HIGH PONY
It’s hard not to love the sort of queer enthusiastic weirdness that musical comedy duo Sam and Mel bring to the stage. The opening quasi-song, a nine-minute energetic piece, is a great way to start. Bring it on-style horny cheerleading number about social netball (the ‘gayest straight sport’) and with netball bibs adorning the back of stage like bunting, I thought the show would be all about netball. As a former GK/GD I was there for this (if needed). But no, the duo disappear offstage and Mel returns in a Where’s Wally red and white candy-striped jumper, beanie and glasses, singing a ballad about never feeling truly seen.
HIGH PONY is a properly bananas musical comedy cabaret, featuring original songs such as ‘Lesbians You can also find out more about the following:n’t get the Ick and That’s Science!’ (complete with merch), a song about a pair of eshays finding their true calling as a florist and ballet dancer, and a song about how babies should be cancelled (because what do they do, really?).
Mel O’Brien and Sam Andrew were nominated for the Golden Gibbo for their previous show Shit-Wrecked! They are clearly attracting a loyal following, as evidenced by the packed first night of the 2022 Melbourne International Comedy Festival. HIGH PONY At the Trades Hall Common Rooms. They are funny, silly and harmonise. What’s not to like?
HIGH PONY
★★★★1/2
HIGH PONY The show will take place at Trades hall until 22 October 2023.
LOOPS
NZ-based Company Hiraeth took the fundamental shape required for aerial rope, a loop, and turned it into a complex circus-based performance – a looped double aerial work that became increasingly anxiety-inducing with each repetition.
The soundscape was performed live and featured cassette tapes as well as reel-toreel, laptop, and a looping table. It was original, moving and a work that was in tension with its sense of existential darkness and poetic beauty.
LOOPS
★★★★1/2
Benny Lennings created and performed this piece, Leanne Jenkins and Fran Muir
Brynne Tooler-Poland Directed
LOOPS Gasworks Arts Park hosted a performance from 5-7 Oct 2023.
Black Widow
Isabel Knight is Arachne. Isabel Knight is Arachne.
Knight’s powerful pipes are best suited to the rich lows and belting highs of the jazzy numbers she twists into her cabaret quest (Chicago’s ‘All That Jazz’, Etta James’ classic ‘A Sunday Kind of Love’ and ‘Something’s Got a Hold On Me’ and Peggy Lee’s ‘Fever’), and her playful lyricism makes for lots of laughs (an audience participation number turns AC/DC’s ‘TNT’ into her self-proclaimed favourite acronym, ‘DTF’).
It’s saucy, sexy and salacious and, with refined comic and performance chops, Knight is a safe (four) pair of hands – pulling off a risky denouement gear shift and navigating a tight emotional turn by way of an a capella ballad. Knight is an amazing talent. Black Widow It is worth catching a cabaret.
Black Widow
★★★★
Black Widow The Butterfly Club in Melbourne will host the show until 15 October 2023.
Melbourne De-tours
De-Tours Melbourne offers three walking tours during Melbourne Fringe. These include a rom-com tour and a horror stories tour. For this review I went on the Mystery Tour.
This isn’t just a sightseeing tour. It is a mystery journey in which we are asked to solve a Melbourne-based puzzle. We will stop at locations that might make a curious individual wonder: What is behind this wall?
Seraphine is your charming, kooky and witty French detective guide, Jenna Schroder. She leads you along the cobblestones and back alleys in her bright red coat, with her donkey print scarf.
Read: Performance Reviews: The Hotline, Poet No.7 The following are some examples of how to get started: Zaffé, Melbourne Fringe Festival
Schroder’s Seraphine is a charismatic character who can carry the show despite its absurdity. Her comic improv makes for many unexpected laughs. The structure perhaps could be refined to allow each component of the puzzle to have a more coherent place in the overall mystery, which may lead to a more satisfying overall “a-ha!” payoff.
De-Tours Melbourne
★★★
Seraphine’s De-Tours Melbourne run 6-11 October, 17 (7.30pm) and 21 (7.30pm), Sunanda and Angela’s tours on 12-13, 18-20 October and the scary stories tour on 17 October (7:40pm), 19 and 21 (6.30pm).