Chris Boyd

Arts and entertainment news and reviews

[Chris Boyd @MelbourneArts]

“enthusiastically built on girl talk in all its gory glory, Cactus is a delightful buddy comedy – smart & riotously funny – about dark themes... performances were confident, engaging, refined & perfectly judged.” My review of Cactus @LaMamaTheatre [$] https://t.co/vpdpgftUFg

[Chris Boyd @MelbourneArts]

The Fence “combines the immediacy of community theatre with the sophistication we have come to expect of our best indie theatre makers... a remarkable and vivid portrait” My review [$] https://t.co/bwjKJxEr1G

[Chris Boyd @MelbourneArts]

Seeing Antony Hamilton’s insanely disciplined time-warping moves executed by eight dancers – in twos, fours and eights – pushes the definition of virtuosic to a whole new level. @chunkymove My review [$] https://t.co/ZiuaPKMPE7

[Chris Boyd @MelbourneArts]

“Alistair Baldwin wrestles with some incredibly thorny issues but never preaches or takes the high moral ground... The production is wonderfully playful. Flirtatious. Risky.” My review of Telethon Kid @MalthouseMelb [$] https://t.co/28fgqwyynt

[Chris Boyd @MelbourneArts]

A small-cast domestic-scale play, 2:22 dies a death in a three-tiered, 1700-seat theatre, but that’s just the first, most obvious, problem. My review [$] https://t.co/wFM0RMMK0b

[Chris Boyd @MelbourneArts]

My new favourite stage direction (replacing Stephen Sewell’s “buckets of blood”) is this: “They think about their ethical obligation to kill all of the heterosexual men in the world.” — Clare Barron, Shhhh

[Chris Boyd @MelbourneArts]

“Though it will be triggering to many, [Clare Barron’s play] ‘Shhhh’ is honest, resonant, authentic, even revelatory; and not without humour or bleak hope.” @redstitch My review [$] https://t.co/ejYeanee5h

[Chris Boyd @MelbourneArts]

“Tanz is a Bacchanalian carnival of rebellion against the patriarchal tyranny of ballet. But without Beatrice Cordua’s presence, Florentina Holzinger’s attack might look dated, petty & vengeful.” (I liked it a lot!) My 1500 word review [$] @risingmelbourne https://t.co/uCkIT4eLjw

[Chris Boyd @MelbourneArts]

“Under @DavidHallberg, @TheAusBallet has evolved into a company that can do anything. No dance technique, no style, no choreographic test is beyond it.” My review of The Hum by Daniel Riley, first half of Identity [$] https://t.co/ve72wQE0mN @risingmelbourne @AusDanceTheatre

[Chris Boyd @MelbourneArts]

Loaded is a stunning work in its own right. It can’t match the reckless velocity & momentum of Head On, but it has a luscious sensuality & easy physical immediacy that neither the original prose nor Kokkinos’s movie can offer @MalthouseMelb My review [$] https://t.co/6AiCfFuKEn

[Chris Boyd @MelbourneArts]

“Verse-massacring is a deeply ingrained tradition here: charmless, parroted, bogan Shakespeare. But Bell Shakespeare Co has had 32 years to master the art (or at least the teaching of the art) in-house.” Some thoughts on Bell’s (rather good) Macbeth [$] https://t.co/McIrGeSkOk

[Chris Boyd @MelbourneArts]

Selling Kabul centres on Afghan translator Taroon, but it’s not much interested in him. He's the catalyst for the action, but Sylvia Khoury is far more interested in the lives & fates of the women around him. My review [$] @redstitch https://t.co/eLyiDcuzYR

[Chris Boyd @MelbourneArts]

Robert Greenfield reveals Sam Shepard to be something of a bullshit artist, his greatest work of fiction was his own life. Facts were routinely and repeatedly finessed to make for a better yarn. My review of Greenfield’s new biography & HST's True West [$] https://t.co/FbEjh8Rs96

[Chris Boyd @MelbourneArts]

@ellen_grimshaw @MotleyBauhaus Funnily enough, I feel like I've barely cracked the surface. That the show isn't *about* advertising or auditioning (or family or abandonment or alcoholism) but that it's driven, or triggered, by those things. So, it's not plot-driven or character-driven but random event driven.

[Chris Boyd @MelbourneArts]

Ellen Grimshaw is every bit as psychotically entertaining as the late monarch of improv, Robin Williams. With acrobatics.

... like Meow Meow at her kamikaze best. @ellen_grimshaw at @motleybauhaus until Saturday My review [$] https://t.co/2KDdVul2nz

[Chris Boyd @MelbourneArts]

@ellen_grimshaw (i.e. Grinning Grim)

[Chris Boyd @MelbourneArts]

@ellen_grimshaw Oh, god, can I steal this pic and use it?! (And is it one of Shannyn Higgins's?)

[Chris Boyd @MelbourneArts]

@ellen_grimshaw @MotleyBauhaus Bang! Bang!

[Chris Boyd @MelbourneArts]

@OhHeyMeliss @micomfestival The really annoying thing about SHS is how well she writes. After a couple of chapters of Speaking for Myself, I was rooting for her dad! (Who even am I?!)

Hope I wasn't out of line with that bit about Berettas! :D

[Chris Boyd @MelbourneArts]

Huckabee Sanders’ Arkansas is beyond parody. The day #SHS47 was sworn in, she banned the use of ‘Latinx’ as “culturally insensitive.” (Gender insensitivity? No problemo!) My review of The Briefing by @OhHeyMeliss @micomfestival [$] https://t.co/osCNPxjWn8

[Chris Boyd @MelbourneArts]

@circusoz has always had heart and soul. It’s a collective of artists. But here, it is renewed. The new show is a knockabout – and often breathtaking – stampede of fun. Not just for all ages, but by them. @micomfestival [$] https://t.co/osCNPxjWn8