REVIEW - Melbourne Fringe - Monty & Melville
GORDANA ANDJELIC-DAVILA
MELBOURNE FRINGE: ‘Monty & Melville’ is about a young guide dog’s adventure to find the stolen donation collecting plastic dog, and to overcome the Kransky temptation.
Interestingly, on the day I attended, the audience was evenly split 50/50 adults and children, among which there were a couple of little groups of people in their early 20s not accompanied by kids (having heaps of fun none the less), and they eagerly participated in the show when called upon by the performers who were very good in engaging the audience. We howled and barked on command and awaited further instructions, when in entered a latecomer... a woman and her overly excitable guide dog-in-training Monty (an actress in a canine costume). We could understand ‘Monty speak’ as during this performance, we were all dogs ourselves. She was an inquisitive, chatty and hyper little puppy; sniffing everything, dragging her trainer around, proving to be quite a challenge.
The big lesson of the day was to train Monty to control her taste buds’ weakness for Kransky sausages (If guide dogs are lured by food, they can drag their sight impaired owners into dangerous situations, such as oncoming traffic). Monty’s vegan trainer is instructed to take her to the local butcher shop and expose her to the smell of sausages and other meat products. The task would prove to be a great hurdle for both the trainer who is a non meat eater, and Monty who is still very manipulated by her senses and lacks control. At the butcher’s, Monty and her trainer encountered resistance from the shop owner. He was not keen on having dogs in his place of business, even though he claimed to be supportive of the organisation Guide Dogs Victoria, displaying a coin collection plastic dog in front of his store.
The donations dog mysteriously disappears after the confrontation with the butcher, and Monty becomes a bit of a sleuth in the quest to rescue him. The actress playing Monty must have burned a couple of kilos off during each performance, as she walked/ran, talked and jumped the entire duration of the play on her hands and knees. I was exhausted just watching her. She radiated ‘puppy energy’ and was lovely to watch. The kids in the audience appeared to be a little confused by her at first, but embraced the idea of her being a doggie full on by the end of the show, some wanting to pet her.
The set was minimalistic, with a wardrobe-sized transforming box taking on the life of the butcher shop, and a whole lot more... including the screen for some nang yai-style shadow puppets for a scene which would have been impossible to execute by the actress impersonating Monty. Monty and Melville was over all cute, informative and clever. The acting was well executed by all three actors involved in the performance. They were vibrant, colourful and entertaining enough to keep the young audience’s attention throughout the show and they did a good job at not alienating the adults, making it a great experience for all.
Monty & Melville A guide dog puppet adventure! As part of the Melbourne Fringe Festival 2010: à la carte Time: 11 am Daily Date: 18 September – 3 October 2010-10-02 Plust two extra shows on the 9th and 10th of October Place: The Dog Theatre, 42 Albert Street, Footscray Bookings: Phone 9660 9666 Or online by clicking here
The above review was initially published on ArtsHub.com.au and can be viewed by clicking here.
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