Rod Laver Arena can barely contain the theatrics of Teddy Swims

MUSIC
Teddy Swims | I’ve Tried Everything But Therapy tour ★★★★★
Rod Laver Arena, October 22

Rod Laver Arena can barely contain the theatrics of Teddy Swims. A floor-to-ceiling black curtain drops revealing his band, Freak Freely. The soul-pop star enters to a chunky rock guitar intro, pyrotechnics blasting behind the curve of an elevated ramp. Beneath an orange halo, he launches into Not Your Man.

It’s actually quite metal.

He emerges from one dramatic costume change in a flowing, gauzy black coat and cap, the stage drenched in blue lights, dry-ice waterfalls and lightning flashes for Bad Dreams. The last time I saw something like this was Iron Maiden: unselfconscious theatrics of heavy metal and stadium rock.

You need real charisma to carry this. But he’s enchanting, even when rising from a trapdoor on a toilet throne, signing a roll and tossing it into the audience. He wanders the stage in country couture and comfortable black socks. The juxtaposition between the somewhat-camp sartorial display, his tapestry of tattoos and luxurious, nimble vocals produces fizzy joy. Who is this diva?

I worried his voice might be lost in noise and dramatics, but it’s an ensemble. Freak Freely shine with duets and blistering solos, fingers spidering along guitar, bass and keyboard.

They whip out slide guitar and country wail for Free Drugs, then She Loves the Rain is a pleasant pop treat intertwining bright, jangly keyboard and reverb guitar melodies. Need You More, the impassioned ode to the mother of his son, calls for an intimate spotlight. Let It Burn scales up to a howling catharsis punctuated by so many flame spurts I can smell the sweaty lighter fuel. His YouTube-famous covers become a “cute” audience-interactive jukebox (we luck out: Still The One by Shania Twain).

When people are afraid to be earnest, even cheesy, it’s refreshing to lean in, chime glissando, CGI teddy bears and all.
Reviewed by Kosa Monteith

JAZZ
Melbourne International Jazz Festival
Danilo Pérez | Melbourne Recital Centre, October 18
Celebrating Allan Browne | JazzLab, October 18
Adam Manning: First Rhythms | Primrose Potter Salon, Melbourne Recital Centre, October 19

It’s always disarming – and endearing – when seasoned musicians reveal their vulnerabilities on stage.

Danilo Pérez saved his confession until the end of his solo show at the Melbourne International Jazz Festival, telling us how nervous he’d been before the concert. Pérez may be one of the most respected and experienced artists in contemporary jazz, having spent decades touring the world with his bands (and those of legends such as Wayne Shorter and Dizzy Gillespie), but he rarely performs solo.

This was a unique opportunity for the Panamanian pianist-composer to give free rein to his creative impulses – and for us to witness the unfurling of that creativity in real time. Throughout his generous set, it was clear that Pérez was letting his curiosity lead the music wherever it wanted. His prodigious technical facility gave his right and left hands complete independence, allowing him to simultaneously fashion and explore melodic themes, contrapuntal lines, chord progressions and rhythmic concepts.

Each piece brimmed with dazzling variations and a constant sense of discovery – an approach which made the music feel almost three-dimensional, as if Pérez were uncovering different facets of a precious stone that sparkled and turned in his mind’s eye.

Most of the compositions were his own, interspersed with some inventive treatments of pop tunes and an improvisation on Waltzing Matilda that began as a playful parody (complete with kooky effects from Pérez’s digital keyboard) before morphing into an unexpectedly tender ode.

A standing ovation prompted two superb encores: an ingenious medley of Monk tunes and a gorgeous ballad with a title that summed up the audience’s enthralled response: Gratitude.

Later that evening, a quintet of Melbourne musicians paid tribute to a giant of Australian jazz: the late drummer Allan Browne. Browne was a dedicated mentor as well as a hugely influential musician, and the performers (Andrea Keller, Eugene Ball, Phil Noy, Nick Haywood and Dave Beck) spoke of the profound impact Browne had on them.

Together, they revisited tunes they’d recorded and performed with Browne over the years, featuring arrangements that were as multi-faceted as Browne himself. There were passages of graceful lyricism, poetic angularity, surreal abstraction and profound sorrow leavened by beauty. Each piece was suffused with the players’ affection and deep respect for Browne and his legacy, making this a truly heartfelt homage.

On Sunday, percussionist and Kamilaroi artist Adam Manning (First Nations artist-in-residence at the festival) presented a new commissioned work, First Rhythms. Performing alongside members of the Australian Art Orchestra, Manning was clearly moved by the empathy and sensitivity of the AAO musicians he had worked with over the past year to create this meditative work.

Clapsticks served as the beating heart of First Rhythms, but in Manning’s hands their pulse was organic and unpredictable, as in nature. Quivering string instruments conjured buzzing insects or the shimmer of a desert mirage; rolling drums evoked ocean waves or clouds in a turbulent sky.

In the exquisite final movement, Manning sat cross-legged on the floor and leant forward as if listening to Mother Earth, echoing her subtle vibrations with his clapsticks and gently inviting us to connect with Country, ourselves and one another.
Reviewed by Jessica Nicholas
The Melbourne International Jazz Festival continues until Sunday, October 26
NOTE: No star rating has been applied

THEATRE
Midland Highway Revisited ★★★
The Motley Bauhaus, until October 25

Indie performance in Melbourne is going through a rough patch, with La Mama Theatre dark all year, and The Butterfly Club, a much-loved cabaret venue in the CBD, closing suddenly in July. The Motley Bauhaus in Carlton has picked up some of the slack, and it’s worthing checking out the talent there.

Following hot on the heels of its vibrant Fringe program comes an eerie comic cabaret from central Victoria that will appeal to fans of Oz gothic, history buffs, and lovers of local country and folk music.

Midland Highway Revisited: An Investigative Musical from A Haunted House isn’t really a musical. It’s more like a fascinating live podcast, with songs.

Twins Liz and Sarah (from indie folk band Taylor Project) undertake a forensic examination of whether their house in Elmore, near Bendigo, is haunted. It’s soon clear these musical ghostbusters will have their hands full. As one of them notes: “Haunting can just mean paying attention to things.” And boy, do they pay attention, with a nerdy hyperfocus on hyperlocal history.

Starting with acknowledgement of Aboriginal sovereignty, the depredations of colonialism and the Victorian gold rushes (the traditional owners of the land, the Dja Dja Wurrung, call the area “upside down country” due to the amount of gold mining), the artists suss out the history of their own home.

There’s a lot to uncover. The house had a former life as an RSL club. When they bought it, they found a dilapidated guitar with a love message from the 1990s carved onto the back … and dutifully track down the story behind it.

A lonely widow. Lightning strikes. Eccentric local musos. Disturbing dreams and whiskers in the walls. Waves of economic recession that left a ghost town and a cemetery in the middle of nowhere. Songs composed by the dead.

Personal (and genealogical) anecdote is woven throughout, and the yarning is delivered with comic charm and engrossing attention to detail. These artists are all about the research and press nerd buttons with infectious enthusiasm.

Songs rove from satirical ditties to plangent local country numbers, such as Pissin’ Down in Colbo, and the musical haunting includes a Bob Dylan number from the seminal album Highway 61 Revisited.

There are even more ghosts than the twins know. The phrase “every love story is a ghost story” doesn’t, in fact, first appear in David Foster Wallace, for instance, but in the diaries of Australian writer Christina Stead, still haunted by the death of her husband.

That said, the show needs less not more. The wealth of material in this shaggy dog of a cabaret could use a director or a dramaturg to tidy things up a bit, and I hope it gets the attention it deserves.

Reviewed by Cameron Woodhead

OPERA
Katya Kabanova ★★★★★
Victorian Opera, Palais Theatre, until October 16

Czech composer Leos Janacek suffered a long obsession with a four-decades-younger married woman. His passion was entirely unrequited, but music lovers got incalculable benefits, as Kamila Stosslova inspired a string of compositions, including Katya Kabanova – one of the great but rarely performed operas of the 20th century.

It is the story of a young wife who endures a bullying mother-in-law and a weak husband under the thumb of his mother.

Victorian Opera’s production scored at every turn, with a splendid Australian cast, ingenious and creative production, and daring and clever use of live black and white video throughout on a full-stage screen. Not least was the Australian National Academy of Music orchestra’s extraordinary playing, sensitively and effectively led by Alexander Briger (nephew of Charles Mackerras, one of the finest Janacek conductors).

The singers had to act superbly because they were near-constantly several times life-size on the screen. Soprano Desiree Frahn was simply stellar in every respect as Katya, while Antoinette Halloran as the malevolent mother looked as though she were born to the role (if that is, in fact, a compliment!), in a mesmeric presence. Emily Edmonds was a delightful Varvara and all the men were accomplished – especially Andrew Goodwin as Boris and Adrian Tamburini as Dikoj – although this opera is really a vehicle for the women.

The staging was occasionally obscure – for example, there were sometimes up to six other silent Katyas on stage. I’ve no idea what this signified – possibly the incoherent thoughts rushing through her brain as her mental state unravelled.

Director Heather Fairbairn was adventurous, courageous and persuasive. Credit too to set and costume designer Savanna Wegman and video designer Robert Brown, whose video, with two camera operators on stage, was mostly highly effective. Amusingly, when Katya was having sex offstage, the video briefly turned to colour.

This Katya deserves five stars for its energy, originality and general excellence, not to mention Victorian Opera’s vision in staging it.
Reviewed by Barney Zwartz

DANCE
The Other Side of Me ★★★
Fairfax Studio, until October 19

Larrakia choreographer and teacher Gary Lang is a welcome addition to the DanceX festival. His NT Dance Company – known for its cross-over collaborations with companies such as West Australian Ballet – is not seen often enough in Melbourne.

The Other Side of Me is well worth experiencing for its own sake. It’s based on the true story of an Indigenous boy who was adopted when he was five and taken to England, where he had an obscure and troubled life. In a letter, he confessed to feeling torn between two selves – the one he knew and the one he left behind.

Lang’s piece explores the emotional dimensions of this divided self – the melancholy, the rage and finally a fragile sense of the possibility of reunion. It suggests the desire for a return, not necessarily to a geographical place, but to a deeper sense of belonging.

It’s performed by two dancers, Alexander Abbot and Chandler Connell, who embody the young man’s twin souls. Early scenes evoke restraint – bodies and gestures held back. Projected images of weathered natural forms, shells and skeletal leaves, extend this mood: damaged, suspended, touched by grief.

Then comes violence. The spirit turns upon itself. There’s real intensity here, collisions and counterforces, a kind of self-wrestling. The blows are powerful but loose: the youth is ungrounded, fighting to locate himself in his own body.

The work is very open and might resonate with anyone displaced or divided between worlds. It paints in moods rather than concrete images or situations, and at times it feels a little slippery, fleeting in its description of emotional states.

Nonetheless, the finale is satisfying. The projected images are more specific: forests, rugged coastlines, a place that feels out of reach. And the two dancers, both robust but articulate movers, bring it home as a more ritualised vocabulary is asserted.
Reviewed by Andrew Fuhrmann

DANCE
DanceX festival week 2 ★★★
Playhouse, until October 19

Stephanie Lake’s Auto Cannibal is an apt work to open the second week of Dance X because its concept – recycling fragments of earlier work — echoes the festival’s own logic of revival and renewal. Lake’s choreography turns self-quotation into an aesthetic argument: old material takes on fresh meaning when performed in a changed context.

Now more than five years old, it was first created for a cross-cultural collaboration between companies in Beijing and Brisbane. Here, it is restaged for Melbourne-based dancers with connections to Lake’s other projects. The ensemble includes many distinctive presences – big dance personalities, bold movers – which gives the work a somewhat eclectic vibe.

It’s full of large gestures with a bright communal energy: a very different sensibility to her most recent commission for the Australian Ballet, Seven Days, which used exaggerated expressions and playful, clown-like movement seemingly influenced by the company’s recent engagement with contemporary European dance.

Next, West Australian Ballet presents Extension to Boom by English choreographer George Williamson. It was created for Perth’s picturesque outdoor Quarry Amphitheatre, a much larger stage than the subterranean Playhouse. It’s inventive but perhaps over-choreographed, with a propulsive Copeland-eque score by Bryce Dessner.

After the interval, the Australian Ballet performs a brand-new work by Tim Harbour, but one that still fits the program’s theme of recycling. Set in a restaurant, with a suitcase containing something mysterious, The Delivery is a throwback to an earlier age of narrative ballet. Adam Elmes is persuasive as the stranger, while Hugo Dumapit and Riley Lapham round out the trio.

The evening closes with an excerpt from Bangarra Dance Theatre’s Yuldea. It culminates with a single dancer, alone in a column of ash and light, convulsing as fallout drifts over Anangu country. A powerful scene by a company still finding new ways to retell – and to renew – the oldest stories.
Reviewed by Andrew Fuhrmann

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