Neil Gaiman and FourPlay String Quartet

Last night I attended the one night only performance of British writer Neil Gaiman, accompanied by Australia’s electric string quartet, FourPlay. My daughter is a huge fan of Gaiman, which is what led me to reviewing the show. My only familiarity with Gaiman’s work is the film Coraline, which was adapted from Gaiman’s novella. 

Gaiman is a prolific writer, writing across novels, television, film, short stories, comic books, radio plays and theatre. Being a prolific writer myself, across poetry, short stories, novels, opinion, long-form non-fiction, theatre and film, I came to this show with a keen interest. But as those who read my reviews know, for me, a good show is about how it makes me feel, so I set out to make sure I’d review through that lens, and not be swayed by the hype that surrounds Gaiman’s reputation, which is that he has been credited as one of the most beloved and celebrated writers of our times. 

This show played at the Sydney Opera House before it came to Melbourne, to mark the release of the collaborative album Signs of Life, which debuted at #1 on the Billboard ‘Classical Crossover Albums’ chart and earned an ARIA Award nomination for ‘Best Classical Album’. 

As Gaiman explained on the night, this creative collaboration began in 2010 by accident, when the Sydney Opera House sent Gaiman a selection of musicians to work with so they could music to one of his stories. He was instantly drawn to FourPlay and the group have created together ever since.

Presented on the night was a mix of musical pieces, most of which Gaiman performed spoken word, and in between, Gaiman spoke to the audience, providing context while also talking about the history of the collaboration and their creative process. As he explained, sometimes he provides the music, sometimes FourPlay provide the music, sometimes he provides the words, other times he uses the words of other writers. 

FourPlay sang harmonies in some instances, Gaiman even sang one song, as did violinist and vocalist from FourPlay, Lara Goodridge, for the song Vampiress, and she has a really angelic, haunting voice. There was also an invited guest, Rizo, who performed Gaiman’s song about Googling an unrequited love late at night. There was an introductory solo piece by FourPlay, and there was also a solo piece by Gaiman, a short story ‘Click-clack the Rattle Bag’. 

There was a casualness to the event, it didn’t feel formal, even though it was presented in a formal setting. I kept thinking about how I would feel about the night had it been presented at a pub, for example. I’ve attended many such spoken word events where there is a musical accompaniment. 

My favourite song and performance, by far, was Rizo. There was so much passion and obsession in her performance, and comedy, which had me laughing a lot, and also, I was thinking – wow, men Google us late at night too, I had just thought it was mostly us women that do that. Such brilliant writing by Gaiman, and the music by FourPlay really accentuated this hugely embarrassing confession that we all do. 

I really enjoyed this aspect of Gaiman’s writing, the honesty and fearlessness, especially when it came to politics. I found his piece about ideas very affirming, in this cancel culture/politically correct world we live in. To have a prominent writer say these things is encouraging for writers like myself, who are often punished and sidelined because our ideas are perceived as dangerous. But of course, being such an accomplished writer, he has more power to speak of such things, but it’s still affirming regardless.

Gaiman’s short story performance of ‘Click-clack the Rattle Bag’ was extremely masterful. It’s very difficult to hold the attention of the audience when performing a short story. One has to employ characterisation and pacing, inflections in their voice, it isn’t just about reading the story, there is so much skill in the delivery. For this, I definitely give him five stars, he held my attention the whole time. I also very much enjoyed the song ‘Psycho’ written by Leon Page. 

Backup singing/harmonies by FourPlay provided depth to the imagery created by Gaiman’s words. The music itself was edgy, combining rock and classic quartet sounds. There was a wide range of topics explored within the music, from surrealism/horror, to life and aging, relationships, politics and the universe we live in. 

It was a pretty packed house at the Arts Centre, but the show did draw a particular type of crowd, mostly Anglo. There is a relaxing yet humorous quality to Gaiman’s voice and words, like the piece where he drew phrases and words from a ten volume slang dictionary after a friend had told him he can make anything sound interesting. However, personally, I felt the piece went for too long, as did the whole night, running for almost three hours with a half hour break in the middle. While I found the show enjoyable, interesting, insightful, and at times entertaining, for some reason, it didn’t move me profoundly. The same cannot be said for my daughter, who enjoyed it immensely.

Koraly Dimitriadis

Koraly Dimitriadis is a writer, poet, performer, film and theatre maker and the author of Love and F—k Poems, Just Give Me The Pills and She’s Not Normal. 

Photographer: Chris Frape