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Powerful, Passionate, and Fantastic

02/10/2025 Karen Yee🥉

The Comedy Games with Coach Mon Rating

★★★★★

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Comedy Games With Coach Mon is now on at the Ivanhoe Library & Cultural Hub’s Yarra-me Djila Theatrette as part of the Melbourne Fringe. Aimed at children age 4 and up, the show is a really fun way to introduce your junior primary and pre-school kids to interactive live theatre. It’s a great antidote to the effects of too much screen time – it’s upbeat, inclusive, funny and interactive. It stimulates the imagination and reminds us how to play. The age appropriate humour is infectious, and a lot of it is supplied organically by the children themselves. I highly recommend it.

The theatrette is cosy, clean and family-friendly. Coach Mon makes your child feel at home by introducing herself to each child and learning their names before the show starts, so I recommend getting there a little early to settle into the space. There is ample parking at the Ivanhoe venue which also has a lovely café and a library on the same level.

The theme of the show is sports. Coach Mon’s dream is to be a sports coach and she is looking for athletes who are Powerful, Passionate, and Fantastic. There’s a good dose of the ridiculous, which kids love, so we’ll be starting with eyebrow push-ups and weight-lifting with marshmallows on a skewer, for starters. Sometimes Coach Mon might need some coaching herself. Does she really know what hurdles are? Why is she asking for child hurdles – “churdles”? Will she jump over them or fly?

Adults – you will not be bored! Coach Mon knows how to keep the kids’ attention with singing, acrobatics, jokes, miming and clowning-skills, all with a warm connected personality. She knows how to keep them quietly in their seat, if needed, and, conversely, how to get them up and noisy depending on the scene of the show. You’ll be able to relax and enjoy the antics with your child, and possibly even take part in some synchronised swimming!

The fast pace of the show is underscored by well-chosen classical and pop-rock songs. For example, who doesn’t like a slow-mo running race with Chariots of Fire as the soundtrack? I loved that this show was exposing the young ones to really good music from Peer Gynt Suite’s Hall of the Mountain King to Eye of the Tiger. We might know these songs, but it might just be the first time the little ones get to hear it.

After the show, Coach Mon stayed to chat to kids and adults as they were leaving. I had a chat to her too and discovered that Coach Mon is the multi-talented Monique Warren who is an actor, musician, educator, choir director and clown. She grew up singing in the Australian Girls Choir and then stayed on as a choir teacher for 12 years. Her inspiration for the show came out of blue one day while she was teaching an online co-curricular drama class online during COVID lockdown in 2021. Worn out by the sheer boredom she had had enough and walked away from the faces on the computer screen. A minute later, she was back with sports cap on and tennis ball in hand and announced “I’m Coach Mon. Let’s play!”.

Monique Warren’s dream is to build her kids show to be a regular school holiday gig. The joy she gets from doing the show is from bringing people together and that is her passion. It’s a Passion that is Powerful and her show is Fantastic! Go see it before it closes. Let’s play!

To book tickets to The Comedy Games with Coach Mon, please visit https://www.melbournefringe.com.au/whats-on/events/the-comedy-games-with-coach-mon.

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Review: The Central Australian Aboriginal Women’s Choir

04/04/202525/03/2025 Karen Yee🥉

The Central Australian Aboriginal Women’s Choir Rating

★★★★★

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“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.

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Karen Yee🥉

Skating In The Clouds

04/04/202508/12/2024 Karen Yee🥉

Skating In The Clouds Rating

★★★★★

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Clare Mendes’ current play “Skating In the Clouds”, directed by Emily Farrell, brings her passion for saving the environment to the fore but also shows her passion for people and relationships. Two years in the making, with assistance from a Malcolm Robertson grant, Mendes explores the responses we make, as individuals, as generations and as a society to that big topic, climate change.

I say “we” because, through the actors on stage, we see ourselves represented. Summer and Autumn, in solid performances by Katrina Mathers and Rebecca Morton, are like two sides of a coin. Together, they are facing a world that is changing, but they have opposing coping mechanisms. Autumn, a scientist, wants to fix it but despairs at her inability to get to the root cause. Summer would rather hide in her daydreams, imagining a perfect future unaffected by such changes, yet the truth hits her in small moments every day. How will they navigate the future together? Can they reconcile their differences?

The play makes more sense when viewed as a morality play, with the symbolically-named Summer and Autumn together being our Every(wo)man (or Every person). Described as a “magic-realist romp”, there is a disconnect from a specific time and place. The beautifully simple set by Bianca Pardo is timeless, and despite Melbourne’s locations being mentioned, we imagine it to be in the clouds. Whilst we are told that our ladies are turning 70 in 2040, we don’t feel like we are fully in 2024 either. Props are oversized. It’s all very dreamy.

Performers El Kiley and Shamita Sivabalan ably support the action with youthful energy in scenes that punctuate the main storyline. Their physical embodiment of various characters reveal different societal responses to the climate crisis: politicians, journalists and rich corporate workers as examples.

For me, the highlight of the play was the confrontation scene between Mathers’ Summer, and Sivabalan, playing Summer’s daughter, Toby. After the discussion of ideas that dominate Summer and Autumn’s conflict in the previous scenes, we finally see raw emotions we can relate to. Summer has to face her fears for her daughter and mourns the simplicity of life when she was young; she wonders how we got into this mess that includes the overproduction of disposables. Toby believes herself and her generation innocent and rages against the undeserved burden, directing it at her mother. But the argument is pointless. The problem remains and mother and daughter must find hope for the future by finding small ways they can contribute to change. The passion in this scene has stayed with me, both its rage and its hope, and is a testament to the writing and the performances of the actors.

The lighting design by Natalia Velasco Moreno and the sound design by Sharyn Brand supported the action effectively but, along with all the creative team including set/costume, actors and movement (Lucy Payne) I would have liked to have seen more of their stamp on the whole production. The amount of talent in the creative team is immense, and the “magic-realism” element could have been leaned into even more, allowing the story and its deeper emotional meanings to unfold in the spaces between the words.

“Skating in the Clouds” is on at Theatreworks, Acland St, St Kilda, until Saturday, December 14th.

To book tickets, please visit https://www.theatreworks.org.au/2024/skating-in-the-clouds

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Karen Yee🥉

The Ninth Tone

04/04/202503/12/2024 Karen Yee🥉

The Ninth Tone Rating

★★★★★

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The Ninth Tone is the latest offering from Speak Percussion, an established Melbourne-based “internationally recognised leader in the fields of experimental and contemporary classical music”. Presented on Sunday, December 1, 2024, at the Museum of Chinese Australian History, the hour-long performance was conceived and composed by Jasmin Wing Yin Leung. This work uses a non-traditional approach to music to explore the 200-year history of Chinese music in Australia. It is a “speculation” and invites a questioning of past, present and future.

Whilst devised through thorough research of performances and practices of Chinese music in Australia, it is not necessary for the listener to have a previous interest in this. What is more important is the ability to sit with the unknown and be curious, similar to the openness needed when viewing modern abstract art.

You will not hear traditional melodies, only a tiny fragment, and the instruments are not used traditionally but adapted to sometimes non-musical details extracted from historical research. For example, the guzheng, usually plucked, is bowed for most of the performance, and its strings are de-tuned to match the dimensions of a tent that was used for Cantonese opera performances in Clinkers Hill, Castlemaine, in the 1850s.

I found the whole experience mesmerising as soon as I entered the performance space, which was dimly lit by a few round red paper lanterns. Set in the round, the variety of instruments on display whet the appetite visually – two sizes of guzheng for Mindy Meng Wang; a woodblock and a collection of small gongs and snares for Kaylie Melville; an erhu, yehu and laptop for Leung the composer; a laptop, a number of transistor radios, a vintage gramophone and an old record player (complete with 78rpm records in shellac and vinyl) for Sally Ann McIntyre who was also a key artistic collaborator.

I had a peek at the scores which were indecipherable to me – no usual 5-line staves or notes, just long horizontal lines divided by small circles, some 3 digit numbers (radio frequencies?), curved lines and performer names at their cues.

From silence, the performance opens with McIntyre setting up a pad of static hiss generated by the gradual activation of each transistor radio and record players. These are recorded and amplified through a microphone wired to the performer’s wrist. The sounds are manipulated through a laptop using Ableton’s looping capabilities. A pre-recorded faint 3 note melodic motif is heard and repeats sparsely, but the soundscape is dominated by layers of static. This fragment is later developed into a duet with the live erhu player, Leung, but for now, it remains a faint bell-like relief from the static.

The texture builds with the addition of sustained bowed notes from the guzheng and yehu (or erhu, I am not sure) and even a bowed gong. I am reminded of some filmic mood music and remain tantalised by the gradual addition of layers of sound and watch closely at all players to see if I can work out its origin – electronic or acoustic, looped from a previous recording or from the current sonic offerings generated in the here and now.

Kaylie Melville, co-director of Speak Percussion, provides the backbone of the highest point of the work with an intense, insistent drum roll on the woodblock, which breaks the dominance of tonal drones and static pads. Different percussive timbres are explored, but eventually, the long tones re-emerge, and the even patter of the woodblock subsides into yet another sustain.

Kudos should be given to Rohan Goldsmith’s sound engineering for sound clarity in the performance space. Also, Giovanna Yate Gonzalez’s very effective lighting design underlined the mood changes between sections.

The performance was effectively closed in a mirror of its opening, with a gradual dimming of light and sound, the thinning of texture, and finally the switching off, one by one of the transistor radios until there was silence and darkness.

I enjoyed this performance of The Ninth Tone: Speculations of Chinese Australian Sonic History (produced by Chelsea Byrne for Speak Percussion). You don’t have to have any prior knowledge of Chinese music or history to appreciate this experimental work, which explores an approach to history’s offerings, recorded and imagined, and its effect on the present and future. But you do have to suspend any expectation of traditional music and join in the “speculation”.

Look for future performances of this exciting work and other works by Speak Percussion on their website, https://www.speakpercussion.com.

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Karen Yee🥉

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