Presented by Shopfront Arts Co-op
ArtsLab: REVERB brings an ecclectic mix of new works from emerging artists that may just be the best ArtsLab from Shopfront yet.
Reviewed by Justin Clarke
Shopfront Arts Co-Op, Carlton
Until 12th April
Tickets: https://shopfront.org.au/whats-on/artslab-2025/
ArtsLab: Reverb is a festival of new work from Sydney’s most exciting emerging artists. With daring new performance works spanning installation, theatre, puppetry, music, cabaret and comedy – this year’s ArtsLab is an exciting blend of young voices, ready to return to Shopfront in Carlton.
Shopfront Production Director and CEO Natalie Rose, acting almost as a host to the evening, welcomed us with gusto, acknowledgements and humour to each piece for those who were there to see just one production, or all eight productions. Over 10 hours, I ran the gauntlet of all eight new works…and it was truly a delight!
Mummy, I’m Scared!
Written and Performed by Fia Morrison, Alison Cooper and Georgia Condon. Mentored by Mish Grigor
Fia Morrison takes us into the era of the seance, where ghostly gouls are the hottest candle in town and Mummy FeatherBottom is the Queen of the conjuring rage. She’s just found out she’s dying, or so her dim-witted husband Nigel says, and just as she’s announcing to her three daughters, Gwenda-line, Elizabethington and Geneive, who shall inherit the FeatherBottom fortune, she chokes on her meal and passes prematurely. Now it’s up to the daughters to take on the FeatherBottom name, conjure their mother and make one final connection before they lose it all to their step-father.
Performers Alison Cooper, Georgia Condon and Morrison take on an array of gouls, ghosts and figures with comedic aplomb. It’s clear that Morrison sits at the heart of the work, and the mentorship of comedian and performance maker Mish Grigor influences each extravagant character, gasp and solid one liners. Featuring an array of supernatural and mythological figures, Morrison’s piece flies at a cracking pace as the sisters try and fail repeatedly in their exploration of the world of seance.
Mummy, I’m Scared has its tongue firmly placed in its cheek as it veers between the supernatural realms, with Morrison unafraid to give moments of pause and emotion between her larger than life characters. It’s an impressive start for an emerging artist, and one that may just have the right amount of magic to transport itself to a Fringe Festival near you.
ULTRAREALITY!
Written and Performed by resinperson. Mentored by Marcus Whale
It’s difficult to put into expression ULTRAREALITY! as the essence of resinperson‘s ultrareality is a defiance of things that don’t have words. Their backround in puppetry, theatre making and music production collides in a performance piece that is conceptualised and operated by resinperson themselves.
Using the eyes as the central point of focus through which our reality is formed, the multimedia set combines video projection, puppetry and audio-visual experimentations on screen to collide the senses together, as it transports us into a new fiction of reality.
Musical composition has the beginnings of a rave, as the standing audience show a keeness to bounce and possibly move, but the beat never drops enough to encourage it fully. Instead, the reality of our central bodiless figure becomes a tested machine as it explores realities, ultimately seeking to transcend into another world entirely.
It’s performance art, and thus this could all be wrong, but resinperson invites us to make the reality what we make of it, and that says more about our own individual sense of self than anything.
manic pixie meltdown
Written by Thea Jade. Directed by Karina Young. Mentored by Jules Orcullo
Thea Jade‘s manic pixie meltdown is an exploration of autistic characters on a spectrum that is honest, straying away from the performative. Directed by Karina Young and mentored by Jules Orcullo, the characters give a fresh new light on opinions of famous actors with ASD who some deem to either “perform” autism, or romanticize autisim on a slew of streaming service products.
Entering the space, a quote by film critic Nathan Rabin, who coined the term ‘Manic Pixie Dream Girl’ in 2007, foregrounds the trope that is about to be dissected and taken back into the hands of those who the MPDC truly portrays. Teddy is our protagonist who is done with the ‘Manic Pixie Dream Girl’ trope, who pleads with her Autism Support Group that it is a dangerous concept and has already, unbeknownst to them, taken darkly comedic steps to destroy the term forever.
Jade’s piece is a self-examination of stereotypes in Hollywood and those built closer to home, with the dark comedy eventually cutting to the core of the piece, stripping away its anger and frustration, showing a genuine breadth of emotion underneath the gags and one liners. The plot loses its way amongst the references to the childhood playground that is Questacon – a place that anyone who’s been on a Year 6 excursion within a 50km radius of the capital can attest to – as it flounders towards the heart of its characters. We do eventually get there as that heart sits firmly in the right place.
REX
Written and performed by Jasper Lee-Lindsay. Mentored by Zoe Coombs-Marr
Writer and performer Jasper Lee-Lindsay has written a show about Sophocles‘ Oedipus Rex amongst The Theban Plays… or at least he was meant to. He’s run out of time unfortunately, so he’s giving us what he’s made so far. This Fringe Ready production is calmly chaotic, yet entirely in contral as mentor Zoe Coombs-Marr‘s fingerprints can be seen amongst the comedic pauses, spills and mishaps.
Lee-Lindsay’s back and forth with lighting and sound operator Georgia Tyrril is a joy at the beginning of the piece as the pair work to set up REX after a misleading start. Tyrril swiftly climbs a ladder to set up Lee-Lindsay’s powerpoint presentation in a matter of seconds – stage managers would have applauded.
The PowerPoint presentation trope is almost spoofed here, as it is now a staple in one-person comedy shows amongst comedy and fringe festivals. Cheesy transitions, too long animations and missing imagery are abound that tie well into the clownlike comedy that Lee-Lindsay utilises throughout the retelling of the Greek tragedies.
Throughout, there are undertones of matriarchal love, and orthodontic importance, with Lee-Lindsay bringing a dry Australian humour to the ancient Greek text with hidden depth towards its end. There are vines of storylines that are yet to be pruned effectively here, but once it’s manicured and prepped, REX would be a joyful highlight in a fringe season.
Bunny Boiler
Written and performed by Amelia Harding. Mentored by Hannah Goodwin
Rigby spends her nights as a bartender at “The Bloody Heart”, where every shift ends with piss-filled alleyways, smashed glasses and men trying to take her home. But this night ends with a furious man accusing her of a hit and run, ending his wife’s life.
Mental health, suicide and intergenerational trauma make up this one-person monologue that has a grungry Fleabag-esque feel to it. The rock chic cover that Rigby takes on amongst drunken engagement speeches, brutal language and one night stands covers a cracked facade as Rigby slowly unwinds throughout her storytelling.
Writer and performer Amelia Harding writes a sometimes gripping monologue that ebbs and flows as Rigby struggles to comprehend the night that led to the accused hit and run at the centre of the piece. Surrounding it, the metaphor of “The Rabbits” is used to replace the “Black Dog” idea of depression. It wasn’t fully clear if this usage of the rabbits was in allusion to the John Marsden and Shaun Tan book of the same name which uses rabbits as an allegory for colonisation and invasion, especially when Rigby utilises the idea of intergenerational trauma for her current lot in life.
Mentored by Hannah Goodwin (Never Closer, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time for Belvoir St), the piece has a clear sense of atmosphere to it, utilising milk crates to define shapes and space, transporting us through Rigby’s memory. The closing of distance at the piece’s end ultimately makes for a satisfying conclusion.
We Have Stolen Our Bodies From God
Written and Performed by Matthew Forbes. Mentored by Jack Prest
Writer and performer Matthew Forbes, takes us on a mind-melding soundscape of stolen lands, biblical apocalypses and the crises of faith and identity. Musical theatre sounds mesh with the sounds of performance art as semi-improvised interludes are at times beautifully rendered and at others purposefully discordant as the nature of chaos supercedes normality.
The part musical, part song cycle piece takes us on a story of a deeply religious community whose world is turned on its head as a UFO crash-lands into nearby bushland. Suddenly, their faith is tested as the idea of God and humans being made in his image is brought into question.
The synthetic sounds that mix together amongst trumpet, violin, piano, flute, drum and guitar take us into the UFO aesthetic, whilst the more, let’s say human sounds, intersperese throughout. At times it can be a bit of endurance theatre as repetitive sounds and phrases test your ability to comprehend the musical nature and concept of the piece.
Forbes says that this will eventually become a musical, and what a splendid idea that would be. Particularly in an era where faith and identity is shifting and being shaped by the evolving technology of the world around us.
Tautua: A Journey
Written and Performed by Fale Tumanu. Mentored by Grace Vanilau and Gabriel Faatau’uu-Satiu
Sāmoan culture is brought into Shopfront’s Carlton space as six spotlights illuminate shaved logs with personal and Sāmoan artifacts atop them, with writer and performer Fale Tumanu standing amongst them. This autobiographical work sees Tumanu interrogate “tautua” or the idea of ‘acts of service’ which build an individual’s identity. Using both poetry and monolgoue, Tumanu takes us on six pivotal stages of her life where the idea of tautua was challenged, making her the leader she is today.
Mentored by Grace Vanilau and Gabriel Faatau’uu-Satiu, Sāmoan language is interwoven throughout Tumanu’s poetry. The piece gets a genuine gripping, crowd clicking momentum going when Tumanu steps into a slam poetry style, with flow and beats slapping the space around her. So too does it become beautiful when the Sāmoan family in the crowd sings along, harmonising to religiously sung anthems – it’s enough to give you goosebumps.
The defining of the piece’s audiences sits in two parts, it’s both an education for white audiences – who may struggle to truly connect with the language and importance of the key ideas being spun – as it is an exploration for Sāmoan families, cultures and pacific islander nations. Lyrically, you could listen to Tumanu all evening. Spiritually, there’s a rawness to the core of her piece. It’s an education for us all.
Maybelline is in her Slut Era
Written and Performed by Maybelline San-Juan. Mentored by Michelle Brasier
Maybelline San-Juan‘s Adelaide Fringe Award-Winning, raunchy comedy cabaret, Maybelline is in her Slut Era lands in Sydney in the final slot of the ArtsLab: REVERB program. It’s also the most well-honed and crafted of the bunch, having benefitted from a sold-out Adelaide Fringe run and mentorship by award-winning comedian and author Michelle Brasier.
On Monday, 21st August 2023, San-Juan was liberated from a 5 year long-term relationship. Dressed in yellow laced nightwear – an ex’s favourite so we’re told – she takes us through the statistics of the 132 days that followed which statistics show there was a 51% chance of sex, with a 47.9% chance of sleeping with someone new. Ultimately, she comes to the conclusion that she is indeed in her “Slut Era”.
Starting at the liberation of herself from her long-term relationship, San-Juan boldly tells of her time cheating on her boyfriend. It’s unashamedly told as she wears at the top of her piece – though audiences letting out a sympathetic sigh when told he’s now happily engaged was an odd reaction – and it’s clear that San-Juan is ready to bare it all…metaphorically speaking.
What follows are musical interludes that sees San-Juan belting to Britney Spears and Katy Perry hits amidst stories of men that are just…well, let’s just say it’s a wonder that the patriarchy still exists if this is what women have to experience on the dating scene. We hear about heartbreak, lots of stories about orgasms and great sex, bad sex and perfectly timed visual gags of Instagram reels and her effective PowerpPoint skills. We love a girlie with aesthetic colour palettes.
Maybelline is in her Slut Era most recently won the Adelaide Fringe award to take her to Hollywood, and let’s just say they best prepare themselves for whats coming – pun intended.
Tickets: Adult $25 / Concession $20 / Shopfront/Playwave Member $15
OPENING NIGHT – Wednesday 2nd April
AUSLAN INTERPRETED PERFORMANCES – Saturday 5th, Friday 11th and Saturday 12th April
STORYTELLERS VIBE NIGHT – Friday 11th April
EMERGING ARTIST NIGHT – Saturday 12th April
Presented by Shopfront Arts Co-op
Images by Joshua Morris
