Melbourne Comic Jeremy Dooley brings his debut show Daddy Cool to Richmond for the Melbourne International Comedy Festival.
In an attic on Bridge Road, an intimate crowd gathers for Dooley’s stand up show. The lights are dim and the atmosphere is relaxed for this evening’s show.
Warming up the crowd is Canadian Richard Meneses who cracks jokes about being a backpacker, having left Canada to find himself. It’s a funny set that packs in a lot of laughs in a short time. Having cut his teeth on the Open Mic circuit Richard delivers a great set and performance that is memorable.
Lightly jogging onto the stage is the main act Jeremy Dooley, whose jokes are relatable and delivered perfectly with each punchline landing. He invites the audience to participate, which creates some very funny moments and makes for some great banter.
Being that this is a debut show, one could be mistaken for thinking Dooley has done the act before. He is comfortable being on stage, laughter comes easily, and he’s relaxed.
Dooley presents an hour of great storytelling, with some laugh-out-loud moments that captivate the audience. As the show winds up, Dooley has given the audience a solid hour of laughter and endearing moments that make for a fantastic show.
LET THE FUN BE-GIN AT MELBOURNE GIN FESTIVAL THIS MARCH Rating
★★★★★
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The Melbourne Gin Festival was a paradise for gin lovers, showcasing an impressive lineup of Australian distilleries, each offering unique and innovative spirits. Crowds of people flocked to The Timberyard to gather and taste their favourite gins from all over the country. From Tasmanian gins to all the way from Darwin there was a broad representation.
The atmosphere was lively, with passionate distillers sharing their craft, and plenty of opportunities to taste some truly exceptional gins.
One of the most eye-catching products was Gingle Bells by Wild Hibiscus Flower Co. Their beautifully designed gin-filled baubles added a festive touch, and the botanical-infused flavours were both vibrant and well-balanced—perfect for gifting or enjoying over the holidays.
Noble Bootleggers impressed with their smooth, well-crafted gins that highlighted locally sourced botanicals, while Just B Distillery from Tasmania showcased their dedication to quality with gins that delivered a clean, crisp taste with a hint of wilderness.
Happenstance Distillery stood out with its trio of offerings—Fireside Gin, a smoky and warming delight; Fiesta Gin, bursting with citrus and spice; and Gin Noir, which had a deep, complex profile that was perfect for a sophisticated cocktail.
Teddy & The Fox from Bellarine presented a bright and refreshing gin with a coastal twist, ideal for summer sipping. Meanwhile, Naught Distilling wowed the crowd with their Sangiovese Gin, a rich, fruit-forward spirit that blended wine and gin beautifully.
The festival was a fantastic celebration of Australia’s gin scene, with something for every palate. Whether you’re a seasoned gin enthusiast or a newcomer, this event was the perfect place to explore, taste, and discover new favourites.
This review also appears on It’s On The House. Check out more reviews at Whats The Show to see what else is on in your town.
The Central Australian Aboriginal Women’s Choir Rating
★★★★★
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6
“Try connection, try love, try understanding: it will fill your hearts with joy and change your life!” This plea from the heart of Morris Stuart, Artistic Director of the Central Australian Aboriginal Women’s Choir (CAAWC), could be the catchcry of this unique ensemble. The values of connection, love and understanding underpin the choir’s history and allowed two seemingly disparate cultures to find a common ground in singing. German Lutherans arrived in Hermannsburg/Ntaria, NT, in 1877 bringing hymns of faith. They collaborated with Western Arrarnta people to the translate the hymns into Western Arrarnta language. The old musical form from overseas merged with the old language of the interior, and both were preserved in a new form by four generations of Western Arrarnta women, some of whom are singing in the choir today.
The significance of this preservation, particularly for a threatened Aboriginal language, is revealed in Naina Sen’s documentary “The Songkeepers” (2017), available on SBS, which followed the CAAWC’s 2015 journey to Germany to sing sometimes forgotten hymns to the churches that originally sent them, in the languages of Western Arrarnta and Pitjantjatjara 140 years later.
The CAAWC performed at the Melbourne Recital Centre on Sunday 23rd March to a very supportive audience. The choir of 25 members (including four men) have a very distinct sound due to the thick, guttural, nasal quality that is the preferred vocal timbre of Aboriginal musicians. The hymn arrangements from the time of Bach to early Romantic period take on a new life with this tonal quality and use of Central Australian Aboriginal languages. Every song was infused with joy and there was an artlessness about the performance that engaged me in its honesty.
Most of the sacred songs were Lutheran hymns with lyrics translated into Western Arrarnta or Pitjantjatjara. With Aboriginal languages increasingly endangered, this choir and its members are living history. To be able to sing for us in their first language is a privilege that has had to be fought for. It is a continuing conversation about culture and language preservation that the choir invites us to have. Artistic Director, Morris Stuart, reminded us that Areyonga/Utju’s 50 years of bilingual education program in the NT had to be fought for, even to the point of involving the Human Right’s Commission.
I was particularly interested the two sacred songs in the repertoire that were original compositions. One was written in 1921 by Western Arrarnta elders, Moses Tjalkapurta and Johannes Ntjalka in the style of a traditional ceremonial chant (3- line chant) with modern harmonic elements. Some of the choir members are their descendants.
The other original song was “Godanya” written by Carolyn Windy, her niece Petrina Windy (both choir members) and Adelaidean Holly Webb. It celebrates the Holy Trinity – God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. To me this song was the highlight of the evening. The influence of hymn was there in its strophic form and diatonic harmony. However, the synergy of words and melody was remarkably seamless and the simple homophonic texture gradually grew into a wall of sound, unified and balanced, with no unnecessary movement. There was a power in its compositional simplicity that moved me. The choir was particularly of one voice in this song – my guess is that it must be one of their favourites – like one person breathing. In a later conversation with Morris Stuart, he agreed that it is the choir’s “tour de force”. It is more original songs like this that I look forward to hearing in the future.
Apart from the early Romantic style hymns and original sacred songs, we were treated to a Bach Chorale conducted by teacher, linguist and author, David Roennfeldt, as well as two German rounds with Western Arrarnta lyrics by Lily Roennfeldt.
There was also a short set of three more familiar songs which were beautifully supported by collborative pianist, Marten Visser. The audience were taught Western Arrarnta words to Kumbayah and invited to sing along. Waltzing Matilda showcased the choir’s storytelling ability and humour. But the most memorable was “We Are Australian”, sung in Western Arrarnta language. We were invited to simultaneously sing the last chorus in English and the connection between choir and audience was palpable. We rose to our feet to give a heartfelt standing ovation.
For me, the word that sums up the CAAWC and this performance is connection. At one point, Stuart asked for the house lights to come up so they could see who they were singing to. They waved to us as they exited the stage singing, and we waved back, our hearts filled with joy, and then went out to meet them in person in the foyer.
The Central Australian Aboriginal Women’s Choir is made up of members of six remote community choirs from Ntaria, Areyonga, Titjikala, Mutitjulu, Docker River and Mission Block, Alice Springs. This tour is produced by Margot Teele from Andrew Kay and Associates Pty Ltd and includes Nuriootpa, Womadelaide, Bunbury, Perth, Canberra, Melbourne, Brunswick, Sydney and Bateman’s Bay.
This review also appears on It’s On The House. Check out more reviews at Whats The Show to see what else is on in your town.
Encounters leans on diversity as its greatest strength. While the four plays in the collection are by the same author (Alex Broun) and all focus on rifts in relationships, they span multiple genres, themes and character dynamics. The cast has been promoted as “an ensemble of age and ethnically diverse Australian actors, spanning from…internationally renowned movie/stage performers to versatile rookies.”
On paper, this seems like fertile ground for a well-crafted and thought-provoking show. While Encounters did meet that potential at points, there were many instances where the acting didn’t mesh well with Broun’s writing style. This problem, unfortunately, dragged the first two plays down.
Yell(ow) starts strong with its minimal set design; all that’s needed to give a clear sense of place is some furniture and a back projection of a messy apartment. Our focus is drawn to the Asian couple who live there. They speculate about a noise they heard outside late at night, their paranoia and anxiety rise, and eventually we see how racism and recent family trauma have eroded their relationship.
Alex Broun has been lauded as ‘the Shakespeare of short plays’, and the riveting structure here makes it clear why. The talk starts trivial, but bombshell revelations keep dropping, leading to deeper conversations that trigger greater reveals until the climax breaks their relationship. In this performance, the actors went into shouting and physical altercations too quickly, and they never seemed truly at ease with each other. This made the revelations feel more like blunt, forced exposition than deep confessions, and the climax felt hollow because they were already yelling at each other before the tension hit its peak.
The second play, The Dead Sun, is another domestic drama, this time between an older couple and their son. The writing goes in a more surreal direction, with grief and conflict blurring the lines between what is real and what is imagined. While the build-in tension is clear, physical moments between the husband and wife could’ve been pushed further, and there still wasn’t much variety in how the characters spoke to each other in longer conversations. This made it difficult to follow the storyline and stay immersed, especially when the climactic moments didn’t quite feel real. However, I enjoyed the fact that the set barely changed from the first play, except for the back projection and the dressings on the couch and table. It was an organic subtle way to tie the two plays together.
YOU was the play that got me fully back on board. It’s a hard swerve into sitcom territory, starting with a woman rejecting the ardent advances of a coworker with a crush and spiralling as more ridiculous characters show up with their own grand confessions and embarrassing mistakes.
The pace was quick and exciting and the characters were each endearing in their own ways. This is particularly impressive given the subject matter. In a time where we’re so aware of the abuses of power that can happen in romance and sex, it would be easy for many of these characters to seem creepy and off-putting. But they don’t, because they are played so over-the-top that they can’t be taken seriously.
The last play, Disco Bombing, quickly brings the mood back down with a simple set projection of a ticking clock. A plucky journalist has written a brilliant article uncovering the truth of a recent terrorist attack, but her boss has concerns about publishing it, since it would undermine historic peace negotiations within the government. He sums up the conflict in one line: “truth or peace?”
The performances from Sunil Shanker and Isabelle Wang feel more confident and embodied than in the other dramas. The acting and writing are also much subtler, strained by the distance between boss and worker. It would’ve been nice to see more escalating tension between them, especially since the stakes here are much higher than the other plays, but the ending was genuinely moving.
There’s a lot to like about Encounters. Each play is poignant and tackles difficult themes flawlessly, and the low-key set design works perfectly in tying everything together. The acting issues are significant, but they can be boiled down to some performers lacking experience, and there are worse problems to have in a production as ambitious as this. While Encounters has ended its short season, and I’d hesitate to recommend it anyway due to the shaky first half, everybody in the cast is worth watching out for, and Alex Broun’s plays are worth seeking out.
This review also appears on It’s On The House. Check out more reviews at Whats The Show to see what else is on in your town.
