Tag: La Boite Indie

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Review: Show Me Yours, I’ll Show You Mine: La Boite Indie and Tamarama Rock Surfers at Roundhouse Theatre

Image: Sarah Walker

Indie theatre – you just never know what you’re going to get, do you? I mean, you can grab a paper programme and try to guess as you sit yourself down next to some skinny-jean clad, high-haired hipster and a couple of girls dressed like your nanna, but really, anything could happen. It’s cheap, it’s cheerful, and sometimes it’s just spectacular.

The 2012 Melbourne Fringe and (the other) Greenroom’s award-winning Show Me Yours, I’ll Show You Mine, directed by Scarlett McGlynn has been brewing since November 2011, when Tim Spencer conducted his first interview with “Not Nick,” a male sex worker. What followed was a series of interviews designed to reveal, challenge and ultimately be shown theatrically to “open up a dialogue around the inherently complex issue of sex work.” Continue reading “Review: Show Me Yours, I’ll Show You Mine: La Boite Indie and Tamarama Rock Surfers at Roundhouse Theatre”

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Review: Joy, Fear and Poetry: La Boite Indie & Natasha Budd at the Loft, QUT Kelvin Grove

Image: Adam Shambrook

I love kids. No really, I do. Despite currently enduring three of them younger than seven years old, I never seem to tire of their small moments of genius – moments that make you truly believe, if only just for a second, that they are really just short adults.

Joy, Fear & Poetry, written, directed and designed by Natasha Budd, a Brisbane writer, is a “collection of ideas, perspectives and experiences sourced from over 100 children and performed by a cast of 7-12 year olds.” It’s currently showing as part of La Boite’s indie festival, and features two different young casts, who explore the ideas of joy, fear, poetry, art and life in a 60-minute mish-mash of live performance and improvisation, pre-recorded voice-overs, projected script and light and sound production. On opening night I had the pleasure of seeing the wonderfully rainbow-coloured cast ‘A’: David Ishimwe, Hayley Billings, Darcine Abbas, Olivier Nsengiyumva, Kaito Nelson, Ashleigh Geissler and Laurianne Gateka. Continue reading “Review: Joy, Fear and Poetry: La Boite Indie & Natasha Budd at the Loft, QUT Kelvin Grove”

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Review: Home – Nest Ensemble and La Boite Indie at Roundhouse Theatre

Just to the left of centre, but endearingly universal, sits Home, the new production from the Nest Ensemble, and the latest addition to the La Boite Indie season. There are many astonishing parts to the production, not least of which is that Home is the second outing for the Nest Ensemble in the last six months. It was only in May that they premiered Eve as part of Metro Arts Independents. For those that see both, it represents an interesting discussion about the difference between the two venues and their indie programs.

Home premiered last year with Metro Arts. I didn’t catch it then, but I’m grateful to see it now. The premise is simple. Margi Brown Ash tells us stories from her life as an actor, wife and mother. She travels to Egypt, New York, Sydney and Brisbane. At the heart of every tale are questions of belonging. These are stories you want to hear. Continue reading “Review: Home – Nest Ensemble and La Boite Indie at Roundhouse Theatre”

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Review: The Truth About Kookaburras – Pentimento Productions & La Boite Indie at The Round House Theatre

Images: Kate O’Sullivan

Everything you’ve heard about The Truth About Kookaburras is true. Yes, the cast is over twenty in number. Yes, most of these are men. Yes, almost all of these men appear naked in the first twenty minutes of the show – unashamedly, fully naked. In short, (seriously no pun intended) you get a wrestling wall of penis. And it’s not fleeting. They are touched, fondled, squashed, flicked, twirled and shoved into faces.

It’s good fun. It would be unsettling or slightly weird if perceptions of masculinity weren’t at the absolute core of Sven Swenson’s play. Which they are. Swenson has written, directed (and even features in) this memorable play, which had its first outing back in 2009 at Metro Arts Independents. The Kookbaurras are a fictional Gold Coast footy team, who come under fire when one of the members is killed in their locker room on the evening of a buck’s party. Most of the play unfolds in parallel timelines: the investigation of the murder, and the night it happened. This has some of the structure of a classic whodunnit, but there’s a lot more going on here. Continue reading “Review: The Truth About Kookaburras – Pentimento Productions & La Boite Indie at The Round House Theatre”

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Review: The Hamlet Apocalypse – The Danger Ensemble and La Boite Indie at The Roundhouse

Back to the theatre last evening for the first performance of the final production in La Boite’s 2011 Indie program. It’s The Danger Ensemble’s The Hamlet Apocalypse directed and designed by Steven Mitchell Wright. It’s had previous seasons in Melbourne and Adelaide, and it’s now back home. Last night was the first time I’ve caught a piece from The Danger Ensemble and I’m very glad I did. Its intelligent, gutsy theatricality and complexity will please some and, just possibly, repel others. Whatever you do, leave your preconceptions in the foyer. As the website has it

The Hamlet Apocalypse is a dsytopia of the now generation, a silent party, a desperate plea, a rambunctious prayer… Seven actors stage Hamlet on the eve of the apocalypse. As the line between fiction and reality blurs; the actors, their characters and their worlds collide and are distilled into the simplest of human states. It’s about the power of death and the value of life.

The sheer energy of the ensemble at work and of the production itself is mightily affecting. Certainly, you cannot hide in the usual safety of the dark auditorium. Dane Alexander‘s sound and Ben Hughes‘ lighting are terrific and cruel!  From the moment you enter you are caught in the spotlight – literally. The show gets its claws into you and, from this point until the final blackout, you are jumping in your seat.  For 75 minutes there is no exit, no retreat for audience or performers … Continue reading “Review: The Hamlet Apocalypse – The Danger Ensemble and La Boite Indie at The Roundhouse”