Wot? No Fish!!

This is theatre of life. A story told by one man about his great uncle and aunt and their two children.   It cannot be re-performed by someone else because the story belongs uniquely to the teller. Nor can it be fully translated to a more permanent video medium. This is sad, because the story is one of rare personal insight of the artist into human family truth. I cannot think of many other people who have been so lovingly honest about about spousal and offspring relationship -pictures and sometimes captions.


Photo: Jamie Williams/Sydney Festival

In Danny's, (the performer) own words" After months of trawling through my discovery of Great Uncle Ab's wage packet artworks, I'd selected about 70 pictures...it was the story of a typical East London Jewish family...during the Blitz and aspiring to move to the promised land of the leafy suburbs around Golders Green...it was also the story of an undiscovered artist. Always inflected with irony and humour , I took a journey through Celie and Ab's most intimate moments...
"Abe Solomons did not make his art to be either  placed in a gallery or to inspire a piec eof theatre. My strong  feeling is that he made his art because he was compelled to: to make sense of life..."everyone's ordinary life is actually extraordinary, and by sharing it we all get to know ourselves a little bit better."
 

     

There is however one possibility of another medium for preserving a glimpse of the story, and that is a blog. Here is a link to a real blog that gives some moments not shared in the theatre:
https://wotnofish.wordpress.com/wot-no-blog/

The performance will be at Malthouse until 8 March. Opportunity of a lifetime.

The Flying Dutchman

Victorian Opera chose the Palais as venue for this performance. We decided to do the main travel on the scenic number 96 tram down Nicholson St, Bourke St, Casino, old railway to St Kilda station and thence to Luna Park. A fitting introduction to the final journey of the ship with red sails.

Photo: The Australian
The antique orchestra seats had more room than their counterparts in the upper circle we had once in Palais Garnier, but were not ideal for a 3 hour session. Our local Palais is currently covered in hessian outside, and could do with a spruce-up to its elegant interior as well. We had not seen the interior before, and wonder how it compares to the Walter Burley Griffin design that was canned after a fire.
The performance was in German with surtitles. We had to crane up to read the overhead edition from our seats, but there were options on a TV screen in the pit. We had a good view of the 84 strong Youth Orchestra, which was impressively enthusiastic, and loud when appropriate.
The 3D set was a very promising innovation, better than anything that could be done with stage sets, though it inevitably had the look of giant computer game at some points as the red sails were furled, or the storm brewed. The final moment was a bit cheesy, but that is probably the strange theology of Richard Wagner rather than that of the Deakin Motion.Lab. who were responsible for the image design and creation. At time of writing there is video clip of the set on You Tube : www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWFoA_dcTHE
The Victorian Opera chorus were in fine voice, and several, particularly Matthew Tng , seemed to be enjoying themselves enormously.
The soloists all gave renditions up to the standard of their considerable international bios.
A very enjoyable night.

Posted with Blogsy

Melbourne Museum WWI Love and Sorrow

 

The low key free (for seniors) exhibition in honour of World War I does not attempt a grand tour across the horizon. It selects a few people, soldiers and their families, to trace the personal devastation wrought by the War- it tells through photos (some with enhancement, others interactive) , letters, and souvenirs what the war does to a cross section of ordinary people. One Melbourne suburban street is taken as an example in one exhibit and we can click on the representation of each house in the street to learn who occupied it in the war years and what if any connection it had to war service.
After a deluge of 1914-1918 memorabilia, this is a worthy slice of humanity. We spent about 100 minutes there and judge them very well spent. An outstanding exhibition by any measure that will stick in the memory.
Free for Seniors. But if you can't get there at least take a look at  loveandsorrow.com