Lloyd Beckmann Beekeeper, a particularly personal show devised by Tim Stitz and Kelly Somes, is suffused with an old-fashioned, home-made charm. In the sympathetic environs of La Mama, Stitz summons up his own grandfather and, sometimes in dialogue with himself, unearths some painful family history. And, as the title suggests, the audience learns a lot about bees and beekeeping along the way.For
Archives for “la mama”
It's Australia Day today. As our national day of celebration, it acts as a post for all sorts of flags. Once, in more innocent times - or at least, in the days when White Australia was a harmless nationalistic masthead that merely signified cutting off the pigtails of Chinese goldminers - it meant the Land of the Long Weekend was nearing the end of its summer hols. The Australian Worker returned
Attract/Repel is an intriguing work of theatre at the Store Room which meets, head-on, the question of racism. One of the best things about it is how it does so without fuss or apology, yet instead of visiting the expected arguments of victimisation or entitlement it manages - delicately and with humour - to excavate something of the complexities of human social relationships, to explore the
Aviary, by Anna Barnes, Dan Giovannoni and Ming-Zhu Hii Branch @ La Mama @ Faraday Street Wed.15 Jul. to Sat. 01 Aug. Aviary is a performance consisting of three plays. The construction of the aviary is the work of Melanie Beddie (director) and the Branch Theatre Company. Its enclosed form is shown by a unity of design across set (Darryl Cordell), sound (Natasha Anderson), lights (Bronwyn Pringle) and the use of an ensemble cast (Chloe Gordon, HaiHa Le, Carl Nilsson-Polias). The texts introduced into this arrangement, written by Anna Barnes, Dan Giovannoni and Ming-Zhu Hii, are, then, the avian inhabitants we, the audience, are ...
Over the past few days. Ms TN and the man to whom she's a spectacularly Bad Wife (although, of course, a deeply empathic partner and awesome literary colleague) have been discussing whether to revisit Samuel Beckett's Happy Days, which both of us saw on opening night at the Malthouse. It ended up being a peculiarly Kierkegaardian dialogue."I think," said my beloved, "that I'd prefer to stay home.
Aviary at La Mama is an elegant showcase for three young writers: Anna Barnes, Dan Giovannoni and Ming-Zhu Hii. It stems from an intriguing premise, which in its way is exemplary: director Melanie Beddie commissioned these short works using Darryl Cordell's striking design as the creative stimulus. This immediately throws the focus onto the space, demanding that the writers think in three
The Weather and Your Health, by Bethany Simons La Mama @ Faraday Street Wed. 1 Jul. to Sun. 12 Jul. Last weekend, I took a good friend, Vetula, to see The Weather and Your Health, a play by Bethany Simons, directed by David Wicks and performed by Bethany Simons and Andrew Dodds. Vetula doesn’t really enjoy the theatre—some people just don’t—so it was a rare and wonderful thing to have coaxed her to La Mama. But I was a little worried. What puts Vetula off theatre is the discomfort she feels at having the trick, the artifice of theatre, performed so blatantly in front of ...
Feeling, real feeling, is the hardest thing to recreate in art. Too crudely represented, and it is coarsened to sentimentality, a victim of the limited vocabularies we have for emotional nuances and extremes; too refined, and we miss the point altogether, in a maze of cerebrations that elide its visceral genesis. The phenomenon of feeling encompasses everything that makes human beings such
The Delusionist (dev.) by Lauren Clair and Curtis Fernandez La Mama @ Faraday Street Wed. 7 May to Sun. 17 May “So you, too, have seen The Delusionist? How did you find it?” It was Querquedulus, my collocutor, and we were huddled about an open fire at a pub in Fitzroy. Outside it was chill and grey. “I was disappointed,” I said, “but not badly so, for I was also entertained. Is it doublethink to hold such two opinions? Perhaps we shall come to that. It was a play, or at least a performance, suggestive of serious discussion and intellectual agitation; but I found ...
3xSisters (ost.) by Anton Chekhov The Hayloft Project @ Meat Market Fri. 24 Apr. to Sun. 10 May I was in the cobbled gallery, bay one, at the Meat Market with a friend, Barkov, last Saturday night where I was discussing the just-witnessed Hayloft Project production of 3xSisters. We were joined on that occasion by the youthful and gregarious Krylov, who contributed enjoyably to our discourse. “Well, there is only one way forward,” I said. “We have to walk through the thing in a straight line. Let’s not be distracted by the gore, the screams or the rock music; let us only walk in ...
Beckett Shorts: Breath, Not I, That Time, Rockaby, A Piece of Monologue, by Samuel Beckett, directed by André Bastian, designed by Peter Mumford, lighting by Stelios Karagiannis, with Uschi Felix and Dion Mills. La Mama @ the Courthouse, until April 25.folly -folly for to -for to -what is the word -folly from this -all this -folly from all this -given -folly given all this -seeing -folly seeing
Wretch by Angus Cerini LaMama @ Faraday Street Thu. 19 Feb. to Sun. 8 Mar. It some is weeks now since I saw this play (directed by Susie Dee, performed by Cerini and Dee and designed by Marg Horwell, Kelly Ryall and Richard Vabre); But! it is made regardless. Observe! I relate once more a conversation anent Neandellus Theatre Melbourne. Myself and a friend, Perditellus, sitting at a café across Faraday from LaMama, digesting Cerini and Dee’s dark performance, our conversation carious with long, slightly awkward pauses. It was the kind of wounded dialogue that often follows when affective theatre is placed in such immediate ...
A prison is a place where people are watched, and know that they are watched. In these spaces, behaviour shapes itself beneath the pressure of the assumed gaze. Human action becomes, in a disturbing sense, pure performance. As the Abu Ghraib photos brought home brutally by implicating all who looked on them in the act of torture, there can be an uncomfortable element of sadism in the act of
Care Instructions by Cynthia Troup, directed by Margaret Cameron. Music by David Young, lighting design by Danny Pettingall. With Jane Bayly, Liz Jones and Caroline Lee. La Mama @ The Courthouse until November 29.I Like This, choreographed and directed by Antony Hamilton and Byron Perry. Lighting and sound by Antony Hamilton and Byron Perry. Costumes by Paula Levis. With Antony Hamilton,
Writer and teacher Kate Herbert’s short play was initially inspired by a documentary about young substance abusers when they become parents, trying to overcome addiction for the sake of parenthood. The plot is ambiguous; an older woman (Jenny Lovell) is fostering a pregnant teenager (Julia Markowski). The girl seems hopeless case; her parenting, social skills and drug an alcohol dependency spell disaster but the older woman’s own child was taken from her due to alcoholism and her guilt determines to change the girl’s life.The play is short and the subject and telling are made heavily dramatic aided by a third ...
News just in:Only two weeks out from its deadline, La Mama has raised the $1.8 million to secure the purchase of its Faraday Street home in Carlton, La Mama has achieved its goal.Long-standing Artistic Director of La Mama, Liz Jones, yesterday received a letter from Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts, The Hon Peter Garrett AM, MP, announcing the Federal Government’s contribution
The Lonesome West by Martin McDonagh, directed by Görkem Acaroglu. Design by Emma Kingsbury, lighting design by Katie Sfetkidis, sound design by Ben Grant, music arranged and performed by Caitlin French. With Luke Elliot, Ben Grant, Mark Treginning and Gemma Falk. Tiny Dynamite Theatre @ Theatreworks until September 21.The Time Is Not Yet Ripe by Louis Esson, directed by Jane Woollard. Design and
At this time of year, every man and his dog (except this little puppy and, oh, about a billion others who are sitting at home watching the Olympics) is at the Edinburgh Festival. It has a definite antipodean tinge, as the current AD is our very own Jonathan Mills. Local lads Barrie Kosky and Gideon Obarzanek are there flying the flag for Melbourne in the main program, and so far as I can see
Some pointers to interesting stuff I've missed here recently. Firstly, and most importantly, La Mama put out a call for help last week. Having heroically raised $100,000 over a single weekend in order to place a deposit on the purchase of the theatre, Artistic Director Liz Jones and her team now faces the Herculean task of finding the rest of the $1.7 million required to buy this piece of prime
Good news on La Mama, who on Friday were facing what looked like an impossible task in order to buy their building - artistic director Liz Jones told me last night that they put the deposit down yesterday, having raised $140,000 between Friday and Monday. How heroic is that? They now have until September to come up with the rest of the $1.7 million, so keep those donations flowing in. To make a
Doing an Usher here - but the press release says everything. Just received from La Mama:One of Melbourne’s oldest and most fondly regarded theatres, La Mama, has occupied the iconic building in Faraday St in the heart of Carlton since 1967. For the last 40 years the building has been rented from a local Melbourne family. The Matriarch (and much-loved La Mama supporter) Rose died late last year
Haneef: The Interrogation, by Graham Pitts, directed by Gorkem Acaroglu. Lighting design by Dori Bicchieri, set consultant Anna Cordingley. With Simon King and Adam McConvell. Courthouse Theatre, Lama, until May 3. Bookings: (03) 9347 6142.On July 2 last year, Dr Mohamed Haneef was arrested at Brisbane Airport as he was about to fly to India. Two days earlier his second cousin, Kafeel Ahmed, had
Our favourite shirt factory, La Mama, is up for sale. But those who fear that this might mean the disappearance of one of Melbourne's oldest and most loved theatres can breathe easy. The most likely buyer is La Mama Theatre itself.Artistic director Liz Jones says that the company has a three-year lease on the building, and in the meantime is investigating every possible avenue to fund the
Nightshift, by Phil Motherwell, directed by Phil Motherwell and Shiralee Hood. Lighting by Gabriel Townsend, projections by Ian De Grucy, photography by Rodney Manning, music by Joe Dolce. With Gary Carter, Jack Charles, Isaac Drandich, Shiralee Hood and Bill Tisdall. La Mama until March 23. Bookings: 9347 6142.Watching the news on television last week, I caught a glimpse of a devastated and
Asylum by Kit Lazaroo, directed by Jane Woollard. Design by Amanda Johnson, lighting design by Richard Vabre, sound design by Peter Farnan. With Glynis Angell, Tom Considine, Fanny Hanusin and Tim Stitz. La Mama Theatre, Carlton, until March 8. Booked out, but tickets possibly available: 9347 6948 weekdays.I've seen two of Kit Lazaroo's plays - the beautifully lyric Letters from Animals and now
