It's all happening in North Melbourne
A short note to alert you to some shows on at North Melbourne Arts House, because if you blink you'll miss them. Three must-sees are running concurrently - David Pledger's Not Yet It's Difficult presents Strangeland, a collaboration between his company and the Wuturi Players from Korea, while the Belgian company Ontroerend Goed present their show Once and for all we’re gonna tell you who we are so shut up and listen (an Edinburgh Festival hit, which is also on later this month in Sydney). And finally, the acclaimed British company Forced Entertainment present their latest show, Spectacular. A spectacular mini-season indeed; and it closes this weekend, so hurry. Details here.
4 comments:
spectacularly conceited show.
one wonders whether it is true whether it is far easier to become successful if one works in a culture ...if one works in a culture that is handed enormous sums of money...as opposed to say a place like...well..here.
One also wonders how the mother country feels about presenting work (I use the word loosely, even though the program notes "months of devising" - see first point) to an audience of us little people. Will this comment (and others like it perhaps) be dismissed as Australia being a culturally vacuous place without any knowledge of what is cool or good? Because if you're reading this, and you think that, no, have been there, numbers of times, again and again, and it's not true. We also have dogs of shows. Just you have a much bigger budget to make those dogs of shows.
PS: I counted 124 holes in the roof and could see 37 lights (although two of them might have been speakers).
I would also say that death only gets its power from life, and sure this show had life, but one that just went over the same old thing for like...well...an eternity...and maybe that's the idea...doesn't mean it has to be boring though does it? Or couldn't be said in 60 minutes not 90.
The first fifteen minutes is great however, just when the remaining 75 minutes is precisely the same, well...you get my point.
should I just keep going on like this...because in a real review I would be stopped short by now. Get it?
xox
Just back from seeing it myself.
I didn't get to counting the lights. And I didn't hate it. But I did start thinking that in this era of postpostpost capitalism &c where death is about rather more than the individual even to the average self-obsessed westerner (surely?) there might be more urgent things about living and dying (and the dead) that the show might have, well, touched on.
I get suspicious about shows that have worked out the answers to every response in advance.
But I should think a bit more about it. More after the weekend.
it reminded me of Madoff and his ponzi scheme...selling something to a greater fool...you know, emporers new clothes kind of stuff...like the program notes give the director of the german company who were one of the co-commissioners rambling on in an essay about it, 'more than you would find in an encyclopedia' kind of stuff...yeah well he's hardly going to bag the thing if he's just paid for it is he? Ponzi.
contrived audience walkouts. please discuss
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