Across the Aisle

Our last episode! We have been thinking about ending the show for quite some time and felt this was an appropriate punctuation point; The Visitors (spoilers - the best play Carla has ever seen) and the last production of Little One's theatre Lesbian Vampires of Sodom . A production company we felt a great affinity with (and along a similar timeline to this show). All great things must come to...

It’s Fringe Mania! Phil and I saw a whole bunch of shows at the best festival of the year and it felt good. Really good. We watched young people sweat and work and contemplate late capitalism from their treadmills in Ponycam’s Burnout Paradise . In Intermission we chat the sublime A Dodgeball Named Desire by The Bloomshed and Fringe Theatre Winner Someday We’ll Find It . Our second act takes us to...

Make it snappy. We experienced The Crocodile by the formidable Spinning Plates Co. and went deep on fame and all it takes to keep this arts economy going, our second show is the magical Yuldea by Bangarra. In Intermission we went deeper on the ethics of zoos and our love of Chinese gardens. In Coming Soon we recommend The Visitors by Victorian Opera , the Fringe encore season at Geelong Arts Centr...

Welcome to our MIFF 2023 episode! We took the opportunity to hibernate over winter and do some MIFF online films covering the mind boggling "quiet part out loud" selection process for the Prague Academy of Art in ART TALENT SHOW , and the documentary CASA SUSANNA about a trans retreat of the same name in the 1960's Catskills. In Intermission we talk our MIFF methods, the ruthless (an...

HELLO PIGGIES. We get down and dirty with The Bloomshed and their meltingly good Animal Farm . In Intermission we discuss the Venn overlap between this and Barbie. Our second act takes us to the Malthouse for This is Living - Ash Flanders ode to chronically ill queers who want to run away to the country (Carla was ATTACKED). And in Coming Soon we recommend the Pulse program at Melbourne Fringe and...

Happy winter listeners! We hope this finds you well and rugged up. This month we discuss Pony Cam's Grand Theft Theatre and the shows that have left an indelible mark on us. Intermission chatter plugs the HBO show Barry (better than Succession? you decide!) and the Music Viva International Chamber Music Championship . Our second act is the Australian Ballet's double bill Identity . An odd...

Happy days are here again, or are they? This month we head to Little Creature's in Geelong for an education in contemporary dance (and pizza) with Joel Bray's I Liked it But... and do a rare mission to the MTC to see Becketts absurdist tragicomic provocation Happy Days . In Intermission we discuss our favourite Little Creatures moments, Loaded at Malthouse Theatre and Sydney Dance Company...

A joyous episode this month traversing the best that Melbourne and Geelong has to offer with the epic Melbourne Now , a wide ranging art survey of all things Melbourne and Back to Back theatre's Small Metal Objects thrillingly stage in Geelong's Market Square mall. In Intermission we discuss reading (also listening) and our seasonal self care (spoiler one of us is now exclusively a cold sh...

New episode alert! In March we went to the cinema to see the singular and extraordinary After Sun and then from the the safety of our living rooms we experienced ABC TV's Queerstralia . In intermission we discussed the $10 Vline revolution, Phil being an MTC subscriber, the very specific time of life where everything zeitgeisty being made by people exactly our age and in Coming Soon we recomme...

Hello darling listeners. It is summer, well officially not it seems weather wise, and you know what that means?! GAYNESS. Big gay vibes with our annual festivals Midsumma and Mardi Gras heating things up and stripping thing off. So, of course, we deep dive on some delicious shows from our family - The Gospel According to Jesus Queen of Heaven and the impenetrable Rorschach that is Tár . This is th...

Hello Aislers! So lovely to be in your ear buds again. This episode we experience the visual, aural, spiritual and psychological immersion of Paul Yore's Word Made Flesh - a comprehensive retrospective of his work at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art. In intermission we chat summer drinks and our love of dance works, and the practice, now we are all emerging from our Covid cocoons. Ou...

We're back baby! We went to a Fringe show, Memoir of a Tired Carer, and no one got Covid. Team Aisle also travelled to wilds of North Geelong Arena to see the Evonne Goolagong biographical play (feel good hit) Sunshine Super Girl . In intermission we chat Fringe highlights, Bangarra Dance Theatre and experimental new opera The Lighthouse . In Coming Soon we recommend Bodies of Water , Beth Gib...

Across the Aisle attends MIFF! Phil reporting deep from the trenches of all the pleasures of MIFF (queues, choc tops, darting from one venue to the other) and Carla from her loungeroom on the Surf Coast annihilated on edibles. Films covered are Back to Back Theatre's award winning Shadow - a luscious celluloid imagining of their stage plays that "wonders whether an AI-led near-future soci...

In this month's episode Carla and Phil discuss the smaller blockbuster Melbourne Winter Masterpieces on at ACMI from the Tate Modern – Light . And then we head off and the crack of dawn for sauce day at The Malthouse theatre for the stage adaptation of much-loved teen novel Looking for Alibrandi . In intermission the gang chat favourite winter drinks, Virginia Woolf's diaries and Hannah Ke...

It's official! Across the Aisle is back for a 5th season after a (we can't quite believe it) 3 year hiatus. In June 2022 we cover the monumental QUEER exhibition at the NGV and Titicut Follies as part of the Frederick Wiseman retrospective at ACMI . We hope you enjoy having us back in your ears, and please tell your friends. Titicut Follies (along with many other Frederick Wiseman films) i...

Hello and welcome BACK to Across the Aisle. It is episode 49! And as with all things everything has changed, and we are no longer performing arts monogamous. We are arts with a capital A polyamorous. So, please watch Handa Opera’s 2012 production of La Traviata on the Opera Australia website and The Power of the Dog on Netflix (or in the cinema if at all possible). During Intermission we talk pand...

Welcome to the LAST EPISODE of Across the Aisle. That's right, after 4 years and 48 episodes we are ending. This episode is our Yirramboi special, covering Joel Bray's Daddy and Ngioka Bunda-Heath and Tracey Bunda's Blood Quantum. Join us for a greatest hits look at our back catalogue during intermission - where we both award our top 3 of the past 4 years and a wooden spoon! Connect wi...

The gang saw Aspergers musical cabaret The Aspie Hour and Michelle Law's debut play Single Asian Female at Melbourne International Comedy Festival. During "Intermission" we talked the rest of the fest, primarily Maria Bamford, DeAnne Smith and Sweaty Pitts Pity Party. And in "Coming Soon" we chat our attendance at the Green Room Awards and the upcoming Australian Podcast Aw...

Hello! It's been too long since our last chat. In this episode the gang envision story telling beyond the apocalypse with Mr. Burns, a post-electric play by Lightning Jar Theatre; and we return to the lofty heights of the Sofitel to experience Joel Bray's immersive and intimate dance piece, Biladurang. Connect with us on ⁠⁠⁠⁠instagram.⁠⁠ Credits Produced and recorded by Carla Donnelly and...

In this episode the gang discuss two vital, new Australian, works - Become the One by Lab Kelpie and Barbara and the Camp Dogs at Malthouse Theatre. During intermission things get heated when Carla and Philip discuss whether non-queer people should play queer roles and Coming Soon features all the women at Melbourne International Comedy Festival we would like to see. Connect with us on ⁠⁠⁠⁠instagr...

This month Team Aisle go gayer and queerer than usual with our annual Midsumma show. We cover Sara Ward's incredible space rock opera The Legend of Queen Kong Episode II and our second show is Adam Ibrahim and Samuel Russo's queering of Jean Genet's The Maids. Connect with us on ⁠⁠⁠⁠instagram.⁠⁠ Credits Produced and recorded by Carla Donnelly and Philip Thiel Theme composition  ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠M...

Join us for a special episode covering The Infirmary - a Triage Live Art Collective immersive experience. This episode is told in the first person of our experience in surrendering to the process of death and care. We hope you enjoy it. Connect with us on ⁠⁠⁠⁠instagram.⁠⁠ Credits Produced and recorded by Carla Donnelly and Philip Thiel Theme composition  ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Mark Barrage⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Sound editing by ...

It's summer! The gang bring you all summer related goods including how to be a Badass by Tash York at The Butterfly Club and Suddenly Last Summer by Little Ones Theatre at Red Stitch. During intermission we discuss the mini-series Waco and King Lear via National Theatre Live. Coming soon heralds Midsumma - top picks include Merciless Gods, The Legend of Queen Kong Ep II + The Homosapiens. Also...

Melbourne International Arts Festival episode! The gang talk all things festival - featuring Song For a Weary Throat by Rawcus Ensemble (and featuring the Invenio Singers) and Re-Member Me by Dickie Beau. Intermission chats include the Elysian Ensemble and Hubei Symphony Orchestra. Connect with us on ⁠⁠⁠⁠instagram.⁠⁠ Credits Produced and recorded by Carla Donnelly and Philip Thiel Theme compositio...

This month the gang have two very disparate experiences - Do You Know Me? a site specific work on homelessness for Melbourne Fringe Festival and Spartacus, the brand new production of a very old tale by the Australian Ballet. During intermission MOMA at NGV a given D- and both hosts discuss their favourite works from the recent Fringe Festival. Coming soon recommends include classical music and vi...