Art Smitten: Reviews - 2016

Emma reviews the Malthouse Theatre’s production of The Events 

The Events was written as a response to the 2011 massacre in Norway. Devastatingly, this story is still as relevant today as it was five years ago. Our thoughts are with the friends and family of the victims of the recent 2016 attack in Orlando, USA.

The Events is being performed at Malthouse Theatre, Merlyn Theatre until July 10th.

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*Note to listeners: this review contains gun shot sound effects*

This year, the Scandinavian Film Festival is leading with what might sound like just another World War 2 movie, but is one that actually turns the tables the tables on a lot of its predecessors. The Danish film Under Sandet (literally Under the Sand), is a drama set in post-war landmine-ridden Denmark and is being released internationally with the English title Land of Mine, a rather unfortunate, hopefully accidental pun on an obviously serious issue.

It's easy to see why the second world war is still a cinematic staple. The Third Reich, and its soldiers, remain the definitive example of what hateful extremism can lead to, and what we all want to avoid becoming. No film has ever had to work especially hard to characterise Nazi soldiers as villains.

It is curious, then, that in Land of Mine, these supposedly evil men appear in the form of scared, defeated young boys who just want to go home. Of course, as prisoners of war from the losing side, some are wondering if they'll even have much of a home to go to once they've been released. The ones that handled the landmines are being made to remove all 2.5 million of them from the beaches that they buried them on. Danish Sergeant Carl Rasmussen (Rolan Møller) is given a group of 14 German soldiers that are to dig up and defuse thousands of unexploded mines before they are allowed to go home. In a damaged country that has just been freed from German occupation, its German prisoners have become the lowest class of people. Sergeant Rasmussen and his fellow officers beat them, starve them, mock them, and deny them any medical attention, until it is too late.

The boys all find various ways to deal with their plight. Ludwig Haffke (Oskar Bökelmann), their leader, appointed while the war was still being fought, has resigned himself to the totality of their defeat and ultimate ruin. Most of the others are more hopeful, and spend their time talking about what they'll do when they get home and the lives that they will lead. Twin brothers Ernst and Werner Lessner (Emil and Oskar Buschow), seeing a country in need of rebuilding, plan to start up a bricklaying business, called Ernst, Wernst & Sons (even though the sons haven't been born yet). As tends to happen with twins, especially identical ones, their connection is strong. Ernst also shares a sort of big-brotherly bond with the little girl from the family farm that is next to the hut in which the boys are locked up every night. For Nazis, they seem to have an incredible capacity to love.

The real, unspoken leader of the group is now Sebastian Schumann (Louis Hoffman), a boy with a quiet maturity that is well beyond his years. He deals with the danger by taking control and becoming the protector.

The sergeant manages to do this dirty work by reminding himself of what these boys were party to and detaching himself emotionally from them, until they have their first casualty, and he sees just how much of himself there is in Sebastian.

As for the other characters in the Danish military, writer/director Martin Zandvliet doesn't quite afford them the same complexity and dynamism. Rasmussen's superiors, namely Lieutenant Ebbe Jensen (Mikkel Boe Følsgaard), are painted as the cold, ivory tower authorities in this narrative, while the Sergeant has a very different point of view from working on the ground. However, Zandvliet is not about to deny that Ebbe has a point when he tells Carl "You have no idea what they have on their conscience." Of course, the audience of Land of Mine has much more than merely an idea of what these 14 boys might have done. They can also see as well as anyone that the Danish officers have their own people to protect and a country to rebuild. With not even enough food to feed the people of Denmark, why give any to the Germans? Someone has to clear the mines, so why not the people who put them there? Why risk the lives of people who had no involvement whatsoever with the atrocities committed by the Nazi party in cleaning up their mess?

Still, in cinema, murky misdeeds done offscreen seldom match the raw victimisation that takes place onscreen. The prior actions of these boys is left to the imagination, one that is more fuelled by their heartbreaking pleas for mercy than anything else. One has to wonder how much choice some members of the Hitler Youth generation really had in the part they were playing in all of this. By allowing us to spend time with this small company out of an enormous group of prisoners, Zandvliet makes it very hard for anyone to see a way that placing children in harm's way, even Nazi children, can truly be the answer to anything.

Review written by Christian Tsoutsouvas

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Rachel & Jim were fortunate to attend the exclusive media preview of NGV International’s newest winter masterpiece exhibition – DEGAS: A New Vision.

Rachel and Jim were also lucky to get a few words with Ted Gott, the senior curator of European Art at the NGV.

DEGAS: A New Vision is on at the NGV International in Melbourne until the 18th of September.

Pictured: one of the works showing at DEGAS: A New Vision, NGV International. 

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The Honey Bees is a stage play written by veteran playwright Caleb Lewis and directed by Ella Caldwell, starring Eva Seymour, Christopher Brown, Rebecca Bower, Mara (Kat-Marek) Kaczmarek and Katerina Kotsonis.

It is now showing at Red Stitch Theatre on Chapel Street in St Kilda's East, and is running until the 16th of July.

Caleb Lewis' gradually and masterfully details his characters in a dexterous juggling of intersecting plotlines and overlapping relationships. His writing is enhanced by the strong direction of Caldwell, who proves to be a master of the long pause, drawing silences between characters out to a length just long enough to be painful and not tedious, creating an atmosphere of tension from the first interactions of the play.

At the centre of the drama is Joan, a bitter yet charming Polish immigrant, both bee-keeper and now elderly mother, who rules her long standing (yet struggling) apiary with an iron will.

Daryl is her estranged, middle aged son, vulnerable and ambitious, living in his dead fathers shadow.

His younger sister, Clover, remains inert in a life resigned to helping her mother with the apiary in placeof her own ambitions as an artist.

Kerry, Joan's employee and Clover's lover, is a gruff, tough farmhand who dreams of leaving the apiary - a place she perceives full of broken dreams and stagnant lives - and eloping for the city with Clover.

And finally, there is the mysterious Melissa, a teenager from Sydney who enters explosively into this already strained dynamic. She proves to be the moody and abused catalyst for change and highly charged drama.

A void at the heart of every character is left by the long dead but seemingly omnipresent spectre of Harry, Joan's husband, and the father of Daryl and Clover, who's actions in life prove to be the impetus for much of the desperate love and hate in the play

Desperate is the key word to unlocking much at the heart of the performance, and is highlighted in a quote from Clover:

Quote: ' A bee might fly over 800km in their life, and only ever produce less than a teaspoonful of Honey' End quote

To a honey bee, this might be a fine achievement, but to a human audience, this fact sounds unbearably pitiable. So much hard work produces such a meagre teaspoon of positive creation.

And indeed, like the struggling honeybee, all the characters have their own vast, lifelong journeys, riddled with resentment, abuse, sacrifice and lies, for such minuscule moments of sweet honey and happiness.

The play seems to stress that there is only a teaspoonful of sweetness to life at times, a point emphasised in a devastating fashion by the countless tragedies realised throughout the performance, which ultimately bares the ugly truths that lurk hidden within the infinitely subtle and complex relationships that human beings invariably encounter.

The set design is economic and well utilised, with strong unity between lighting and audio creating powerful atmospheres that were compelling and engaging.

Furthermore, there are strong performances by the cast all round, but the standout performance is by Marta Kaczmarek as Joan - a powerful tour de force worthy of the award winning actress.

You can get tickets to a performance of The Honey Bees at redstitch.net/honeybees. Once again, it is running until the 16th of July.

Review written by Jim Thomas

Photo credit: Jodie Hutchinson. Featuring: Eva Seymour, Marta Kaczmarek and Christopher Brown

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Christian reviews the 2015 film Queen of the Desert, not to be mistaken for Priscilla: Queen of the Desert, which features actors Nicole Kidman, James Franco and Robert Pattinson.

Queen of the Desert is the true story of Gertrude Bell, a traveller, writer, archaeologist, explorer, cartographer, and political attaché for the British Empire at the dawn of the twentieth century.  The film was written and directed by Werner Herzog.

Queen of the Desert is now showing at Cinema Nova.

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The Melbourne international jazz festival, now in its 18th year is Melbourne’s premier jazz festival which takes over the city for 9 days in june showcasing local and international talent in different concert halls, bars and occasionally laneways!

This year I was lucky enough to attend three completely different yet equally exiting events: Tomasz Stańko Band, Vince Jones and the astral orchestra, and Jose James.

Polish born Tomasz Stanko has been a jazz trumpeter since the 60s, touring the world time and time again and working on film scores. His performance at the Coopers Malthouse was a true testament to his experimental yet highly skilled approach to jazz. Accompanied by Alexi Tuomarila on piano, Slawomir Kurkiewics on bass and Olavi Louhivuori on drums, the four absolutely filled the space of the theatre unlike any others! Performing a total of six songs, interspersed with extensive improvisation, the band created the classic dizzying jazz atmosphere and had the entire audience bopping their heads, slapping their knees and completely entranced. The band nor Stanko virtually ever stoped throughout the performance, expect for at the beginning to introduce themselves, and seemed to be as captivated by the music they were making as the audiences were listening to that music. Over all this performance was the true epitome of jazz – dizzying and disorientating, yet completely enthralling.

In contrast, Vince Jones and the Astral Orchestra presented a much more rehearsed show as they paid tribute to the music of Van Morison. Vince Jones, who has been an Australian jazz vocalist legend for over 20 years joined forces with the seven piece Astral Orchestra, which was specially brought together for the event by musical director, Matt McMahon. Together they performed, and reimagined the songs of Van Morrison from his albums Moondance and Astral Weeks. This was a very interesting and creative evening as Jones and the Astral Band covered, and put a unique jazz spin on what is typically rock music. It was very enjoyable hearing Morrisons music in jazz form! Arguably the show did justice to both genres, and to both of the legendary artists. for those who are fans of both, or even either artists or genres and want to see rock in jazz form, or jazz with the influence or rock, then Vince Jones and the Astral Orchestra will be performing at the Recital Centre tonight as part of an extended run.

Finally, in a one-off exclusive evening, José Jones presented the music of Billie Holiday. American born, Jones is a well-regarded jazz vocalist but has also had great success in r’n’b and even hip hop, and you could really see this influence coming through in his tribute. Together with a highly skilled band, Jones played homage to the jazz legend that he considered his ‘musical mother’ in the same year that would have been her centennial. Jones did a sensational job performing what were the songs most important to him and his career, but adding his own unique, r’n’b influenced spin on them. His smooth yet powerful voice managed to completely fill the packed Hammer Hall, as he gave offered what was, for a lack of a better word, a sexy rendition of songs such as Yesterday I Had, and God Bless, interspersed with personal anecdotes about how Holiday influenced his career and the careers of his peers. Jones love and admiration of the great Lady Day was extremely evident not only in the way he sang her songs, but also in how he told her stories and the picture he painted of the blues legend. The show culminated in an encore which featured the most enthralling and unique rendition of Strange Fruit, arguably one of Holidays most famous songs, which Jones performed solo with the use of a loop pedal! Not only did this do true justice to an extremely controversial and sacred track, it was a stroke of genius and left the audience in awe.

The Melbourne International Jazz Festival ends for another year tonight! IF you still have a chance then do your self a favour and get down to experience some local or international experimental talent.

Review written by Rachel Iampolski

Review read aloud by Jonathan Calleja & Christian Tsoutsouvas

Pictured: Tomasz Stanko Band, MIJF website

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In #DearDiary, the Melbourne-based actor Andi Snelling achieves the seemingly impossible. She manages to turn 20 years worth of diaries into an entertaining, highly amusing and climatically moving piece of theatre.

#DearDiary is a one-woman show that tells the story of Andi from childhood to now, using only verbatim diary entries. Andi doesn’t speak for the first 5 minutes, but as soon as she enters the stage, your eyes are utterly transfixed by her. Such is the power of Andi’s physical presence, which shouldn’t come as a surprise, given her extensive experience in physical comedy and movement.

The show is a multimedia experience – using sound, screens, song and dance to bring Andi’s diaries to life. It begins lightly – Andi mimes and sings her way through her childhood, leaving the audience hysterical in its wake. Then, we travel with her to France. Andi goes on exchange and her 15 year old self is suddenly plunged into a world of boys and awkward sexual encounters.

Never leaving you bored for a second, the show takes a strange turn midway through – we suddenly find ourselves watching a game show with Andi, now moustache-clad, as our host. Audience members ask questions – eg. what is the point of getting out of bed in the morning? – and Andi answers these questions using only (you guessed it) verbatim diary entries. It is in this section that we really get a sense of Andi’s improvisational skills – she riffs delightfully with the audience, at the end handing out a gift to a selected audience member for, as she puts it, ‘no reason whatsoever’.

Just when I started to think that the show was pure comedy, the final act came, and with it, an intimate look at the darker pages of Andi’s diaries. Andi offers us her darkest thoughts and moments, sharing her experiences of depression and family suffering through painful diary scribbles. By the end the show, Andi is crying and we have made it back to the present day.

#DearDiary is a truly wonderful piece of theatre, devised and performed by the talented Andi Snelling. It is on at The Butterfly Club in Melbourne until the 5th of June.

Review written by Beth Gibson

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Ben & Christian did a combined review of ACMI’s exhibition dedicated to award-winning film maker, Martin Scorsese. 

Scorsese will be exhibiting at ACMI 26th May to 18th September

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Experience. Strength. Hope. These words don’t carry much meaning by themselves, but together in the context of Melbourne Playback Theatre Company’s latest performance SticksnStones of the Birrarung Marr - Stories of First Nations Place Making, Culture and Legacy, they provided a pivotal focus for the evening’s event.

SticksnStones was the second public event by Melbourne Playback for the year. The event was split into two parts – a Q&A panel with esteemed First Nation Victorians including Jill Gallagher, Reuben Berg, Monica McDonald, Bruce Pascoe, and Stan Yarramunua, followed by a one-of-a-kind improvised theatre performance by Melbourne Playback. The event took place at Deakin Edge Theatre in Federation square, located on the banks of the Birrarung Marr – the river of mists. The Birrarung Marr is a significant meeting place for First Nation Victorians, and so it seemed particularly appropriate for the event to take place beside the river.

The event also coincided with Reconciliation Week – a week where Australia acknowledges the First Nation people and their history of suffering and atrocities since the White Settlement / Invasion 200 years ago, as well as the ongoing negative impact this hidden history continues to have in the present day. It is also a week where Australia takes the opportunity to celebrate and honour First Nation’s Cultural systems.

Each panelist shared stories and family histories of growing up in Victoria and Australia. Jill Gallagher told of the hardships her mother endured. She was born on country in Victoria’s Western District and lived on a mission. “They were very cruel times” Jill’s mother told her, “I try to forget”. At 13 her mother left school and worked as a seasonal picker. Seasonal work meant Jill attended 19 different schools. However, her mother strongly believed education was a catalyst for change and encouraged Jill to get a good education.

Bruce Pascoe, award-winning author of Dark Emu, Black Seeds, told the audience of the efforts he needed to make to discover the truth about his family history. He discovered that his family was aboriginal and had fled from Tasmania. For many years his family was forced to deny their cultural heritage in order for to be able to stay on the mainland. After years of searching and listening to elders, Bruce began to unravel a complex web of family relations. Bruce realized that ultimately, what connected them all, was their connections to the land.

After interval, the vivacious Ian David from Melbourne Playback Theatre Company welcomed the audience to share words and thoughts that had touched or inspired them from the panel discussion. The improvisation ensemble, or Players as they are called, took these words and created physical images of these ideas through dance, movement and music. Three audience members had the opportunity to tell a personal story that the players transformed from the individual to the universal in ways that resonated with all of us in the room.

These performances were incredibly powerful – the players seemed able to draw out the emotional core of each story. The ensemble worked so well together that it was hard to believe that these were not rehearsed pieces of work. ‘Travelling moments” flowed seamlessly together on stage, everyone playing a part when needed. There were moments when their performances brought me, and many others in the audience, to laughter and tears. I can’t recall the last time a work of performance art had achieved that.

There will be other public events by Melbourne Playback Theatre Company later in the year focusing on: Refugees, Climate Change and Mental Health. Do not miss out!

SticksnStones on the Birrarung Marr took place on Friday 27th May at Deakin Edge Theatre, Federation Square.

Review written by Lauren Klein

Review read aloud by Michaela Jones & Ben Volchok

Photographer credit: Steven Rhall

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Adalya reviews The Wheeler Centre’s author talk event with Hanya Yanagihara in conversation with Jason Steger.

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