Hungry to help

Filed under Uncategorized by Jane Canaway on September 30, 2011 at 12:34 am {no comments}

Royal Auto magazine, September 2011

Hungry to help

FareShare CEO
september 2011

When battlers are going hungry and big suppliers are dumping surplus food, something is wrong. Meet a man with an appetite for redressing the imbalance.

 

He shrugs his shoulders and tries to be philosophical, but FareShare CEO Marcus Godinho looks personally affronted as he relates how one food producer hires guards to escort trucks taking surplus food to the tip rather than tarnish its brand by giving it away.

Such waste seems criminal after witnessing FareShare’s kitchen full of volunteers, transforming boxes of donated food into hundreds of healthy meals, packed and frozen for distribution to homeless and hungry Victorians.

Last year 3000 volunteers – organised by a handful of paid staff – “rescued” 400 tonnes of food from landfill and created 450,000 meals, supplying 130 charities.  When they can afford a bigger kitchen, Marcus believes there’s enough demand for FareShare to double that.  “We’re aiming for a million meals a year.”

Up to 370,000 Victorians run out of food each year, and a survey of agencies feeding them reveals demand for at least 50% more meals, despite FareShare recently increasing its output to 10,000 meals a week.

“There’s far more food out there that’s surplus and good quality than there is need for food in the community from people struggling to make ends meet,” Marcus says. “Umpteen times more.” Young, motivated and buzzing with energy, he explains that the idea of saving food from landfill was what drew him to volunteering for the charity. At the time he was head of Environment Victoria and was focusing on climate change, water and waste.

“I knew of the resources involved with producing food and I thought it was a clever idea – when I learned people are going hungry in our society in the 21st century, it was a real shock.

“Learning about food security has opened my eyes but it’s the people and business involvement that I find so heartening, especially the small businesses. That spirit of generosity in our society is so strong. That’s something I get so excited about.”

Since his first shift as a kitchen hand in 2004, Marcus and the enterprise have come a long way.

FareShare was formed in 2001 from a merger between One Umbrella, which started cooking meals in RACV City Club’s kitchen, and Melbourne City Harvest.  RACV was one of the first organisations to see its potential and provided seed funding. FareShare bought its first van in 2002, moved into its own kitchen in 2008 and now run three shifts of volunteers a day.

After a stint on the board, Marcus became its first paid CEO in 2007, taking his life even further away from its early course as a commerce graduate working for Mobil and NAB.

At FareShare, Marcus’s role is to develop partnerships and raise money. Under his guidance both have flourished: Woolworths, Aldi and Thomas Dux supermarkets supply 1500kg of meat, fruit and vegetables a day, Linfox donated a truck (FareShare now has six), philanthropic groups have jumped on board and dozens of companies provide in-kind or material support.

“We help some companies meet their zero waste goals, but others like to join because they know staff can get involved.”

Volunteers also have fun, which is why there’s a four-month waiting list for the daily corporate shifts.

“How community-minded would you think a group of 40-something blokes who did commerce degrees are?  They are now working in high-flying careers and busy with young families but they do a nightshift every three months then go for a meal afterwards – and they’re one of our most productive shifts because they’re always so keen to get through their list of food to prepare and get down to the pub,” he says with a laugh.

Then there’s the singles nights that FareShare has run at Etihad stadium for the past two years. Both events have attracted 200 volunteers and produced 10,000 meals per shift.

While Marcus has increased FareShare’s efficiency by quantifying their supplies and demand, he knows he walks a fine line between saving waste and losing donations.

“Since we started reporting to companies how much we collect from them, (one donor’s) donations dropped by a third.”

Still he remains positive: “I’m curious to explore what we do with surplus quality food when we’re getting enough food to all the charities across Victoria.”

Marcus applies an interesting mix of business brain and social conscience to his role.  He targets large suppliers with the potential to provide premium returns, but he recently turned down funding from one foundation because he thought another charity was better suited to take advantage of the offer.

“You can’t be greedy,” he explains.  “And instead they made a donation towards our new kitchen, so we were happy.”

To know more about its work, go to www.fareshare.com.au

 

Waste and Want

True teamwork

FareShare works in close partnership with two other Melbourne-based groups involved in similar work: the state-sponsored VicRelief Foodbank, which since 1930 has supplied non-perishable food to relief agencies; and SecondBite, launched in 2005 to rescue fresh fruit and vegetables from being wasted.

The three groups share transport, storage and information, and recently collaborated on a survey of Victoria’s Community Food Programs (CFPs) to determine their need for food and infrastructure.

The survey found that in 2010 the three organisations donated more than 4.5 million kilograms of food to relief programs in Victoria.  The 108 CFPs surveyed – less than one-fifth of the state total – serve 25,000 meals and distribute 7300 food parcels a week.  Despite this, they cannot meet demand.

The CFPs distribute 30,638kg of food a week (about two-thirds is donated, the rest bought) but another 15,000kg is needed to meet demand.

Many agencies lack infrastructure, and Marcus Godinho is co-founder of Feed Melbourne, which seeks to provide fridges, freezers, microwaves and refrigerated vans to help agencies prepare, store and deliver more rescued food.

Big breakthrough

A major barrier to the flow of surplus food was removed in Victoria in 2002 with the introduction of the so-called Good Samaritan legislation, which indemnifies suppliers who donate safe food to charitable organisations.  This exemption has now been introduced to all Australian states and territories.  Strict food-handling timelines are in place at FareShare to ensure food is cooked and frozen judiciously.

 

Our throwaway society

  • Each year Victorians throw out 700,000 tonnes of food – about 28,000 supermarkets worth of food.  Australians throw out more than $7.8 billion worth of food annually.  Some waste is due to incorrect labelling or damaged packaging.
  • FareShare can cook, freeze and distribute a meal for about 50 cents.
  • A survey of 108 agencies in Victoria revealed a shortfall of more than 26,000kg of food a week.
  • FareShare aims to double its production to 20,000 meals a week.
  • On average, every kilogram of food that FareShare recovers results in a saving of 1.5kg CO2 emissions and 56 litres of water.
  • Putting food waste in landfill often results in the production of methane, a greenhouse gas 21 times more potent than CO2.  Food waste is also a major contributor to the formation of leachate, a liquid run-off common in landfills, which pollutes ground water.
  • 47% of municipal waste in landfill is food and green organic waste.
  • More than three million tonnes of food is driven to landfill in Australia each year.

What goes up …

Filed under Published work by Jane Canaway on September 30, 2011 at 12:25 am {no comments}

Royal Auto magazine, August 2011

What goes up . . .

Faith, hope and coordination is all the average driver needs to take one of these babies for a spin.

With the front wheels at the top of the wall and the vehicle almost vertical, I hit the brakes. Looking out through the mud-encrusted webbing of the roll cage that had already saved my head once, my instructor Jake is grinning.

“You’re getting the hang of this, aren’t you?”

An hour ago I would have been hanging on to my harness for dear life, so yes, this feeling of relaxed control is definitely progress.

“OK,” Jake says, “now knock it into front-wheel-drive, lock the rear wheels to the left and slowly drive down the wall.”

Amazingly, the vehicle responds as sedately as if asked to mount a low kerb, and soon we’re back on level ground – although only for a few seconds before a steep left turn that requires you to actually drive up the 80? embankment so that the bottom front tyre is practically side-on to the ground. But it’s still moving along, holding its balance, then straightening up to climb the monstrously steep ridge behind.

‘Extreme’ can be overused as a term but this madcap activity is truly bizarre. The trucks looks like pared-back tractors on steroids – a minimalist aluminium-tube frame on 44-inch tyres powered by a V8 engine producing 240kW channeled through a simple automatic transmission to an Atlas II transfer case with ‘rear disconnect’ so you can choose four-wheel or front-wheel drive. The differentials are purpose-built with Nissan centres grafted to military truck outers providing four-wheel steering.

Based at Avalon, Ragged Edge 4×4 uses three vehicles for a range of courses. All are gas-powered to avoid the problem of fuel leakage at extreme angles; oil levels are carefully monitored for the same reason.

But, unlike other forms of motorised madness, the skill you’ll need more than quick reactions and nerves of steel is coordination.

Driving these trucks is like standing on your head trying to walk.  You need to keep the revs fairly constant, controlling your speed with the brake. For the tougher parts of the track where maximum traction is required, you actually apply more brake, not less.

Adding to the confusion is the lever used to control the rear tyres. Apart from the fact you pull it right to turn left, you’ll also need the rear wheels pointing uphill for the many steep curves on the purpose-built course.

Beyond that you need blind faith: faith that your marshall-instructor is guiding you along the right line to avoid a huge hole apparently right below you, but you can’t see it because you’re facing the sky. And faith that their directions to put yourself, the machine and, often, a passenger in the most unlikely position is going to get you through the next obstacle and not simply irritate the gods of physics.  You rarely go more than walking pace but these machines will go anywhere, at any angle.

“In the competitions we do the course without marshalls,” explains Ragged Edge’s Chris Nolan, who started the 4×4 school to help finance his growing addiction to the sport. “You learn to feel your way by how the vehicle responds.”

Ragged Edge 4×4 is at Avalon Raceway, 210 Melbourne Rd, Lara. You’ll need a full drivers’ licence and passengers must be over 12.  Visit www.raggededge.com.au, call 0428 737 864 or email chris@raggededge.com.au

 

Permaculture meets capitalism in this man of the earth

Filed under gardening, people, sustainability by Jane Canaway on September 29, 2011 at 12:01 pm {no comments}

Your Garden magazine, Spring 2011

From his Blundstone boots to his wild and woolly beard, Peter Allen is unmistakably a man of the earth.

His connection to his land is evident as he walks around his hilltop home in the Dandenongs, pointing out hydrangeas that remain from when the land was a cut-flower farm, describing the huge areas he and wife Silvia have reclaimed from the grip of blackberries, explaining how the geese, chickens, sheep and llamas complement each other with their techniques of ‘mowing’ lawns or scratching out bugs, and how the milk cows were the ones to conquer one particularly dense area of scrubby weeds.

It is this complementary inter-connection of life on the land that fuels Pete’s passion and led to him giving up a stellar career in retail in order to spend his days farming and learning – then passing on that knowledge.

More than 800 fruit varieties grow on the 3 hectares he cultivates (another 3ha has been returned to bush) and he can name them all, then give you a potted history of each one’s heritage to boot. Silvia’s expertise lies more with the animals, but their skills overlap a fair amount , as visitors to their farm shop or market stalls soon discover.

“It was my mum who taught me to fix the brakes on the car… so there’s none of this girl’s job, boys’ job stuff, it’s just a matter of who’s better at it – and who’s there,” he says.

Pete’s parents moved to a hobby farm in the hills when he was nine, but they had always been keen gardeners, growing much of their own food and keeping poultry, just as their own parents had.

“I didn’t have a childhood, I had an apprenticeship,” he says, only half joking.

“I like to conserve the old stuff – I’ve got apples that probably comes from Roman times but also modern varieties like ‘Pink Lady’. I like heritage things but also useful things,” he explains, going to extol the virtues of the East Friesian and Finnish sheep he and wife Silvia keep.

It is hard to believe that, for 15 years of his life, ‘Pete the Permie’ was the epitome of corporate man, working his way up the Coles business ladder and managing dozens of stores across Victoria – many of which were originally opened by his father during his own career with Coles.

“By the time I left [Coles] in 2002 I had a company Statesman and was on a six-figure salary but I gave it away to do this,” he says, gesturing to the teaching complex alongside his century-old weatherboard home.

“This” started out as a lifestyle choice, living off the land as much as possible and running permaculture and other courses to pay for the extras. However, Pete and Silvia’s constant thirst for knowledge and their enthusiasm to pursue new skills has led to an ever-evolving set of enterprises and plans.

“I probably run about four micro-businesses now, which isn’t bad considering I retired with no plans to do anything,” he laughs.

As Pete explains his different income streams it becomes clear that, alongside Pete the Permie, who loves nothing more than spreading the love about organically grown produce and age-old agricultural wisdom, sits Pete the Capitalist, master of the spreadsheet and natural entrepreneur, who can’t resist an decent business opportunity when he sees one.

Pete and Silvia’s central businesses are still running courses – the subject list grows each year – and a plant nursery, where gardeners can find hundreds of varieties of apples, pears, plums and citrus, as well as “old-fashioned” fruits, such as medlars, crabapples, quinces, figs, mulberrries and persimmons, and semi-tropical exotics, including babaco and taro.

Business Number Three is a cidery business, producing Snake Gully cider and perry, which grew out of what he calls “sly grog workshops” and a need to use the many tonnes of windfall apples that were going to waste.

Finally is his consulting business, designing passive solar home solutions and garden layouts, as well as pre-purchase land assessments for those planning their own tree change.

Added to that is his involvement with Petty’s Orchard, where he has co-ordinated the open day and run grafting sessions for several years, and other groups, such as the Heritage Fruit Society.

Then there is his writing: “English was my worst subject at school,“ he grins, loving the irony. “Now I’m paid to write for magazines and I’ve just released my first book, plus I’ve got about four more planned.”

Despite not enjoying school (“it was a bit regimental for me“), Pete’s overriding passion is for knowledge, and he reckons he has earned about 32 certificates on various subjects.

“I always had one night a week out studying – I didn’t know why I was studying all these weird things, they just appealed and Silvia was happy because she had one night a week on her own not listening to me,” he says. “Then when I did the permaculture class I realised it was all relevant to that, whether it was horticultural landscaping, meditation, accountancy or whatever.”

On his last trip to England, he bought about $3000 worth of books – mostly on apples and cider – and he has whole bookshelves dedicated to pet topics.

“Our trips are never really holidays, they have a theme – we spent nine weeks chasing around rare-breed farm parks in Europe and on another we did 50 cideries in four countries, including going to a festival that had been going for almost 2000 years in Spain.”

As well as making fruit wine, owning a still (he’s growing junipers to make gin soon), and producing 22 different dairy products, Pete was recently given a second-hand smokehouse, so his next project is teaming up with a local butcher to run courses such as A Pig In a Day and a preserving the harvest course.

It’s a busy lifestyle, but Pete reckons he’s never been healthier.

“When I left work I had six different health issues, and I used to work 90 hours a week don’t stop for lunch or eat properly – now I probably do more hours but the physical side of it keeps me fitter – I’ve lost about 10kg. Of course with making cheese and wine I’m never going to be skinny but the exercise balances out the love of food!

“We might do seven days a week and six nights a week … but it’s what we want to do … there’s a lot of embodied energy in me having acquired this knowledge and I believe I’m bound to pass it on, so if I don’t have kids I have to pass in on in some other way.”

 

Driving ambition to win

Filed under people by Jane Canaway on September 29, 2011 at 11:17 am {no comments}

January 2011

CHILDHOOD memories of standing in a forest, watching rally cars race past didn’t do much to inspire Molly Taylor. It was just what her parents did at weekends, but she preferred horses.

Then, at 15 and aspiring to L-plates, her father took Molly and her sister to his rally driving school for some off-road practice.

“I was pretty much hooked from then on,” the 22-year now admits. “It’s definitely an adrenalin rush and a challenge – being able to push a car to its limits is very addictive, but the atmosphere and people are fun, too.”

Two years later she raced in her first rally; another two years and she was competing in the Australian championships and late last year she was chosen as one of the six most promising young rally car drivers in the world and given a scholarship from Pirelli to join the FIA’s young driver program which, in 2011, will be integrated into the newly-created World Rally Championship Academy.

As well as the kudos, the place is worth about $185,000 in entry fees, fuel and tyres for her to race in six rounds of the World Championship, starting in Portugal this March.

Molly will be joined at the Academy by fellow Australian Brendan Reeves, 22, whose co-driver is his sister Rhianon Smyth. The other four drivers came from Ireland, the Czech Republic, Italy and Sweden.

In another family pairing, Taylor won her place in the Pirelli program with her mother as co-driver. Coral Taylor, who is a four-time Australian Rally Champion as co-driver to Neal Bates, teamed up with her daughter for the Citroen Racing Trophy, in which they claimed third, despite Molly being out of her comfort zone driving on tarmac.

For 2011, Molly will have a new co-driver: Rebecca Smart, 24, from Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, who was second outright last year in the Australian Rally Champions as co-driver to her brother Ryan. They also won the Kumho Tyres’ Future Champions Award.

“I am really excited to have Bec on board,” says Taylor.

“It will be great to have an all-girl team, but more importantly she is just as determined as I am with the same ambitions. We are both committed to focus 100% on this year in the WRC Academy.”

Smart agrees: “The WRC Academy is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and I’m definitely up for the challenge.”

While rallying is traditionally a male-dominated sport, Taylor says she has nothing but support.

“Rallying is very friendly – there is no face-to-face confrontation and people help each other out.

“It’s just that guys are more exposed to it and females don’t think they can get involved, but I haven’t met any resistance. If you take it seriously and get out there, then you’re taken seriously.”

To that end Taylor has become a competent mechanic and puts a lot of work into her physical fitness.

“Getting driving experience is difficult because the car is always being prepared, but I train myself to keep fit – running, cycling, cross training and doing weights. Drivers need be fit to cope with the heat – there’s no air conditioning – long days, and concentration.”

Competitions usually run over two or three days, driving from dawn to dusk in up to 10 stages, each anywhere from 8-30km long. Most are on gravel, but some are on tarmac.

Two years ago, Taylor moved to the UK to expose herself to wider competition.

She is now based in Cumbria, where she works for M-Sport – the company that prepares the Ford Fiesta R2s the academy teams will drive.

M-Sport also prepares Super 2000-specification Ford Fiestas, so she grabs some extra time behind the wheel test-driving cars before they are delivered.

“We have customers all over the world that we support with parts and technical information. I needed some way of paying rent, but to be able to do that in a motor sport environment is great; making contacts and learning stuff all the time is a win-win.”

While Taylor says she’s too busy to get homesick, she is pleased her sister Jane will be joining her in the UK this year. Jane has also won a scholarship but the similarities end there – she will be studying her Masters in Law at Oxford.

“We always say she’s the only white sheep in the family,” Taylor jokes.

She’s come a long way in the five years since getting her first car – an old Holden Gemini that she drove off the road in her first rally – and from school days when she would have to get someone from the local car club to sign her out of boarding school to compete in events.

“It’s ironic really; I chose that school because it had a really good equestrian program and I was competing in eventing: dressage, cross country and show jumping. But then I discovered driving and was always getting leave passes to do rallying events.

“I guess I’ve always been fairly competitive.”

 

Love, humour and schnitzels

Filed under Uncategorized by Jane Canaway on September 29, 2011 at 11:09 am {no comments}

Last night I sat down with comedian Rachel Berger and she spent a couple of hours telling me the whole amazing saga of her family’s escape from Nazi-held Poland – about love stronger than fear, about belonging, pain and survival.

We’d only just met but, along with a few hundred close strangers, she opened up her heart to me and shared the stories of her childhood – the ones of how her parents endured, evaded then escaped one of the most disciplined, highly trained military machines Europe has ever witnessed, and her equally angst-ridden flight from the bullying of two primary school-aged girls in Spotswood.

For her, schnitzels helped save the day, but love and a sense of humour were essential for both and it is these traits that shine through, forcing light into the darkest corners of her own personal history and lifting the weight that builds over the audience.

Reprising her first foray into serious theatre, Berger steps out from behind the microphone stand she has teamed up with for more than 25 years of comedy.

Using minimal props and starkly simple lighting, Berger dazzles her audience from the start, leading with the sheer strength of her parents’ story, then following through with sharp but sensitive mimicry skills, bringing scores of characters to life as she jumps between her parents, hardy Hungarian teachers, brassy Skip neighbours in the western ’burbs, then finally the broken, displaced people that make up her tribe in Acland Street. It is here that feels like home, as the family settles into running a delicatessen, comforting homesick refugees with sausages, potato salad, chopped liver and sandwiches that enjoyed a city-wide reputation.

While the story is intensely personal, the strong strands of Melbourne and universal humanity that are woven through it draw in the audience without seeming to try: “All I wanted was to fit in and be liked – that and to have the full 72-colour set of Derwent pencils,” she says and looks up in surprise as the audience as one moans with shared desire. “You too, huh?”

Berger first shared this harrowing, uplifting tale with Melbourne in 2008, first at La Mama then Chapel off Chapel, earning her Green Room Association nominations for both writing and performance. She was inspired to break from her usual comedy routines by the Tampa-led events of 2001, so the ongoing ‘turn back the boats’ debate makes it an interesting time to revive this heart-warming show.

“It’s not a comedy, it’s a play,” was how someone described the show to me beforehand, but as Berger adopts her mother’s accent and persona to retell the stories she heard as a child, she reveals the source of her dry wit and comic timing; only the remarkable Rosa could get a belly laugh from relating how she averted her beloved Marcus from committing suicide.

Take a supply of tissues and get there on time – there’s a whole-show lockout for latecomers – but go; there are few other ways of spending 75 minutes in a basement that will leave you feeling so content with your life.

 

HOLD THE PICKLE, written and performed by Rachel Berger, runs until Saturday 24 September at ?Fairfax Studio, The Arts Centre, 100 St. Kilda Rd, Melbourne. Wed-Sat 8pm, Sat 2pm.

Website: www.holdthepickle.com.au

Tickets: $40-$55?Arts Centre Box Office?1300 182 183?or Ticketmaster?136 100 or (for a discount) visit: www.rachelberger.com/

 

Turns out it was pretty twisted

Filed under art and reviews by Jane Canaway on September 29, 2011 at 11:03 am {no comments}

It was only after the play had finished that I noticed the sub title to Turns: A pantomime with a twist.

Would this have helped me understand it better?

Probably not, although I might not have been so bewildered at the opening scene as Nancye Hayes’ character, Marjory Joy, appears in cartoon-like Little Miss Muffett-type costume and leaps from one vaudeville flashback to another, occasionally joined by Reg Livermore in Little Tommy Tucker-type dress.

As Marjory claims the stage for herself, the flashbacks become a monologue of addled memories and twisted idioms.

OK, so maybe the show is about an ageing star reliving her glory days?

Reg Livermore acts as accessory at this stage, playing the parts of her dead husband, Douglas, and living son, Alistair, as their memories and realities merge in her confuddled mind.

Then comes the time for Alistair to reclaim his place in the spotlight as Marjory’s star fades away – and he shines an altogether different light on what we have seen, plus his own projection of the future.

Once one illusion is dashed, more and more tumble like dominoes, getting more bizarre and being delivered with increasingly tight scripting.

Now things are happening – suddenly things are falling into place.

Then, just as a rather neat ending had, I thought, been revealed, back comes the song and dance routine again. Ah well.

Reg Livermore devised and wrote the whole creation with himself and Nancye Hayes in mind and there is no doubt that they are the perfect pair to carry it off.

Their timing and delivery are a joy to watch and some of the lines and concepts are breathtakingly brilliant. Reg especially can drag the audience along in revelling in raucous revelations – only to shut them down in a flash of realism and remorse.

In his introductory note, Reg Livermore writes: “It isn’t exactly the show we discussed but it does I think give us a chance to show what we’re made of, show what we like to do on stage and what we thing we do best, a series of theatrical turns tailored especially for this occasion”.

That is does, but some of the enjoyment was lost for me in the confusion of it all; maybe this is a clever device to mimic the confusion of old age and the lies, imaginings, half-truths and shadows that make up many people’s lives – or maybe the plot just got lost.

Fans of Hayes and Livermore will enjoy this, no matter what – as will anyone who enjoyed the inter-reliant relationships in the TV show Mother and Son – and there are few plays around that include such good live piano solos as offered by Vincent Colagiuri.

The trick to ‘getting’ it is, perhaps, not to try, but instead to follow producer Christine Dunstan’s advice: “Please hand yourself over to the Turns experience and enjoy the ride”.

 

Turns is at the Playhouse Theatre at The Arts Centre until Saturday, July 9.

Details: www.turnstheshow.com.au

 

Tripod Versus the Dragon

Filed under art and reviews by Jane Canaway on September 29, 2011 at 10:42 am {no comments}

Tripod Versus the Dragon, live at the Forum

THE nerdometer was going off the scale as patrons filed into the Forum Theatre discussing probability curves and statistics.

Nerd nostalgia and pride are central to Tripod’s new show; it’s a musical homage to the original role-playing game that developed a huge cult following – Dungeons and Dragons – and it celebrates the ‘’coming out’’ of awkward teens who wore cardigans over ankle-length slacks and excelled at maths but now have the confidence to embrace their love of the underworld game they probably kept quiet about at school.

Not that you need to be a D&D fan to understand or enjoy the show – it opens with two of the Melbourne-based trio – Scod (Scott Edgar) and Yon (Simon Hall) initiating D&D virgin Gatesy (Steven Gates) to the game, giving them license to explain the some jargon and rules.

Tripod Versus the Dragon then fills with all the witty ditties and self-deprecating comedy fans have come to expect, but the for the first time introduces in a foreign body to the formula – a girl, armed with a full set of girl germs.

Elana Stone plays the role of Dungeon Master and later, the dragon, guarding the secret place on the magic map that the trio set out to explore. She brings not only a fresh element to the Tripod chemistry, but a huge musical and comedic talent of her own, as well as a stunning set of lungs; her first solo won the biggest applause of the first preview night.

The script is clever, mocking their own love of the cult subject while parodying a classical tragedy, complete with a dangerous quest, love interest, betrayal, tragic death, morality and redemption – plus a chorus, even if it is one that answers back.

Special effects include a guitar, chair, overhead projector, a sheet and a stick with a pointy bit, but the simple, honest way they are used brings another level of comedy again.

The plot seems to lose a bit of momentum about three-quarters of the way through, when a couple of the songs could have been cropped or sped up a bit, but otherwise it’s an enlightening hour, whether you’re a D&D virgin or fan.

Tripod Versus the Dragon is upstairs at the Forum Melbourne, corner Flinders and Russell streets, Tuesdays to Sundays at 9.15pm, until April 18.