Blog — Page 235 of 275

Barbu by Cirque Alfonse
Sydney Opera House Studio
Sydney, AU
February 26, 2017

Needless to say that the mélange the troupe of Cirque Alfonse, with all its Québécois folklore, brings to the table as a collective is much bigger than its individual parts added up.

Barbu (which translates to “bearded” or “bearded man” – quite a telling name) the company’s 2015 Edinburgh Fringe hit, is performed on a small circular stage and catwalk and delves into the origins of the circus in Montreal at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century.

Think acrobatic vaudeville and burlesque comedy.

The troupe, comprised of five gentlemen and two female protagonists, introduces itself with non-stop routines agile and daring feats of balance and strength, utilizing an array of props including teeterboards, hoops and balls, poles, roller-skates, and whatever one can juggle with in the most contorted and seemingly impossible way.

As the show goes on, the intricacy and sweat inducing physicality of each feat becomes increasingly intense, with loads of shenanigans, unpretentiously camp humour and audience interaction thrown in for good measure to keep the mood light and fast paced.

The pace of the show is enhanced by all protagonists constantly involved: The four men (Jean-Philippe Cuerrier, Francis Roberge, Jonathan Casaubon and Antoine Carabinier Lepine) get few breathers in this interval-free 90-minute show.

Barbu’s women – aerialist Genevieve Gauthier and acrobat Genevieve Morin might have less of a presence, though deliver superb performances when in the spotlight.

The action is serenaded by an entertaining live musical soundtrack courtesy of a three-piece electro-folk band led by singer-guitarist Andre Gagne, whose circus rave adds spice when things get kinky in the second half of the show, e.g. when Lepine appears as a human disco ball circling in a Cyr wheel or when beer kegs are juggled in underwear.

What makes Barbu a fun night out is that the troupe works as a family based collective: There is an esprit de corps that enriches the physical acts, which is further enhanced by the artists mingling with the audience.

One can tell that the protagonists are not merely re-enacting their bits but have been involved in the development from the get go and take pride in it.

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Photos by KAVV

La Bohème
Joan Sutherland Theatre, Sydney Opera House
Sydney, AUS
February 24, 2017

Giacomo Puccini.
One of the greatest exponents of operatic realism, id est “verismo”, who is fabled to have uttered that art is a kind of “illness”.
One of the symptoms of Puccini’s ailment is La Bohème, an opera in Four Acts, which was first performed at the Teatro Regio in Turin in 1896 and became an instant hit.

La Bohème is one of Puccini’s more refined, mature emissions: Based on Henry Mürger and Theodore Barrière’s novel La Vie de Bohème portraying the life among bohemians of 1840s Paris, it meanders around a moving love story based on Mimi, the female protagonist, ending in a tragic resolution, accompanied and accentuated by an orchestra and its subtle play of thematic reminiscences.

Gale Edward’s lavish incarnation of La Bohème was first performed at the Arts Centre in Melbourne in 2011 and sets the action in 1930s Germany as opposed to the original opera in the Latin Quarter of Paris in the 1830s.

The context of the Weimar Republik, when Germany bounced back from World War I with art and expression flourishing, and specifically Berlin openly celebrating tolerance and sexual freedom, thereby overtaking Paris as the most decadent city in the world in the 1920s and -30s with its extensive liberalism, untamed by censorship, hedonism and libertinism, proves to be a fertile ground for a parallel world where Edwards orchestrates the action in sin city’s Café Momus: The epitome of a cabaret den of exotic iniquity devoid of class distinction, religious creed, sexual preference or any other societal categories that had previously marginalized people.

A bohemian, carefree existence that was contrasted by the poverty and deprivation that was commonplace outside the gates of Berlin, which Edwards shines light on via the main protagonist Mimi downward spiral towards death: The young seamstress (played by Greta Bradman with a nuanceful performance from rapid fire banter in the First Act to hitting tender notes in Act Four) who drifts into homelessness once she is abandoned by her lover Rodolfo (Arthur Espiritu, with his rich tenor voice and an immense range seamlessly transitioning the development from playful, youthful lover to grieving, regretful pallbearer).

Julie Lee Goodwin’s completes the triumvirate with a virtuoso and alluring portrayal of Musetta, navigating from a cabaret number to more melancholic notes in other parts.

Puccini was a cinematic artist and Edward’s La Bohème is a gift to the designers Julie Lynch (costumes) and Brian Thomson (set):
The scene at Café Momus is a field day for Thomson, who went to town with an opulent yet realistic glittering set that captures and enhances the depravity of the period, which is further accentuated by the interactions of the troupe in the periphery of the scene and the range of licentious costumes, or lack thereof, on display.

Conductor Pietro Rizzo is able to extract a sumptuous, varied score from the orchestra, which gives squalid moments of loss and jealousy emotionally rich dimensions of tragic grandeur and soars with the ecstasy of love scenes while still allowing room to breathe.

The burning passion of Mimì and Rodolfo is reflected in the glowing sound of the volatile tutti passages in Act One, while the uncertainty around Mimì’s fate in the Final Act is foreboded by the bareness of the high strings, which nonetheless maintains a warm, underlying tone. Rizzo’s strength is that he avoids undue accentuation, which is something one can easily be carried away with when it comes to Puccini.

Gale Edward’s La Bohème is both moving and convincing.

What it lacks in radicalism as compared to other interpretations and adoptions of Puccini’s punchy opera, e.g. the set being places in modern day NYC and Mimi dying of a heroin overdose, it compensates with pathos and affectionism, honouring the broad brushstrokes Puccini painted with.

It is the imagination of Edwards that has tweaked the strengths of Puccini’s opus, and the both inspired and spirited cast that makes his version of the timeless bohemian classic well worth seeing.

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Photo by T

Warpaint
Sydney Opera House
Sydney, AUS
February 25, 2017

In Greek mythology, sirens were dangerous creatures who lured nearby sailors with their enchanting music and voices to shipwreck on the rocky coast of their island.

Their song is fabled to be irresistibly sweet with equal measures of sadness and melancholy, which lapped both mind and soul in fatal lethargy, the forerunner of death and corruption, ultimately resulting in ruin.

Not saying that the harmonious intertwining of vocals which has become the trademark of American indie rock band Warpaint; comprised of Emily Kokal (vocals, guitar), Theresa Wayman (guitar, vocals) and Jenny Lee Lindberg (bass, backing vocals), and Stella Mozgawa (drums); is the modern day incarnation of Leucosia, Ligela, Aglaope and Molpe (despite their 2011 song “Elephants” having been featured in an independent horror film of the same title), but with them holding court at Sydney’s Opera House situated a stone throw from Sydney Harbour, we can be glad that the transatlantic ocean liner Queen Mary 2 had already securely dropped its anchor for the night before Warpaint hit the stage.

Warpaint’s songs are dreamy and free-flowing, some of which seem to have originated from jamming at soundchecks, without lacking structure, employing more than standard, clichéd rock staples and featuring drum machines and electronica to enhance the ambience.

Transitioning from plaintive moods, floating on streams of consciousness (or rather drifting in and out of consciousness) passages into harmonic psychedelic rock songs is the approach that led to Warpaint being labeled as “art rock” with nebulous prog-rock influences.

Sounds like a heady, borderline pretentious and boring mélange?

Experiencing them in a live environment is the diametric opposite.

Devoid of ceremony and pomp, the quartet jumps right in medias res, commencing their performance with total conviction and conjuring a sensual vibe that plants the willing audience in the palm of their hands.

The fact that Warpaint as a unit has honed its craft as a jam band enables them to effortlessly calibrate their harmonies, backed by a solid foundation rooted in the ridiculously tight drum skills of Stella Mozgowa, who celebrated her birthday and centers the band when things run danger of getting too wafty.

Warpaint live goes off like clockwork, with each cog reacting and corresponding with its counterparts and thereby creating a coherent whole – an evocative unit that inspires an atmosphere of swaying, ethereal awe yet somehow simultaneously inspires dance moves and the occasional first pump.

Sydney Opera house proved to be an effective venue for the hypnotic, spaced out atmosphere Warpaint created, the ebbs and flows of which were enhanced by a nuanced yet subtle light show orchestrated courtesy of the in-house illumination wizards.

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Photos by KAVV

Smith Journal

Magazines.

An easily forgotten medium in a world with an attention span of a goldfish obsessed with blogs and spoon-fed easy to digest hors d’oeuvre of information.

A magazine can be so much more than merely a collection of writings and much bigger than the sum of its parts: A coherent entity that unfolds its flavours not just with each new issue but also over time.

Layout, design and being visually appealing are part of the deal, sure. It can anchor and frame content.

The voice of a magazine can be created through the editors’ choice of approach to curation, layout and contextualization of the articles – a voice that needs to be clear and leaves not too much white space around why certain topics are dealt with in the issue in question in that exact order and individual context.

Substance.

Wit.

Inspiration.

Not forcefully trying to reinvent the wheel, desperately trying to be the first in line but keep an eye on what is current. 
Not indulge in nostalgia but appreciate things and ideas that stand the test of time.

The voice of a magazine is what makes it unique.

Great publications take a stand without imposing a point of view on its readers, yet their approach might not be for everyone.

That’s part of the deal.

Smith Journal is released every three month and, in a nutshell, contains stories about weird science, offbeat history and ingenious design.

The minds behind Smith want to create something they'd be happy to read themselves.

Something that bridges the divide between makers and thinkers. Something that informs and is inspired by their own curiosity.

A mission they accomplish.

Each issue of Smith Journal has its own overarching design sensibility, clear typography, a global perspective and provides a reading experience with its high quality print and paper.

You know a good magazine when the way it seamlessly combines unobtrusive advertising with content in an integrated manner adds to the overall experience instead of disrupting it – a magazine that you are likely to hold onto.

The Judas Kiss by playwright David Hare
Old Fitzroy Theatre
Sydney, AUS
February 15 – March 11, 2017

Sydney’s Old Fitzroy and its theatre operation is a cultural touchstone that uniquely links generations in a town slavishly fixated to the latest fad. A bar without posturing that holds its history and popularity. Nightlife without the Old Fitzroy's could not be a blander proposition.

With over 100 years of history, it contains the only pub theatre on terra australis.

In 2015, Red Line Productions re-opened the doors of the legendary Old Fitz Theatre - a venue that was built in 1997 by a group of passionate theatre makers.

Alumni from the tiny Old Fitz stage include Tim Minchin, Kate Mulvany, Mark Priestley, Toby Schmitz, Ewen Leslie, Brendan Cowell, Blazey Best, Christopher Stollery, Travis Cotton, Ella Scott Lynch, Patrick Brammell and Leon Ford.

The fact that the confines of the Old Fitzroy are very conducive to conjure an intimate environment eventually led to The Old Fitz establishing itself as a quality ensemble theatre.

Enter David Hare’s Judas Kiss:

In the spring of 1895, the dauntlessly, impeccably stylish poet, playwright and bon vivant Oscar Wilde was at the peak of his witty existence. The Importance of Being Ernest was a hit in the West End, making him the popular across London. But he was serving two years in prison for gross indecency by summer.

The Redline incarnation of the production sheds light in a nuanceful manner on both the romantic individualist, master of paradox and victim Wilde that emerges from Iain Sinclair’s melancholic and at times somber incarnation of Judas Kiss, is a multifaceted character, i.e. a character that carries the internal battle and tries to balance moral integrity and intelligence with a tendency for self-annihilation.

Josh Quong Tart manages to portray Wilde’s inner upheavals and giving depth to great emotions that could easily run danger of border lining worn out clichés.

Quong Tart masters the technically difficult task of playing Wilde, a character where the slightest slip would result in breaking character.

It comes with the territory and lies in the childish hysteric character of his counterpart, Bosie, performed by Hayden Maher, that its portrayal is painted with a broader brush with at times simplistic strokes. Strokes that make it difficult to decipher what the attraction was for Wilde in the first place.

Enormously present and anchoring the play is Simon London in his intentionally understated yet nuanced role of Wilde’s confidante Robbie.

The main protagonists are flanked by Robert Alexander, Luke Fewster, Hannah Raven and David Soncin.

Time has been kind to Judas Kiss and Redline Production’s take on it only amplifies the rich, relevant and resonant piece it is.

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Photos by KAVV