Earlier this year, Bass Fam Creative brought us Matador – a beautiful exploration of love and lust through dance, circus, and burlesque. Despite Melbourne slipping out of summer then, the performers turned the Melba Spiegeltent into a furnace of sorts with an incendiary production.
Now with Melbourne doing its darnedest to fully shake off winter, the team returns with Mansion – an immersive theatrical show that tells its story throughout the many rooms of Labassa – a Victorian-era mansion tucked away in Caulfield North.
The audience – cerebrally, not-to-mention literally with their feet – follow the story of the Walker family, who are becoming aware that something is very wrong in this house. Through the use of ballet, burlesque, dance, circus, and aerial acrobatics over a near-90 minutes, they discover that tragedy does not nearly cast as long a shadow as that of undying love.
Skylar Delphinus, Timmy J Hickey, Lukas White, and Shona Guiry are fantastic in their roles as members of the Walker family. Their torment is driven by the excellent performances from Natalie Smoel, Sarochinee Saw, Anna Magrath, Jemma Craig, Sam Whelan, and Antonia Sassine. All the while, the Caretaker (played by Bass G Fam) leads the audience from room to room.
It is a fun, sexy and scary show from a wonderful group of performers. You wouldn’t expect to find ballet in anyone’s horror toolbox, yet when Natalie Smoel’s exceptional pointe technique has her seemingly defying gravity moving across a room, things get a little unsettling.
The routines in each room are exquisite, but there’s something compelling about how intimate the setting is. As the performers move around you, the air shifts. When they move or land on the floor, the vibrations travel through your body. The audience become engaged physically, as well as emotionally, in this impressive story about the haunting nature of love.
MANSION – The Experience
Labassa Mansion, 2 Manor Grove, Caulfield North
Performance: Friday 25 October 2019 – 4.00pm
Season continues to 3 November 2019
Information and Bookings: www.ticketmaster.com.au
Image: Timmy J Hickey and Skylar Delphinus feature in Mansion – photo by Ben Vella
Review: David Collins