2013 MELBOURNE
CABARET FESTIVAL
INTRODUCTION
PORGY & BESS PROJECT
150 performers, 150 performances, 12 nights, 16 venues and 8 international acts. Yep. It’s fair to say that our city is about to be swept up in the whirlwind that is the annual Melbourne Cabaret Festival. Kicking off tonight with the opening night gala, the Melbourne Cabaret Festival will be hosted across town from Wednesday June 26 – Sunday July 7. Come with us as we delve deeper into the festival to seek the most exhilarating, entertaining and downright stunning shows of this almost two-week long extravaganza.
OPRAHFICATION Who is the composer/musical director/writer? Shanon Whitelock. What makes cabaret special? The conversation between the audience and the performer is live, organic, unrehearsed, honest and intimate. There’s a spark in the room that allows the audience to connect with the performers in a really special way. If you had to condense cabaret into a feeling or emotion, what would it be? Electric. When did you first get hooked on cabaret? I won tickets to Ursula Yovich’s cabaret at the Brisbane Festival in 2010 and it blew my mind. Ursula owned the stage, her amazing storytelling coupled with a live band. I was hooked and now I’m doing it myself and working with some amazing people. What’s the strangest thing you’ve seen at a cabaret show? I once saw a cabaret performer swinging from the rafters, singing upside and all the while taking bits of fruit out of her. Oprah isn’t doing that. I promise. What’s your favourite thing about the Melbourne Cabaret Festival? There are so many different things to see and experience in this festival. Tell us about your show. What’s it about? ‘Oprahfication’ is a term coined by the Wall St Journal meaning a public confession used as a form therapy. Our one hour show is all about what happens to a big star when they leave their audience behind. Oprah left her life on television behind in 2011 to build her O.W.N. network but she misses her people
A SAUCY LITTLE SECRET Who are the performers? An incredible Perth ensemble cast of Di Shaw, Libby Hammer, Ofa Fotu, Natalie Gillespie and Harry Deluxe – and an incredible band of Perth and Melbourne’s finest! Yes people – we’re travelling 12 people to the Cabaret Festival across the country with no government support… I think that makes us one brave, ballsy (and broke) bunch! What makes cabaret special? The opportunity to tell stories, sing songs, break new ground and play with people from all walks of life. Fun! If you had to condense cabaret into a feeling or emotion, what would it be? Brave – always brave!
- her audience. So she’s back for a very special episode and to bring you the ultimate interview. With music written by myself and lyrics by Rachel Dunham we’ve created a show that feels like you’ve entered a real live taping of the Oprah Winfrey show and believe me... the Big O is in the room and she can sing! Describe your show with five words. Oprah, Oprah, Oprah, Oprah, Oprah! How are people going to leave your show feeling? Elated! They’ll be screaming and stamping their feet, it’s like Oprah goes rock and soul. Oprah never sang of course, so musically I wanted to create a sound that could have been her if she did sing. Her personality has always been vibrant, inspiring and in the right moments, poignant, so I wanted to reflect that in the music... we’ve got lullabies, doo-wop, soul, gospel, funk, Mo-town, dreamgirl’s like diva belts - yeah, this show is a musical roller-coaster! What dates and times can I see your show? Saturday June 29 and Sunday June 30, at 7pm . And at which venue? Chapel Off Chapel.
When did you first get hooked on cabaret? To be honest – my answer is a little lame (and I suspect I’m not the only one out there… go-on… ‘fess up…). I saw the movie Cabaret as a child, and ever since I’ve wanted to be Liza. Sadly I’m a better writer than performer, but hey – at least I can be the woman behind the Liza’s! What’s the strangest thing you’ve seen at a cabaret show? The strangest, but perhaps most wonderful thing I’ve seen at a cabaret show is Le Gateau Chocolat – he is so decadently rich and chocolatey... I just wanted to go back for another slice! I simply have no willpower! What’s your favourite thing about the Melbourne Cabaret Festival? This is our first time at the Festival – so I think we’re yet to find a favourite! It’s a such a diverse programme – I just wish we could see absolutely everything! Tell us about your show. What’s it about? The ‘Harlem
Beat Magazine Page 28
Who are the performers? Mama Alto, also featuring Tiffanni Walton, Elise Winterflood and Monique Zucco. What makes cabaret special? Cabaret is special because it isn’t just performance – cabaret is a relationship between audience and performer and story and song, based on intimate connections, forged with urgency in a transient, temporary space. Cabaret is joyous, titillating, vulnerable, sassy, risqué, quirky and fabulous. In a world of increasing social isolation characterised by technology interfaces rather than face-to-face interaction, and in an artistic field dominated by saccharine popular music lacking the visceral depth and poignancy of live performance, people seek something more. Cabaret answers that need, that desire. If you had to condense cabaret into a feeling or emotion, what would it be? Cabaret, if condensed into a feeling, would be a heady mixture of vitality and vulnerability, of intimacy and distance, of bravado and delicacy, of the sublime and the ridiculous. Cabaret is a cocktail of diametrically opposed elements of wonder, crystallised by an alchemist into a precious delicacy that irresistibly tempts you to just have a little taste. When did you first get hooked on cabaret? I first got hooked on cabaret through recordings: in the womb, when my mother listened to Grace Knight purring and Vince Jones crooning, and in early childhood when my father listened to such sultry and sassy ladies as Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald and Cleo Laine. But I am hooked afresh every time I experience this magnificent art form. What’s the strangest thing you’ve seen at a cabaret show? Nothing is strange in cabaret. Cabaret is where strange comes for a good time. But if I had to give an answer, it would be watching cabaret artiste Bridget Everett – what is a delicate word for groping? – my partner Geoffrey onstage at Joe’s Pub in New York. What’s your favourite thing about the Melbourne Cabaret Festival? This festival is just such a brilliant
Renaissance’ of the 1920s is where our story begins: a window to the lives of five unstoppable women whose tenacity and passion allowed them to transcend childhoods cut short and marred by rape, abuse and desperate poverty to become black blues queens in a white, well-heeled world, and they all had a ‘saucy little secret’ to share. But if you want to know what it is – you’ll have to come and see the show! Describe your show with five words. Blues, booze, babes and debauchery! How are people going to leave your show feeling? They’ll have had their heartstrings royally tugged and their funnybones generously tickled! What dates and times can I see your show? Wednesday July 3 and Thursday July 4, 8pm until 10pm. And at which venue? The 86.
TIME TO SHINE! BEAT’S CABARET FESTIVAL SPOTLIGHT 2013
celebration of the art of cabaret, drawing together so many fabulous and diverse artists from around the world and around the country and bringing them here to our incredible city of Melbourne. Tell us about your show. What’s it about? In Porgy & Bess Project, countertenor diva Mama Alto takes the wonderful songs from the Gershwin opera and interprets them through the jazz idiom to turn what was originally a narrative of difference into a narrative of celebration. Exploring what it means to be an Other, whether that be through colour, gender or sexuality, this project embraces and rejoices in our humanity. Take this journey with cabaret artiste Mama Alto, who has been described as a voice that transcends gender. Describe your show with three words. Rise up singing. How are people going to leave your show feeling? I want them to leave with an understanding in their heart that we are all human and that we are all different, and that that is not only okay, but beautiful! What dates and times can I see your show? Wednesday July 3 at 8pm, Friday July 5 at 9pm, and Sunday July 7 at 8pm. And at which venue? The Butterfly Club, Carson Place (off Little Collins St), CBD. And for what price? Full $23, concession $20, groups of 8 or more $18 each. Where can we go to read more about your show? mamaalto.com or melbournecabaret.com
Win tickets to this show at beat.com.au
And for what price? Cabaret Table $79 (four people and complimentary bottle of French bubbly and VIP table service until the curtain comes down. Only seven tables available), single seat $25, standing/bar $13. Where can we go to read more about your show? You can visit our Facebook page (HMS PopUp Productions) and check out photos from our sell-out Perth season.