Matthew Mitcham impresses more-so second time ’round

More renowned as an Olympic diver than a theatrical artiste, Matthew Mitcham once again impresses on stage at Perth’s Fringe World: delivering anecdotes and jokes, singing, and indeed twisting and turning in his one-man show Twists & Turns.

If you’re on top of your Aussie Sporting Hero Facts, you’d know that following his win in the 10-metre platform at the 2008 Olympics, Mitcham went on to rather hard times, battling depression and adopting a recreational drug habit to try and overcome this, which in turn only left him in more of a ‘downer’ state.

Since then he’s pulled himself out of the slump, penned an autobiography (astonishing for a twenty-something to already have done) and is now telling his story-so-far in the form of a mini musical of sorts.

While his debut on stage last year started out with a couple of faux pas (fittingly that the term should be French given he stuffed up a couple of words in the French opening song), this year, the production has improved at least two-fold.

The narrative of Twists & Turns is typical in segmentation to most rags-to-riches-to-tragedy-and-the-ultimate-naked-truth biographies, but where the ending to most such tales is often ugly, witnessing this spunky dude on stage baring his warts and all is far more bearable than most.

Up from last year’s score of 7.5 – we’re giving you an 8 this year, Mr Mitcham. The nerves have lessened, and certain theatrical lessons appear to have been learnt.  Antonino Tati

‘Twists & Turns’ is on at the The West Australian Spiegeltent from now until February 16 at the Perth Fringe Festival. Tickets are available at www.fringeworld.com.au.

Photography by John McRae.