INFERNO! A DOUBLE BILL The first play, Crestfall, tells three twisted stories of oversexed wife Olive, desperate mother Alison and prostitute Tilly. Set in a dystopian wasteland strewn with animal carcasses and violence, their paths intertwine in disturbing ways. Follow them for one harrowing day as they hunt for hope among the wreckage. Written by one of Ireland’s most masterful and electrifying playwrights, Mark O’Rowe crafts a deeply moving tale that keeps audiences gripped, one revelation after another.
JADE ALICE’S DEBUT SINGLE Winner of Bank of Melbourne’s Melbourne Music Bank 2015, Jade Alice, today announced the release of her debut single, Kick Drum. The single will be launched at a gig at Shebeen on February 18 and comes to life with a beautiful performance-based video clip. Bank of Melbourne’s flagship competition to uncover Victoria’s musical talent was an overwhelming success in its second year, attracting hundreds of submissions. Four finalists were voted by the public from twelve semi-finalists, with Jade Alice crowned the winner at a spectacular finale on the stage at Arts Centre Melbourne’s
Crestfall features an all-female team: Freya Pragt as Olive, Marissa O’Reilly as Alison and Marissa Bennett as Tilly. It’s directed by Citi-
zen Theatre’s Jayde Kirchert. Right after, Purgatorio will open in a mysterious room where a woman suffers a painful interrogation from a man whose identity is hidden. As she unveils her deepest secrets to him, playwright Ariel Dorfman forces both Man and Woman to try and forgive each other. Their battle between revenge and redemption impels the audience to ask: how do you repent without destroying your identity? Now playing at L1 Studios in Melbourne, tickets are available from $22.
State Theatre. Offering insight into the quirky, fun and incredibly catchy song, Jade Alice explains, “The melody for the song ‘Kick Drum’ actually came to me in a dream! The song is about a feeling of uncontrollable happiness; a feeling I hope resonates with others when they listen to it. The greatest reward for me as a musician is evoking the same emotion in people that I feel when I’m writing the song.” The video for Kick Drum is a performance-based clip featuring a number of lush sets and narrative animations.
A WORD FROM THE EDITOR February approaches. School and university holidays are ending, shops and factories have reopened and our village high streets are once again buzzing with life. I attended the famous/infamous Rainbow Serpent Festival in Lexton, which you’ll read about a little later in the magazine, and coming up at the Morrnington Racecourse we have both the Peninsula Picnic and Let Go Festival, promising events for very different demographics that are sure to nourish the social and musical needs of patrons.
Singing, Guitar & Piano lessons BOOK NOW for our Songwriting Workshop !!
But back to the present. Something we music fans rarely do is embrace a genre that’s not of our world. Can you imagine your grandparents, raised on classical and jazz, embracing the once-heavy metal of Metallica, or dyeing their hair black and throwing Sum41’s Chuck into their Jaguar’s trunk-mounted CD stacker? If you’re a baby boomer, you’ve lived through some of the music’s most evolutionary moments, from the Woodstock ’60s to the hair-metal 70s to the Bowie 80s to the classic rock 90s to the pop-as-pop-can-get new milennium, with a whole hell of a lot in between. But would that lived experience reduce the social stigma associated with heavy electronic beats at underground bars and “bush-doofs” for you? It’s unlikely.
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MINT Magazine February
2016
Maybe it’s the nature of how we consume music that’s changed our tastes. Maybe it’s more to do with fancy computers and digital recording and production equipment, or maybe it is actually genetic! Every genre and style of music is now available at your fingertips, pretty much wherever you go, we listen to it all from a younger age and actual instruments are no longer required. Whatever the reasons, the changes are profound and permanent. Good luck getting your kids to listen to Beethoven’s symphony #9, or sit through the intensity of Ronny James Dio. That doesn’t necessarily mean minds are closed, or that younger eardrums are less refined, but it does mean the definition of a “good song” can be utterly incompatible between generations and demographics. So if I can ask a favour of you, dearest reader – open your mind and ears to a new style of music this year. Make a conscious effort to appreciate a form of art that’s totally foreign to you, be it Gold FM’s all-time favourite Creedence Clearwater Revival, the pleasantly trippy and confusing Gotye or the brutal electronic mashups of Pretty Lights. Your senses will broaden and your soul will reward you for it.
Billy Dixon Your MINT editor bayside & mornington peninsula