Melbourne Fringe Review: Slipstream

Melb-Fringe-SlipstreamSlipstream is a masterful production that transcends the barrier of a screen to connect warmly and wholeheartedly.

From the first beat of the score to the first word spoken, this work gently outreaches a hand and pulls you into its world. Stories and Concepts on science and magic rolled on as the performers moved on stage, enhancing the stories with each twist and turn of their bodies.

Neville Williams Boney, a proud Wiraduri man, weaves effortlessly through milk crates and tape as the audience is taken on a journey through the maternal lines of an indigenous lineage – the Kinship.

Neville is captivating as he narrates the importance of honouring family, honouring where you come from and the parts of the past, present and future that make you whole.

Miss Tree enters the stage and they are beguiling – a presence of striking strength and vulnerability. Music, movement and prose unfolds, told with passion and restraint, confidence and delicate ego – this is a performer who knows how to command a stage and hold an audience in the palm of their hand.

Glitta Supernova rounds out the work with a mesmerising performance of story and movement, gliding the audience through three generations of “bad women” – women who forged their own path’s and refused to fall in line.

Glitta takes each woman into herself, conveying their story with honesty and respect, until finally the audience meets her, the world’s orginial sex clown. Truly there is no better way to watch The Baby Elephant Walk be performed than when Glitta Supernova does it.

Slipstream was filmed in an empty theatre inline with COVID-19 restrictions but you would never know it. These performers are at home on the stage, their energy and grace burst out of the screen with stories both tantalizing and subtle.

This is a must see work at this year’s fringe and audiences can only hope that these performers will be back on a stage near them / us soon.


Slipstream
Melbourne Fringe Digital Program
Performance: Wednesday 18 November 2020
Season continues to 22 November 2020
Bookings: www.melbournefringe.com.au

For more information, visit: www.naughtynoodle.com.au for details.

Image: Miss Tree, Glitta Supernova and Neville Williams Boney in Slipstream – photo by Lisa Haymes Photographer

Review: Gavin Roach