Thursday night, last minute trip organisation in full swing (flights and accommodation in process of getting worked out, packing not so much as yet); tomorrow's a work day and will be out at night, then flight out's Saturday; thought I ahould do a quick few capsule notes before the upcoming month in Europe obliterates all recollection.
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Seeker Lover Keeper - Seeker Lover Keeper
As sweet as you'd expect a Sally Seltmann / Sarah Blasko / Holly Throsby collab to be. Best is "Even Though I'm A Woman", followed by "If the Night is Dark" - both Seltmann-composed (though Throsby sings the former), which is unsurprising given that she seems to be some kind of low-key songwriting genius, without meaning any disrespect to Sarah Blasko, who is also clearly lovely and amazing.
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Deb Olin Unferth - Revolution
I'm not much of a one for memoirs, but I read some extracts in Believer and have read a bunch of interesting bits and pieces written by Unferth elsewhere on the internets and that was enough for me to order Revolution and her debut novel Vacation from bookdepository. So Revolution is very winning and full of great writing and unforced neatnesses; I liked it a lot.
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"Moth" (Declan Greene - Malthouse)
Very impressive; reminded me a little of "Terminus" from a couple of years back - high praise - in its fluidity and confident theatricality (for want of a better way of putting it). Sharply, authentically, pungently written; it uses dialogue and stage in service of a work that couldn't have been done better in any other form. It employs artistry in the service of the everyday, or maybe vice versa, or more likely still, both at once.
(w/ Sunny, Kai + Neil, Hayley and Adam W, & C)
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"Princess Dramas" (Elfriede Jelinek - Red Stitch)
Stylised, disorienting, challenging - I had to work at this while watching it, consciously trying to be open to what it was doing and suspending/interrogating various immediate reactions, principally aesthetic and linearity (not just in the narrative sense) oriented ones. I have a feeling that the production, while vivid, may have obscured the words of the play itself but maybe that's unavoidable. "Princess Dramas" is the most difficult play I've been to for a while, but with more time to chew it over, it may well be one of the more rewarding; at any event, I've been sufficiently intrigued to try to track it down in translation.
(w/ C)
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"A Golem Story" (Lally Katz - Malthouse)
A much more traditionally narratival,character-y work than Apocalypse Bear Trilogy, and a lavish, sumptuously mounted thing it is. It's played relatively straight in its telling of the legend of the golem of Prague, all enwrapped with Jewish mysticism, and it's certainly engaging, but for me didn't hit home as hard as it clearly aimed to. Good, very good actually, but for mine, doesn't quite have the whatever-it-is that just sets some theatre apart from the pack and makes it really special.
(w/ Kai + Neil, Adam W, Trang and David; Sunny also ended up coming with friend Anthony)
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Kick-Ass & Scott Pilgrim vs the World
A matched pair of dvd hires (with C) - Kick Ass still kinetic and fun and slightly surprisingly hard-edged on a second viewing, Scott Pilgrim an unadulterated, snap-crackle-Pop delight, just like I'd imagined it would be.
