walks into his therapist’s office and admits to seeing a ghost of his recently deceased wife, he opens up an exploration not into the arcane but into the mundane.

Conor McPherson’s Tony Award nominated work Shining City is an examination of guilt and the disconnectedness of relationships in a world where disembodiment is far more tangible than fantastical.

Trot off and read the rest here...

Rageboy (or, Rage against the latrine)

Okay, this one's a little late. I think I caught Rageboy sometime last week as part of Melbourne's Midsumma festival; I have forgotten - much like the play.

Big cast; polished production; meandering, meaningless script.

Toby is apparently enraged at life. Struck with polio at an early age, agitated by his father, annoyed by his best friend (oh, hang on that was me being annoyed by her atrocious American accent), cracked onto by his institutionalised grandfather, Toby has a lot to be enraged about. But he doesn't seem to be that bothered. There is something thrown in about the apocalypse by the two (slightly incestuous) JW siblings but it all ends up being rather meaningless.

It is difficult to say that Rageboy was appalling because it is clear that it was extremely well received by the opening night audience. It is true that the show, which began life as a Melbourne Uni production, is very funny in parts. Yes it has a kind of absurdist charm but it was so incredibly episodic that by in the end it felt like a dose of The Comedy Company or Skithouse and was just as hit and miss.

Props to the few characters who managed to imbue their roles with some real, and much needed, charm. The father's blind albino girlfriend deserves special mention. Overall though, apart from the few funny scenes, an extremely disappointing evening.

Run a mile (or at least you should have, it is all over now. Thank SBLJ!)

Car Maintenance, eXplosives and Love @ Gasworks Theatre

Okay, I'm being published again. I'm chucking some reviews the way of The Program, an Australian arts portal focused on repackageing the arts media for the youth market.

My first review went up today. You can check it out by clicking on the text below...

"From the opening, angle-grinding moments of Car Maintenance, eXplosives and Love it is clear that there are going to be more than just sparks flying in this very one-woman show."

Hey, it's a start.