Published on May 25, 2018 // Nina Culley
Share My Blankets is a heart-warming performance by Titled Projects as part of MELT Festival at Brisbane’s Powerhouse Thursday 17 May to Saturday 19 May. The act showcased a combination of live sound, games, comedy and heartfelt messages.
Supported by a live electro and acoustic two-piece band, Aly explores the past five years of her life, from coming into queerness to opening up about her sexual experiences. The work is based on Aly’s Tumblr and other online posts and features gorgeously warm vocals and intimate moments of truths.
Aly, along with her band of equally fabulous members, sported funky outfits and outrageous glitter. Though, it was not just the outfits that provided the performance with a unique charm, it was the warmth and radiance of the performers that left you wanting more. The crew are a part of Tilted Projects, who works to showcase untold queer stories that reflect the contemporary landscape. This definitely showed, from the laugh out loud moments to the quiet ones that filled the space with grounding realism. The group also added some great local colour, by referencing favourite hot-spot Rics Bar. There was even a quick game of pass the parcel towards the end of the performance which required audience members to read out folded bits of paper containing questions for the performers. This got everyone involved, and by the end of it, the space felt so intimate, as if everyone had just made a roomful of friends.
Overall, this performance was an endearing and heart warming show, with the trio possessing the ability to make every member of the audience laugh and feel comfortable simultaneously. Though the tale was somewhat similar to other “coming of age” stories, it was done with individual flair and charisma.
'THE LOWDOWN UNDER' ✭✭✭✭1/2
Published on September 22, 2017 // Aza
Aly Lorén’s debut show is akin to being in on the ground floor while a rocket is about to take off. A multi-disciplined performer with heartfelt honesty, Share My Blankets runs the gamut of humor to pathos, romance to rage whilst never missing its truest intention of being a show about humanity. A winner.
At the ripe old age of 23 years, Aly Loren commands the stage with her face besmirched with glitter and makeup. Dressed in a deep purple and washed in pink light, she opens her show with a belting rendition of her own composition and the show's title song Share My Blankets, a song she wrote when she was 18. Thus begins our journey into the inner workings of self-titled queer-non-binary-femme-tomboy-dreamboat.
Recanting tales from life in Brisbane, to finding love, lust, sex, herself, then losing it all and being on the road to finding it again, it’s the magnetic and energetic presence of Loren that makes this intimate show so engaging.
From that smile, to her brutal honesty about herself, the spectacular set of songs where you can joyously hear the channeling of Joni Mitchell (Lorén is one performer that can belt out a tune), her rage against the same-sex marriage survey and, more urgently, being comfortable in feeling all things/anything because that’s what makes you human.
Under the direction of Dirk Hoult, Share My Blankets keeps things moving (there’s never a dull moment), and in a particular confessional sequence fusing synth cues and random facts, there’s a sophistication in its simplicity as it echoes the machinations of a mind in crisis.
Share My Blankets is watching a star on the rise. Lorén is a magnetic stage presence whose raw honesty is both infectious and disarming. There’s passion here, craft here, and talent… Oodles of talent. Best get in on the ground floor now and see this show!
'KEITH GOW'
Published on September 22, 2017
Aly (Bear) Loren wants to share her life, her stories and her blankets with you. She’s honest and open and young. She’s also non-binary, queer and polyamorous. And the kind of person you want to sit cross-legged on a cushion on the floor for.
The band was jamming as the small audience made their way into the space. Aly is playing guitar, rocking out with her friends on drums and keyboard. Aly is a great singer and she charms everyone with the welcoming anthem “Share My Blankets” which is an adorable, comforting song that she wrote when she was eighteen.
This show is like hanging out with a mate who has a lot of fun stories and a couple of harder truths to tell, too. But mostly, Aly’s story is a hell of a good time. How can you not enjoy a show that includes Polly the polyamorous bird and a game of pass the parcel?
Share My Blankets is a colourful show about not fitting in and not giving a fuck. In some ways it feels transgressive, but then you realise it shouldn’t feel that way at all. Aly makes us feel comfortable and invites us to feel passion and to feel anger but, mostly, just to feel alive.
This show is pure joy.
