Pedalling Back

Written and performed by Jeff Michel

Blue Cow Theatre Inc.
Directed by Frank Newman and Melissa King

Touring through Tasmania Performs

Intelligent, fun, absorbing and elegantly simple. These are a few ways to describe Jeff Michel’s biographical theatre piece without giving too much away, because to go into detail would be tantamount to a spoiler. To detail Michel’s artfulness in conveying time and context would take away the delight of just working it out throughout the play. So too would be describing Michel's neat set, and clever sound and lighting by Matthew Fargher and Ghost McDonald respectively.

What can be said without giving too much away is that Michel’s nostalgic devices will grab anyone in the audience that grew up through the 80s and 90s. With the challenges of being a teenager not exclusive to any one decade, this is a play that anyone over thirteen can relate to. 

Michel’s play has evolved through a series of great theatre development schemes, including the Tasmania Performs Artist Residency, Blue Cow Theatre’s Cowshed program, the Theatre Royal, Ten Days on the Island, Tasmania Performs Rawspace and the Tasmanian International Arts Festival. It is described as a first, both for Michel as a playwright and Melissa King as co-director, working alongside Frank Newman. Both should be thrilled with the outcome of their first steps out into their new arenas.

Pedalling Back will tour Tasmanian regionally from 30 March to 9 April via Tasmania Performs. This is a golden opportunity to see thoughtful, good quality theatre outside of the city centres and deserves to be supported. Come on all you regional audiences, get yourself a couple of tickets! Check out tour dates and venues at Tasmania Performs.

by Stephenie Cahalan

Declaration: I attended the performance as a guest of a company member and with no suggestion of writing a review. However, I was so delighted with the show and so pleased that audiences across Tasmania will have the chance to see it, that I felt compelled to write it up.

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

by Stephenie Cahalan

Tasmanian Theatre Company

Director, Sue Benner and Assistant director Ivano Del Pio

Featuring Rowan Harris, Karissa Lane, Jane Longhurst, Jeff Michel

With cars left behind in the safety of a Sandy Bay car park, we boarded a minibus and rode through the streets of Hobart’s well-appointed middle class into another era. The bus exited the kerbed bitumen and climbed a winding dirt track to reach an architectural icon. 

Fort Nelson House is a rounded, glass eyrie that describes its owner and designer Esmond Dorney as craving both openness and seclusion.  The dwelling, which evolved over several iterations between 1966 and 1978, is surrounded by 78 acres of native bush overlooking the Tasman Peninsula, Bruny Island and the Meehan Range. The house and property, now owned and managed by the Hobart City Council, is rarely open to the public.