Review: Silence! The Musical

February 14, 2010 in Review, Theatre | No comments

Silence! The Musical belongs to a new breed of postmodern ‘meta’ musicals that seem to be cropping up recently. From the ‘two guys writing a show about two guys writing a show about two guys writing a show’ of [Title of Show], to the comedic brilliance of Evil Dead: The Musical and Bat Boy: The Musical. It is a common trend for musicals to be tongue firmly planted in cheek, with a ‘musical theatre reference a minute’ style system. In fact, with recent examples, if you see the title [insert word]: The Musical, chances are you are going to be assaulted with slightly offensive, yet ultimately hilarious musical theatre (some other examples off the top of my head: Gutenburg! The Musical, Cops: The Musical, Debbie Does Dallas: The Musical, Reefer Madness! The Musical and Jerry Springer: The Opera).

I for one, don’t mind one bit. Many of these title have gone on to be new favourites, and Silence! almost joins them.

Almost.

I heard about Silence! through Playbill.com a while ago, due to the book having been written by [Title of Show]’s Hunter Bell (I must admit here, I am an avid [tos]ser… and yes, I do realise how that sounds). When I heard that they were bringing the show back with the original director, but this time in London, I was a little excited. I purchased tickets as soon as I could and secured my seat for the first preview night.

I wasn’t sure what to expect. Above the Stag, a tiny venue situated behind London’s Victoria Palace, isn’t what I expected as a theatre. It’s a small converted room above the gay pub, The Stag. Thus the name, I suppose. It probably only holds max 50 people, and the stage size is tiny. I was expecting something a little larger, but this seemed to be perfect for what is, essentially, an incredibly low-fi, low-budget show. To produce the show with a budget anywhere above £10 would do the show a disservice.

Silence! has all of the elements to fast become a favourite of mine. It’s quite offensive, tongue-in-cheek and has a slight cult status. It features songs such as ‘If I Could Smell Her C**t’ and ‘I’d F**k Me’, and is written by said Mr Bell. However, something didn’t quite catch me with this show. It was funny, and it was well performed, yet it was also slightly forgettable.

I think the fault comes down to the show itself. There are a few decent tunes in there, but for the most part the joke doesn’t get past the title. Sections of the show seem to come off a bit like Silence of the Hams, possibly one of the worst films ever made. It is hard to get parody right, especially when the source is one of the most revered films of the past 20 years. The writers hit the mark in parts, and seemed to completely miss in others. However, the recent addition of the song ‘I’d F**k Me’ is probably the highlight of the show, with Fabian Hartwell doing a great job of being immensely creepy and pants wettingly funny at the same time.

In fact, the cast did a superb job, especially for a first preview night of a show that has been largely rewritten since it’s last professional performance Off Broadway in 2005. There was only one weak point in the cast, Shekella Dedi as Ardelia Mapp, who just didn’t have the presence and comic timing of the rest of the cast. She had a good voice, but unfortunately it was drowned out in her one diva moment towards the end of the show (a problem you’ll get when you don’t mic your cast). However, this was the preview night of a brand new show and she could have settled in later in to the run, so I shouldn’t judge. Tory Ross, recently seen on Broadway in 9 to 5 and Cry Baby, was perfect as Clarice. She had a great, strong voice, and maintained perfect character throughout. In fact, she’s one of the strongest comedic character actresses I’ve seen on stage in a while. Olivier Award winner Miles Western was perfect casting as Hannibal Lecter, the psychopathic psychiatric cannibal. His measured performance and icy stare were quite off putting, which made his delivery of songs like ‘If I Could Smell her C**t’ absolutely hilarious.

Silence! is a show that is thoroughly enjoyable to watch. However, don’t expect to walk away wanting to buy the cast album. Most of the songs are quite forgettable and probably wouldn’t work without the performer directly in front of you.

And my advice is don’t take you Gran to see this one…

Silence! The Musical is running till February 28 at Above the Stag Theatre in London. You can book tickets here.

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Not tweatre… Twespians

February 12, 2010 in Social Media, Theatre | No comments

I’ve been attending tweetups for about two years now. The idea behind them is that they strengthen connections that you’ve made with the people you talk to on Twitter, as well as introducing you to more like minded people. Most of the tweetups I’ve been to have been based around social media and marketing. That is, quite often they are tweetups about Twitter and how to use it.

One thing I lamented about in Sydney was the fact that there weren’t many people on Twitter from the theatre. Theatre is about community. Twitter is about community. It makes sense, doesn’t it? However, the theatre people I talked to couldn’t really see the value in it and so they stayed away. However, when I got to London it was a different story. I suppose it comes down to the fact that while there are a decent number of theatre loving folks in Sydney, there are a whole lot more in London.

Finally my dreams of having a tweetup solely for theatre people might actually become a reality.

Twespians, the tweetup for theatre types, held it’s first event on the 2nd of February at Theodore Bullfrog in London as part of the global Social Media Week. I was never sure of how successful it would be. I was half expecting that of the 50-60 people who registered, I may only get 10 or 20 people actually turn up. In the end, we managed to get about 40, which was an amazing number.

However, the numbers meant nothing.

Who was there was *far* more important.

The thing that really struck me was the diversity of the people who attended. We had the usual tweetup fodder of journalists, bloggers and marketing/PR types, as well as a mix of actors, directors, musical directors, choreographers, producers, festival organisers, social media artists, theatre administrators and students. Also, the type of theatre was mixed as well. We had musical theatre, straight theatre, physical theatre, dance and spoken word.

To tell you the truth, I was a little surprised.

For some reason, I was expecting majority of musical theatre fans, with a few ‘proper’ theatre people thrown in for good measure (kind of like a cat/pigeons scenario). I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn’t, and the evening was all the better for it.

Was there value in it, though?

I see Twitter as being used in one of two ways. You have a ‘leader/follower’ arrangement, where somebody has a whole bunch of followers, but doesn’t follow back and only engages when directly engaged with. Then you have the ‘community’ or ‘network’ arrangement. Say you had a diagram of all the people you follow. Draw a line from you to them, then draw lines from them to the people they follow. What you would end up with is very distinct communities, or networks, based around similar interests. For example, mine would have a very distinct social media/marketing/PR circle, as well as a theatre circle. In addition, there’d be smaller circles about fairly specific interests, which are more niche communities.

This second way of using Twitter is where tweetups come in to the equation. What you are effectively doing is strengthen a connection that you’ve already made online, which is made easier by having a common passion. The other thing it does, is break down the barriers that would normally exist in traditional networking situations. Twitter is a level playing field. Tweetups like this don’t only bring people from different areas of the industry, but also different levels. For example, students are networking with newspaper editors and West End musicians. It’s great, and the possibilities that come out of these events are endless. Not only is it great on a personal level, as networking is a key part of succeeding in such a fickle industry, but also it builds a sense of community amongst people who have a passion for theatre.

We’re currently in the process of organising the next Twespians event in London. Follow the twitter account to be kept up to date with what’s happening.  If you have any thoughts, comments or suggestions then leave a comment.

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Review: Nation.

January 28, 2010 in Review, Theatre | 2 comments

On a whim I went and saw Nation at the National Theatre last night. Nation is a play with music based on the Terry Pratchett novel of the same name. It’s been adapted for the stage by Mark Ravenhill, which was an odd thing considering I was only familiar with his earlier work like Shopping and Fucking. Nation seemed to me a slight departure for a playwright who’s works have mostly been in the ‘in-yer-face’ style. What was a playwright who had previously written a great scene where a character gets raped with a knife doing writing what is ostensibly a Young Adult’s fantasy book. However, what I didn’t know is that Ravenhill seems to have tamed a bit in recent years, even writing a pantomime.

Yes, a pantomime.

To tell you the truth, I probably wouldn’t have bothered if I hadn’t picked up a £5 ticket offer for some insanely good seats. I’m not a big Pratchett fan. This could probably get my nerd status revoked, and I have honestly tried, but Pratchett just hasn’t captured me in the same way as other fantasy authors. In fact, the thing that stands out for me from Pratchett’s novels is a single quote.

62 books. 1 quote. Not bad.

I’m being unnecessarily harsh about Mr Pratchett. I also enjoyed the Hogfather when it was on TV. I also had a read of Guards! Guards! the play, and thought it was quite funny, if not a little too nerdish. Anyway, back to Nation.

Nation is the first non-Discworld novel that Pratchett has put out since 1996. It’s an alternate history of our world set in the 1870s. It tells the story of Mau, a native of ‘The Nation’ who finds himself alone after a giant wave washes away everyone he knows and loves, until he finds the ghost (read: white) girl. Daphne, who thinks that she’s the sole survivor of the wreck of the Sweet Judy is stranded on the island with Mau. They fall in love, things happen and they ostensibly save the world (paraphrasing here).

Nation is flawed. I felt that I couldn’t really get attached to the story. There were some interesting and funny characters within the story, and there were some great moments, but the story as a whole left me feeling a little empty. It was nice enough but I had a sense that I’d seen it a million times before. It seemed a typical Pocahontos/Avatar style white person meets and falls in love with a native style story.

In saying that, Nation by National Theatre was an absolutely revelation. In fact, the play itself is about the only thing I can fault in the production. The cast were great, and did the most with what they had to work with. The staging was brilliant, the lighting, set and sound design were truly impressive and the puppets and puppetry were fantastic. It’s an extremely strange and disconcerting feeling for me to say how much I enjoyed the production, considering I really didn’t like the script all too much. The production values were so high that they overshadowed the piece itself, which in this case is a good thing.

I’ll start with the cast. The two leads, Gary Carr and Emily Taaffe were very strong. They both had great comic timing and made the most of what was often trite dialogue. Carr, who plays Mau, is an exceptionally talented man. It’s always pleasing to see a production where the lead character actually stands out above the rest. He played Mau with such conviction and seemed to own the stage with his every movement. Taaffe, as Daphne, was spot on. She managed to be likeable and irritating at the same time, which was absolutely perfect for the character. What I was most impressed with was that she never turned the character into a caricature, which would have been so easy. The other standout, by far, was Jason Thorpe as Milton the Parrot. His movement and delivery of lines were perfect. According to the woman behind me, the parrot was a Shakespearean device. I just thought it was a nice piece of comic relief in an otherwise boring story. Each to their own. The rest of the ensemble were extremely good, but hard to pick out individually.

Secondly, the direction. Melly Still did an exceptional job with Nation. It’s often hard to see the direction behind a show. However, the staging of Nation was hard to ignore. The way that the actors interacted with the set, lighting and soung, along with the interaction between the actors themselves was awe inspiring. There were moments where my jaw simply hit the floor, especially towards the end. This is an incredibly well staged, tight production. In addition, the use of puppets for the slightly surreal animals of the island was inspired, providing menace and comedy in equal measures.

Finally, the design. I would recommend seeing Nation for, if nothing else, the set, lighting, sound and projection design. The way all elements interacted was a thing of beauty. The I have never seen such an effective use of sound and projection within the theatre before. I sound like I’m gushing, but in all honesty, it absolutely floored me. One scene in particular, where Mau is shown paradise and then taken back to the stark reality of the world was beautiful. The juxtaposition of the stage filled with tiny, pretty lights, to the barren world that was created with one lighting change was inspired.

That happened to be a long winded, rather conflicting review. All in all, I would recommend seeing Nation. It runs until the end of March at the National Theatre. What it lacks in story, it makes up for as an experience.

£5 tickets aren’t bad, either.

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Twitter + Theatre = Tweatre?

November 13, 2009 in General, Social Media | 3 comments

How Do You Tweet?

At first this was going to be a post on Marketing theatre (I’m guessing a rather long post), but instead I’m going to use it to give my thoughts on how Twitter could be used to build (and/or strengthen) online theatre communities.

There has been some interesting talk about Twitter and Social Media and their use in Theatre, particuarly around marketing. The Stage published an article last week about internet marketing and building communities through social media, using Legally Blonde: The Musical as an example. There’s also been some good posts over at London Theatre Blog about Social Media and Web 2.0 by Sinead MacManus. However, most of these have been around promotion and marketing, and I really think that Twitter can be used to do more than this.

First things first… There is no one way to use Twitter. It is an extremely powerful tool, and the rules keep getting rewritten by the users themselves. For a decent overview of what twitter is all about, check out the Twitter Wikipedia Entry. If you want a help guide, then check out Twitter’s help portal. If there is anything not covered in either of these, I will attempt to link to a relevent article. Also, this post is relying on the fact that people don’t protect their updates. If you protect your updates, you aren’t willing to fully participate in the wider community.

Twitter is a powerful community building and networking  tool. I have been using Twitter for close to a year and have got to a point where I can’t be away from it for long periods of time (Withdrawal-type symptoms can occur including profuse sweating, gnawing of fingernails/limbs, and random screaming. I’ve almost joined a 12-step program). For the most part, I have used it for a mix of socia and professional networking. Within PR and marketing, Twitter has become a fairly important tool for a number of reasons. Here are the key areas I use Twitter for: networking, sharing, resource gathering and promotion.

Let’s see how each of these could be used for theatre…

Networking

Networking within theatre does happen. However, it seems to happen primarily in and around productions. You build your network by performing in shows, and occassionally by seeing them. However, between shows not much else happens. Also, theatre can be rather cliquey. It is rather impossible to penetrate certain theatre circles due to their closed nature, especially when the only opportunity is to perform with these people, or know someone who has performed with them.

Twitter, on the other hand, seems to put everyone on a more even playing field. Unlike facebook, you don’t have to get approval to follow someone’s twitter feed. That means that you can follow anyone (who doesn’t protect their tweets) from your best mate Tim to Oprah. This also means that you have a means of connecting with anybody you follow through @ mentioning them (similar to tagging and commenting in Facebook) or DMing them (similar to a private message in Facebook).

Where these connections really come in handy is at tweetups. Tweetups offer you an opportunity to meet the people within your twitter network and start to really build a community. When I first started attending networking events within the pr and marketing space, I found it rather difficult considering I didn’t know anyone at all. However, at my first tweetup, there was much less apprehension, considering I had already interacted with quite a few people on Twitter and therefore had a starting point.

Tweetups can then strengthen the bond within your Twitter community, as meeting someone in person can often make the connection more tangible. Also, it’s always great to get a group of people together who are all passionate about the same thing!

Sharing

One of the other great aspects of twitter is the ability to share. When I first starting using Twitter, a common description I heard was ‘it’s just like facebook status updates’. For me, Twitter is more about sharing information with your network (although facebook seems to be incorporating more and more Twitterlike features).

Sharing links to interesting articles, blog posts, youtube videos, events etc. has become a really important part of Twitter. Also, Twitter offers you the ability to ReTweet tweets that you might find interesting or useful, but that your followers may not see in their tweet stream, pushing the original tweet out to a new audience. Sharing interesting and useful information benefits you, as it increases your personal profile within your twitter community. Also, this will spur others to do the same, which will prove beneficial to you…

Collecting resources

The other upside to you posting your links to information is that you can then take advantage of others doing the same. Through this you could find out the most up to date news, find interesting articles and blog posts about theatre and related industries, find out about upcoming events, productions and auditions, take advantage of special deals or get free stuff. It’s all about building a community that is based around a mutual interest, trust and reciprocation.

Another side of collecting resources is the idea of crowdsourcing. This could be as simple as asking your followers a question (sometimes lazy questions, often hashtagged as #lazyweb), to more complicated crowdsourcing possibilities. For example, Next to Normal on Broadway has used crowdsourcing through Twitter in a really interesting way. The composers are using their Twitter account to improve their show. This ranges from running ideas past their Twitter followers, to asking their followers to submit lyrics or song titles to new songs they are writing for the show. They then work these into the show.

Think of all the ways theatre groups could use crowdsourcing… what about an impro show that relied on a twitterfeed from the audience using a hashtag for the event? It’s probably already been done, but there are millions of ways that theatre groups could use crowdsourcing, and for theatre venues or companies, it provides an automatic way to connect with your audiences.

Promotion

Finally, promotion. Let me put this out there… Twitter is not a tool purely for promotion. Many brands have attempted to get on Twitter and push their marketing messages out without attempting to engage at all. Many brands have tried and quickly failed.

The important thing with promoting yourself, your event or your company on Twitter is to provide some value for your followers. Although opinion does vary on this, I believe that it is important to show yourself through your tweets. Mix in personal with professional. Not every tweet needs to be about theatre (or marketing or PR etc etc). The main rules I stick by with my Twitter are One: would I say what I’m about to say on Twitter out loud in a room full of people? Two: would the people in this room be interested in what I’m saying? Three: have I been talking about myself too much?

However, promotion through Twitter can be beneficial. Building strong communities and networks can helpl when attempting to promote something related, as you can leverage your position as an influencer, and also leverage other people within your network who are influencers within their own groups. However, it also comes down to the value of what you are saying. Twitter is a great place to promote through special deals or offers, as this provides value to the other users and they benefit from being connected to you.

Also, authenticity is fairly important when it comes to promotion on Twitter. If you are promoting something that you are involved with, whether it be an event, a production or just promoting your new blog post, make sure you are upfront about your involvement. Nothing is worse than being told about how great something is as if it’s a product endorsement, and finding out that it’s actually that person’s product.

Basically, if you are going to promote something, be upfront and honest about it. Don’t spam and make sure that the people who follow you are actually interested in what you have to say.

Wrapping Up

There are loads of great articles out there on building communities through twitter and general overviews for what social media is. I’ve provided a few links to them below.

Even though this post was a bit of a ramble on how we could use Twitter, I hope it still made sense. If it didn’t, comment and I’ll try and clear things up!

Links:

What the F**k is Social Media? – One Year Later – A great presentation on social media and why it’s important.

How To: Build Community on Twitter – Tips on how to build your own community

Community Building 101: Building a Community on Twitter – Some great rules of thumb on building and maintaining a good community on Twitter

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Arriving in London and Review: Talent @ The Menier Chocolate Factory

November 12, 2009 in General, Review, Theatre | 1 comment

 

Welcome to London

Quick update from the land of lurk…

On the 21st of October I boarded a plane and 24 hours later landed at Heathrow Airport. I am currently sitting in my newly rented house in Twickenham, updating my slightly sad looking blog.

I am now yet another Australian in the UK looking for work. However, hopefully this won’t be my status for too long, as I like the sound of ‘Only Australian in the UK earning money’ a little more. So far, my experiences have been great. I have discovered the very green and very beautiful town of Letchworth (where the girl grew up), traipsed around the brilliant and not-so-brilliant tourist destinations London has to offer, found a small cottage in Twickenham to live (with the girl, of course) and have seen one show so far (working also brings the benefit of money).

The show I decided to see was Victoria Wood’s Talent at the Menier Chocolate Factory.

Originally, we were only coming to the UK for a week on a trip to visit the girl’s family. However, because of unforeseen circumstances, we ended up moving there instead. Because of my tight budget, we originally planned to see one show. With all that the West End has to offer, I wanted to see something small and different, preferably something I hadn’t heard of.

Talent at the Menier Chocolate Factory

First off, Menier Chocolate Factory is not what I expected. Having never seen a West End (or off-West End, as the Chocolate Factory is), I was expecting something… bigger. The Chocolate Factory is akin to Sydney’s Downstairs at the Belvoir. Ok, maybe a little bigger than that, but fairly similar in stage space as well. Therefore, when I entered, I suddenly expected something of a more… amateurish affair. However, upon glancing at the bios in the program, these were all west-end performers, with a number having been leads in a number of BBC productions as well. To boot, Victoria Wood herself was directing the production.

To be frank, I didn’t know what to think.

What resulted was a not altogether unenjoyable evening.

Victoria Wood is something of a national treasure in the UK. Having never heard of her myself, my shocked and appalled other half decided to force upon me many youtube clips of the comedienne. I can’t say that I was unimpressed. Wood has a talent for deadpan and has a uniquely British sense of humour that made BBC comedies in the 70s and 80s so fantastic. However, Wood herself has said that musicals ‘aren’t really my thing’. Which is why Talent isn’t so much a musical, but more a play with a couple of music numbers thrown in.

Talent was written by Wood in the late 70s as a showpiece for both her and Julie Walters. Set on a talent night at Bunter’s nightclub, contestant Julie and her fat virginal friend Maureen wait backstage. Through the night we are introduced to a range of characters from ukulele wielding magicians, to lecherous compares and complicated ex-boyfriends. The play barely manages a plot, but does manage quite a few laughs and some interesting characters, as well as a few decent tunes.

Suzie Toase absolutely steals the show as Maureen (the role originally written for Wood). Her performance is brilliantly understated and her comic timing is nigh on perfect. In contrast, Leanne Rowe did an adequate job of playing ambitious singer, Julie, but just didn’t match up to her costars. Considering her fairly extensive West End stage experience, I found her performance rather flat and I couldn’t really connect with her at all. Unfortunate, considering hers is one of the only characters you are supposed to connect with and feel sympathy for. However, whether this was the performance or the writing I’m still not sure.

All of the men did a great job with small character roles. As an ensemble, they performed extremely well, always leaving me wanting more from their characters. However, the standout male performer was definitely Mark Hadfield. His portrayal of the magician’s assistant and the nightclub’s matronly manager were extremely well played. You can tell that this man is a seasoned comedic actor, as his performance was completely without fault, and his comic timing was something that can only come with years of performing.

Staging of the show was good, but not altogether exciting. You can tell they were working on a limited budget, and they achieved what they needed for what seemed like a show more suited to amateur theatre groups.

Talent was enjoyable, but definitely wasn’t the best thing I could’ve seen. It has a few performances left in its run, so if you are in London and want to see something a little different, then I would recommend it, but don’t expect something that will blow your mind. It will be an enjoyable night, though.

I’m currently writing a post on twitter and theatre (long overdue) and should be finished in the next few days. I shall also start updating for more often, so add @lurkmoophy to your RSS readers and you shall be rewarded.

REVIEW: Billy Twinkle – Requiem for a Golden Boy

October 12, 2009 in Review, Theatre | No comments

Billy-Twinkle-Barbican-001

Let me start by saying that reviews aren’t my forte… I tend to only review the things that I really love, which leads to what seems like biased reviews. However, when I see theatre that I truly love I have a desire to tell others about it, which in itself is a review. In saying that, I didn’t love Billy Twinkle. However, I did say that I would write a review on it and it’s taken me a week and a half to process.

Billy Twinkle is the latest show from puppetry golden boy Ronnie Burkett. The man has made a name for himself throughout the past twenty years with his Theatre of the Marionette (you can read my gushing post on Ronnie Burkett here). Billy Twinkle follows Burkett’s 10 Days on Earth, which played the Sydney Opera House in mid 2007. 10 Days on Earth was a masterpiece. A tour de force of dramatic writing and performance. It actually seems unfair to compare anything else to this production.

I knew that Billy Twinkle wasn’t going to be as good as 10 Days on Earth, but I wanted to be wrong. Alas, I wasn’t.

Ronnie Burkett did an admirable job with Billy Twinkle, a semi-autobiographical piece about a puppeteer on a cruise ship who is about to throw himself overboard, when his mentor comes back as a hand puppet to force him to look back on his life. Billy then reenacts scenes from his life through his marionettes, starting from when he was a boy and introducing a slew of colourful characters.

Let’s get the criticism out of the way first…

The writing is good. Very good. The puppetry is amazing, as always. However, it’s the performer who lets the production down. Ronnie Burkett is not without his skill. As an actor he is an extremely talented man. He can embody characters in a heartbeat and make you cry one second and laugh the next. His portrayals are honest characterisations, and he doesn’t shy away from harder roles. However, I think the problem here is that he has given himself too much to do. Billy Twinkle only truly shines when Ronnie is above the action, manipulating his marionettes. When he is interacting with the hand puppet or doing his Billy routine, the magic just isn’t there for me.

The problem is I went in expecting genius. I left having seen a good production. Hasn’t turned me off Ronnie Burkett, but makes me realise that even a genius can’t be a genius ALL the time.

Ronnie Burkett – Theatre of the Marionette

September 29, 2009 in Theatre | 2 comments

ronnie-burkett

This Friday I have the privilege of seeing one of the best playwrights and performers I have seen on stage.  My love affair with Ronnie Burkett began in 2005 when I, by chance, purchased tickets to ‘10 Days on Earth’ at the Playhouse within the confines of the Sydney Opera House. I knew nothing about the show before seeing it, only knowing that it was an adult drama performed with marionettes. I was intrigued and wanted to see a show, so I ventured in one morning and purchased relatively cheap tickets to see the show.

I have to say, it was one of the best decisions I ever made.

Ronnie Burkett is a playwright, a puppeteer, a puppet maker and a performer (and I’m sure a few more p’s as well). He has been writing plays for his own marionette theatre company since 1986, but really broke through with his piece Tinka’s New Dress, which won many awards throughout the world, including The Age’s critic award in Melbourne in 2002. Unfortunately I didn’t get to see this play, which is a shame, considering he rarely performs his shows a second time and nobody else would be game enough to produce one of these plays without the man himself.

You see, Ronnie Burkett plays are one man wonders. He makes the puppets, writes the script, and then manipulates each puppet whilst playing all characters. 10 Days on Earth saw him play everything from a newly hatched duck to a dying mother to the Lloyd Almighty. He effortlessly makes his audiences laugh one minute and cry the next, all through the rare art of marionettes.

And this is the other thing I love about this man… He is creating profound, moving, controversial adult theatre that rivals the best of contemporary playwrights… for marionettes!! 10 Days on Earth was one of the best play going experiences I’ve ever had. I expected the show to be good, but I never expected it to be great. The show itself was expertly crafted, the characters exquisite. Burkett uses his story to comment on society and the way we deal with life and death. The climax of the play was one of the most heartbreaking realisations I’ve ever had as an audience member, and he effortlessly brought me to tears. In fact, this was the first play I ever blogged a review about (back in the days when I had a vox account). I blogged the review on the bus on the way home, from my mobile phone. That’s how excited I was then.

I’m even more excited now.

This time around, he is performing a new, slightly autobiographical piece called Billy Twinkle: Requiem for a Golden Boy. If you are in Sydney then get a ticket to Billy Twinkle. Sell your car. Sell your house. Sell your children. Just see this play.

I’m seeing the show on Friday night, so I shall post a review as soon as possible after I finish.

Thoughts on Two’s a Cabaret coming to an end and the future

August 20, 2009 in Uncategorized | No comments

bows

Two’s a Cabaret presents on Tuesday nights at El Roccos (ye olde Bar Me) is coming to a close next Tuesday night. I started this night in April as a way of getting some sort of regular cabaret night that promotes new and emerging cabaret artists. A problem I’ve had is that there is only a handful of regular cabaret nights in Sydney and up until recently, the artform was starting to die a slow, painful death. However since I originally thought this I’ve opened my eyes to the Sydney cabaret scene. Cabaret is starting to come back in Sydney. You have El Rocco’s starting to show an interest in cabaret again. Trevor Ashley is running his successful Showqueen night at the Supper Club every Sunday. There’s regular cabarets at Slide, the Vanguard is now doing cabaret and the Statement Lounge have recently reopened their doors. Ruby Revue run their weekly cabaret/burlesque night at the Arthouse Hotel and there’s a new cabaret venue in Surry Hills at Cafe 212 on Riley.

Basically, cabarets starting to show itself again. Unfortunately, what’s still lacking is a good space for new artists. All of these places, with the exception of El Rocco’s, caters to professional cabaret, musical theatre and burlesque performers. Personally, I think what might help is some kind of collective for people to join and get involved. This is what I attempted with Two’s a Cabaret. Over the past five months we have had some exceptional performers come through our doors. From multi-award winning performers Lisa Crouch and Sandie White, Edinburgh bound performers from The Princess Cabaret, newer artists like Simon Ward and Mathew Loeser (The latter of which still holds title for biggest Two’s a Cabaret night with close to 70 people jammed in to the tiny venue), and our special visit from NY based ex-aussie Kate Campbell. The talent has truly amazed me. However, as is being heard more and more recently, we’ve had to finish up due to inconsistent numbers in the audience meaning that it was costing more than we were making.

Unfortunate, but them’s business.

However, this is not the end of Two’s a Company. We’ve got some shows being planned in September and October and I’m quite excited to get these started! Not doing the weekly show will give me a little more time to focus on where the company is going and work on future shows, rather than attempting to keep the company floating each week.

So come down next Tuesday, have some drinks and enjoy the show that we’ve got playing (coincidentally it’s MY show! The advantages of organising the night… :mrgreen: )

Too many things!

July 29, 2009 in Uncategorized | No comments

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I promised myself last week that I would post to this blog every Wednesday. Wednesday has arrived and, although attempting, I am experiencing a severe case of writer’s block.

So, in order to cheat, I am posting an update as to what has been happening in lurk moophy’s world and what to expect soon…

1. Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk – Belvoir St Theatre

I took the lady to see Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk at the Downstairs theatre at  Belvoir St on the weekend. I’ve started my review on the play, but I’ve come across a problem. I’m still not sure what I think about the play and the production. It was an interesting piece of theatre, but something made me dislike it. Expect expanded thoughts towards the end of the week…

2. Meow to the World: Crisis is Born – The Studio @ Sydney Opera House

I also took the girl to see one of my favourite performers perform her hit broadway christmas show. This review is also in the works, but I’m attempting to make it sound less gushing than it does at the moment. Suffice it to say, the girl walked away a fan.

3. The Helpmann Awards

Wicked didn’t win Best Original Score THANK CHRIST! However, it did win Best Musical and a slew of other awards. Shall rant about this later.

4. Twitter and theatre (tweetre?)

Why is the theatrical community not using twitter at large? Is this the problem, or have I just not found them yet? I believe that twitter is a tool that could be used very effectively by theatre people to connect the theatrical community in Sydney, Australia and beyond. So do it…

Those are some thoughts that I will elaborate on at a later point…

For now I’m just stalling.

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Wasting my time (to the tune of ‘losing my mind’) – An Ode to Short Rehearsal Periods

July 23, 2009 in Theatre | 2 comments

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Once again, I had a thought provoking conversation last night (the company I keep these days seems to do that).

A mate and I were chatting (me bitching) about rehearsals… We were discussing (I, complaining) about long rehearsal periods of 4-6 months, rehearsing 2 nights per week. This is the standard for most community and non-profit theatre around the place. Having been involved in a few community shows over the past five or so years, this seemed the norm. However, I’m finding it more and more unproductive and disrupting to the rehearsal process of the show.

I think I’m realising that community theatre is not the place for me.

I did a blog hunt to see what other people thought on the topic and found two interesting posts…

What I found most interesting is that they were both extolling the virtues of a longer rehearsal period… Come on, people, hurry up and think like me!

My reasons are as follows:

passion

1. Passion

Having crammed my life full of shows over the last five years (on a sidenote, I need to stop seeing show references in everything I write… back on track, Luke…), I’m finding that with every show I do, the passion is less and less. In fact, the passion only shines through during the last week of rehearsal when we are living and breathing the show and rehearsing every night. This could just be my problem, I’m not sure, but I seem to think that if, for instance, you rehearsed 4 nights a week and 1 day on the weekend for a period of 4 weeks, you would have a cast that, although being fairly exhausted, have been living and breathing the show for four weeks straight. Think of the effect of that on  the character, for example, or the fact that they won’t talk about anything else to anyone they meet…

cats2. Memory

This is one of my main problems at the moment. At the show I’m currently rehearsing, I have already been taught most of the dances and the majority of my vocal lines for the show. However, at an act 1 run through last night, I was quite dismayed to discover that a large portion of those had been forgotten. My own fault entirely, considering I hadn’t revisited them in my own time, but now they have to be relearnt and rerehearsed regardless (a lot of R’s in that sentence).

I doubt this would have been the case if I knew that I only had four weeks to get everything down, learnt and polished, and I had dedicated time during the week to learn that. Once again, I could put aside my own time, but hey, I can be lazy and I quite often want (need) a production team member telling me to ‘do it again, but this time good’. I suppose that comes down to motivation. I lack motivation when I’m only rehearsing something sporadically.

3290872455_8ec0031e733. Wasting my time

Why rehearse something for 5 months, when you can do it in 1 and then perform it? This is the clincher that makes me think I shouldn’t be in community theatre. I understand that for most people involved in community and non-profit theatre that there is a large social aspect to the rehearsal period. I treat shows like work. I get a long with my workmates and I enjoy socialising with them outside of work hours, but when I’m there, I like to work on the task at hand. If I’m directing a show and I’m worried that there are social barriers in place, I organise something outside for the cast to bond and enjoy together.

I’m finding that I’m erring more when I audition for shows because I know it’s going to take a good third to half of my year to actually get on stage. I wish that I could get my hands dirty, get on stage and enjoy it.

Yet another rant. I don’t really have a problem with the way the rehearsal period is being run with the show I’m doing at the moment. The production team are actually doing an awesome job on a difficult (and huge!) show. I think I’ve just outgrown community theatre a little.

That, and I’m impatient.

I’ve got an excuse. I’m Gen Y.

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