Casual listeners might think that if a flute isn’t in an orchestra, then it’s for “nice” music, like Celine Dion’s My Heart Will Go On from Titanic. Flautist Melanie Walters wants to show us that the instrument can take on quite unexpected moods in her Fringe show The Flute Revamped.
The performance made me recall Kaki King’s demonstration of how guitar playing could change dramatically when the guitar body is used for percussion. Walters used a range of playing techniques that, at times, could extract surprising, “less nice” sounds from the C, Alto, and Bass flutes employed.
This was all in the service of her programme, which started with a selection of short pieces by Maria Grenfell (1992) inspired by Winnie the Pooh stories. The renditions were inflected with suitable whimsy or foreboding, as you would expect for such matters as hunting a Woozle.
From there we moved towards stretching the flute further. One offering from a “beatbox suite” devised for a student’s graduation showed moments of a surprising propulsive force and aggression. I could almost hear a rapper freestyling about life in the ‘hood alongside it.
The finale showed that a flute can even engage with collage video art, such as in Lipstick by Jacob TV, taking us in a more abstract direction.
Those with an amount of specialised knowledge will probably get the most out of the show. However, even a merely curious Fringe audience would surely find this hour achieves its tagline of being: “The flute as you don’t usually hear it!”
The Flute Revamped
Studio Theatre – Gasworks Arts Park , Graham Street, Albert Park
Performance: Friday 10 October 2025 – 7.00pm
Season continues to 11 October 2025
Information and Bookings: www.melbournefringe.com.au
Image: Melanie Walters – photo by Missy Snaps
Review: Jason Whyte