I’m all for comfort food, opaque tights and scarves (I think it’s a reaction to growing up in sunny Queensland) – yay for Marvellous March! Marvellous March is also the name of a handy little booklet produced by That’s Melbourne with details of the big events around Melbourne that will make you love autumn. This is a post to bookmark! Thanks to City of Melbourne, here are some highlights and photos: Moomba Festival 2010 Melbourne’s largest outdoor community festival makes a vibrant return to the heart of the city. From the spectacle of the Moomba Parade to the hilarious Westpac Birdman Rally, from ...
Archives for “comedy”
I’m sad that the Last Tuesday Society seems to have outgrown their second Fitzroy venue, Yah Yah’s, in 2009 after outgrowing the Old bar the previous year. I’m very pleased for them however that they continue to attract larger audiences to their performances. Their last show for 2009, the second anal Christmas shambles at the Order of Melbourne, was packed and lots of fun, though it was not quite as consistently funny as the previous plagiarism show. The complications of performing on a different stage at a new venue, and more guest acts, reduced the rhythm and flow of the show, ...
BROOD BOX Gallery is available to hire for events and exhibitions, shows and installations. The gallery has a liquor license and can arrange catering if required. Whilst BROOD BOX Gallery is dedicated to the promotion of emerging Australian artists alongside established artists, we also provide advice to corporations and individuals who are keen to build a collection of art that will appreciate in value over time.
Docklands and Bundoora. That’s a pretty big contrast. And perfect comedy material for a fringe festival hit from The Bedroom Philosopher, Songs from the 86 Tram. The 86 is my home tram and I can tell you it’s a carriage of character compared to my former tram (No 8 to Toorak – homogenous and perfectly groomed). Justin Heazlewood, the self-described love child of Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy, sings the story of the 86s (’we are tramily!’) interspersed with occasional monologues from the mumbling tram driver, some cheerful tram ‘dings’ and the beep-beep sound of a Metcard being validated. Heazlewood expresses the ...
Candy Bowers wanted all the critics to introduce their reviews by saying that Who’s That Chik? features ‘a girl in skin tight dance pants’. So if you’re expecting crisp white linen suits and the perfect diction of God of Carnage, you’re in the wrong theatre. Candy B’s self-written, autobiographical show is billed as ’a hip hop tale of a brown girl with big dreams’. I’m not much of a hip hop-er (RM recently had to explain Snoop talk to me….off the hizzle, for shizzle) so I didn’t really know whether I’d like the show or not. Which just proves why we should ...
Melbourne Fringe Festival #3: Tale of the Golden Lease by four blokes in jeans, otherwise known as Vigilantelope. While the rest of Melbourne was getting celebrating/commiserating over the grand final, I sat in a dark room at the Lithuanian Club and got transported to heaven, hell, the prehistoric era and a fish and chip shop. Tale of the Golden Lease is a wild story about the race between God and Satan to find the lease for Earth and thus control the fate of humans, all before (Father) time runs out. Naturally such an important religious topic involved a couple of Olympics opening ...
Melbourne Fringe Festival #2: Arj Barker is a favourite act among Australian comedy audiences (helped no doubt by his role as Dave in Flight of the Conchords) so it makes sense that he would test out his new material on our friendly shores. So as part of the Melbourne Fringe Festival he’s put together a show entitled ‘Keeper or Crapper’– basically, an exercise in helping him decide which jokes to keep and which jokes to chuck in the bin. Even though the show is unpolished, not every joke flies and there are pockets of dead energy, Barker is still very, very ...
Apparently this week there’s some sort of football grand final happening? I will be one of maybe two people in Melbourne nowhere near the MCG or a big screen TV: Tweeters of Melbourne unite. Tweetupmellers are having their next meet up on Thursday 24 September at The Social in Windsor; Another Friday, another Social Media Club breakfast at Mr Tulk #socialmelb on Friday 25 September; The first of many Melbourne Fringe Festival gigs – comedian Arj Barker (Flight of the Conchords) at the Lithuanian Club on Friday 25 September; Melbourne Fringe Festival #2 and I’m in this one!! Ridiculusmus play reading of Goodbye Princess ...
Mayumana is a 85 minutes of all-singing, all-dancing, slapstick energy and it’s inevitable that it will be compared to the last all-singing, all-dancing , slapstick show that Melbourne hosted, Cirque de Soleil. The difference with Mayumana is that the thumping rhythm of the show is provided by the acoustic properties of the body and a series of unusual props. So much of the beat comes from the troupe drumming on plastic buckets, steel cans and wheelie bins, slapping their thighs, arms and chests, stamping their feet, breathing down long plastic tubes like a didgeridoo and even dancing and leaping with glow-in-the-dark ...
Once a dormant warehouse in city’s CBD, THE FACTORY’s stunning shell has been transformed into a contemporary, accessible and versatile pop-up venue for Spring 2009 / Summer 2010. Inspired by Melbourne’s unique creative and design community THE FACTORY will be the space for amazing events (3 different rooms available from 200 to 2000+ sqm).
Set in the Kings Domain Gardens this hugely popular summertime venue hosts everything from Summerdayze to the surf grooves of Jack Johnson, from the rock of Pearl Jam to the sounds of Dame Kiri Te Kanawa to the vibe of The Asian Dub Foundation. The internationally renowned Bowl has fixed seating for more than 2000, with a landscaped lawn providing superb outdoor vistas of the stage for a further 11,000 people.
Every single one of my London theatre buddies went to see the Steppenwolf Theatre Company’s multi-award winning August: Osage County at the National Theatre, so I was excited to discover that I wouldn’t miss out after all as it was included in the 2009 repertory of the Melbourne Theatre Company. Tracy Lett’s darkly funny story has been called ‘a Great American Play’ in the vein of Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams. It certainly doesn’t hide from confrontational issues, including suicide, drug addiction, infidelity, paedophilia and child abuse. The multi-generational sprawl of storylines is heightened by the impressive three-level set, a cross-section ...
Home-made goulash with hunks of bread, traditional strudel and imported Czech beer. Gastronomic delights aside, Czech House is a rare find even in multicultural Melbourne, hosting a variety of live music performances in an authentic Eastern European atmosphere. You will find close to any type of music – world, folk, jazz, gypsy, classical or blues. This venue hosts some acts in the famous Melbourne International Jazz Festival, and the much loved local Fringe Festival. Czech House has high ceilings, tables and chairs, elevated stage, grand piano, bar, lift, foyer, toilet facilities, kitchen, library and billiard table. Equipment includes speakers, DVD and ...
Eschewing Mother-in-law jokes, in his autobiography Ben Hecht quoted his in making an interesting observation about the disposable nature of theatre. "My mother-in-law," he wrote, "will sit in a theatre, laugh, and deeply enjoy herself. But she comes out of the theatre usually with a shrug and a sigh. 'What did it give you to take away?' she asks. 'Nothing. It leaves you nothing in your mind or spirit. An evening wasted'".Moonlight and Magnolias is a curious piece. A few weeks into the shoot of Gone With the Wind the producer David O Selznick (Patrick Brammall) halts production, hires a ...
Studio B at the Meat Market is 7.9m long by 7.9m wide. The capacity is 50 theatre style. There are plaster board walls to hang from - these must be restored when leaving i.e. patch and paint all marks. Studio B has direct street access. Studio B
The Main Pavilion is divided in to 2 separate area’s by louvre doors. The total length of the hall if doors are open is 75m. The Cobblestone side is 17m wide and 31m long. The Flat floor side is 17m wide and 36m long. The space is suitable for a range of uses including performances, public meetings, conferences and dinner dances. The hall can accommodate the gamut from intimate, technically simple performances and rehearsals to complex, large-scale productions. That includes dance, music, physical theatre, multi media, spoken word, choir, chamber music, circus (the hall has been adapted to accommodate circus rigging) ...
The Meeting Room is suitable for simple, intimate rehearsals or performances with an audience of up to 70. It is on the first floor of the arts house at the top of the stairs. It is 12.5m x 6.6m, with adjustable acoustic curtains, an upright piano and a floating wooden floor suitable for dance and movement. Users have included choirs, small instrumental groups, spoken-word performers and groups holding meetings, small conferences, seminars and staff-training sessions.
The Rehearsal Room is suitable for simple, intimate rehearsals or performances with an audience of up to 60. It is on the first floor of the Arts House at the top of the stairs. It is 10.m x 8m, with adjustable acoustic curtains, an upright piano and a floating wooden floor suitable for dance and movement. Users have included choirs, small instrumental groups, spoken-word performers and groups holding meetings, small conferences, seminars and staff-training sessions.
The Main Hall is suitable for a range of uses including performances, public meetings, conferences and dinner dances. For performances the hall can accommodate the gamut from intimate, technically simple performances and rehearsals to complex, large-scale productions. That includes dance, music, physical theatre, multi media, spoken word, choir, chamber music, circus (the hall has been adapted to accommodate circus rigging) and public meetings. The hall can fit a capacity of 400 people in a standard, public-meeting setup with speakers on the stage. Facilities include: a proscenium-arch stage; PA equipment; piano (Yamaha GP1); individual chairs; range of blacks; heating and cooling; and full wiring infrastructure for lights and sound; The sound, lights, ...
Yar is a new contemporary split-level bar and restaurant with a mezzanine. Modern designs and individual architecture suitable for creative and workable spaces for a variety of projects. With 2 LCD screens and a sound system and microphones, dividing curtains, a large private upstairs area with seating and a view to the Yarra, an artistic creatively minded individual would be very happy to be able to develop this area for their artistic purposes. Please email or call for a private walk through the venue.
Funky warehouse art gallery available for young visual artists/sculptors wanting to exhibit in a fantastic space which also hosts functions to enable the work to be seen by many more people. Great space for cocktail parties, conferences, seminars, dance, and performance with grand piano, wonderful acoustics and inhouse catering.
The Butterfly Club is a former two-story Victorian shop house, situated in the heart of South Melbourne’s historic Emerald Hill precinct. Long ago, what is now the little theatre was the site of Melbourne’s first orphanage. Then, for more than 100 years, the building became a butcher’s shop, with the rest of the building used as the family residence. The little theatre was first used to host cabaret shows ten years ago. The Butterfly Club evolved with its unique personality as guests began to donate kitsch memorabilia, transforming the adjoining kitchen into a bar, the lounge room into an artistic masterpiece, ...
Wilde Cat“It requires some effort of analysis to understand why one person, among many who do a thing with accomplished skill, should be greater than the others; nor is it always easy to distinguish superiority from great popularity, when the two go together” begins TS Eliot’s appreciation of the great Music Hall artist Marie Lloyd. After seeing the Cabaret Diva Meow Meow in the extravaganza devised for her alone, I am left pondering the same question. The Viennese sängerin Ute Lemper (who unearthed Mischa Spolianksy’s Cabaret song Ich bin Ein Vamp now taken up by Meow as her theme song) ...
In(step)JokesThe 39 Steps could be the Melbourne Theatre Company's entry in this year's Comedy Festival as a high energy spoof of John Buchan's famous spy story of the same name. The version more spoofed here, however, is Alfred Hitchcock's 1935 film version. Hitchcock's script added the now famous, train sequences, the Music Hall performer and fellow spy Mr 'Am I right Sir?' Memory (one of my favorite movie characters) as well as some unrelieved sexual tension. This take on a classic book and film is by Patrick Barlow who acts, directs, produces and writes plays, his speciality is improbable farce, ...
Chamber of HorrorsA welcome return of Brian Lipson’s multi-layered theatrical extravaganza. His one man show that sets out to be a piece about the 19th century social-scientist Francis Galton but which turns into and fantasia on the nature of theatrical performance is as funny as it is fascinating. Galton is best remembered as the founder of Eugenics. In his time (the second half of the 19th century, Galton died in 1911, the same year as that other great English satirist W.S. Gilbert) his theories were considered cranky like Phrenology and all those other pseudo-sciences. Only the connection ...
