Bizarre sounds, sights triumph

Koumi Tanaka (7) of Tokyo, Japan, meets John Cohen-Du Four (left) and Sue Beasley from Tablo...
Koumi Tanaka (7) of Tokyo, Japan, meets John Cohen-Du Four (left) and Sue Beasley from Tablo Presents! in the Octagon yesterday. Photos by Nigel Benson.
Experimental music and film festival "Lines of Flight" sparked into life at Chick's Hotel last night.

The sonic display was established in 2000 by Peter Stapleton (who played with Eye last night) and film-maker Kim Pieters to encourage an alternative approach to musicology and cinematography.

The noisefest runs the whole gamut of experimentation including - and these are the organisers' descriptions - "trance-like drones, confrontational vocalising, delicate electro-acoustics, walls of noise, shambolic outsider rock and home-made instrument performances". Sounds like fun.

Heavyweights the Dead C pick up the gauntlet tonight and the festival runs until Sunday.

From the "Be careful what you wish for" file comes Drowning in Veronica Lake, a play about a movie star who had it all and it wasn't enough.

"Veronica Lake is the poster child for every star who's woken up, suddenly world famous and hopelessly unprepared to deal with it," producer Alex Ellis told me yesterday.

"At the peak of her career she was one of Paramount's highest-paid stars. In less than a decade she was out of control, out of work, out of money and stuck in a spectacular nose-dive that led to alcoholism and obscurity. Out of control celebrities aren't specific to the 2000s."

Drowning in Veronica Lake is on at 7pm today and tomorrow, and 2pm tomorrow and Sunday in the Globe Theatre.

Choreographers Geoff Gilson and Julie Van Renen, of Auckland, perform Capturing Other in the...
Choreographers Geoff Gilson and Julie Van Renen, of Auckland, perform Capturing Other in the Octagon yesterday.
Dunedin was invaded by bizarre puppets yesterday.

Tablo creative director Simon van der Sluijs, of Christchurch, said the puppets appealed to young and old.

"They're out of this world and surreal, so people have to do a mind shift when they see our stuff. Children get freaked out and and scared, but they enjoy being scared. Adults are more like 'What the ... ?' It's great, seeing the different reactions."

Keep an eye out for Tablo Presents! from 11am till 2pm in the Wall Street Mall today, 9am until noon at the Otago Farmers Market tomorrow and 11am until 2pm in the Octagon on Sunday.

A touching play about obsessive compulsive disorder and a shy girl with a nasty secret continues tonight.

The Visitor writer Lizzie Tollemache told me the production was lucky to make the Fringe after some actors were too nervous to leave Christchurch post-earthquake.

"So, we had to reconfigure the entire production," she said.

"Amongst our number are actors from the now-ruined Court Theatre and a former CTV employee. Following the events of February 22nd, we decided that we can only justify continuing The Visitor if we give all the profits to Christchurch. So, that's what we're doing."

The Visitor is on at 9pm until Sunday at the Globe Theatre.

Meanwhile, the Festival Club at Bennu Restaurant from 10pm hosts Ed Musik and the Burning Sensations, the time-warped Ian "Dr Glam" Chapman and comedian Steve Wrigley.


Fringe today

• Daily: A Boy had a Mouth Full of Glitter (Chipmunks car park)
• Daily: Who Let the Monkeys Out (Queens Gardens)
• 9am-5pm: Bloodlines and Bloodstains (School of Art Gallery)
• 9am-5pm: Cooee (Stairwell, 130 Stuart St, top floor)
• 10am-5pm: From The Mountains To The Sea (Tangente Cafe)
• 10.30-6pm: Pattern and Paradox (Gallery on Blueskin
• 11am: Tablo Presents! (Wall St Mall, Farmer's Market, Octagon)
• Noon: Pick of The Fringe (Octagon)
• Noon-6pm: YYYEEESSS (284 Princes St)
• 6pm: Capturing Other (Fortune Theatre Studio)
• 7pm: Karma Comedian (Comedy Club, XII Below)
• 7pm: Drowning in Veronica Lake (The Globe Theatre)
• 7.30pm: The Real New Zealand Tour (Hutton Theatre)
• 8pm: Mates and Lovers (Fortune Theatre Mainstage)
• 8pm: Wilson Dixon's American Dream (Glenroy Auditorium)
• 8pm: Lines of Flight (Chick's Hotel and Masonic Lodge)
• 8.30pm: Irene Pink and Justine Smith in I'm Sorry I said That (Comedy Club, XII Below)
• 9pm: The Visitor (The Globe Theatre)
• 10pm: Top to Tail (Comedy Club, XII Below)
• 10pm: Festival Club (Bennu Restaurant)


 

 

 

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