karen yee

Lizard People

Lizard People

Lizard People Rating

★★★★★

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8

“Lizard People” is a light-hearted comedy by writer-director-producer Laura McKenzie that pokes fun at just about anything in pop culture. The interplanetary Lizard Conglomerate are planning the destruction of humans on earth. It does this by sending individual Lizard people to take over the bodies of prominent Earth leaders for short periods of time and getting them to do dumb things that sow discord. “Divide and conquer” is part of the mantra.

But the Conglomerate, lead by a virtual Lizzo, is an authoritarian regime and Shiv, our protagonist Lizard person, doesn’t quite fit in. Despite months in a remedial “performance management program”, he continues to be fascinated by human culture and has taken up knitting, journalling, listening to Grimes and reading Malcolm Turnbull’s biography in secret. Lizzo needs to test his allegiance and sends him on a mission to embody Elon Musk and to follow orders without question. Somehow they end up in Ballarat……

The strength of this play is in the casting and the quality of the performers in the ensemble. Elliot Wood shines as Shiv and is endearingly enthusiastic in his adventurous curiosity for all things human. They are joined by Clover Blue (Tony) and Georgia Barron (Tiff) his siblings. Their banter is fun to watch and the characterisations are playful and engaging. 

The strength of this play is in the casting and the quality of the performers in the ensemble. Elliot Wood (Shiv), Clover Blue (Tony) and Georgia Barron (Tiff) are the Lizard People who are also triplets. Their sibling banter is fun to watch and the characterisations are playful and engaging.

Bridie Pamment (also assistant director) shows her comedic range as TV journalist, voice of Lizzo and Elon Musk’s partner, Grimes. In the human world, Blue and Barron also play childhood friends from Ballarat who are now sharing a house. There’s a lovely chemistry in their relationship.

Each actor is a pleasure to watch, as individuals and as ensemble members, fully at home on stage and in each character they played. I would love to see more of them!

 

Lizard People
Lizard People
Lizard People

There is a multi-media element to the show, with film projections by Park Avenue Media supporting scenes and scene changes. Shiv’s transformations from Lizard to human and back were filmed and feature Wood’s movement skills. The set (Jessamine Moffett) and costume changes were minimal and therefore highly effective for the fast-paced scene changes which were well supported by light (Kate Kelly) and sound (Olivia McKenna) design. The montage scene showing Elon, Grimes, Maz and Spider bonding as housemates brought all these elements together really well.

There was a light skimming over a lot of interesting ideas such as the nature of humanity, of power, of evil vs good, dictatorship vs democracy, romantic vs sibling love, poor vs rich, curiosity vs compliance. I would love to see a film version of this where some themes are explored more deeply and the stakes are higher for all involved.

But in the meantime, enjoy the fun of “Lizard People” playing at the Meat Market Stables till October 21!

For tickets, book @ https://melbournefringe.com.au/event/lizard-people/

For further information about Laura McKenzie, please check: https://www.lauramckenzie.site/

Photography: Tom Noble

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.

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Piper: By Frenzy Theatre

Piper

Piper Rating

★★★★★

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7

Seeing the opening night performance of PIPER presented by Frenzy Theatre Co and Theatreworks has renewed my faith in live theatre as a place of exuberance and joy. The show takes the Grimm fairytale, the Pied Piper of Hamelin, and uses it as a springboard for an exploration of power, exploitation and survival in a way that stimulates the audience to engage and think whilst being thoroughly entertained.

Directed by Belle Hansen and co-created by Dora Abraham, Piper is indeed the extravaganza it sets out to be with a vibrant ensemble cast of 20 female and non-binary actors who are also singers, dancers and circus artists. It is a visual and aural feast with so much going on that you will want to come back and see it again.

The pre-show foyer entertainment features the eight rat dancers/circus artists who perform an ensemble floating rat movement. They move as one in their rat pack until one-by-one they spook and run into the auditorium. Inside, the audience are invited to step onto the stage and interact with other cast members – Hamelin town councillors, the children, the townspeople. The costumes by Harry Gill and Jessamine Moffett and makeup signal that this is a very colourful but fractured hyper-real world of Hamelin. We vote on which rats get to live, get a Taro Tarot card reading , receive and write mail distributed by the town florist and play a loaded card game with a town councillor. It is Disney-esque and captivating.

Frenzy Theatre Co chooses to be “pop culture-based, and grounded in its commitment to dynamic physical theatre, ensemble devising and maximalism”. For Piper, this is a commitment well and truly kept. Big moments with a lot of action (including an aerialist on a rope) and pumped music beats contrasted with quieter, poetic text-based scenes that take inspiration from Greek tragedy and chorus.

Jack Burmeister’s sound design and composition is integral to the success of the transitions and story-telling as is Sidney Younger’s lighting design. Hannah Jennings’ beautiful cinematography adds to the mood and spectacle. Despite the dark nature of the themes, overall the tone of this thought-provoking show is light and humorous. Rats will die, but why and how? In this version, there is no Piper. Then the children want their turn in the limelight but end up exploited by a different power altogether.

Piper
Piper

Despite a cast of 20, each performer has their moments to shine and all give solid performances. There is a cohesiveness within each ensemble group (rats, children, townspeople and councillors) so that no one performance steals the limelight. Rather, each performer supports the unity of purpose of their group which in turn supports the performance as a whole. This is remarkable and would have to be a strength of Frenzy’s approach to group devised theatre and ensemble development.

Frenzy Theatre Co was established in 2020 by Belle Hansen and Matilda Gibbs and are now joined by Jack Burmeister and Anna Louey as Company Artists. Their youth is their strength and they dream big. But they also have years and a depth of experience which means their crazy big ideas actually come to fruition! It is worth noting that Frenzy are committed to nurturing and up-skilling early career artists. If you love theatre, you should keep an eye on them.

I absolutely loved the experience of watching PIPER. I had been smarting from seeing a very bland, wordy production with no subtext at unnamed state’s flagship theatre company. I was bored out of my brain. It was predictable and all the loose ends were neatly tied up so there was nothing to have to think about. But PIPER exploded with life and had me hooked every minute. My mind was filled with things to discuss and mull over. So if you want to see the full gamut of what live theatre can be, go and see PIPER!

Disclaimer – I had the privilege to work with Frenzy Theatre Co in their last production, The Roof Is Caving In, as an actor/musician. I know first-hand how professional, inclusive, respectful and nurturing they are and also their incredible work ethic. These people work hard and still have to have day jobs. Yet they produce work far more compelling than some of the work that comes out of flagship companies. But that’s just my opinion.

Tickets available at https://www.theatreworks.org.au/2024/piper

DATES + TIMES
Tuesday 13 August – 7:30pm
Wednesday 14 August – 7:30pm
Thursday 15 August – 7:30pm
Friday 16 August – 7:30pm
Saturday 17 August – 7:30pm
Tuesday 20 August – 7:30pm
Wednesday 21 August – 7:30pm
Thursday 22 August – 7:30pm
Friday 23 August – 7:30pm
Saturday 24 August – 1:30pm (MATINEE)

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.

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Hannah Gadsby Woof!

Hannah Gadsby Woof!

Hannah Gadsby brings their new show “Woof” to Melbourne Arts Centre for the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. Their star has risen well and truly since her show Nanette hit Netflix in 2018. Today, they grace the cover of Rolling Stone Magazine (AU/NZ edition) with the headline “Comedy’s enfant terrible is relishing their anti-hero era”.

As a newbie, it was a wonderful introduction to Gadsby’s fast-paced, quick-witted, intensely analytic humour, which brought out belly laughs galore. Snappy asides like bullet spray on the way to the main punchlines compounded the fun. I was surrounded by pre-Nanette die-hard fans, so there was a lot of love in the house. And I can see why—Gadsby is earnest, humble, intelligent, funny, vulnerable, honest, and a truth-teller.

They’ve worked hard to be where they are now. For someone who can go for weeks without speaking (they have autism and ADHD) and who says they are bad at everything in life, including having fun, they have certainly played their cards to their advantage. They say their only skill is to talk to a room full of strangers and not feel scared. But what they choose to say has been both strategic and a personal lifeline. Nanette deconstructed comedy and social norms derived from centuries of white male dominance at a time when Australia was debating the same-sex marriage plebiscite. For this, Gadsby bared their soul, and it was raw and confronting.

Interestingly, Gadsby has tried hard, in good faith, to like Taylor Swift. It hasn’t worked. They even used her as inspiration for their 2016 show, Dogmatic. Of course, they have major differences: Gadsby has a depth of intellectual engagement with their art form and uses it to subvert and confront. Their 2023 Picasso-blasting exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum, It’s Pablomatic, is a case in point alongside Nanette. However, I can’t help but see some similarities: both use the power of story-telling and self-disclosure in their work, which fosters a high level of devotion in their predominantly female fan base; both live their lives in a way that encourages their fans to be unafraid to be themselves and in return, their fans care deeply about them and want to support them. But there is a vast contrast in their lived experience of otherness and, therefore, the depth of their fight.

Hannah Gadsby Woof!

Now, Gadsby has a global voice and has just launched a new Netflix comedy show, Gender Agenda, featuring seven gender-queer comedians from around the world. Being nouveau-riche means staying in posh hotels where the concierges don’t know how to respond to questions about doing your own laundry and the bathrooms have no toilet brush. Gadsby worries about becoming a rich arsehole, but I doubt that will happen – they take a spare travel toothbrush with them to clean up after themselves when a low roughage travel diet messes with their regularity.

“Woof” is a show about the worries that lead to anxiety. If you think the ending is a bit loose, well, that is the point. There is no closure, no easy answers. What happened to all those plastic dolls called Cabbage Patch Kids from the 80s/90s? Did they end up somewhere in a “Blair Witch style croquembouche”? Will Hannah Gadsby be able to enjoy swimming with a whale on her day off? Will their brain let them remember fun times as vividly as they remember a randomly defiled Tim Tam packet left for them to clean up when working as a hotel cleaner?

Enjoy this show where your host “takes all their worries and lays them out on stage in front of a darkened room full of strangers. It’s like group therapy, but the group is the therapist”. That’s us, but we don’t feel like strangers. So now Gadsby adds us to their list of worries, too, because therapists are all “f***ed in the head.”

“Woof” is playing until April 20 at the Melbourne Arts Centre Playhouse.

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.

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Melbourne Comedy Festival – Necrophilia

Melbourne Comedy Festival - Necrophilia

Don’t be fooled by this deliciously named one-act play “Necrophilia” by Aussie writer Lincoln Vickery. This tightly written dark comedy, directed by Ben Ashby, is making a return season at the 2024 Melbourne International Comedy Festival after winning Melbourne Fringe Judges Pick in October 2023. Whilst humour is derived from the awkwardly taboo subject matter, this play has a sensitive side. There are no visually disturbing scenes and the play treats all characters with respect as humans trying to cope with their bizarre situations.

The play opens in a morgue, with a sheet-covered cadaver on a trolley. The Motley Bauhaus Theatrette’s small stage and bare bricks perfectly conveyed the feeling of being in a cold basement mortuary. Darren (Declan Clifford) and Mark (Gene Efron) are in mid-conversation whilst preparing a body for viewing. The contrast between the usually unseen business of “making dead bodies look hot as shit” and the desensitised workers bickering about a “victimless crime”, especially when we realise that Darren has just confessed to feeling a rush when defecating in a certain street near his house under cover of darkness. He cleans it all up immediately, he explains, so, whilst technically a crime, no one gets hurt. He also explains the origin of the fetish – an accidental experience accompanied by unexplained pleasure that then becomes a fascination and a repeated behaviour that reinforces the rush.

These themes of fetishism and its origins and whether or not they affect others are explored within this play, and the quality of the writing really shines – there is no dull moment and lots of laughs. If you have come for the comedy, you won’t be disappointed. Vickery doesn’t miss any opportunity to bring out the hilarity of the situations in which he places the characters. For example, bumping into your boss at a sex shop, walking in on your boss dancing in a blissful moment of private surrender. However, the treatment of the underlying themes brings substance to this play.

Amanda (Gillian Mosenthal, who also produced this) is the necrophiliac and boss in question and the only character who reveals her insecurities directly to the audience. Instead of judging, we are invited to journey with her in her struggle and shame. I was impressed with the attention to psychological detail in the writing, particularly with the reveal of Amanda’s childhood trauma. Vickery has done his homework on this psychiatric condition. But there is no schmalziness here. It’s just a fact.

The minor characters shed more light on the question of whether necrophilia is a victimless crime. The recently bereaved daughter starkly contrasted with the mercenary med student who rents out cadavers to fund her studies. “Dead people are tools. I don’t care what you do”. Both characters were ably played by Joanna Halliday, who stole the scenes with her fearless performances.

However, the exploration of loneliness and the desire to connect in the face of shame draws us in. The actors have a lovely chemistry that brings the relationships to life. They really care about each other, and so do we. A developing romance between Mark and Amanda is at the heart of the narrative. But will it withstand the shame?

Come and see Necrophilia for the laughs, but you will be in grave danger of taking away a dose of heartwarming humanity.

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.

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