Vaudeville

A Bold, Witty, and Unflinchingly Honest Exploration of the Human Psyche in Musical Form

Initial Consult: Taking diet culture to therapy

Initial Consult: Taking diet culture to therapy Rating

★★★★★

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Charlotte Grimmer’s Initial Consult- Taking diet culture to therapy (2026 MICF) at The MC Showroom is a bold, witty, and unflinchingly honest exploration of the human psyche. Grimmer is a graduate of NIDA Acting program, a high school dance and drama teacher. Charlotte has performed this show in Edinburgh, Sydney and the Adelaide Fringe Festival.

Bursting straight through the waiting room, Charlotte Grimmer’s initial court-mandated therapy session begins-and we, the audience find ourselves cast as the therapist. This fresh and fearless musical invites us into a hilariously triggering session filled with tap, rap, dance, and masterful keyboards. Grimmer’s performance showcases her diverse vocals, sharp wit and impressive comedic skillset.

The shows engaging narrative grapples with mental health, diet culture, perfectionism and the messy nuances of how we cope. Charlotte works the packed audience brilliantly- making pointed uncomfortable and knowing eye contact with every “therapist” in the room in moments that are at once awkward, hilarious, and deeply relatable. One moment the audience squirms, triggered and defensive: the next, they erupt with applause and laughter.

 

Initial Consult: Taking diet culture to therapy

 

The stage is set with minimalist flair: a chair, a keyboard, and a side table adorned with tissues, a plant, and a pot. By the end of the performance, it resembles the floor of a teenager’s bedroom. Each prop is purposefully placed and thoughtfully used. Grimmer’s inventive excellence is evident in every detail—every movement, and exaggerated facial expression, and lyric is meticulously placed—creating a remarkably clever and cohesive piece highlighting Grimmer’s inventive flair and keen attention to detail.

Sadly, Melbourne, Charlotte Grimmer has wrapped up her season and is heading back to Queensland. The MC Showroom is conveniently located near plenty of pubs and dining options and has a licensed bar for enjoying a drink during the performance —ideal for steadying one’s nerves before this funny therapeutic ride. Patrons should note that accessibility is limited, with 25 stairs and no all-access bathroom.

In a thoughtful touch, Grimmer acknowledges the show’s potentially triggering themes, directing audience members towards support organisations such as The Butterfly Foundation. This thought-provoking and playfully disarming performance will follow you home.

Deliciously daring, Initial Consult- Taking diet culture to therapy (2026 MICF) is the kind of performance that makes you laugh, wince, and reflect—sometimes all in the same breath. Side effects may include sore cheeks from smiling and the sudden urge to book a therapy session… or a tap class.

Love Aunty Kylie xo

To book tickets to Initial Consult: Taking diet culture to therapy, please visit https://www.themcshowroom.com/whatson/melbourne-international-comedy-festival-2026-initial-consult.

Photographer: Joel Devereux

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The Chairs

The Chairs

The Chairs Rating

★★★★★

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3

The Chairs is a creative vaudeville, circus style play about an elderly couple, simply known as the Old Man and the Old Woman presented by The Melville Theatre Company and directed by Virginia Moore Price.

Written by Eugene Ionesco in the 1950s, it is quite an absurd tale in which the elderly couple reflect on their life over the 70 years they’ve been married. This indicated that they would be in their 90s. At the beginning I struggled to understand what was happening and their conversations seemed nonsensical. A sign of the deterioration of their memories and their minds.

The couple prepare to receive guests for a lecture of some sort which never eventuates and their guest of honour, the Orator. They frantically gather chairs for the guests and dump them onto the rotating floor in a comedic fashion. The guests, however, are invisible to the audience. Whether the old couple are imagining them or whether they are actually real to the couple, left me unsure.

The couple’s fragmented recollections and contradictory chronologies evoke signs of dementia. This is particularly evident when the Old Woman recalls having a son who died when he was a child and reflecting on the grief of losing a child but the Old Man recalls the couple not being able to have any children and instead reflecting on the grief of his mother’s death.

 

The Chairs
The Chairs
The Chairs

 

Although it is clear they both deeply care for each other, there are moments of regret and a sense now that their lives are very soon coming to an end. Throughout the play the Old Woman continuously reminds the Old Man how he could’ve been a head general or a head comedian much to both of their despair. The Orator Raven who whilst is visible to the audience throughout the entire play as he sits on the rotating floor, is only visible to the couple towards the end perhaps signifying death.

Ionesco gives plays into the delusional state of mind of the elderly couple by having them set in a circus ring with both dressed as clowns and the Old Man performing as a mime artist.

Zane Alexander and Solanje Burns deliver a phenomenal performance as the Old Man and Old Woman holding the attention of audience for the entire play without an interval. There were moments of interaction with the audience when they both tumble off the stage and weave themselves into the audience while they continue their nonsensical dialogue.

At the heart of The Chairs is two people longing to be seen and heard, trying to make sense of the lives they have lived.

To book tickets to The Chairs, please visit https://melvilletheatrecompany.au/current-production.

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Adrift in New York

Adrift in New York

Adrift in New York Rating

★★★★★

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1

The Rep presents a masterfully executed traditional melodrama with Adrift In New York that requires the usual audience participation and is a thoroughly entertaining night at the Arts Theatre.

This style of melodrama emerged in France in the early nineteenth century and rapidly spread throughout the world becoming the favourite form of theatrical performances for the following century. A great number of plays were produced in this genre containing the staples of a love interest, moral conflicts, exaggerated acting in a fast-paced plot with music and happy conclusions. The audience is required to aah and ooh or boo and cheer and sing to the familiar songs if they want.

This story is set in the 1890’s and begins in the Weston family’s farmhouse where Aunt Sarah Weston (Jude Hines) and Martha Weston (Abigail Papps) are discussing the arrival of a letter for Nellie Weston (TJ Baker) from the villain Francis “Desperate” Desmond (Dylan Haar). Silas Weston (Russel Ford), Martha and Nellie’s father, announces that the wealthy Mr. Willoughby has been murdered and robbed. Nellie enters and it is discovered that Desmond has offered to take Nellie to New York to make her a great singer. The hero Jack Merriwell (LA Foale) arrives then Desmond and as the events unfold Desmond’s plot to steal the love of Nellie and to take over the farm which he believes has underground oil is revealed. The twists begin as the battle between good and bad engages.

 

Adrift in New York
Adrift in New York
Adrift in New York

 

The second act is set in a Bowery music hall then the conclusion in the third act is back at the farmhouse. The audience is superbly entertained at the start and end of each act with vaudeville sets by the wonderful chorus, including the hilarious balloon dance. There is also a segment where the audience can sing the classics, “Give My Regards to Broadway”, “A Bicycle Built for Two”, “Down by the Sea” and others.

Director Rose Vallen’s experience comes to the fore in this excellent production containing all the elements of a successful melodrama as the cast move seamlessly around the stage extracting the mandatory audience participation. The set design is minimal but effective. The music from the band, Sandi McMenamin and Rowan Dennis, is perfectly performed and holds the show together.

The cast is outstanding, Jude Hines expertise shines as she both masterfully handles the role of Aunt Sarah and guides the audience in eliciting the required responses to the hero and the villain. Newcomer Abigail Papps, in only her second production, has a first-rate grasp on the necessary exuberance required for a melodrama performance sparkling in the role of Martha. TJ Baker and LA Foale are similarly excellent, and Dylan Haar is terrifically dastardly as the villain. The rest of the cast and chorus are also marvellous, especially the scene stealing Penni Hamilton-Smith.

While a traditional melodrama may not be to everyone’s taste this production of Adrift in New York executes the genre expertly and is a great fun night for those who want to boo the villain and cheer the hero and sing to old favourites.

Reviewed by Rob McKinnon

Adrift in New York remaining sessions are:
15 November at 7.30 pm
16 November at 2.00 pm
19-21 November at 7.30 pm
22 November 2.00pm

Venue: Arts Theatre
53 Angas St Adelaide

Tickets: 8212 5777 or adeliaderep.com

To book tickets to Adrift in New York, please visit https://adelaiderep.com/season-2025/adrift-in-new-york.

Photographer: Richard Parkhill

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A Deep, Beautiful, Brave and Vulnerable Piece of Performance Art

Once In A Blue Moon

Once In A Blue Moon Rating

★★★★★

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“Once in a Blue Moon,” created and performed by Tala Issaoui as part of PYT Fairfield at the Sydney Fringe Festival, delivers a brief yet densely layered experience that fuses dance, ritual, and evocative visual storytelling.

Spanning just 30 minutes, Issaoui’s multidisciplinary performance beckons the audience into a shifting world of transformation. It’s a melancholic trilogy told through patterns, transitions, and potent symbolism.

The work opens with a striking video projection: Issaoui’s dance, rendered in cinematic hues and fluid imagery.

The transitions between film and live presence feel seamless, as the artist materialises onstage before a circular altar adorned with pebbles, an urn, and a pair of goblets.

The artist’s movements around this circle are cyclical and deliberate, blending ritual with choreography in a way that bridges the personal and the universal, with the lights, sound and music complimenting each phase.

Throughout, imagery and symbolism abound; the veil, for instance, which seems to float between meanings, might connote marriage, transformation, or transcendence.

The rhythmic motions, paired with dynamic lighting and a soundscape of often eery music, build tension and drama: thunder and lightning suggest fear and elemental power, while the act of dousing with water feels like a physical release, mourning, or rebirth. Texture becomes tangible as exaggerated makeup begins to spill down Issaoui’s face, accentuating the emotional intensity and the sense of unravelling.

 

Once In A Blue Moon
Once In A Blue Moon
Once In A Blue Moon

 

The performer’s precision timing is key, with the crafted sound and lighting cues. These multi-dimensional effects surround the audience with layers of sensation, blurring boundaries between dance, ritual, and visual art.

Patterns repeat and modulate, symbolising repetition and cyclical pain, while the pace of the piece builds into a crescendo of melancholy.

Issaoui is visibly moved by the work’s close, punctuating the experience with authenticity and emotional depth. The ritual ends not with clear answers, but with a shared sense that something profound, if hard to articulate, has transpired.

While “Once in a Blue Moon” may not suit every taste, I found myself admiring the precision and vision more than personally connecting with its abstract ethos. It stands as a compelling example of experimental performance in Western Sydney. The blending of film, choreography, sound, and symbolic staging delivers a textured, esoteric meditation on grief, transformation, and spiritual passage. Issaoui’s willingness to traverse the boundaries of art-form and narrative ensures this work is both brave and memorable. I admire and am in awe of the power of the personal artistic risk and wholehearted embodiment.

Recommended for those ready to meaningfully engage with experimental theatre. It is a deep, beautiful, brave and vulnerable piece of performance art.

To book tickets to Once In A Blue Moon, please visit https://sydneyfringe.com/events/once-in-a-blue-moon/.

Photographer: Benjamin Tiger La

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