i saw Playback down at Gasworks i think a few years back with Zeena, and then we went again last year. Zeena loves their work and persuaded me to come originally. i didn’t need any persuading the second time around. The performers bring audience stories to life in a series of structured improvisational activities, which is a clumsy way to say they act out stories from the audience.

i like the way the MC / conductor draws out the narrative threads, and then quickly throws it to the performers with a kind of code word. “Let’s do this as an escalating singalong” (or something). They always begin with easy things like ‘tell us about your day’.. and gradually move into the more involved stories.

At their April show, there were some good stories including one about an out-of-body experience.

The one that got me was an English woman who had just moved to Australia 6 months ago with her family, was feeling ungrounded and disoriented, not sure what to do next in her life, and was missing her daughter back in the UK. She didn’t give much detail for the players to work with, but they crafted a lovely piece. At the moment where her daughter called on the phone i felt the tears coming, and as i was sitting next to her husband i could hear him choking back the sobs too. (Then the slightly awkward bit after the show when you want to say something to them, but don’t quite manage it.)

So interesting to see the vulnerable bits of people’s lives played out in front of them. Part of the playback approach is to always do it with compassion, and that shows.

Links: Melbourne Playback.

i’ve seen this woman before somewhere. She plays a very good innocent character, pretending to be no-one in particular, who then goes on to take the audience’ breath away with her incredible voice. So as well as buying her cd, i went out hunting on the youtubes and found these live performances, from a show in Melbourne in 2008: “Yego Luelku (Leave Me Alone)”

Wait, there’s another one: “All My Wives”.

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photo credit: freestylee

What about the nerve of Donald Rumsbum, trying to take credit for the Egyptian revolution!! Let me see, how is this similar to the kind of “pro democracy” outings of Donald and Dubya?

Did a hundred thousand people get killed?

Did countless precious ancient artefacts get destroyed?

Did the west start a civil war and then 5 years later work out how to manage the situation?

did Western govts lie to their citizens in order to invvde a sovereign nation, almost bankrupting the world in the process?

This article from the Guardian strongly makes the case that Rumsfold is delusional. Which we knew, but it’s nice to read a well-worded case innit!

A better way to push democracy, but the west’s love-bombing has risks too | Jonathan Freedland

Recently i read this very interesting article from the Guardian about Gene Sharp – the little known author of a world best-seller. In some places, bookshops have been burned to the ground for selling his work, according to this article in the guardian.

Apparently the book has been translated into many languages. It was originally written for the people of Burma, and explores the full range of weapons that people have at their disposal (apart from weapons of violence). Yes, colour and flags can be weapons, because they aim at the heart of the tyrannical regime. The basic idea is that if the population refuse to be drawn into violence or fear, then they must win

Who knows more about the book? Can you give me more details?

More links over there:
Tales from the Lou gives a good write-up and background.
Gene Sharp on the wikipedia.
Some of his books you can download over at online books, Uni Pennsylvania.

Some key steps, quoted from the book:

Develop a strategy for winning freedom and a vision of the society you want,
Overcome fear by small acts of resistance,
Use colours and symbols to demonstrate unity of resistance,
Learn from historical examples of the successes of non-violent movements,
Use non-violent “weapons”,
Identify the dictatorship’s pillars of support and develop a strategy for undermining each,
Use oppressive or brutal acts by the regime as a recruiting tool for your movement,
Isolate or remove from the movement people who use or advocate violence.

So i’ve been looking for photographs of the Bohemian Ball. Luckily there are some really good photographers hanging around with this crowd. There’s even a new book coming out that seems inspired by the ball and its coterie of performers – “This City Speaks to Me“.

The shows have been hit and miss over the years. i think i went to the first one at the Regal Ballroom in Northcote, and the music was decidedly non-boho. Disappointing in fact. But they’ve settled on a combination of Spoonbill and the Barons of Tang for recent years, and also for their whirlwind tour of Australia last year.

Found a set of (NSFW!) photos from the March 2010 ball, by Luke David Kellett over at flickr.

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