The Age from Melbourne, Victoria, Australia • Page 14

14-THE AGE, Wednesday 11 May 1983 -I i edited by Anthony Clarto The new morality of video games Tall Poppies9 with overseas endorsement CHILDREN'S THEATRE Jill Morris ART WHEN "Ace!" was still a new vogue word with the eight to 12-year-old brigade, about two years ago. the Mushroom Troupe created a generally successful urban musical fantasy called 'Ace, about Richmond kids living in high-rise Housing Commission flats, who barracked for Collingwood. Sequels to successes always face the danger of anti-climax, but the Mushroom Troupe, under the careful direction of Alison Richards, has not made a mistake in its re-creation: 'Ace 2. a musical computer fantasy which is running at the Universal Theatre, Fitzroy, in two performances daily throughout the school holidays. 'Ace 2' is not really a sequel at all.

but a new play built around some of the same characters, which continues to delve into human faults and foibles at a level recognisable, to junior adolescents, against a background of pinball machines, spacey music and computer technology. Monday's sparse first-morning audience easily adjusted to the convention of three adults playing 10-year-olds. Gary Semohn as Ace, Faye Bendrups as Toni and John Walker as an empathetic straight-man called Spinner (as in Tome in deftly bridge the chasm between childlike movements and gestures and the grown-up thinking of childhood. They quickly won the respect of their young audience with the high standard of their mime. 'Ace 2' will not disappoint as a holiday outing for adults and 5-12 year-olds, with a welcome weighting at the upper end of the children's age scale.

Performances are 11 am and 1.30 pm Monday-Friday and 2 pm Saturday until 21 May. at the Universal Theatre, Victoria Street Fitzroy. "VKf ALL know the tall poppy syndrome, which describes an Australian attitude towards the rich, famous and successful. Whoever stands over and above his fellow achievers will be cut down to a stub. Better to conform than to be shunned or abused for success.

'Tall Poppies' is the catchy title of an exhibition at the University Art Gallery. Melbourne University, which draws together five artists whose main similarity is that they have been selected by non-Australian curators to exhibit overseas. Four of them (John Dunkley-Smith. John Nixon. Mike Parr.

Imants Tillers) show regularly at Art Projects. John Nixon and Imants Tillers were included in Monash University's 'Masterpieces' show last month where they were also invited to give talks and lead discussions on their work. Their art has been discussed in art magazines and exhibited in group shows ('Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction', 'Pop-ism. 'Self PortraitSelf Image'. Perspecta').

All this points to an awareness and general acceptance of these artists' work in Australia. Only Dale Frank is not widely known here. It is curious then that their work is bound together under a blanket of overseas recognition, with the implication that there is a need to legitimise Australian achievement by external approval. If they like it enough to show it in New York or Dale Frank's 'Limp Trees That Have No Wooden Strips When Migrated (only young mothers and stumps)'. 1981-82: magnetic pools of hirsute line.

A night of inspired lunacy Mildly ddied animation AS a school holidays attraction, The Secret of NIMTP Hnvte THEATRE FILM Neil JHlett vision similar to obsessive visionaries like the European Wolffli. Frank's drawing is the surprise of the show and. hanging opposite Parr's portraits, answers those with an intensely expressive and plaintive voice. Only two of the works make any reference to an Australian content Imants Tillers' 'White Aboriginals' is underscored by a partially hidden German text thereby emphasising the layering of cultures and customs which make up Australian society. With Tillers the control of the picture, the viewer and his means is always of paramount importance.

He keeps his distance, obscures meaning and still manages to put together a picture which lingers in the mind long after one has left the exhibition. The content of John Dunkley-Smith's photographs is the room in which his slides are projected, hung with Aboriginal bark paintings. This reference to the surroundings only becomes clear as the slide carousel slowly completes the circle. The automatic projector is excruciatingly slow; pull the mechanism out push the button yourself. The room is painstakingly reconstructed, but through a series of fractured images so abstract that the connection between what we see and where we sit is not immediately apparent.

Dunk-iey-Smith deposits the spectator inside the work and by focusing on the relation between the created and found in art. asks a question which runs through the entire show: Just how much does the artist lift from his sources and how does he shape that into work which is identifiably his own? Ends 3 June University Art Gallery Melbourne University. Swan- ston Parkville. MIKE Brown's installation of plastic tat. strings and fabric all tied together is like a time warp which returns us swiftly to the collective, spaced out hippie 60s.

It all seems so dated, so out of phase with the present. "Mike Brown: What shows what happened about 20 years ago when happenings were collective fantasies, when you had to crawl around on your hands and knees to "get in touch" with your feelings. Wow. Far out. Why now.

or better, why bother? Ends 15 May. Heide Park and Art Gallery 7 Templestowe Rd. Bulleen Memory Holloway Cassel or Venice, the thinking goes, it must be noteworthy. The five large pieces in this show are strong enough to make their point, to be understood and accepted without foreign approval or local curatorial assurance. These works are addressed to an art-literate audience, one which understands the history of modernism, and the recent shifts away from flat abstraction to a more figurative, content loaded image.

You need to know, for example, that the Russian Suprematist artist Malevich used the cross in the 20s as an abstract icon, and that John Nixon has appropriated that same cross, using it to stand for his self-portrait. To further make the associations between art, revolution and culture, Nixon places a bucket of potatoes with a sickle on top of the gallery's grand piano. Luis Bunuel made a similar gesture when in 'Un Chien Andalou he tied two priests to a piano covered with a severed donkey's head. Mike Parr's self-portraits rely only on the knowledge that his work a few years ago was based on a series of performances where he appeared to chop off his arm, or in some way mutilate and deform his body. These self-portraits look like reflections from a fun house mirror, where the head is stretched and compressed into a disturbing sequence of twisted and mutilated shapes.

These are even more disturbing than those he showed a year ago at Art Projects. Like them they physically unbalance the spectator with their spatial dislocations and odd proportions. Parr likens himself to a pear, and his brutal self-examination gives the title to his triptych a particular forcefulness. 'Do Padera Coco (Self Portrait as a Pear) To Have Done with the Judgment of God' sets up the image of man as flawed, constantly shifting, as organic and as inert as a piece of fruit perhaps no more significant. Dale Frank's large drawing 'Limp Trees' forms into magnetic pools of hirsute line.

There is a strange organic force here bred of Leonard Radic SEARCH FIVE minutes into his hilarious new show. 'First Farewell to Australia' at Her Majesty's, and Spike Milligan announces to his audience that he is ready to start with some ad-libbing. It is a joke, of course. For with Milligan you can never be sure when he is ad-libbing and when he is actually working to a script Somehow it doesn't seem to matter. He goes where the comic inspiration takes him, and hopes his audience will go along with him.

On Monday they did so very happily. It was two-and-a-half hours of inspired lunacy and non-stop laughter. On-stage with him are New York pianist-songwriter Gerard Kenny and his two Friends, one on bass guitar, the other on drums. Their function is to provide a break for Milligan from time to time, and a respite for the audience as well. They're all right if you like that kind of music.

But the night is essentially Milligan's. From the moment he appears, peeping through the curtain, he has his audience in stitches. For Milligan, nothing is sacred; nothing is serious (except the business of being funny). Hitler is ent ways. He lapses into gibberish and neo-Cockney.

He confides that he'd give his right arm to be ambidextrous, and waits for the audience to catch on. It's all done in an easy, informal, apparently random (but in fact controlled) way. If anything does go wrong, Hawke and Peacock are there to take the blame. Since he was last here, in a show he probably prefers not to think about he seems to have grown younger and sprightlier. His quicksilver brand of comedy is both disarming and infectious.

After a night in his presence, you leave the theatre with revived spirits and aching jaws. What more could you ask from a master comic? BRIEFLY THE director of the Raya Gallery in Singapore has commissioned four pieces of work from the Australian Fibre Art Workshop in Kew. Marjorie Chu has been selling overseas paintings and prints in Singapore for some years, and feels the market is ready to accept a new medium. It is believed to be the fust time Australian fibre art will have appeared in Singapore. MidCity) will take a lot of beating.

This American full-length animated cartoon lives up to its publicity as a return to the meticulous artwork and storybook charm of the golden days of Disney. It is based on Robert O'Brien's story, 'Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIMH. Mrs Brisby, as she becomes in the film, is a widowed field mouse whose home is threatened by spring ploughing; she cannot move out because her youngest child is confined to bed with pneumonia. Mrs Brisby's search for help leads her to the underground empire of the rats of NIMH, who revere the memory of her late husband. Just why a field mouse should have been on good terms with rats is a puzzle that the film takes too long to explain.

The reason is hinted at in the film's confusingly portentous opening scene which is like something dreamed up by Steven Spielberg in one of bis more cosmic moods but sensible audiences will forget about that and relax while The Secret of NIMH takes its mildly muddled course. The film's characters are drawn (in the literal and literary sense) with a mixture of affection and humor the brave, sweet and per-servering Mrs Brisby, a blundering, love-starved crow, rats of assorted dignity, malice and nobility, a shrewish shrew, a ferocious, tomcat and an owl whose reputation for wisdom rests on his refusal to say anything but the obvious. Elizabeth Hartman, Dom DeLuise, John Carradine, Hermtone Bad-deley and Derek Jacob! are among the actors who provide neatly in-character voices. Director Don Blum has inspired a high standard of animation. The characters move smoothly through landscapes and interiors that are exquisitely drawn, beautifully colored and astonishing in their depth.

The Secret of NIMH' is an adventure with a predictable outcome and an unexpected touch of anti-vivisection propaganda (to do with the acronym in the title). Like many full-length cartoons, it has some frightening moments. but none, I think, likely to inflict serious wounds on young psyches. And adults should not find the film at all hard to take. funny; poverty is funny; even death is funny.

But so too are Nips, Poms. Pakistanis, Indians, and the humorless inhabitants of a mythical Australian town called Oodna-galahbee. In his best Goon style, he passes the time doing impressions, telling jokes, pulling faces, reading bad poetry (his own. of course) and working through his repertoire of gags. From time to time, to escalate the laughter, he thumps two life-sized dummies of Hawke and Peacock.

In his hands the jokes fly thick and fast. There are nose gags and hat gags; there are Irish jokes, banana jokes, lavatory jokes, jockstrap jokes, and jam-roll jokes. Milligan has a keen eye for the absurd, the incongruous and the surreal. He picks up a copy of 'The Age', turns to the death notices and muses: "Isn't it amazing how people always die in alphabetical order?" He turns over the phrase, "dearie in a hundred differ THE Heide Park and Art Gallery needs help in its attempt to reconstruct the original series of 'Alice in Wonderland' paintings done by Charles Blackman in 1956-57 and shown at the then Gallery for Contemporary Art in March 1957. The exhibition opens on 24 May at Heide.

But there is one painting missing, though it is believed to be in Melbourne. It is called 'The Bouquet' and has a central jug of flowers, with a floating hand on the left, pink cup on the right and a blue book lower right. Anyone knowing the whereabouts of this painting is asked to contact the director of the Heide Gallery on 850 1849. NUMBER I Willi Sodium Alkylxanthates and Potassium Alkylxanthates (Developing Country Preferences) INDUSTRIES ASSISTANCE COMMISSION PUBLIC HEARING The Minister has referred the above subject to the Industries Assistance Commission for inquiry and report. The Commission will hold a Public Hearing as follows: FOR THE HAPPY SHOPPING EXPERIENCE SEE THE ARMADALE EXPO FEATURE THE AUSTRALIAN WORKERS UNION (Victoria Branch) PASTORAL INDUSTRY DISPUTE MEMBERS ARE CALLED ON TO ATTEND A MEETING AT ONE OF THE FOLLOWING VENUES: WEDNESDAY 11TH MAY 1983 10.30 AM.

MELBOURNE SHOWGROUNDS Epsom Read, ASCOT VALE. (Main Dining Umbo) PENSHURST VIC The Racecoorse. BUSINESS: To consider a full report and recommendation from the Executive Council. IAN R. CUTTLE BRANCH SECRETARY.

Singh Rtn. from from S67 1008 994 1499 994 1422 373 574 308 352 124 120 USA Londoif Europe Bafi New Zealand Sydney SATURDAY EXTRA Location Time Public Inquiry Room 10.00 am Level 1. Block 4 (Orange) Monday, Industries Assistance 23 May 1983 Commission Chan Street BELCONNEN ACT 2616 MAY 14TH Prompt, professional service 2nd Floor. 343 Lit. Collins Mela.

67 8426 Interested persons who have not yet notified the Commission of their interest in this inquiry are requested to telephone immediately H. Nicholson (062) 64 3205. You may also Telex the Commission on INDCOM AA 62283. IfL Subscribe now to Victoria State Opera's 1983 season and for a start youll be treated to a million dollars worth of opera, for a song. Under the musical direction of Richard Divall, youll experience the magnificence of Samson and Delilah, Rigoletto, Die Fledermaus, and Eugene Onegin from as little as $36 for the whole season.

And that's not all. Next season and every season after that, youll be one of the first to have your own comfortable seat in the Victoria State Opera's new home, the superb State Theatre at the Victorian Arts Centre. Subscribe now to our 1983 season and you'll be comfortably off for life. The Victoria State Opera will be staging if superb and Musicals programmed to appeal to a wide range of musical tastes. gj But, youll have to hurry as subscriptions close on 27th May.

So, send in the coupon today, or phone 41 5061 for your free, full colour brochure and subscription form. After all, what better time to move in with 3 the Victoria State Opera? tnejanaoittie Shogun. At the National GaBery of Victoria, April 20 to June 13. This is one of the most priceless collections of pod job Japanese treasures in the jnV world. Armour; weaponry, ceramics and paintings capturing the customs andtraditionsof andentJapan.

What sort of job could your daughter expect when she leaves See this Exhibition before it returns to the Land of the Shogun forever. school this year or next year? By December your daughter could be trained by us foragood job in the business world. we'll help her to get a good job. Government Subsidy. Because of the Government Subsidy, Stotts fees for the 21 week course have been reduced by $508.

And your daughter can also apply for a Tertiary allowance. Special features of Stotts courses. Telex Dictating Machines Print-out Calculators Work Simulation Switchboard Training Electric Typewriters Act Courses start Mon. 6th June from 9.00am to 3.45 pm, five days a week. Phone Mrs.

Waldron in Melbourne 62 1781 or Mrs. Saultry atDandenong 7915255. PIease send me a free' 6111 colour brochure detailing all the operas being performed and a subscription form. Victoria State Opera, 370 Nicholson Street, Fitzroy, Vic. 3065.

Admission: Adults IT rmmp Address: $2.00 Children and concession $11.00 Family Groups Booked School Groups: $1.50 per student Exhibition Hours: 10am-5pm Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. 10am-9pm Wednesday. Stotts iCs f.nn Masterpieces from Sponsored bv Victoria State Opera 1983 Subscription Season. ineioemnsu Collection With additional suDnort from: Secretarial Colleges Established for Females 340 Flinders St, Melbourne 62 1781 67 Robinson St, Dandenong 791 5255 Australia-Japan Foundation Wmar Ban fcina rnmrwninn C.S.R. Limited New South Wales Coking Coal Producec Managed by the International Cultural Corporation of Austrafia limhedL Last admission one hour before advertised closing time.

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