Barking Up the Right Tree

My Queer Spiritual Entropy

My Queer Spiritual Entropy Rating

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The Motley Bauhaus is a tiny theatre at the back of a large pub in Carlton. Its intimate nature lends itself to powerful storytelling and heartfelt performances, and that’s exactly what ‘My Queer Spiritual Entropy’ (a play by Holly Rowan & The Wilderbeans) amply provides.

We are welcomed into our seats by an accompaniment of whimsical folk music played live by three child-like nature creatures. The creatures reveal themselves to be ancient trees and through music and story they begin to share with us the delights of the natural world and their places within it. We are educated about the hermaphroditic nature of some trees which possess both male and female parts within themselves and is something which makes that tree truly special, giving it the ability to self-fertilise and reproduce without external pollinators, ensuring its species survives.

However, this same natural and special ability in trees becomes something of deep concern when it happens in humans. Indeed, it becomes not just concerning but deeply antagonistic when anything happens outside of the binary of male and female in humans.

To help us understand that differences are natural and not something to be feared, the tree shares the tale of a little girl called “Holly’ who was once happy, wild and free, revelling in her unique nature but who slowly, little by little, squashes herself into the tiny gender box assigned and deemed appropriate by society, even as it slowly suffocates her. Holly is berated for being ugly, unnatural and ‘wrong’, rejected for not being a ‘proper’ female. Holly is told that their true nature is unnatural and offensive to the family, society and world in which they live. So they try to be ‘good’ and ‘fit in’, but it slowly erodes their sense of self and their connection to their true selves and makes them desperate, self-destructive and terribly lonely.

 

If it sounds heavy in parts, that’s because My Queer Spiritual Entropy calls attention to the lived experience of many gender-diverse people and is at times confronting, forcing us to look at our own behaviour, beliefs and binary-centric attitudes to the lives and gender, non-conforming ‘choices’ of our queer folk. At other times, the show is amusing, poking pointed but good-natured fun at the accepted roles of men and women in our society and challenging our unconscious compliance with those ideologies. Plus, nothing is funnier than a little nip at the narcissistic dark side of the personal development world, which was a highlight for me.

As a theatre-goer who was, at first, a little worried the show might disappear too much into ‘experimental’ with a side of ‘end of year school play’, I was both surprised at the complexity of the non-binary narrative and genuinely moved in several places – in particular when Holly begins to find acceptance both inside of and outside of themselves. My theatre-mate, for whom this is a lived experience, found himself reflected very clearly in the material and also shed a tear or two – such was the power of the music, the silliness, the playfulness and the raw beating heart of this eccentric, edgy but very poignant play.

I believe we, as a society, have to do better in many ways, and right now, one way in which we can do better is by learning to shake off the chains of the ‘two gender’ binary because beyond ‘man’ and ‘woman’, in the complex and often challenging landscape of queer identities, there is a vast community of people whose voices deserve to be heard. I urge you to listen.

To book tickets to My Queer Spiritual Entropy, please visit https://www.midsumma.org.au/whats-on/events/my-queer-spiritual-entropy/

Photography: by Anais Stewart

This year’s Midsumma Festival runs from 19th Jan to 9th Feb. For more information, please visit https://www.midsumma.org.au/.

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.

F5 – Presented by UNLID Dance Theatre

F5

F5 Rating

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5

Certainly a different type of show when you walk into the alley laneway next to the Arnold Street Studio to see a performance by three ultra-talented dancers and one super talented choreographer behind the vision ‘F5’ by ‘UNLID’ last weekend. This Premiere follows the company’s inaugural tour to Singapore in 2024 with Part I which I had read about, so I’m excited to see how this performance unfolds.

USA born Jennifer Fleenor-O’Brien welcomes us all with her personable quality and genuine care of the arts. She says though she was ‘technically’ trained in the United States, she was ‘artistically’ trained in Europe (from her many years living and working there). Having now lived bayside in Melbourne Australia for many years with her family, Jennifer (holding a Master of Dance (Hons) from the University of Melbourne VCA Dance amongst many other accolades) is the founder of possibly the newest visionary contemporary dance company in Victoria. Working with her passion out of the company’s base in the Cheltenham studios, she offers dancers who have finished full-time training courses, or those wishing to further enhance their higher dance training, the opportunity to learn and grow in developing performances such as ‘F5’.

It’s a beautiful night, perfect weather, the dancers have a light breeze as the sun dims just enough to create the best light. An ounce of luck there!

We, the audience, are comfortable to stay outside as three all-in-black figures appear, one by one, to the sound of percussion rhythms backdropped by a paling fence and against the red brick wall, with its graffiti just adding to the realism of where we are. There is no ‘stage’ as such, this laneway and the rooms inside will be the ‘stages’ to which we witness this project.

The dancers’ spacing, timing and awareness of each other outside in this unusual environment is so good that at one point I only saw the front dancer with the other two completely disappearing from my view to go behind her in exact matches of lines and extensions. Great opening!

This is very different choreography to ‘…5,6,7,8’. Contemporary dance has no rules, no boundaries, no pre-expectations other than when you see ‘contemporary’ you expect to have some intricate thought process on what it’s about. And that can be different for everyone watching. Our interpretation may not even be similar to each other’s or that of the choreographer or dancers, but I think that’s what makes the world of contemporary dance so interesting, you never know what you’re going to get or how you’re going to feel.

F5 takes us on a day to day (hour by hour) journey in life (that’s my interpretation anyway), i.e. three dancers, three different perspectives on life. Are they lives that are mundane, fulfilling, hurting or joyous? Will they continue to dance alone, in synchronisation or come together in a different way? Are they experiencing or remembering or imagining?

 

Sometimes, in certain situations, we’d all like to crawl under our coffee table, slide forward and scrape ourselves blindly down the kitchen bench, open our wardrobe and change from our boring neutral daywear into a dress of colour, screaming in silence and expressing that we all cope in different ways; falling and surviving at the same time.

Are we being heard? Do we want to skip and run and stop suddenly to meet another person only to be enveloped into their world of darkness or happiness? Is it to be our world? What choices should we make?

I saw movements and uniformity in this show I hadn’t witnessed before in contemporary dance. An element of almost hip hop at times and some amazing partnering combinations, fluidity and cross referencing from where we started in the alley for the first scene, through to the everyday living spaces and finally into the open vastness of a blank canvas room, made for compelling engagement.

We didn’t sit down at all, the audience was standing and then following the dancers through the spaces, using the entire building. When it came time to take a bow (actually 3 or 4 bows), the audience was loud and proud of what they had just seen. Well done girls!

Speaking to some other attendees after the show:
“I didn’t mind standing up, it was excellent. It didn’t have any dull moments, it went fast!”
“My mum cried, it was so captivating.”
“I couldn’t believe they could dance on, under and around the table so well”
“Loved the dancing outside, extraordinary!”
“I thought I knew what was going to happen but I didn’t”
“They were dancing in the moment, I stared straight at them, but I couldn’t shift their gaze”

Speaking to a dancer:
“To be involved was to experience a different aspect of Jen and her work, I have taken her classes before. She has a lot of energy and we worked a lot on very precise movements. Most contemporary dance I’ve done is nothing like what we did tonight. I loved it.”

Speaking to Jennifer (choreographer) on her ideas for ‘F5’:

Conformity by society is what came to mind.

“Mapping the dancers’ own stories to memory, lineage and connecting the audience to take the journey with them that underpins their own personal story within.”

A thoroughly enjoyable show, and the drinks and supper snacks provided afterwards for all the audience to enjoy gave us the opportunity to find out who thought what; and how interpretations differed, but all were impressed.

Congratulations to Jennifer and her dance artists in ‘F5’, Mollie Harrison, Bridget Lyte and Bre Surridge.

I strongly recommend if you’re a lover of dance or any interpretive artforms, look out for their next creative work and opportunities to be involved. Website link: https://www.unlid-dance.com.au/

Dancers may join an Advanced Contemporary class at Space Fest on Monday March 10th from 11am – 12:30pm at The Space and to come along!  Check our website for the most current information on classes and upcoming auditions.

Photographers: Lee Harrison, Chrissy Dore Photography, Gnashmas of Singapore

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.

Hot White Kiss

Hot White Kiss

Hot White Kiss Rating

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1

Written and directed by James WF Roberts, Hot White Kiss is an hour-long play focusing on five individuals, all sporadically linked through polyamorous & bisexual relationships with each other. Yet sparking and fuelling their individual flames isn’t oxygen, but the dangerous elements of addiction, abuse, trauma, and self-destruction.

The story, stemming from a poem Roberts previously wrote, is no stranger to The Butterfly Club. It now returns almost a year later as part of the Midsumma Festival and with a larger cast. Sticking with its previous venue proves to be an asset, as Hot White Kiss’ gritty themes fit perfectly with the grungy, basement-esque setting of the Club.

The show follows Leena, a heroin addict who cannot see the harm she’s inflicting on herself and others, and John, a wannabe poet trying to get out of the harmful addictions he’s found himself dealing with, including Leena. Surrounding them is Cilla, a drug-dealer who is obsessed with controlling Leena’s life, and a married polyamorous couple (Bill & Taylah), who see the harm from a far but do little to help.

Savier D’Arsie-Marquez (John) and Olivia Buckton Smith (Leena) stand out as the two main characters, who appear to have no positive reason to stay together. Not that it would stop them. They both portray a great amount of hurt and panic through their deliveries and expressions, that had them feeling like genuine people.

Most of the audience stayed wide-eyed and quiet throughout the performance of emotions on stage – but the few large laughs that broke through came from D’Arsie-Marquez’s ability to have fun with the dialogue in well-timed moments that made his character shine.

Considering the topics of the show, it felt there shouldn’t be a personified villain to the story. Yet Cilla’s (Bridgette Kucher) Joker-like smirk and constant manipulation of Leena often evoked that anger. There weren’t many redeeming parts that made us understand why Lenna stays with her, well portraying the abusive relationships you sometimes question from the outside.

The interpersonal relationships between each of the characters are constantly calamitous. All of them using the other people as person-shaped climbing block to get higher and leaving the other bleeding down below. But no one truly ends up on top.

However, a lot of the romances between characters felt slightly fabricated. It would have been enjoyable to see there be a bit more of a connection or backstory between the two leads. One of their most interesting scenes when reminiscing their past together was more like a tease of a flame that left you wanting to understand more of their relationship.

An unfortunate and constant jarring of the show came from the music played between scenes and set-ups. The audio’s sudden slice through the tension and emitting from the back of the theatre gave an illusion of a phone going off in the seats. By the time the understanding came that it wasn’t that, the emotional tether had already been cut. If it could fade in/out or come from behind the curtain instead, it would help keep the tension high.

Overall, the show was strong in the moments it felt grounded and real between characters. And though confrontations ended with not a lot of pay off and a few things left unanswered – it felt supportive of the less than comforting ending you often get when involved with addiction and toxic relationships like these.

And if they were hoping to raise addiction awareness additionally – one man leaving the theatre who noted, “Well…I’m never going to do heroin” certainly got the message.

To book tickets to Hot White Kiss, please visit https://thebutterflyclub.com/

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.

Tongue in Cheeks

A Body At Work

A Body At Work Rating

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Whatever I thought I was expecting from the show, ‘A Body At Work, the tale of a queer woman’s 17 years, and counting, in the sex industry,’ I was not expecting the undiluted eloquence of the artist in both body and mind.

Frankie van Kan sidles onto the stage quietly, adding the finishing touches to her makeup while the audience continues to file in, tousling their art student hair-do’s and taking their seats. Whilst I, possibly the only straight woman in the audience, and certainly the only one on a date night with her husband, quietly placed my pearls within easy clutching distance. (Yes, I willingly took my man to see another woman up close and very, very personal.)

The moment the lights go down, Frankie slides quickly into action and is almost entirely naked within the first few minutes of her opening monologue. It’s an act that is both deliberate (get the nudity out of the way early and the audience can get comfortable with it) and excitingly ‘naughty’ and we are all immediately seduced by both her candour and her unabashed delight and confidence in herself.

Throughout the 80 minute show, which is an account of her 17 years of work in the sex industry, she shares raunchy stories that induce laughter and whoops of approval. She snakes and writhes her way across the stage, undeniably intoxicating, sharing genuine moments of compassion and tenderness towards her motley assortment of clients. She pokes fun at the ‘bro’ culture power dynamic that pervades her world, juxtaposing her absolute and embodied agency over her body, her pleasure and her boundaries, alongside the recognition that her body and her work are created for the male gaze, on which it relies. Throughout it all she offers us the most tantalising peek through the forbidden window of strippers and sex work.

 

One of the most memorable parts of the whole performance is when she answers the question of, ‘what do strippers think about when they are giving a dance?’ in a way that manages to be both shockingly candid and deeply poetic. What is truly extraordinary though is that she can flip from Aussie good humour to sex kitten stripper magic with just a playful toss of her long hair. And as easily as she pulls us nervously into that neon glittering world, she also has us pulling at the threads of our own judgemental narratives around this work and the people who do it, all with the practised ease of a remarkable woman and performer.

Despite this show being marketed to the wonderful queer folk of our beautiful city as part of ‘Midsumma,’ I truly believe that this is a show for everyone (over the age of 18). It is beautifully acted, exceptionally well-written with real cheek, genuine warmth and admirable honesty. Frankie herself is intelligent, seductive, insightful, funny and incredibly perceptive. An artist revealing to us the soft underbelly of this curious, discomfiting, often taboo industry and the surprisingly resilient people who work within it, all while offering humorous, sharp-eyed social commentary. I also want to give a shout-out to her chameleonic and energetic supporting actor/stage hand, who, though uncredited, does not go unnoticed or unappreciated and whose ‘male gaze’ was both humorous and touching.

As much as I have waxed lyrical about this show because it truly was a pleasure to watch and participate in its playful intimacy, I do have one small criticism, and that was that it ended too abruptly. The finale came unexpectedly while everyone was still deliciously absorbed in the story and seemed strangely at odds with the energy of the rest of the show, which was far more deliberate. Perhaps I just wasn’t ready for it to end.

To book tickets to A Body At Work, please visit https://www.theatreworks.org.au/2025/abodyatwork

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.