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<\/p>\nTHEATRE
Nihilistic Optimism on Trampolines \u2605\u2605
Theatre Works, until December 6<\/p>\n
Kasey Barratt\u2019s Nihilistic Optimism on Trampolines takes a seminal moment in the history of gothic literature \u2013 the writing of Mary Shelley\u2019s Frankenstein \u2013 and reimagines it unfolding in the present day … at a trampoline park during a thunderstorm.<\/p>\n
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Nihilistic Optimism on Trampolines at Theatre Works is an imaginative retelling of Frankenstein.Credit: Sian Quinn Dowler<\/p>\n
The show stitches together unlikely elements \u2013 trampolining, TikTok-length choreography, a live rock band, and an original play spliced with excerpts from Shelley\u2019s novel and letters \u2013 and I admired the boldness, ambition and willingness to experiment that this young ensemble brings to the lab.<\/p>\n
Is it any good? Not really. It\u2019s a strange and misshapen creation which, unlike Mary Shelley\u2019s classic, often feels like less than the sum of its parts.<\/p>\n
Famously, Mary began to write Frankenstein aged 18, as part of a ghost story competition initiated by Lord Byron at Lake Geneva in the summer of 1816. (The event also birthed the first vampire fiction in English, John Polidori\u2019s The Vampyre.)<\/p>\n
Barratt morphs the figures present \u2013 Mary (Gabrielle Ward), her fiance Percy Shelley (Bek Schilling), her stepsister Claire Clairmont (Sophie Graham Jones), Lord Byron (Eleanor Golding) and Byron\u2019s doctor John Polidori (Zoe Wakelin) \u2013 into bored employees at Trampoline World.<\/p>\n
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The show \u2013 set in a trampoline park \u2013 stitches together unlikely elementsCredit: Sian Quinn Dowler<\/p>\n
A lackadaisical teen movie vibe cuts against gothic atmospherics, and Barratt\u2019s script spends too long establishing the cheerless routines and post-industrial ennui of young drudges at a leisure park. Most of the water cooler conversation, petty power plays and furtive work flings aren\u2019t especially funny or dramatically compelling, though occasional flashes of camp do lighten the drear.<\/p>\n
Things pick up when Victor Frankenstein\u2019s creature (Jett Chudleigh) boings into view. Encounters between the young author and her creation, using dialogue from the novel as well as physical theatre and dance, have an eerie lustre.<\/p>\n
Yet somehow the act of reassertion in the face of a historical erasure (Percy Shelley was originally credited as the author of Frankenstein) doesn\u2019t go all-in.<\/p>\n
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The climax is shadowy and under-realised, and I would have loved to have seen the monster go on a murderous rampage against the male characters (most played in drag) and for feminist fury to be unleashed with maximal force through text and stage action.<\/p>\n
Part of the problem is an inexperienced cast. Performance elements from choreography to microphone technique could use more precision and confidence. And the script, too, needs to refine its themes and junk ineffective dialogue.<\/p>\n
These artists may have a long way to go, but they\u2019ve a long time to get there. And the range of talents on display \u2013 from the athleticism of the trampolining to the three musicians jamming live accompaniment \u2013 bodes well for developing a unique theatrical style.
Reviewed by Cameron Woodhead<\/p>\n
MUSIC
Mirra \u2013 Norwegian Tradition Reimagined \u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605
Primrose Potter Salon, Melbourne Recital Centre, November 27<\/p>\n
Growing up in the Hardanger fjord region in Norway\u2019s west, Benedicte Maurseth developed twin passions that have continued to propel her creative vision and career. One is the traditional nine-string Hardanger fiddle; the other is the natural beauty of the vast Hardanger mountain plateau.<\/p>\n
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Benedicte Maurseth\u2019s latest album, Mirra, is inspired by wild reindeer.Credit: Agnete Brun<\/p>\n
These two passions are directly intertwined on Maurseth\u2019s latest album, Mirra, inspired by the habitat, behaviour and migration patterns of wild reindeer.<\/p>\n
At the Recital Centre on Thursday, Maurseth led a superb quartet through a program that \u2013 like the album \u2013 followed a seasonal cycle. We began in the depths of winter, where reindeer run in circular patterns to keep warm, or lie perfectly still in the snow as the wind whips over them. Mats Eilertsen\u2019s bowed bass harmonics and H\u00e5kon M\u00f8rch Stene\u2019s rolling percussion suggested the former, while Morten Qvenild\u2019s glistening electronics and Maurseth\u2019s graceful fiddle phrases effortlessly evoked the latter.<\/p>\n
Spring brought new life (The Calf Rises) with a ravishing fiddle and piano duet, while Summer Pastures coaxed the music into more rhythmic territory, with electric bass, insistent vibraphone and a trance-like, minimalist drum pattern. Reindeer Call included the sampled voice of a reindeer herder, nestled within a thicket of abstract, improvised textures that gradually coalesced into a slow, shadowy Hunting March.<\/p>\n
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The reindeer nudged themselves into the foreground at various times (via field recordings of their communicative grunts), as did other native wildlife from the Hardanger region. Heilo featured the cawing of the Eurasian plover as a recurring motif, buoyed by Maurseth\u2019s fiddle as it glided weightlessly on invisible thermals.<\/p>\n
Often, one composition segued into the next without pause, adding to the sense that we were immersed in this mysterious and awe-inspiring landscape. Occasionally, the electronic elements dominated and overwhelmed the sound of the fiddle, smothering the resonant shimmer of its sympathetic strings. But for the most part, this was an utterly entrancing evocation of the natural world in all its fierce beauty, majesty and vulnerability.
Reviewed by Jessica Nicholas<\/p>\n