Mudcrabs: The Box Set

Mudcrabs:The Box Set,作为墨尔本国际喜剧节其中一环,一共四场演出。昨晚他们的第一场演出顺利上演。这是一部得到生动展现的喜剧小品,Mudcrabs的九位成员不同程度的投入成就了一场充满活力和光芒的表演。这部不拘一格的作品中呈现的裸露、对吸引异性的形式的蔑视以及不同口音的展示,使得它能够成为一部吸引所有人的小品。 每一个演员都将自身的特点融入他们不同的角色当中,其中,Ben Volchok 和 Matthew Schäffner展示了在角色之间灵活切换的高超技巧。两人成功地展现了一系列的角色,并在过程中利用了喜剧道具之间的差异。然而,由于观众的笑场,演员们的表演开始失准,导致精心准备的角色变得失真,最终完全偏离整个演出。 就在这时候,David Mastrantuono闪亮登场,他的每一幕都会让人目不转睛。他的付出让喜剧得到升华。他对口音精准的把握,深化了他的角色,这点是足以让人称道的,也让他在演员当中成为独一无二的存在。 剧组之中显然发生了奇妙的化学反应,由此诞生了一个敢于冒险和挑战喜剧极限的紧密团体。演员们的热情与活力支撑着每一幕,甚至在一些放慢的片段里依旧能娱乐观众。遗憾的是,这些闪光点虽然很多,但是对时间的把握是迟钝的,这导致了表演经常出现尴尬的停顿,结果则是表演失去了气势,让一个高质量的喜剧片段白白错失。 然而,一些在介绍部分中并不出彩的笑点,在后来的表演中得到了积极的回应。这些被重提的笑点成了活跃和娱乐观众最有效的手段。同样的,事实证明,这些围绕学生生活的笑点最为成功,是因为笑点是为观众量身订造的。显而易见的是,正是因为演员们对创造的这些相关的片段最为自信,所以他们才能在这些片段当中绽放光彩。 灯光和音效同样出彩,两者都只为突出演员而服务。布景与道具也非常简约,配合剧院里的昏暗,表演的主体和人物都得到了非常有效的呈现。 这同样适用于肢体语言喜剧,这是某些片段里非常重要的组成部分。而在这些片段里往往效果最为明显,甚至一个手势都能对对话部分起到加强的作用。Jack McGorlick饰演的裸体警探也佐证了这点,他的角色对其他全是对话的片段起到一个缓冲的效果。 最后,Mudcrabs是一部绝对能让你捧腹大笑的,充满活力的作品,不管这是源于自信心十足且敢于冒险的演员,还是源于被巧妙呈现的构思。这就是传统喜剧小品当中一个充满欢乐和失误的强大团体演出。 Lucy Holz Translated by Eason Zhang from Theatreshow Melb.  翻译:Eason Zhang(墨尔本好戏连台翻译员)   Continue reading Mudcrabs: The Box Set

Room 648: Five Star Farce

MUCTG’s production of Room 648 takes on an adaptation of Ray Cooney’s 1990 British farce Out of Order. A simple affair between a government official and a secretary from the opposition grows more and more complicated with the appearance of spouses, the hotel manager, a nosy concierge and a corpse. This already complex plot is further convoluted by intricate set and props, physical comedy and constant costume changes, … Continue reading Room 648: Five Star Farce

Lɘar: Walking Backwards isn’t Easy

Melbourne University Shakespeare Company’s Lɘar set out to re-conceptualise both conventional theatre and the traditions of Shakespearean representation. Presenting an ambitious and transformative portrayal of the Shakespearean tragedy, Lɘar explored the consequences of hitting rewind, delivering a thought provoking and admirable performance. Adelaide Greig’s direction of Lɘar created opportunity for a wild shift in the presentation of the perennial tragedy: King Lear. Beginning from the original … Continue reading Lɘar: Walking Backwards isn’t Easy

SPENCER: A Charming New Australian Work

Playwright Katy Warner’s newest work SPENCER is touching, hilarious and Australian. Produced by Lab Kelpie’s Adam Fawcett and directed by Sharon Davis, the play is debuting at the intimate Chapel Off Chapel theatre. Scott (Jamieson Caldwell) is a man well on his way to becoming an AFL star but has come home to regain his focus before the next season. His mother (Jane Clifton) is … Continue reading SPENCER: A Charming New Australian Work

Romeo is Not the Only Fruit: The Bitter Juice of Queer Deaths In Media

Jean Tong, producer and co-writer of Romeo is Not the Only Fruit, stated during the Q&A after the final show, “there’s never a non-political moment when you’re not a white person”. As such, let it be a truth universally acknowledged that Romeo’s writer is a queer person of colour, and will thus be in want of a politically-charged theatre show. Romeo is Not the Only … Continue reading Romeo is Not the Only Fruit: The Bitter Juice of Queer Deaths In Media

Love and Information: ICAC Takes on Caryl Churchill’s Contemporary Masterpiece

Written in 2012 by the renowned playwright Caryl Churchill, Love and Information is an unconventional play. With no specific narrative, it is made up of around fifty separate scenes grouped into seven thematically connected sections. Churchill leaves most of the compositional choices to the director and production team allowing them to choose which scenes to use. She offers a toolbox of theatrical material rather than … Continue reading Love and Information: ICAC Takes on Caryl Churchill’s Contemporary Masterpiece

Sunday in the Park with George: A Musical Masterpiece

“The challenge: bring order to the whole.” Challenge accepted. UMMTA has bravely approached the genius composer, Sondheim, with Sunday in the Park with George. Inspired by Georges Seurat’s painting, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, the musical takes place in both the months preceding the painting during 1884, Paris, and in an Art Museum in America, 1984. Seurat and later his … Continue reading Sunday in the Park with George: A Musical Masterpiece

Sunday in the Park with George: Putting it Together

Sunday in the Park with George is a Broadway musical inspired by the painting A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grand Jatte by French painter Georges Seurat, the father of the late-nineteeth century pointillist movement. Sunday In The Park With George marks the first collaboration between composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim and writer James Lapine, who directed the original production on Broadway in … Continue reading Sunday in the Park with George: Putting it Together

Romeo is Not the Only Fruit: Well on the Way to Ripe

DisColourNation’s Romeo is Not the Only Fruit challenges not only the archetypal love story, but the stereotypes to which lesbian lovers are doomed in most representations. The production provides an entertaining and thought provoking exploration of homosexual love and its portrayal in the mainstream. A new work written by Jean Tong and Margaret Tanjutco, the production’s script was mostly engaging and insightful. The tight, humourous … Continue reading Romeo is Not the Only Fruit: Well on the Way to Ripe

High School Musical: Charming Chaos

Trinity College’s High School Musical is a blockbuster production. With more than twelve musical numbers and a main cast of fifteen, plus a substantial chorus, there’s barely a moment to catch your breath, let alone feel bored. It might be due to this grand scale that so much of the show feels chaotic, but it’s also this energy that draws the audience in. The cast … Continue reading High School Musical: Charming Chaos