Sunday Arts Magazine

22 Jan 2017

Art Prize 2017, Kooza, Todd in Venice, Bunny, The Nursery Web

Art Prize, Arts, Books, Comedy, Dance, LGBTIQ, Music, Performing Arts, Photography, TV & Film, Visual Arts

David and Brendan are our hosts today talking to people from Midsumma, the theatre,  Cirque de Soleil and the winners of the Queer Art Prize.  Brendan reviews the popular Australian film Lion the true story of an Indian boy adopted by Australians who later sets out to find his Indian family.  A near perfect film–4.5stars.      Next is Viva (2015) — a Spanish language Irish drama set in Cuba about a young drag queen whose life goes into turmoil when his estranged father returns-4 stars   . Lastly is Jackie-about Jackie Kennedy just after JFK’s assassination. Brendan considered it plodding and pretentious-2stars!!! At the end of the show David and Brendan discuss MTC’s Born Yesterday on until 25 January. It is a lavish production of an old play about the underbelly of American politics–so it’s very topical too. Our hosts did like the lead actress who added a lot of energy to the play but got bored after some time.

Special Guests today are:

11:00 to 21:51 mins–Sharon from Post Pride (LGBTIQ Employee Network) at Australia Post and the 3 Winners of the Midsumma Australia Post Art Prize 2017 are here to discuss the prize.  There is an exhibition of the artwork of the winners, plus the other finalists, where they respond to the theme of New World. The exhibition is part of Midsumma and is on until 4 February at Fort Delta, Capitol Arcade, Shop 59, 113 Swanston St.  Sharon talks about Post Pride’s collaboration with Midsumma and the origins of the Art Prize. The 3 winners of this prize describe their amazing artwork, the inspiration for it and their artistic process.  They are 1^st prize– J. Rosenbaum, 2^nd prize–Rafaella McDonald, and 3^rd prize- Natalie Jeantou.

22:15 to 33:52 mins—Jason Brass is the Head of Wardrobe at Cirque Du Soleil’s– Kooza on in Melbourne from  20 January to 26 March at Flemington Racecourse.   Jason talks about the phenomenon that is Cirque Du Soleil and some of its ongoing shows. Kooza is Sanskrit for Treasure Box and the story is of an innocent that is taken into the world of Kooza by a trickster. It is a stunning and beautiful show. Jason has a theatre and costume-design background and was offered a job at Cirque Du Soleil 17 years ago. Kooza is quite theatrical, has a lot of dance, has many costume changes, and ‘almost’ a chorus. Jason informs us that the audience will see 1200 different costumes in the show and that Kooza is a ‘rich textile show’.  There are a variety of ‘luxurious’ fabrics used and Jason considers Kooza to be one of the prettiest-looking Cirque shows. Jason describes the intricacies of how the costumes come into being and their stringent requirements for them. He travels the world with 2 assistants but they also hire locals to help. Jason describes what must be done each day, regarding the costumes, for quality control and artistic integrity–which makes for a very long day.

35:09 to 51:04 mins–Writer/Director/Musician Sofia Chapman and actor Alex Beyer are her to discuss their Midsumma comedy called Todd in Venice on from 1 to 5 Feb at La Mama theatre.  Sofia talks about her love of theatre, how supportive La Mama is and also her intriguing writing process.   Alex grew up in country Victoria and became interested in theatre via the web. He later studied performing arts at VCE level and at Monash uni and met Sofia there. Sofia came across German author Thomas Mann’s book on which the Visconti film Death in Venice is based–a film which is slow and intense with repressed homosexuality. Sofia wanted to make the homosexuality obvious and played on the name ‘Tod’ (meaning ‘death’ in German) making Todd a fun-loving gay boy who’s embraced his sexuality. Thus her play has many gags in it but still has a poignancy especially with the transgender character Agnes. There is live music in the show some traditional Italian and some written by Sofia.  Sofia plays the piano accordion which features a lot. She plays it and sings a song LIVE IN STUDIO- written by her friend Eleanor Tucker.  It’s called ‘When love goes right’. Alex talks about his view of the lead character and also the metaphor of the water rising in Venice which equates with rising emotion.

51:38 to 1:13:08 mins–Contemporary Dancer Luke George is one of a duo (with Daniel Kok)in a show called Bunny on at Arts House from 2 to 5 February. As a child Luke was obsessed with the dancing in the Kylie Minogue Locomotion music video which he found out years later (when at VCA) was choreographed by the boundary-pushing Phillip Adams. Luke actually ended up dancing for him for 15 years– along with other companies such as Chunky Move! In the last ten years Luke has made his own shows and working with his own collaborators which involves a lot of touring around Australia and the world–including Bunny. Bunny is collaboration between Luke and a Singaporean artist Daniel Kok.  They met at Campbelltown Arts Centre in Sydney where they were offered a residency together for 2 weeks with the proviso that they get to know each other, share everything and create something together. A faux ‘blind date’ of sorts.  Bunny was born when they got onto the topic of ‘rope bondage’.  They did a weekend class in this and then spent 2 years intensely training in how to tie a body, investigating the properties of rope, what it can tell us about bodies,  the power exchange, trust, dealing with emotions that come up and tieing other people. Regarding the latter, they decided on involving some of the audience and breaking the ‘fourth wall’. ‘Bunny’ is one of the nicknames for the person that is tied up.

1:13:20 to 1:24:59 mins–Director/Writer Kotryna Gesait and Comedian/performer Gavin Lind are here to talk about their show The Nursery Web at The Butterfly Club on from 1 to 5 February. Kotryna is from New York and is a trained actor but later started writing and directing short plays. She got tired of being in NY and ended up in Australia and got to work.  She’s only been here for 4 months. She thought she’d ‘start making projects happen and friends will follow’. The Nursery Web is the first ‘big show’ that she’s directing and she wrote most of it in two months.  Gavin is an engineer and stand-up comedian and this is his debut stage performance.  Kotryna needed a middle-aged gay guy in a long term relationship and Gavin fit the bill. She got her cast through theatre connections, friends and a couple of auditions. The play is about 3 different relationships and the title refers to the Nursery Web spider which does things which apply to the different relationships the characters are experiencing. It is an intimate play and small size of The Butterfly club gives the audience a feeling of almost being in the couples’ bedroom or living room. The play goes into the nitty-gritty of relationships and Kotryna feels that most people will be able to relate to some things in them.  Gavin found the play’s dialogue sophisticated and intriguing when he read it and really wanted to do it justice.  He found the acting process fascinating and admirable.

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