Friday, February 17, 2006

Work = Play

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, they say.

This was demonstrated to memorable effect in the hilarious comedy The Shining, in which Jack Nicholson struggles with his career as a writer while trying to juggle his roles as father and husband. I think there was a wacky sidekick in there somewhere, but I'll confess it's been a while since I saw the movie.

But back on topic: what do you do when your work INVOLVES plays? Or worse, dull plays? Please revise the aphorism IF APHORISM IT INDEED BE.


Jack: Now I am confused.

Short story - I've seen too much to write up here lately. But in brief: The Theatre @ Risk show One-Way Street was great, and if it's remounted you get yourself along to watch it. A peripatetic tour of Berlin and its history by a very unreliable English guide whose own romantic and familial past is inextricably tied into his tale-telling. Simon Kingsley Hall is so much stronger in this than in his previous work that I was pretty astonished by his performance. Even his director laughed that he'd never realised Simon would be so good at comic stuff.

Wednesday night was Jo Lloyd's Public=UN+Public, a new dance work she's choreographed with Off Nibroll (from Tokyo). It was a very charming piece visually - the multimedia projections which took up three walls of the Chunky Move Studio were top quality CGI stuff, and probably cost a pretty penny. The soundtrack was awesome as well, mostly composed of the squeaky, beatsy, staticky electronica that accompanies most contemporary movement in Melbourne these days. The dancing was for the most part as good as I've come to expect from Jo & Co, who I think is up there with the best in town at the moment. I'd call this one


A HOME RUN

That's all for now. Like I said, I've just got too much work on these days.

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