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Mudcrabs: A Set of Successful Sketches

Mudcrabs: The Box Set, opened last night for the first of their four night run, as part of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. A lively demonstration of sketch comedy, Mudcrabs’ nine members demonstrated varying levels of commitment to pull off an energetic and rousing performance. With nudity, defiance of heterosexual norms and an array of accents, this eclectic show is guaranteed to present a sketch … Continue reading Mudcrabs: A Set of Successful Sketches

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Out-Of-This-World Comedy

The Mudcrabs’ contribution to Melbourne Fringe Festival was Mudcrabs in Space, a sketch comedy show that surprisingly, doesn’t have that much to do with space. The opening of the show wasn’t particularly funny, unfortunately, simply featuring the seven comedians repeating one joke again and again, getting increasingly louder. It was predictable, but definitely wasn’t an indicator of what was to come, for it was followed by … Continue reading Out-Of-This-World Comedy

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First Class Performance

From the minute the audience entered the Guild Theatre we were transported into the gritty and dreamlike world of FLW’s Who’s Afraid of the Working Class. The set – a garbage tip, mattresses and a table – radiated well-coordinated chaos. The live music was urban and surreal, and the actors frozen in their positions on stage already grounded us in their world. Who’s Afraid of … Continue reading First Class Performance

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A Play to be Remembered

Remember Ronald Ryan. This phrase is a powerful conceit, and that’s not just because of the convenient alliteration. Those three words aren’t just there to provide the absolute shortest summary of a play possible, but to make a promise: that after two emotional acts, you will remember Ronald Ryan, the last man to be hanged in Australia. Queen’s College Music and Drama Society kept this … Continue reading A Play to be Remembered

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Macbeth: Interview with Rachel Shrives

A grey morning. Two tired uni students have a conversation. Claire Ferguson talks with Rachel Shrives, Assistant Director of UHT’s Macbeth + macdeath: a coda. What are one or two of the key elements of your production of Macbeth? Macbeth in a few words is about over turning the natural order. By natural order, I mean privileges that we’re given that we don’t question, being … Continue reading Macbeth: Interview with Rachel Shrives

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Time For the Main Course

“Nine new Australian works is more than you will ever see in one season of main-stage theatre,” Jean Tong rightly announced before the start of Tastings, a series of new Australian plays hosted by the UMSU Creative Arts Office. Coinciding with the 2017 season launches of major theatre companies around the nation (again highlighting the consistent lack of Australian work on the main stage) Tastings … Continue reading Time For the Main Course

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High Energy

The audience’s excitement, their trepidation, their desperate prayers for “please, God, no audience participation” – from the first monologue, The Drowsy Chaperone knew what its audience was thinking, and liked to remind us of that fact. St Hilda’s rose to the challenge of this unusually self-referential play, producing a show that was lively and enjoyable, and often subverted our expectations. While there were some rough … Continue reading High Energy

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Disturbingly Relevant

Sexual assault is an ongoing social issue, particularly in a college environment, as is the victim blaming and sexism that so often surrounds rape. In light of this, International House’s choice to perform Blackrock, which explores the aftermath of the rape and murder of a teenage girl, is both bold and commendable. Directed by Holly Nugent, the production was as gripping as it was thought … Continue reading Disturbingly Relevant

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No Day But Today

Loosely based on Puccini’s opera La Boheme, RENT follows the life of a group of creative friends fighting to overcome poverty in New York City’s East Village in the early 90s. Written and composed by Jonathan Larson in 1993, RENT opened on Broadway in 1996. Larson tragically passed away the night before the first preview of the show, explaining the lack of rewrites and the … Continue reading No Day But Today

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