Blog — Page 126 of 275

Life – The Show

Spiegeltent

Sydney, Australia

January 9, 2020

Given that the creative entity that is Strut & Fret is known for assembling superbly talented performers for their productions and that it has seen very successful stagings of their LIMBO and Cantina shows at previous incarnations of Sydney Festival, the expectations were high when it was announced that their journey and celebration of and through life would be part of the 2020 program.

It is never not a pleasure to step into the internationally touring Magic Mirrors Spiegeltent and the surrounding village that comes alive in Sydney’s Hyde Park as part of the annual festivities and its ambience is always a contributing factor. Certainly a suitable setting for the new decade that will hopefully be no less roaring than the original 20s when jazz-age flappers reigned supreme.

Life – The Show is essentially a close to ninety minutes fast paced two-act tour de force through the stages of life, e.g. birth, adolescence, adulthood, work life, et cetera, and the more abstract and often confusing concepts and conventions behind them.

Not wasting too much time on narration, the show is firmly focussed on a vaudevillian melange of burlesque, cabaret, theatrics, live music and song that is expertly executed by an ensemble that has honed its craft internationally, such as the formidable Goos Meeuwsen, who provides comic relief as the main protagonist, flanked by his counterpart Helena Bittencourt, both of which have become known for their work with Cirque du Soleil.

A highlight of the show is a mesmerising, and subtly erotic aerial routine where performed in a suspended plastic tube / “condom” the fluidity of which needs to be experienced to be believed.

Backed by a tight live band that is comprised of local jazz luminaries as well as constituents of bands like the Violent Femmes, the musical interludes not only provide seamless transitions between the individual acts but become a vital ingredient of the evening.

A varied show that brings a welcome fresh breeze with innovative and sharply choreographed routines, circus artistry, cabaret and acrobatics and which certainly constitutes a highlight of the 2020 Sydney Festival.

Mclusky

Oxford Art Factory

Sydney, Australia

January 12, 2020

Mclusky…rings a bell, huh? I remembered that they were one of the better bands in the 1990s that emerged out of the delicious swamp that was influenced by the better emissions out of Amphetamine Reptile records.

Grimy guitars and a fuzzed-out bass met a fierce and obnoxious attitude that culminated with an aggressive sing-screaming that resided in the darker realms of independent rock. Summa summarum: A welcome and merciless distraction from what followed in the wake of Nirvana’s success.

Needless to say that I was a wee bit worried about seeing them incarnate again in 2020 and prepared myself for disappointment, which was not warranted as with their original frontman Andrew ‘Falco’ Falkous, drummer Jack Egglestone and Damian Sayell the band was in formidable form and managed to blow away any doubts once they entered the stage in front of a packed audience inside the confines of one of the better venues in Sydney, i.e. the Oxford Art Factory.

Tonight the wheel was not necessarily reinvented yet what was proffered was a guitar-heavy, tight, catchy yet raw assault with Falco’s charismatic trademark gruff vocal delivery being the cherry on top.

Having been exposed to Mclusky for the first time, my better half described it as a dissonant psychotic and meaner version of the The Hives, which describes the performance quite accurately.

‘No New Wave No Fun’ carries on a similar trend, a filtered guitar motif preceding a short, catchy tune, although the sound here is even rawer, its driving resonance taking inspiration from The Hives, but adding its own heavy psyche and mean soul to it.

In essence, Mclusky in 2020 is still an exquisite melange of guitar-driven hard-edged punk and the finer moments of noise rock, infused with their idiosyncratic misanthropy.

Gotta Get Theroux This

Louis Theroux

Macmillan

Louis Theroux and his documentaries are known the world over due to two things: Theroux’s idiosyncratic, self-deprecating approach to journalism and unique way of eliciting information and the themes that are more often than not situated on the outer rim of mainstream culture.

Gotta Get Theroux This is a memoir that sheds light on the angle the man himself channels his alchemy from and it does not disappoint as it draws the curtain and allows the reader insights on what is actually happening behind the scene before and during his documentaries are shot. The latter is intriguing when he muses on his dealing with Jimmy Saville and reflects on how and why things went the way they did, i.e. him failing to nail him for being the paedophile his actions revealed him to be and striking up a friendship instead.

What I find particularly interesting is that Theroux examines and questions his feelings, thoughts and values as he guides us through his life and the encounters that paved his long-standing career that led him from a green, naïve and unqualified newbie to one of the popular and unique journalists mainstream culture has to offer.

The book being a memoir, one learn about Theroux’s upbringing in an unconventional and bohemian environment, which he not only details but assesses to have had a tangible influence on his development, work and traits, i.e. becoming a shy and bookish socially awkward who excelled at Oxford and developed an interested in the exploration of human nature and how morality corresponds with the signs of times.

The book should be interesting for both the uninitiated as well as those fairly familiar with his oeuvre as it reveals how his melange of piss-taking, faux naivety, giving people the benefit of doubt, compassion and interest in outlandish and weird phenomena has been shaped into an art form.

The book culminates in prompting some interesting questions that leave one questioning mainstream media’s interpretation of what is “weird” and the conclusion that there are no silver bullet answers and that all we can endeavour to do is pushing forward, making small contributions in a bid to make things better.

Double Delicious

Carriageworks

Sydney, Australia

January 8. 2020

Food and the need to eat is universal and a common denominator. As Maya Angelou put it so eloquently, the exercise of eating is of intimate nature in that it is very sensual – by inviting someone to sit at your table and cooking for them, you are basically inviting a person into your life.

Needless to say that the sentiment is amplified in different cultures, with each occasion, dish and course having its idiosyncratic role and significance, providing fertile ground for memories to be created.

Curated and brought on stage by the Contemporary Asian Australian Performance (CAAP), a total of five protagonists from different walks of life share stories around the dishes they are preparing, which allowing the audience a glimpse into their very own history and the outlook on life it inspired.

Raghav Handa , Heather Jeong, Elizabeth Chong, Valerie Berry and Benjamin Law, all accomplished professionals in their respective disciplines – be it dance, journalism, entrepreneurship or hospitality – each guide us in their own idiosyncratic manner and their own quirkiness through tales which culminate in the dishes they are preparing as part of their performance being served to the audience, which is then consumed and seals each act. A well-thought out concept that effortlessly inspired conversations at each of the communal tables and led to anecdotes being shared about one’s own history and the significance of shared meals.

The idea was not to create a degustation or restaurant like experience but to create a tangible sensory experience that added another dimension to the evening and involved the audience in an engaging manner.

As with nearly everyone of his incarnations, no matter if printed or in the flesh, I immensely enjoyed the never not witty Benjamin Law holding court as well the dance choreography that Raghav Handa performed to frame his contribution, which added nuances to the evening,

As outlined in previous reviews about performances held at the third place Carriageworks, the venue and projection space it offered contributed greatly to an evening that provided a different theatre experience – one that nourished both the mind and the body.

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photos courtesy of SYDFEST

The Long March of Pop: Art, Music, and Design, 1930–1995

Yale University Press

Huh, the phenomenon of ubiquitous pop art!

A topic that has not exactly suffered from a lack of attention and discussion of its significance.

Thomas Crow’s elaborations approaches the sujet from the ivory tower of academia, which is not a bad thing but certainly results in something that takes a bit more effort to follow than the run-off-the-mill superficial opinion piece.

Taking into consideration the genesis of pop art design and music in this lucid and insightful monograph, Crow meticulously explores how different art forms contributed to the formation of popular artistic culture and the impact it exerts on each facet of our lives.

Crow’s enthusiasm for the subject becomes particularly tangible when he explores the influence and significance of folk as well in chapters that surgically asses the artists that propelled pop art forward in the 1960s - specifically the oeuvre and genre coining aesthetics of Andy Warhol, which is placed under particular welcomed scrutiny.

While some of Crow's points seem to be obvious, the art historical way with which he elaborates them adds weight to the respective cases, especially when he focuses on nuances and shades of grey that often lack when the colourful world of pop art is shed light on in other media.

Apart from working through the emergence of pop art in a chronological manner, Crow pays attention to the artists that revived the genre, e.g. Jeff Koons and Damien Hirst, and juxtaposes them with the ones that gave birth to the movement.

While Crow’s interest in the topic is certainly inspired and fuelled by a personal interest and his tastes, his approach remains measured and objective even when he shares his own interpretations and assessments.

A hefty yet elegant coffee table book that packs a punch in terms of content and serves nutritious food for thought.