Boy Girl Wall

La Boite has some different and interesting shows, and on Thursday evening I saw boy girl wall.  It was having its return season due to "popular demand".  Yeah, yeah, I thought, how good could it be?  I thought.  Well, it was fantastic.  A one man ball of energy took over the space for 75 minutes of storytelling, humour, visual jokes and clever effects.  The warning had me intrigued - chalk dust??

Yep - many of the props and information were drawn - on the floor

and on a range of blackboards across the back of the stage.  Lucas Stibbard is phenomenal in taking on heaps of characters including an annoying/daggy boss, a narcissistic publisher, the boy and girl of the title, as well as days of the week and the wall, floor and ceiling.  Yep - strange as it sounds, it all makes sense in the show.  It's not absurdist at all, but has a fun sense of the absurd.  It's just damn good fun, clever, witty, and, ultimately, great entertainment.  There was a wide range of ages in the audience and we were all carried along by the wonderful storytelling.  Lucas was called back three times to loud cheering.  It was THAT good.

Beautiful Noise

This show was part of the Brisbane Festival.  We sat on a specially constructed stadium so we could see eight young dancers perform outside the Powerhouse Museum, with the old wall as backdrop and performance space.  They tapped on the ground, on platforms, danced and moved while being raised up and down on harnesses - with atmospheric techno music as the sound track.  One performer tap/stamped his way to our level and did a little routine for us right there.

Piano Lessons

This was very enjoyable.  It reminded me so much of my piano lessons with Mrs Snopoff (I know, I know).

The play is based on Anna Goldsworthy's autobiography Piano Lessons.  It's a two hander with Anna herself being Anna, and Caroline Kennison as her teacher Mrs Sivan.  The whole action takes place in a space dominated by the marvellously shiny black grand piano.  The space became Mrs Sivan's house for lessons, the stage for the Eisteddfods and concerts, and Anna's home.  Anna narrated part of the story directly to the audience as well as playing her role.  Caroline did the voices for some other characters, as well as being the teacher.

There was nothing terribly deep about the play, but Mrs Sivan's philosophy and sayings (with humorous twists as she translates them from her native Russian) were thoughtful.  I particularly liked hearing Anna play, giving the piano a voice, bringing it to life.

The Interminable Suicide of Gregory Church

What can I say?  I LOVED this.  Daniel Kitson walks onto an almost bare stage and starts talking - 90 minutes later he stops.  He's here to tell us the story of Gregory Church, a man he's never met but got to know through the 22 boxes of letters that ended up at his place.  Daniel read all 30,000 of them, reads excerpts to us and creates a richly detailed, funny, poignant and real portrait of Gregory's life.  On the way there are many detours - we learn a lot about Daniel and he's not averse to confronting or bantering with the audience.

The words pour forth, gathering momentum and sweeping us along and then letting us rest before the next wave.  It's wonderful stuff - if you love words, go.  If you love comedy, go.  If you are interested at all in being human, go.

[title of show]

I saw this show at the Powerhouse on Friday night - very funny and clever writing.  It's about two friends who enter a competition for a musical; the musical is about their conversations about entering a competition for a musical.  Get it??  The audience was extremely receptive - quite a young audience too.  I thought the music was good, the voices strong, the writing smart and polished...the accents good.

 The Powerhouse is always buzzing with action at the bar or the restaurant or just people wandering around.  A great venue and atmosphere.

Betrayal

This Harold Pinter play was on last night at the Cremorne.  I nearly missed it - for some reason I thought it was on later, but Tuesdays it's a 6.30 session.  Still had time for my bubbly though.  And another innovation - icecreams brought around at interval.  Very nice.  I sat next to a woman who had just come back from my dream trip on the Trans Siberian Railway.  I can't tell you when I first started dreaming about doing that...it was lovely to hear she had a good time.

OK on to the play.  It's a play of words, half completed sentences, silences.  Just like life.  I liked the writing very much.  We are presented with the "ending" and each scene goes back in time to unravel the story.  I think I liked the first scene the best, which is set two years after the lovers have separated and are "catching up" - Emma telling Jerry that her marriage is over.  It was absolutely wonderfully played with held back emotion, half started sentences - really really powerful.

The set was industrial  modern with lighting to represent the different locations, including Venice.  Very clever.  There were projected words/poetry at various times but that left me cold - the play to my mind needed to be just as it was - no extraneous commentary - but perhaps that was Pinter's idea in which case it didn't do it for me.

Towards the end we had a waiter - a poor man's (strike that - a desperately impoverished man's) Manuel from Fawlty Towers.  Except he was Italian.  Not funny and added nothing.  Shame.

The actors were good - the English accent initially strange but it was necessary for the play I think, and it was well done.  A good play.

I Love You Bro

Saw this show on Wednesday evening.  I'm not surprised its season was extended - it is FANTASTIC!  One man on stage for 80 minutes "playing" about 10 characters, drawing you in to the sad but real world of 14 year old Johnny who's life is online - an escape from his grim homelife with his mother and mean stepfather.  It starts in a very Shakespearean way and then moves to present times.  We know how it's all going to end, but the play unwinds the tangles for us so we understand  how it all went so sadly wrong.  Really really good.

Theatre

This sign works best when you are driving along Montague St in West End - I had to stand on the street to try to get a good shot...

The Clean House

What an AMAZING play!  Loved the writing (funny and layered and interesting without being depressing or laboured), fantastic acting (especially by Brooke Satchwell who plays a Brazilian cleaning lady who doesn't like to clean), great set, wonderful lighting and music.  Very impressive.  The main weakness, for me, lay in the characterisation of the only male in the show.  It was thin and shadowy, not interesting and strong like the female characters.  Overall, though, one of the best plays I've seen in a while.  And the rest of the audience loved it too!!

Drum Tao

I drove to the Gold Coast to see this show as the Brisbane tickets were sold out.

Lots of energy and some wonderful drumming, but the show was patchy.  In some places quite amateur and over the top and not quite in synch.  At other times, amazing and quite transcendant.  The audience was wowed and gave them a standing ovation.  This is the inside of the Main Theatre before the show.

The Chairs

This absurdist play was on at La Boite in Kelvin Grove.  Really interesting language (very good translation), excellent acting, engaged audience, thought-provoking....yes...but what was it ABOUT?  I guess it's one of those things that keeps you guessing and thinking for a long time afterwards...

The Concert Hall at QPAC

Tonight this show

attracted a huge number of young women.  No wonder!  6 hunky ballet dancers rocking it to contemporary music.  One female joined the choreography every now and then.  Fabulous.  I think there were three encores.  Oh, and foot stomping whistling and a standing ovation.  You don't often get that sort of thing at the ballet.  Love the ceiling...

Vale The Regent

There is not much time to take in the ornate details of The Regent Theatre in the Brisbane CBD.  On June 15 it is all over except for the foyer that is being retained for heritage reasons.  It is over the top and sorta kinda ugly - but it represents something special from the 1920s.

 This photo is from the bar area

These are from the foyer

When I was taking the shot of this plaque I got talking to a man sitting nearby - he knew the Mayne family and had a lot of stories about Brisbane - amazing the people you meet!

Pennies from Kevin

I went to the QUT Gardens Theatre yesterday.  Usually I go via the Goodwill Bridge from Southbank (the theatre sessions in the past have been evening ones, so I park and eat at Southbank and walk across).

Yesterday I decided to do a matinee.  Walking onto campus from George Street was wonderful.  Great old buildings, lots of garden to the left.  And then this map - the word "Wayfinding" was different!

"Pennies from Kevin" was really good - but I'm a revue-loving kind of girl anyway.

Funny funny funny writing, my favourite being "Kevin Potter and the Lower Chamber of Secrets" where the performers got the characters down to a "t" - the way Kevin Potter turned into Howard with the flick of an  eyebrow was amazing.  In the Canberra's Got Talent part of the show hearing "Bob Brown" sing "Hallelujah" was also very funny!