My endorsement of Matty Grey in his Pozible campaign to raise $3,500 to film a DVD of his show, “Age-Less 2: Game On!”

It is with great pleasure that, I lend my whole-hearted support to children’s entertainer, and comedian Matty Grey in his Pozible campaign to raise $3,500 so he can film a DVD of his show, “Age-Less 2: Game On!”, when it’s performed as part of the Sydney Fringe Festival in September, 2013.

I’ve added a link to the campaign:

http://www.pozible.com/gameon.

You see, I reviewed Matty’s kid’s entertainment shows for the Herald Sun newspaper during both the 2012 and 2013 Melbourne Comedy Festivals. And, you better know that I enjoyed watching Matty’s 2012 show, “Age-Less” so much, I actually volunteered to review Matty’s 2013 Comedy Festival show, “Age-Less 2: Game On!”.

As a person and a performer, Matty is a rarity on several levels:

First and foremost, he is a sincere, generous, person. He is then, a sincere, diligent, energetic and highly skilful performer who puts much time and attention in first devising and then delivering his performances.

Matty’s rapport and engagement with his young audiences is a remarkable skill, and quite wonderful to behold. He literally has his young audiences – probably the most difficult audiences to keep entertained - eating out of his hand. The shrieks of laughter at Matty’s shows were at times deafening.

I wish Matty the very best in his fund raising efforts, and hope that you will be able to support him.

KING KONG – MEDIA CALL - Preview + Photos by Joe Calleri.

What – KING KONG – MEDIA CALL

Where and When – REGENT THEATRE - Monday, 27 May 2013

Reviewer + Photographer - Joe Calleri.

Full Disclosure - I attended a media call for this preview.

The 8^th Wonder of the World. The Lord of the Apes. From Skull Island to New York, to the Regent Theatre. King Kong in all of his muscular, mechanical, monstrous majesty is set to marvel Melbourne’s theatre-goers.   

After five years in the making, and an unprecedented 6 months of rehearsals at the Regent Theatre, Melbourne theatre audiences will bear witness to King Kong who is part marionette, animatronic and puppet. One who is 6 metres tall, and constructed of steel, aluminium, lycra and latex. Certainly, a far cry from Willis O’Brien's Kong model which measured a mere 18 inches in length. But, O’Brien’s ground-breaking stop motion mastery meant that, when Kong debuted on film in 1933, the film – still a classic - threw audiences into widespread panic.

At the media call, we first hear Esther Hannaford’s Ann Darrow singing the tender Full Moon Lullaby to a dozy, placated Kong. Darrow, as Kong’s human “love interest” is suitably platinum blonde, and petite. A striking contrast to Kong’s mass. Much of the success of this production will ride on the credibility of the interaction between Darrow and Kong.

The second sequence, The Chase, set to Marius de Vries’s sampling of Justice’s “Genesis”, sees Kong rampaging across the stage.  

Designer, Sonny Tilders, let media into some of Kong’s behind the scenes secrets: the ten “King’s Men”, all circus artists, and former NICA graduates, who manipulate some of Kong’s on-stage movements; and the 3 puppeteers who operate Kong off-stage using “voodoo” controls.    

Audiences will be gob-smacked at Kong’s remarkable range of motion that makes him seem life-like. And when Kong roars, he will make the theatre shake.

Can King Kong become one of the great, enduring theatrical events? Only time will tell. But, for the present, Melbourne audiences should prepare themselves for an encounter with King Kong – a formidable creature, from a far-away island that time forgot, and the likes of which they will never have witnessed.

Esther Hannaford as Ann Darrow with a drowsy Kong

Some of the "King's Men" who operate Kong.

Stunning attention to detail of Kong's features.

LOVE IS MY SIN - Review, photos by Joe Calleri.

What – LOVE IS MY SIN.

Where and When – La Mama Theatre, 205 Faraday Street, Carlton, Victoria – May 09, 2013 – May 19, 2013.

Reviewer - Joe Calleri.

Theatre audiences more accustomed to seeing productions of William Shakespeare’s famous plays will in equal measures be intrigued and seduced by Love Is My Sin, a refined, elegant production, that highlights 29 of Shakespeare’s love sonnets deftly directed by Melbourne theatre director and playwright, Kate Herbert.

Herbert’s interpretation of director Peter Brook’s adaptation, possesses no narrative as such, and her two performers, Jenny Lovell and Geoff Wallis, do not portray characters. They are simply, the woman and the man.

Herbert respectfully, carefully, skilfully structures the sonnets in such a way that they provide the audience with an imagined timeline and uneven trajectory of a long love affair between the man and the woman.

All the powerful emotions that you expect in a relationship - infatuation, love, hate, jealousy, indifference, rage - are represented in Shakespeare’s words which, while written in the 17th century, bear equal weight and import in the 21st.

The relationship between the man and the woman, spoken through the sonnets, starts off playfully, lovingly, as most relationships do. But, as the years pass, first cracks, then deep fissures begin to appear, and doubts, misunderstandings, arguments, and separation ensue. 

This performance requires you pay close attention to each word that Lovell and Wallis speak and every nuance of their performance.

Reminding us that Shakespeare wrote the sonnets to be read, the two performers alternate between reading directly from books and scripts and performing the sonnets – admirably memorised – as impassioned dialogue.

Intriguingly, unexpectedly almost, you feel yourself being drawn in and beguiled by the beauty of Shakespeare’s language, like bees to honey.

Herbert places Lovell and Wallis in a simple, sparse space furnished with only a table, whiteboard and butcher’s paper. Each actor take turns in either writing the theme of a block of sonnets – Devouring Time, Separation, Jealousy and Time Defeated – on the whiteboard, or writing lines from the sonnets on the paper. This is an interesting device adopted by Herbert to ensure that the production does not become overly static.

Herbert also casts talented, young cellist, Helen Barclay, who skilfully, passionately, plays either entire or parts of nine suites and sonatas for cello. The evocative cello provides the musical equivalent of chapter headings to the various sections of the sonnets.

This production does everything right, and deserves both a larger performance space and audiences who can truly appreciate not only the Bard’s exquisite language, but also the fine, thoughtful performances from Lovell, Wallis and Barclay.

L to R - HELEN BARCLAY (CELLO), JENNY LOVELL, GEOFF WALLIS.