I saw two shows this weekend.

The first was at Melbourne University, and it was a musical about working, called Working. I know! How clever!

Seriously though, it was really fun and there were some beautiful voices on stage (embodied by people, you understand) so I enjoyed it, which, given I was completely starving and totally knackered on account of my having dressed up as a judge at seven thirty that morning, was somewhat of a surprise. It starred Reuben and Margaret, who had also dressed as judges that morning, who were (and you'll have to see a couple of posts below for this reference) really quite lawsome.

Then, last night, after the day from hell and with half a mind to stay home and watch crap on TV, I dragged myself to the theatre again. Not only did I drag myself to the theatre. I dragged myself to a show I had heard described as "experimental" and "absurdist" and which had written on the door of the theatre, "WARNING: SHOW CONTAINS SMOKING, FIREARMS, AND ADULT THEMES". Wicked, I thought to myself. The trifecta.

And not only that. I went by myself.

The reason I made myself go to this show even though I felt like a clump of oatmeal, is that it's on at a brand new theatre called The Black Lung, which is in Smith Street, Fitzroy (see here) and which is run by a bunch of people I know who are all very clever and very interesting and who also make me laugh. Anyone who decides to start their own theatre deserves at least the price of my ticket (which was ten dollars by the way - which should be the price of ALL theatre in Melbourne and which is why I find it endlessly amusing that the MTC runs all these "investigative sessions" where they ask random selections of "young people" why none of them go to the theatre. But I digress). So I knew that these people were smart and interested in making different stuff, and so I made myself go even though it was experimental and absurd and I felt like the most experimental and absurd thing I felt like doing was going to bed without brushing my teeth.

Anyway. It was called Avast, and somehow they managed to have it make sense but contain no cohesive narrative whatsoever. In that sense, it was genuinely insane. I was sitting on the edge of the room where I could see the audience reaction, which at times was half the point. The woman next to me was a pysch nurse who expressed her genuine concern for one or two of the performers' mental health. The guy on the other side of me was prone to a donkey-like laugh that would set off whole sections of the audience, and one or two members of the cast.

Okay, so here's what happened: There was a guy in a washing machine with Ochre in his pants (of course) who told this other guy he was adopted and so the other guy pretended he was blind and then slipped during the fight scene and appeared to break his nose (brilliantly done). There was a guy who played a tin whistle and ran full-pelt into a closed door. There was a bloke in a mask who recited a speech until he was shouted down by the other actors. There was this couple in the audience who tried to leave because the woman was feeling sick and things were a little politically incorrect and quite crazy and claustrophobic and she was sobbing, sobbing, and her boyfriend was trying to leave but they were shouted at by one of the actors, who then apologised and called off the show and offered everyone their money back and then after people started leaving the theatre this woman in a full opera costume got up from behind a chair and sang an aria while simulating sex with the tin whistle guy.

And then everyone went for beers.

You've just got to love the theatre sometimes.