Jing Xuan Teo
11 March 2019Authors
It is not often I see myself portrayed on stage, but the family that Michelle Law created in her debut play Single Asian Female is refreshingly familiar. The Wongs are three women on the verge of life-changing events. Pearl’s divorce is finally finalized, but she faces another problem; Zoe struggles to navigate being single and finds herself pregnant after a one-night stand; and Mei is just shy of finishing high school.
Signing up to review an unnamed sketch comedy show that your editors placed up for grabs in the Media Collective Facebook group is like a Tinder date. You get dressed up, agree to meet up at a bar couple hours after dark and hope that it would not end with you feeling violated in any way. I wish I could say that I walked out of Poopie Tum Tums with a sore stomach and a thirst for more, but alas, that was not the case. My housemate (whom I begrudgingly dragged to this 10pm show) and I both walked of The Butterfly Club feeling very disturbed and confused.
Review: People Suck: A Musical Airing of Grievances
If you’ve ever sat through a really long rant from a mate because their date flaked out on them or someone stole their lunch at the office, you would already have a sense of what People Suck: A Musical Airing of Grievances is about. It is an hour-long song cycle with an indisputable premise: all the ways people suck. With its catchy melodies and strong vocal performance, the cast takes you through jealous bridesmaids, anti-vaxxers, the different types of annoying people at your office and many more.
After my chat with Antony Hamilton, I was extremely excited to witness the premiere of his latest piece, Universal Estate. I made my way to Arts House and was escorted through large double doors and into a bright, clinical room. It felt as though I had walked into an episode of Black Mirror. It was a four-hour long dance piece, and audiences were allowed to walk in and out as they pleased. They could also choose to sit or stand anywhere within the space, on the designated benches or the floor.
It was with much anticipation that I waited for one of the longest-running improv shows in the country to start. The Big HOO-HAA! usually occurs every Friday night at the Butterfly Club, but they were making a few exceptions for the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. The show has been crowned “the original and the best” improv comedy ensemble in Melbourne, and it is easy to see why. A couple minutes in and they’ve got the crowd howling with laughter.
100-words-or-less pieces about dating apps for Farrago 2019 Edition 3.
What is the better way to rule as a woman? That is the question Mary Queen of Scots wishes to answer.
Antony Hamilton & ‘Universal Estate’
In the middle of the dancefloor lie several elongated television screens stacked in a small pile, surrounded by wires. The speakers pulse in semi-unison, a fury of rhythmic beats that border between white noise and music. The screens flash in synchronized stripes of color. This forms the set to award-winning choreographer Antony Hamilton’s new dance piece, Universal Estate.
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The Problem with Marginalised Narratives
At first, I didn’t like them. You weren’t supposed to. Boys pantsed you in the playground. They licked the sap from trees thinking it was honey. Boys were pests. When I read about an up-and-coming boyband in the rainbow-glazed entertainment pages of Total Girl magazine, I decided to bring the matter before the jury the next day at school. The response was negative.
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