Sharing La Ronde

Originally about the transgression of sexual disease through the conservative classes of the 1920′s, La Ronde was to be shared only amongst the playwright’s friends. So risqué, it was banned and Schnitzler imprisoned when it was finally performed publicly; so sizzling, The Blue Room was based on it; so confronting, Sam Coward, Director of Shout! thought that audiences might just be ready for his interpretation in 2010.

Well, are you ready?

R-Rated

La Ronde will shock, surprise and seduce audiences. Re-created from raw, organic and intimate beginnings with a collection of the Sunshine Coast’s boldest performers, including Tim Murfin, Stephen Moore, Carly Partridge, Mary Eggleston, Xanthe Coward, Shane Ross, Sharon Grimley, Kay Ellsum, Meg Monroe and Nathan Hynes. In various states of undress, they dance through a series of sexual encounters, of which we see just ten in succession, without an interval.

La Ronde is not for the faint hearted and definitely not for children.

Not Just Sex

Sex is the last taboo. We joke about it – who’s getting it, who’s not, how much, how little, how good, how…not – but in most circles, we never actually talk about it. La Ronde will get you talking. Through the eyes and souls of 10 contrasting characters, audiences will see the sexual joys, frustrations, aggression and titillation we have all come to recognise and experience as part of our sexual lives…or not.

La Ronde is R-Rated and a little risqué. Audiences can certainly expect to feel confronted.

Think Burlesque but expect a deeper look into human intent, emotion and deception.

Think dark and delicious new theatre, like nothing you’ve ever experienced.

La Ronde will delight and disturb…

Opens at Noosa Arts Theatre on March 25th

Strictly Limited Adults Only Noosa Season

Continues March 26th, 27th and April 1st, 2nd, 3rd at 7:30pm and Sunday March 28th at 2pm

Avenue Q

I love this interview with Natalie Alexopoulos, who plays Kate Monster and Lucy the Slut in the hit homage to Sesame Street, Avenue Q

Zenobia Frost from Rave Magazine, wraps it up with:

Why do you think we keep coming back to musicals?

Natalie Alexopoulos: Music universally evokes emotion, and people just love the sense of fantasy. When people break into song, the audience is able to escape from their lives for a little while. Most musicals end with everyone riding off into the sunset, though. Avenue Q doesn’t paint such a rosy picture. The last song is called For Now, and the sentiment is that you must live every day and enjoy what you can, because you can’t be one hundred percent satisfied all the time. So smile when you’re happy, and when you’re sad, cry for a bit, but just get on with it, because life is, well, temporary.

Natalie’s words sum up exactly why you should see Avenue Q. In the most hilarious, unforgiving, fun and furry manner, these puppets and their people-friends deliver the most important messages, of human truth, hope and love, which we tend to forget about in times of global financial crises and three toddler drownings in one week and they leave you feeling upbeat and mostly unbeatable, even if only For Now. By the end of it, I felt like seeing the whole show right away, right then and there, all over again! In lieu of that unreasonable demand, we gave them a noisy, cheering, whistling, standing ovation at a PREVIEW.

Richard Roberts’ narrow city street design suits the Playhouse and feels wonderfully warm and intimate, despite the over-filled garbage cans and cold-looking apartment blocks. A built-in billboard is utilised to good effect throughout the show, with an animated opening sequence (The Avenue Q Theme) looking not too dissimilar from the opening credits of a number of popular children’s programs, setting the mood at FUN and the pace at CRACKING.

The music is fabulous. I’ve been hearing it for years (my husband frequently slides into the kitchen in his socks and suit before leaving for work, to give us his own rendition of I’m Not Wearing Underpants Today. That’s true). Look, I will just say this straight up. You can take me to task over it later. Mr Mitchell Butel must be just about the hardest-working performer currently working on an Australian stage. There. I said it. He is the voice, the movement, the heartache and the humour of two characters who drive a lot of the comedy in this show. He is most charismatic in an inexplicably Mark Trevorrow manner and I found myself watching him, rather than the puppets. In fact, I was so impressed by the extraordinary skills of the cast, I found myself watching the performers most of the time. I tried to focus solely on the puppets’ faces during the hilarious If You Were Gay, featuring Mitchell Butel as Rod and Luke Joslin as Nicky and I don’t think I’ve ever laughed so hard in my life. The pair are an obvious and absolutely delightful parody of Sesame Street’s Bert and Ernie.

Luke Joslin also plays Trekkie Monster…to the extreme! He is Cookie Monster on ice and I am NOT referring to the Winter Olympics.

As Kate Monster, Natalie Alexopoulos is sweet and naive and in for a big journey each night. There’s a Fine, Fine Line is the most unexpected and bitter-sweet sad song to come out of this show and Natalie sings it with pathos and heart-felt pain. I felt it. I also felt that the interval at that point, or at any point was such a distraction that I would have preferred to see the show in its entirety without it. Other Act 1 highlights were The Internet is for Porn, which introduced Trekkie Monster, Special, which revealed the sexier side of Natalie playing Lucy the Slut and You Can Be as Loud as the Hell You Want (When You’re Making Love), which featured by far the best Puppet Porn I’ve ever seen. Well, yes, since you ask; I’ve seen quite a lot. Haven’t you? Also, the faces of Mitchell and Natalie as they repositioned Kate Monster and Princeton for each verse? Priceless!

Act 2, at the same cracking pace, gave us the rest and the best of Christina O’Neill as Christmas Eve, in the tragic rom-com little number The More You Ruv Someone and the genius Schadenfreude, which has been another favourite in our household for some time now. The band was slick (what fun it must be to play Marx and Lopez‘s award-winning score) and Whitty‘s award-winning book was, well, witty and naughty and wonderful! Leah Howard as Gary Coleman (yes, that Gary Coleman) and David James as Brian, and Frank Hanson, Gus Murray and Josie Lane were strong and each a delight to watch. This is an impressive cast!

I feel there might need to be a sequel, same but different. I feel like I have some of the answers (and you can’t say THAT about every show)! But only for now (do any of us ever really know what to do with a BA in English? In DRAMA)?! I will simply have to go see it again!

The Mechanics of Undressing

by Sharon Grimley.

The Mechanics of Undressing.  Dressing.  Being dressed.

How strange it is to relinquish control, yet remain in control, and let another apply the layers of armour, and perhaps in doing so learning the chinks and vulnerabilities.  Trusting…drowning, not waving, since waving would give the audience something else to look at, distract them, and that is not the point.  “YOO-HOO!! Look over here, away from those breasts…”

And, being undressed – not the action, the state of being.  Not so difficult, since it is The Socialite who stands before the onlookers, but difficult all the same, in that Her physical flaws are my physical flaws.  She wouldn’t care.  I do.  Easy for Her; She doesn’t know anyone in the audience.

Ah, even if She did, She wouldn’t give a toss.

And in exposing the physical self and its distinctive markings (so much nicer than “flaws” I think), exposing all the markings on the psyche, the inner self.  Uncovering all the times I was not pretty/thin/sexy/feminine enough, and scratching open old scars thought long healed.  Ouch.

And once again, from the top…

HAMLET

Hamlet. La Boite Theatre Company’s 2010 season opener, directed by the company’s Artistic Director, David Berthold (who also has a hit, Holding the Man, about to debut in London’s West End), opened on Wednesday night at Brisbane’s Roundhouse Theatre. I saw the preview on Sunday night. And before I tell you anything else, I am telling you, GO SEE THIS SHOW. Regardless of how much you loved or loathed The Bard at highschool, whether or not you’ve seen any of the  film versions (I’m wondering, as much as you are, how The Lion King or The Banquet made it into that list), whether or not you’ve read any reviews or the associated comments, or visited theatres in cities all over the world simply to see their own Hamlet. Oh, yes, people do; I know them! They do it for Les Miserables and no doubt, for Wicked too (but probably not for Oklahoma. Just sayin’)…

The company website will tell you:

This is the must-see theatrical event of 2010.

And others are bound to tell you, in greater detail, why they consider this particular production a must-see. Or not. You will find those reviews (and some very interesting comments) here, here, here, here, here and quite possibly, here. Well, at least, these are the places I expected to find them too. I am telling you here, that I consider this Hamlet to be great theatre. Here is a professional production with everything- every element- I expect to see, hear, feel,  experience, discuss, remember, use as an example in my teaching…whenever I see a show, any show. And by professional I mean that, as far as I am aware, Brisbane has two fully professionally-operating theatre companies; La Boite and QTC who should both be getting it right and presenting great theatre for the masses and not necessarily just those who are bound to attend. This is a Hamlet that, one hopes, will bring audiences back to the theatre.

I am well aware that I got more out of this show than did many others. So sue me. I saw a preview. I saw the potential of a few aspects and the clarity and fruition of others. I saw something entertaining. I let go of all preconceptions and assumptions and I let myself be drawn into Berthold’s Denmark, with its arguable inconsistencies. I didn’t care that political details were diluted or by the fact that I was not moved to tears (god, don’t tell me we have to have tears to make theatre great again). Die-hard Hamlet fans would no doubt have missed terribly, some additional sub-plot and mystery and DRAMA. Home and Away? The Bold and the Beautiful?  MASS AUDIENCE APPEAL AND COMMERCIAL SUCCESS (thereby guaranteeing government and public support for the season and securing the long-term future of La Boite at precisely the right time)? OMG. SHOCKING. I feel it might be important to note, for the sake of the future of this blog, that I have never been critical about the popular appeal of shows produced by theatre companies in Brisbane or on the Sunshine Coast, merely the standard of said shows.

I loved the delightful early performances of Eugene Gilfedder and Trevor Stuart and their contrasts later, in the same roles and in their secondary roles. I’m sure these two rate as gods amongst men, as far as the Brisbane acting scene is concerned. It took me a little longer to warm to Helen Howard’s Gertrude – perhaps this was the intent – but I felt as if she also had to warm to the role of sexy, sultry seductress. By the time she got naked I was somewhat more convinced of her character and motives.

Now, let’s just talk about that, shall we? Everybody else has. The nakedness, etc. Interestingly, others have been quick to question whether or not the nudity and simulated masterbation were absolutely necessary. Um. Necessary or not in what sense? All too shocking and should not have been included……….because……….because??? Nope. I’m really struggling with this one. I found this Hamlet to be extremely unsettling, as you would expect it to be and then suddenly upbeat, as you had always hoped it could be. It is intriguing, confronting, unconvoluted and I found it easier to follow than most shortened versions produced especially for highschool students. Tell it to the HOD, kids. But don’t mention the controversial inclusions such as nudity, depravity and the pure EVIL of man. And woman. Mostly of women, it IS Hamlet’s world, after all. In fact, I am going to go so far as to say that this version, with its nudity and its Toby Schmitz (and sorry, it has to be said, there are some of us who are really disappointed about the nudity not being his), should be filmed in HD from several angles and packed up as part of the senior school curriculum, not to mention to distributors who will put it into cinemas around the world on the last sunday of every month. I think you were still thinking/hoping that this was going to be an ordinary, like, a proper review, didn’t you? Yeah, no.

I admired Helen’s naked courage, confidence and elegance. I thought it befitting for the character by that stage, to disrobe in front of us; I thought it made quite a character statement as well as, if it was indeed a gimmick included for the supposed shock value, it was successful! Brilliant! Cheers! I also remembered Kate Winslet’s Ophelia, to which a blog reader referred,  and I thought Gemma Yates-Round was justified in her homage to that performance…I just wanted to see her commit to it rather than fear her own or the audience’s  response to it. Perhaps she will get a little braver about it so we are not at all mistaken about what we see happening. I also think she will learn to take her time and find Ophelia’s desperately sad madness gradually, rather than put it on all of a sudden so we are sure to see it. How lucky Gemma is, in her professional debut, to have Helen Howard by her side. Intriguingly, the two roles were recently played by one actress. You can read that review here. To have a director who trusts his actors is something one cannot explain to non-actors. Well, I will give it a shot another time. Watch this space.

Look, as far as I’m concerned, if you must direct or act a bold and sure-to-be-shocking thing then just make it bold and shocking! Make sure you’re ready for it and follow through. Do it to shock me. Really do it. And do it well. This brings me to: for the life of me, I fail to understand why such things are still so SHOCKING in the theatre. Is not the theatre the place for shocking? Many of you will remember, that the old La Boite (that’s right, kids, the precious, delapidated, much loved space at Hale St) once played host to The Shock of the New festival. It wasn’t a program full of nakedness and debauchery but suffice to say, La Boite has always tried to be a bit brave, bold, new and shocking. Thank God somebody is doing shocking again!

As for school bookings, I know that many school leaders will take issue with full frontal nudity and simulated masterbation in any show, particulalry when it appears in a “classic” (“Oh my! How dare they mess with Shakespeare! What an insult! We can’t possibly expose our students to that! And, more importantly, we just don’t have time to respond to parents’ questions!”). I believe that if teachers and parents are unwilling to discuss the more confronting aspects of a production or they are going to continue to prevent young people from experiencing great theatre, then that is the real shock. I applaud the teachers and principals who continue to support the Performing Arts and the rich education of their students. And so if there is a school requiring a good drama teacher who strongly supports this premise and is not afraid to say so, do call me. I need a real job, having done myself out of several in the last 2 years, due to my strongly stated beliefs that do not necessarily weigh in with those of the particular schools in a certain area that we know well and love very much despite their continual contradictions and miscommunications *smiles sweetly, hands over resume and decides that honesty really is usually not the best policy*

So let’s keep it real, folks. Hate to be the one to tell you but…your students are still sexting and lying about their age on Facebook and seeing far more graphic violence and simulated sexual acts, far more often, on their screens. And by screens, I mean cinema, plasma, PC, Mac and iPhone. Any perceived damage done will be because nothing is said in the debrief. Or because the student misses out on the experience altogether because somebody else has deemed it “inappropriate”. This is how misconception, fear and hype about normal, real, actual things pervade our society. Warning: the following statement may offend some readers due to its blasphemous tone. For God’s sake, people, let the arts change our lives! The whole issue reminds me of a parochial Brisbane type blog post from some time ago…..sigh.

So. Into the Roundhouse via the top doors. Tricky. I noticed the floor. Nice. But ruined. The house lights dimmed and…disappeared completely! We were plunged into total darkness for what seemed like an eternity, well, at least a full minute longer than one would anticipate, in terms of establishing mood and seducing the audience, making us feel comfortable (or not, as the case may be) and drawing us into the sacred space and all that stuff. I would have timed it but I thought the light from my iPhone may incite physical violence from another audience member…

What I got, from those first few moments of blackness and Tibetan prayerness was a sense of DREAD. To the audiences’ credit, had it not been for the oddly dreadful-peaceful opening soundscape of that Tibetan horn we would have heard a pin drop (was it a rkang gling? I’m guessing. I don’t actually know. But I’m not making it up entirely; I googled “tibetan horns” and…voila)!

In the pitch black, Steve Toulmin’s dread-inducing soundscape actually prepared me, more than any other mechanism could have, for the heavy content of the play. I know, I know, some of you think they skipped over the heavy bits. But this production had other merits. To the actors’ credit, they found their first marks in that blackout! I’m afraid this occupied a relatively large space in my head for more than a couple of minutes. It’s not that I’m that easily impressed but more that I appreciate good craft and something as simple as lights up and the play begins can be a disaster! Or magic. Just say those words aloud. Go on, in a mysterious whisper: lights up and the play begins…magic! That was great! It is just always such a relief to me, when I find within the first couple of minutes of a performance that I actually want to STAY and see the WHOLE SHOW. This is important, I think, especially in light of the fact that we just don’t have the time or space here to discuss the shows I would have preferred not to suffer sit through. I’m sure you feel the same. It’s just that some of us are silly honest enough to blog about it. Sometimes. After a scotch. Or two. Just kidding, kids. Don’t drink and blog. As I mentioned I think, in my original post for this blog; generous audience member, harsh critic. This time it seems I have not been so harsh! This reminds me to tell some of you, lay off the other bloggers and reviewers about having a drink before the show! Judgment much? Save it.

So anyway, once I’d suddenly tuned into the language (it takes a moment, a line, a phrase, a Tibetan foghorn to remind you to be ready to focus, this is Shakespeare; it’s different for everybody)…I thought of Pearl Harbor. I’m so sorry, Greg Clarke and David Walters but I did. In the back of my mind, I was thinking that the sparse set, with its towering interior wall (and security cameras) and its hospital bed and its lifting and cracking, once elegant floor under, looked a bit like the interior shots of that (add preferred adjective) film. Not that they had security cameras at Pearl Harbor either. Now that I think about it, it was nothing like it, was it? But these are the images you see in your head and try to separate, as you’re laughing at the sudden hilarity of Toby’s inflection/facial expression/gesture/kinda-funky-without-getting-the-follow-through dance move, the useful from the rubbish. Useful? The hundreds of Hamlets who have only delved as deep as “angst-ridden”, “sullen” and “oedipal” in their character studies and realising within the opening minutes of a performance that this is not one of them. Rubbish? The Pearl Harbor reference, of course. This is embaressing. CAN WE PLEASE MOVE ON NOW?

Toby Schmitz’s Hamlet, with his rock-star-morning-after voice is intelligent, super cool, a little bit cruel and quirky. I liked the Emo/Edward Cullen thing. I loved that his Hamlet was recoiled and delighted by the Hedwig-inspired rock-musical-within-a-play (New concept? Maybe not. Absolute genius version of it and thoroughly entertaining? YES)! I loved that Toby the actor obviously has a wonderful sense of comedy and that he was encouraged to use that to show us his own interpretation of Hamlet the character, after we have seen so many others. I thought he was crush-worthy and I hope the school girls and boys attending with their enlightened and inspiring staff members go away giggling and sighing over him. I just wonder if everything he takes out on Ophelia will become clear before the end of the season…

I’ve been trying to resist but I have to add that it seems to me, from various comments attached to blogs and facebook updates, that it is the local performing arts community who – again – are less than satisfied with this production. The general public want more of the same. So. two things: everybody in Independent Theatre quit griping and criticising and go see a show, produced, designed, performed and directed by your peers, for what it is. Great theatre for the masses. After all, isn’t that how this theatre business began?

Last Week at La Ronde…

Oh, but last night I saw La Boite’s Hamlet! As if that were not enough to distract me from a little game of concentration here, there are the delightful sounds of much mirth to be heard, as I write, from The Garage (You haven’t missed a grand opening, no;  the rehearsal space to which I refer is actually our garage, sans vehicles. Sorry to disappoint and welcome to Independent Theatre on the Sunshine Coast)! So before I convince you, quite easily I’ll wager, that you must not miss this Hamlet, I’m going to try to focus for just a moment and do the La Ronde wrap up from last week before we begin this week (too late), as per the Director’s demands comments…

As we stand (or sit or languish across the chaise lounge) right now, we have 70% of the scenework (blocking) done and 80% of the script re-written to suit us. And it does suit. One of the priveleges of working in this fashion, the actors having substantial input into the development of the script and the scenework, is that we have been discussing and re-shaping each scene, adding or omitting words, lines, pauses…until we get the sense that it feels right. Until it feels real. At times, horrifyingly real. This is the place that, as an actor or director, one would hope to find oneself in at some point during any rehearsal period, regardless of which show it is! This place is about trust and instinct first and next, the confidence to go even further. At the moment there’s this feeling that we need to be running the rest of the way to the edge and jumping right off it! Several images come to mind.

Thelma and Louise: “Let’s keep goin’…..” (although, I never really could accept that committing suicide together in a flash of desperate inspiration – or something – was quite as empowering for women as the movie makers would have us believe). Still, it came to mind.

Finding Nemo: “DO YOU HAVE YOUR EXIT BUDDY?!” Many, many references in this clip but most notably, we all have our exit buddies. And look, in case you missed it, the whole knowing when they are ready conversation? Yep. You’ve got it now, haven’t you? Just as soon as I mentioned it, huh? It’s about Sam, isn’t it?

NINE: “GUIDO…………….” Ok, so if I’m completely honest, this is a little off-track but not really at all because HOW FREAKIN’ SENSATIONAL IS THIS PERFORMANCE?! It’s one of my faves. And I’m a Penelope fan from way back! Sorry, Pen…

…and thank you, Jane!

So anyway, I think we’re up to noting the rest of Sam’s points, with regard to last week’s rehearsals.

The set has been simplified, for various reasons, and mirrors added. The properties list has been revised.

The lighting and camera angles are to be reconsidered.

The soundscape is underway, thanks to the incredible talent, energy and enthusiasm of Ms Leah Barclay.

The roles of women are be explored and discussed further, in terms of the chasm between the original writing and our re-shaping of the text in order to deliberately show each of the women in a more powerful, independent, intelligent, sensitive/manipulative light. This is more with regard to the documentary, as the women playing the roles, are already finding all manner of ways to show the contrasts and conflicts of Woman. Jekyll and Hyde comes to mind (yes, the musical, of course)! Jekyll and Hyde is of course about the duality of Man (a note that was given, coincidentally, to Nathan tonight, with regard to his character, The Poet)…and WOMAN. The duality of woman, it seems to me, has only ever really been explored in terms of archetypes, something that Emily Macguire has explored, in her Princesses and Pornstars. However, let’s not look at the Lucy and Lisa characters here now, or at the archetypes in any detail yet, or we will be here until opening night!

This brings me to an intriguing note. The individual cast members have shown enormous attention to detail, in terms of their emotional investment in each scene and the development of their back stories. Everybody is getting comfortable now with who they are and what they need to do or who they need to become, in order to get what they want from their lover by the end of each scene.  It doesn’t always end nicely. It’s like real life, isn’t it? A situation doesn’t always go the way we’d planned. Sometimes, as my three year old will tell you, IT ENDS BAD. This should not be so intriguing, it should be absolutely expected, as good actors will invest emotionally and commit to their role. What is different about this show (and this process, I guess) is that everybody is moving at about the same pace, working around the same issues and resolving some conflicts and discomforts at each and every rehearsal. This is, in my experience, highly irregular, particularly in the context of a much larger show, involving more people and many more scheduled rehearsals requiring everybody’s attendance. In stark contrast, we are working in pairs, with the director and often, with the cameraman present. And that’s all. The intimacy and attention to detail perhaps allows a little more progress each week than we had come to expect. Now we are all spoilt and want nothing else but to work this way every time we decide to put on a show!

There are, of course, some things that will take a few more rehearsals to sort. Suddenly, as we start to remove items of clothing and get a little closer to one another, there is the rather significant matter of how one responds onstage to breasts and bits that might be exposed and/or aroused…a rather more significant issue perhaps for most of the men in this production. If it were all for porn, it would all be for the best…look, I will let you know how we are going with that one as it, er, comes up.

There have been various states of undress already. Not sure if the neighbours have noticed yet. There are a few costumes that are integral to the development of the scene, you know, whether we are taking things off or putting things on…..these things must be rehearsed, people!

La Ronde is R-Rated and a little risqué. Sunshine Coast audiences can certainly expect to feel confronted. Think Burlesque but expect a deeper look into human intent, emotion and deception. Think sophisticated entertainment with a razor sharp edge. Think dark and delicious new theatre, like nothing you’ve ever experienced. La Ronde will delight and disturb…

La Ronde opens at Noosa Arts Theatre on March 25^th and the season continues March 26^th, 27^th and April 1st, 2nd, 3rd at 7:30pm and Sunday March 28^th at 2pm

To book phone Stephen Moore - 07 5449 9343

Production Update

We had our first production party meeting on Friday night. We made it a casual curry night, nothing fancy-schmancy; this was BUSINESS. Well, it was business for about 30 minutes and then the conversation went off on a kinky tangent, which for this show is not as kinky as you might imagine, and then we cleared the cigarette packets and Iphones from the table outside so we could eat, drink and be…very noisy and merry! Don’t worry, the work we did was GOOD.

Apart from the style and application of make-up, it’s all good. Everybody is on Sam’s the same page and…wait. Allow me to point out the make-up disparity. It won’t give too much away, the extensive research I have conducted via Youtube and Google Images might interest you and you can have your say about it during the decision-making process. i.e. Which do YOU want to see?

The Common Ground

Faces should be white. ish.

The Disparity

It is to be either the more severe, mask-like make-up of The Rocky Horror Picture Show Floor Show OR the more subtle and sophisticated style of Madame de Pompadour…which, look, if I were a drowning woman clutching at straws, I would say is not too dissimilar to the make-up sported by our dear alien transvestites throughout the first three-quarters of the film anyway. Okay, it’s pretty dissimilar. Straws. Drowning. You were warned.

Here we go.

1. Rocky Horror. Floor Show. Mask-like. This make-up serves to separate and alienate actors from audience, putting the viewers (voyeurs) into a situation where they can reflect critically within the social context. This is precisely the head space Herr Director would like his audience to find themselves in. Oh, the alienation of the theatre. Oh, how we – every so often – love you and your devices, Bertholdt Brecht.

2. Madame de Pompadour. Powdered. Delicate. Like Dangerous Liaisons. Let the audience be seduced into the same challenging head space but gently and slightly audibly; a breath, a sigh, a gasp…we’ll wait for you…making it a beautiful, dream-like journey so the shock of reality – that sex is not always NICE -  shatters those illusions and each character confronts the audience with an accurate reflection of themselves as individuals, each with their own preconceptions and misconceptions about sex.

On another note, does Magenta not exude Madame de Pompadourishnessatiousness by the end of the film? Look! See?!

Still not convinced? Look, let’s just see what Annie Lennox would do, shall we? I always say, when all is lost, one ought to look to Annie Lennox.

While we’re on the Annie Lennox playlist, let’s just take a peak as she transforms, gradually, exquisitely into a seductive, delicate, bird-like creature. As opposed to a tragic, cross-dressing alien from outer space, perhaps helping to strengthen my argument, perhaps not.

n.b. I have nothing against cross-dressing any sorta species, in fact, I encourage it. Regardless of your stance on these and other pertinent issues, I have always loved this song, I have always been captivated by the film clip and intrigued and inspired by its colours and contrasts.

And look, while we’re at it, I found this especially for the Dr Who fans. You know who you are. This is the episode that made you cry, right?

So anyway, after all that, I’m quite sure I was going to tell you more about the production party meeting. But you know you sometimes have those nights when you think you are right there in the thick of it and all along, you’re thinking of something else? I will have to watch the footage to find out if I actually said anything at all. I have a vague memory of cleverly alluding to a cockroach in a lab coat but I can’t for the life of me remember why that was so funny. Perhaps it wasn’t. Probably, it wasn’t. Never mind.

I felt like the life of the party!

Note to self: Properly recover from virus and extreme exhaustion before hosting future production parties meetings. Or updating blogs.