Reasons To Be Watching

By Karena Blake

Reasons To Be Pretty will soon adorn the stage of Canberra’s newest arts venue, Mill Theatre at Dairy Road in Fyshwick. Starting with a volatile opening scene, the play transports the audience to an intimate setting in a small middle-American town, where we get upclose and personal with two couples—Greg (Rhys Hekimian), Steph (Alana Denham-Preston), Kent (Ryan Erlandsen), and Carly (Lexi Sekuless)—as they navigate a toxic environment.

The audience is asked to ponder as the characters reflect on their own lives, the concept of beauty, and the common question: How much is pretty worth?

Reasons To Be Pretty is a true-to-script presentation of Neil LaBute’s first Broadway play. Producer, actor, and Mill Theatre overseer, Lexi Sekuless, wants the production to reflect Canberra’s performing arts environment, whilst showing off what the newly created space can house.

Meeting with Lexi and Director Tim Sekuless at this very space to find out more, I find Tim seated in the studio’s performance space.

“The plan for the set is a kind of ‘industrial minimalism’, with concrete walls, raw materials, and brutalist style furniture,” Tim explains. “The intimacy of the space will allow the audience to be seated up close to the play’s colourful characters, permitting an immersion into their lives as we follow their journey.

“That prop will be central to the mechanics of the stage,” he says, pointing to an orange brutalist style chair. It’s a gift from a nearby Dairy Road business. Lexi is keen to expand:

“As soon as I noticed the chair looking discarded at the back of the building, I knew it held a history,” she reveals. “It has the raw qualities I need to bring to the production.

So I asked the owner to borrow it!”

For her, the brutalist style chair has taken on potent symbolism.

It represents a sturdiness, exuding a striking and simple strength that Lexi needs from the production team and the cast. This thinking lends itself to the reason for this choice of play.

“I had chosen LaBute’s Reasons To Be Pretty specifically because it poses the question: Why do we keep going when things get tough? It provides both the performers, and the audience, with an opportunity to reflect on this question in their own lives.”

It’s a timely mental practice for the current times.

“The performing arts industry took a hit during the height of the pandemic,” Lexi says. “It created a collective low resilience amongst performers and made it difficult to commit to a performance even post-Covid.”

By keeping true to the language of the text, the performance brings an American-style laugh-out-loud humour. Concurrently, it challenges the cross-societal issue of superficiality shared within Australian popular culture.

“What I like about this dialogue-rich play is that it’s littered with literary references about US authors,” Tim chimes in. “Keeping true to the text provides a glimpse into an American slice of life.”

Indeed, to remain truly consistent with the original script, Tim and Lexi went the extra distance.

“We brought in an accent coach to ensure the cast has the same US style twang,” Lexi says, “We want to be representative of the characters’ small town origins.”

Far from being strictly American in content, the play allows the audience to access and connect with another side of Australian life, that of living in a country town or an outlying suburb.

Universally appealing, the plot centres around four young workingclass friends comprising two couples who recognise their increasing dissatisfaction with their lives, and each other. A misunderstood comment about the attractiveness of one of them sparks a captivating series of musings.

The plot, and the age of the characters, intends to resonate with young people, as well as those who are still growing in life, in (or out of) a relationship, and beyond.

The newness of the Mill Theatre and the Players Ensemble model, combined with the limited opportunities for the development of theatrical arts in Canberra, see the production team admit to some of their own growing pains in the initial stage of casting.

“I think we needed to go through a period of ‘adulting’,” Lexi identifies, “to emerge with a team of people willing to work and commit to doing the brutal ‘hard yards’ in the creative industries.”

Like the principles embedded in the company, Lexi and Tim have built this show around emerging and independent actors, as well as stage and sound design crew, with an aim to build and support the growth of live Canberra theatre. Every member of the production team provides ‘shadow’ opportunities to emerging industry artists, with a view to mentoring them for the next production.

Speaking of which! There are already plans for the Mill Theatre to present LaBute’s sequel Reasons To Be Happy early next year. Set three years later, the sequel follows the same four characters, this time searching for that elusive happiness, asking the question: Is society’s obsession with material aesthetics holding them back in their lives?

So be sure to engross yourself in the start of the journey! And in the spirit of development, a week of Reasons to be Pretty previews are offered at an affordable ticket price to further grow the performance in time for the official three-week season.

As Lexi concludes: “With Reasons To Be Pretty this year, and the expectation of Reasons To be Happy next year, Mill Theatre is establishing a reputation for exciting live theatre and bringing a new dimension to Canberra's already dynamic theatre scene.”

Reasons To Be Pretty is on at Mill Theatre at Dairy Road. The preview week spans Wednesday, 12 April to Saturday, 15 April. The official season is on Wednesday, 19 April to Saturday, 6 May. Tickets available now via Humanitix.

By Jen Seyderhelm

In the week before I got married, my work colleagues and future sister-in-law took me out to Men Afloat, or something of the ilk. I considered it some sort of rite of passage that I had to endure.

Afterwards, I felt like I hadn’t enjoyed the experience, although I’d really tried to. I also felt that the men involved weren’t enjoying the experience, audience, or location (a little NSW country town) either.

Fifteen years later, not long before the pandemic, I was visiting the daughter of that sister-in-law in Brisbane; now a fledgling adult herself. I take being an aunt very seriously, and decided that during my stay I, too, would initiate her to the world of male entertainers, booking front row tickets to a show by Briefs Factory (great name btw) at the Powerhouse.

Man, my life and perspective were changed.

The now Briefs Factory International (thank-you-very-much) are heading to the Canberra Theatre in May for three performances. As co-founders and key creatives Mark Captain Kidd Winmill and Fez Faanana aka Shivanana will tell you, come prepared for some good old-fashioned escapism, draped in stunning outfits, and possibly presented to you upside down.

I managed to catch up with Mark and Fez as they tried to enjoy a precious day off after some gigs in Noumea. They’ve been together personally and professionally for more than 20 years, and are the yin to each other’s yang.

Mark—whose Captain Kidd moniker came about after being crowned King of Burlesque 2011 at the Las Vegas Burlesque Hall of Fame— speaks of how lucky they are to still be able to perform to national and international success.

Fez, whose Shivanana is the illegitimate love child of the bearded lady and ringmaster, is equally grateful.

“We just want to remind people that it’s still okay to have a great time,” Mark says.

An important mantra at the best of times, let alone the times we had to endure in recent years. Like many in the arts/performing industry, COVID hit HARD.

“We were heading to the Perth Fringe Festival in 2021,” Fez explains. “Half of us managed to get on a plane, whereas the other half were turned away.”

But out of that comes this show, Dirty Laundry, which Mark describes as exactly what it says on the soap box, “It’s our therapy show,” he quips. “But it’s an adventure. A celebration of survival.”

The Briefs’ team has always been about this, pre and post pandemic. They’re immensely proud of the way that they acknowledge the individual, their talent, gender identity, and unique background, both with the team they’re building with the Factory, and the devoted audience who follows and supports them.

Fez laughs about this.

“I’m from Ipswich,” he says. “Mark is from Grafton. Another in the team is from Broome. We’re relatable, and it’s always been about human interaction.”

So, who’s coming to Canberra? Fez gives us a colourful role call:

“Along with Captain Kidd and myself there’s Thomas Worrall, the amazing aerial acrobat. Juggler extraordinaire Louis Biggs. Luke Hubbard, better known by his drag persona Nastia.

“Dylan Rodriguez, or Enter Serenity, who can do the most amazing stunts in stilettos. And Brett Rosengreen, the ONLY Australian to be nominated in this year’s Burlesque Hall of Fame for Best Debut.”

Hell yes!

Working in the music industry for a long time, there is the inevitable genre compartmentalisation that occurs whenever a new artist emerges. We must put them into boxes, and compare them to similar artists: “Country/Folk – sounds like Miley Cyrus”.

With this in mind, I ask Mark and Fez how they’ve avoided this? I expected, at the show I saw in Brisvegas, that the crowd would be just women and gay men.

It was nothing of the sort. Fez smiles at this:

“Drag has changed,” he says. “People don’t think they’re going to get heckled anymore. And we don’t need that defence mechanism.

“I do have political commentary running throughout,” Fez continues. “But it’s with sass, not malice.

“People get out of it what they’re ready for. If they want just an idiotic, yummy good time, we’ll provide it.”

And that they do. On all counts. The amazingly fit, strong, brilliant, dazzling, acrobatic, funny, and creative Briefs’ ensemble will knock your socks off, then put them in their dirty laundry. Take your partner, best mate, Mum, Dad, brother, boss, neighbour, neighbour’s neighbour – this truly is a show for everyone.

Me Tonight is the fourth single release from BARBARA, the bedroom project of former Canberran and now Sydneybased stand-up comedian, and former Fricker frontperson, Ian McCarthy.

The new track blends indie electro-pop with a smattering of dance, yet it is the peculiarities and quirkiness that rise to the surface.

While utilising percussive keys and synths to set the pace, the song is segmented into melodically robust elements. The low-toned inflections of the vocal approach stand out, presenting an idiosyncratic and whimsical style that doesn’t fit neatly into any particular genre.

The production is minimal yet augmented by additional rhythmic elements, specifically the drum machine patterns, in what one might label the track’s chorus.

Though those distinctions don’t necessarily seem apt. With an arrangement that adheres somewhat to ideas of generating intensity and dynamism—for example, the recurring background vocal parts, which give the sound a pleasing texture juxtaposed as it is against the more mechanised elements—the track veers from part to part in an amusing and affable way.

Ratbag is the fourth single for Canberra-based duo Big Reef (Morgan and Hayden Quinn) who, in its relatively brief time as a live act, are selling out shows in its hometown and building a decent fanbase across the country.

The brothers harness a litany of influences, including new wave, ‘80s post-punk, and post-rock, and take some cues from the likes of Peter Gabriel, Talking Heads, Tears for Fears, and Talk Talk.

On Ratbag, the pair sound as self-assured and in control as ever, producing perhaps the outfit’s most accomplished track to date. Ratbag’s lustre and shimmering studio competency is evident here. As such, the conjured aesthetics are more akin to The Doobie Brothers (Michael McDonald era), Hall & Oates, and, during some musically slick and ambitious moments, Steely Dan. Yacht Rock indeed.

However, Ratbag doesn’t adhere to all the conventions of the ironically esteemed genre, but circles it, adopting elements such as surprise chord changes, as heard pre-empting the chorus or embracing the ever-efficient technique of jutting accents.

On this occasion it’s during the chorus that, together with its silky melodic flow and vocal harmony additions, is unavoidably hooky and the track’s biggest pay-off.

Me Tonight does build, with its inclusion of a semi-spoken bridge and added synth touches gracing the end. But it returns to the opening verse, so the impression is more cyclical than climactic.

Me Tonight is high on quirk yet also attends to some necessary ingredients, such as melody, groove, indie sensibility, and committed performance.

The track also features a few little lyric hooks, including the refrain, ‘nothing’s gonna stop me tonight,’ and, to a lesser extent, the more embedded kinds such as ‘If it gets you high at least it’s something.’ Indeed, if this track does get you there, it is something.

BARBARA does a good job of selling the track, with detailed attention given to the attributes mentioned above, all blending soundly with a self-assured, unhindered vocal.

VINCE LEIGH

Another genre attenuation comes in the form of the arrangement, with the bridge section seemingly taking over the direction of the track, changing up the mood and groove.

It surely must have been difficult for the duo to resist closing the track with the chorus’s soft rock power polish, but perhaps this is where the siblings’ self-attested sense of humour reveals itself.

And Ratbag reveals a lot more. The song contains enough familiar rings to it to appeal to a broad slice of the audience, including people who have not yet explored the genre Big Reef has harvested here.

For listeners who are well-acquainted with it and those who find delight in both subverted expectations and pure listening pleasure.

VINCE LEIGH