The Adelaide Repertory Theatre. Arts Theatre - 23 Nov

Jack Sharkey wrote 82 published plays, some of them in collaboration – like this one with Leo W. Sears.  Thankfully Sharkey passed away in 1992 and won’t be writing any more clunkers like 100 Lunches, but you can still look up such enticing titles like, Jekyll Hydes Again, How Green Was My Brownie, and everyone’s favourite, Par For The Corpse.  That gives you some of idea of the sense of humour of this prolific American writer.  More corn than Nebraska.

Masochistic director Jude Hines steps up to the dinner plate and attempts to transform a sow’s belly into a silk purse without much success.  This romantic comedy set in New York involves an unlikely plot premise of a theatre critic agreeing to pay for 100 lunches in order to get play writing lessons from a perennial writer of mysteries.  But, guess what, she’s really in love with him and doesn’t let on until the end after her play opens.  In the meantime, we sit beside them at a bunch of lunches in what seems like a gastronomical tour of New York restaurants ranging from the swellest hotels to hot dog havens.  And at each one, who do you find but Barry Hill donning evermore outlandish wigs and wardrobe as a brother of the waiter before, even though he is Chinese-Mexican, French or greasy pot-bellied.  And increasingly funny each time.

Rodney Hutton and Theresa Sugars as Chuck Reynolds and Charity Starr (but it could easily be Charity Starr and Chuck Reynolds as Theresa Sugars and Rodney Hutton) played their parts with great ease and easy with each other.  It was delightful to see them grow together gastronomically speaking and even improve at eating in restaurants and handling Barry Hill. 

For no apparent reason whatsoever, Sharkey and Sears have a lot of blathery dialogue spouting from the mouths of writer Reynolds’ kid and housemaid.  Myra Waddell played it capably but very low key and was a black hole for energy.  Twelve-year-old Benjamin Maio as the twelve-year-old wisecracking gimcrack has the voice of a four-year-old that made him virtually unintelligible.  And he has a bad habit of telegraphing his lines with his gestures.  Sorry, kid, if this is your first bad review, but I’m sure you have a life in the theatre if you want one.  Joanna Patrick swanned in occasionally as an unexplained Reynolds admirer wannabe lover and was suitably annoying and pretentious, but this role was also another poorly devised device.

The ever popular set designer Ole Wiebkin did his best in two dimensions but still managed to convey correct restaurant atmospherics.  Lighting designer Laraine Wheeler must have had one eye closed and left stage right in the dark.   

Brilliant effort, but it put me off me tucker.

David Grybowski

17 Hippies (Germany)

Hailing from Berlin, veteran music collective 17 Hippies are an interesting mix.  For starters, there's only thirteen of them! And in all that, there's no percussion.  You don't miss it however, and if you can put aside their nonchalance for numerical accuracy you're in for a treat.

Impressive both visually and musically, they filled the main stage with accordion, guitar, violin, upright bass, trumpet and much, much more.

Their set was a fun blend of Eastern European and American folk. They mixed lyrically between German, English and French and kept a good balance between sombre and upbeat numbers, offering something for the front of stage crowd and the rug sitters at the back. Good old fashioned fun in the sun.

Nicole Russo

Adelaide College of the Arts. X Space, Light Square - 6 April 2011.

3D11 comprises two short theatrical pieces devised and manifested by the final year acting, tech production and design students.

The first show, entitled It Started With Swing, was a real corker – a very professional and highly polished dance and pantomime number.  It’s the end of the 30s and life is good.  The musical beats create a heady sexually charged atmosphere on the dance floor as the six actors, dressed to the nines, perform a superb exhibition of jitterbug and swing.  I mean these cats got it all – those nervous initial moments of boy meets girl, broad non-stop smiles that make it all look too easy, sharp gestures and sultry expressions.  You had to hold be back from jumping up and jiving with them!

Of course the war intervenes and lovers and newlyweds are roughly separated.  Fabulous use is made of shadow projections on a white screen.  Housewives appear to be victims of a skivvy while the real men are in combat.  The final scene is nearly unbearable.  One lass waits for her man to return whilst another receives only dog tags and another her beau.  Her anxiety is almost unbearable.

Bravo!  This show is already road worthy.  The detail in the performances was flawless, the costumes and hair styles were spot-on and the lighting and design created the appropriate illusions.

The second show, The Devil’s Mirror and Its Fragments, got off to a rocky start in the lobby.  The actors emerged from a heavy wooden crate with Quasimodo movements and uncertain intentions.  Some possibly important narration kicked off the story before the audience was beckoned into a studio space and seated themselves in a round.  After a friendship is established between a boy and girl, he succumbs to a spell, is taken away by the Snow Queen (Snow Queen?  That sounds familiar), and the quest is on by the other.  She has many Alice in Wonderland adventures including talking plants, felines, mad stalkers and the Snow Queen herself.  Again, the physical work was very impressive (I’ll never forget the triffids), but it must be hard to concoct an original fairy tale as this one seemed a pastiche of several.  The compositions played by the performers were suitable and helped transport us on the journey.  The longer it went on the more I wanted to see.  I never thought that voice training was strong at the school and this performance hasn’t changed my mind.  Great use was made of exotic costumes, lighting effects and theatrical effects like the Phillipe Genty-style ice castle, and a fish tank river complete with a voyage on a raft.  While the first show was all spit and polish, this one was a bit feral, but no less inventive.  

It is interesting to note the huge emphasis on physical movement in both these pieces.  A word with Jenn Havelberg, the movement instructor at the school, revealed that she provided the kids no mentor ship whatsoever for these productions – they independently from her applied what they have been taught over the years.  This is a tremendous complement to the strength of the physical performance program at the school.  Also, there were no mobile phones, no computers or mixed media in these productions.  Instead they presented a nostalgic reference to 40s and a fairy tale utilising, very effectively, classic theatrical devices.  If I were you, I wouldn’t miss this incredibly energetic and entertaining night out.

David Grybowski

Presented by Vitalstatistix. Queen’s Theatre - Mar 4 to 11

I have no compunction in telling you this is easily the worst Fringe act I have seen this year, or perhaps in any year.  Brown Council, comprising Frances Barrett, Kate Blackmore, Kelly Doley and Diana Smith, say that this show investigates the function of comedy in contemporary society, and particularly whether comedy has the ability to transcend its “low brow” status and to transgress gender, class and cultural boundaries.  I’m not sure why comedy should have an ability, but they clarify in their program notes – “to explore the idea that all comedy is tragic, that laughter is at the expense of a guiltless pleasure taken from the misfortune of others.”  If I may simplify these thoughts – to investigate if all comedy is made through the misfortune of others.  I didn’t feel that this investigation was made and therefore the work fails to achieve the objectives of its creators in my view.

There is a narrator and three performers who do a selection of five acts, like stand-up comedy, a monkey dance, slapstick, various forms of traditional comedy acts.  Hardly all comedy.  Slapstick was two people slapping each other in turns for a few minutes.  This was gross and gruesome to witness.  Nothing was proved as there was no comedy.  How about watching two women each eat three bananas at once, pushing the mushy yellow stuff back into their mouths as it falls out?  Or one person stands in front of another and throws a cream pie into their face.  I watched the digital clock anticipating when my hour would be up.

What was demonstrated in this show is that these acts when taken out of context are not funny.  Comedy is about timing, misdirected attention, exaggeration, irony, sudden change, and wit.  None of these were evident except in one of the stand-ups.  In slapstick, it’s not the hitting; it’s how you set it up.  You do get to throw tomatoes at the end of the hour.  Even I threw tomatoes to release my frustration and I hate the waste of food in any play.  I didn’t think the Brown Council was going to dine on them three at a time to make a point.    

David Grybowski

Adelaide Festival Centre. Adelaide Symphony Orchestra - 3 Dec

Every year since 2001 the best radio station in the word – nay, in the universe both seen and unseen – has surveyed its listeners to create a top 100 list.  The station of course is ABC Classic FM, and this year’s survey identified the best of the twentieth century – allegedly!  Over the last week or so Aunty has been broadcasting the list starting from number 100 (John Adam’s iconic opera ‘Nixon in China’ which made a big splash in Peter Sellar’s infamous 2001 Adelaide Festival Arts) and culminated with a live concert in the Adelaide Festival Centre. The top five pieces were played by the Adelaide Symphony orchestra with soloists, including past winners of the Young Performer's Award, and conducted by Benjamin Northey.  To keep the event fun, the list is kept secret and each piece announced one by one, as the list is played through, including the final concert.

It’s fun voting, it’s more fun experiencing the countdown and seeing if your choices make the list, and being at the final concert is almost better than sex.  Well, it would have been if the list turned out to be a bit more ‘adventurous’!  Nixon scraping in at 100 is almost as scandalous as Watergate was.  There being only 19 other pieces on the list written in the second half of the 20th century is outrageous, and frankly quite sad.

Maybe it takes time for a piece of music to really become part of the musical furniture - a classic – or maybe what I like is just too weird perhaps?

Coming in at number five was Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 2, and the first movement was played with a studied precision by the resplendently dressed Kristian Chong.  Northey appeared challenged in keeping the soloist and the orchestra together, and their embrace at the pieces conclusion seemed more one of relief than of congratulations.  But the audience loved it, as did I. 

‘The Lark Ascending’ by Vaughan Williams came in at number four, and the concert started to hit its straps.  This is a most beautiful and dreamlike piece and violinist Ji Won Kim displayed effortless accuracy and almost meditative care as she entranced us all.  Northey confesses to not ever having conducted the Lark before, but you would not have known it.

Then, for something completely different, in every way, onto the stage bounded the effervescent Simon Tedeschi who blazed away on the piano with a deeply felt and individual interpretation of Gershwin’s ever popular ‘Rhapsody in Blue’.  Principal clarinet Dean Newcombe’s mellifluous and beautifully controlled opening glissando set the scene and was singled out by accomplished ABC Classic FM compères Julie Howard and Damien Beaumont for special recognition in the bows - if they hadn’t the audience would probably have lynched them!

It was disappointing, however, that number two should be Holst’s ‘The Planets’ suite.  There are two reasons this was a letdown:  Firstly, during the interval I could discern a few key phrases being rehearsed by the celeste player and harpists who remained on stage rather than retiring back stage for a cuppa or a G&T, and secondly, even though it is a great piece of music, it is almost worn out through being over played.  Popular opinion, oh well.......yawn!

For the number one position on marched spectacular young cellist Pei-Jee Ng who delivered a sensitive yet rapturous full performance of Elgar’s Cello Concerto, with every note and phrase written with deep feeling across his trade-mark expressive face.

It was a fabulous concert, but disappointing due to some piece selections.  I wish I could return in fifty years’ time to see if popular opinion had changed and admitted some of the more ‘less safe’ and adventurous music of the 20th century into the mix.  Maybe the ASO itself needs to do more through its programming, but I guess the ticket buying punters must be pleased as well!

In the near future I would love to see the ABC Classic FM Classic 100 event focus on the second half of the 20th century, and for Australia’s orchestras and Aunty to increase their emphasis on this period.   Now that would be interesting!

Kym Clayton

C.I.T. Royalty Theatre - Feb 18 to 27

What a double bill!  A play about Hitler and a play about Shylock!  We see ominous large red banners with swastikas (at Customs: “Honestly, I’m doing a play!”) reminiscent of the Nuremberg rallies and then a bit of Wagner lilts through the cavernous auditorium of the Royalty.  An avuncular Hitler doppelganger arrives from central casting and underwhelms me with his meekness.  But this is a pot slow to boil.  By the end, I am in awe, I find the Furher fascinating - I feel I am in the presence of the man.  Pip Utton, the creator and performer of Adolf, has been doing it since the Dead Sea was sick.  We, the audience, are his final faithful in the Berlin bunker.  The Russians have overrun the city and Hitler has one last opportunity to justify himself.  He describes how he won and clung to power in a sort of update of Machiavelli’s The Prince.  How could anything he did be wrong if it was for the good of German people?  Is his view, only the German people are people.  Utton accurately replays the strong gestures and oratorical style that makes Hitler so spellbinding even in the black and white reels.  The most chilling aspect of this monologue is that Hitler actually put into practice all that Utton is telling us.  Otherwise, it could have passed for fiction… and that’s just the first part. 

Utton downs tools, takes off the brown jacket with the swaskita armband and the moustache and wig, and bums a cigarette from an audience member.  He starts innocently, about cigarettes – perhaps forgetting that the Nazis in 1933 were the first government in the world to ban smoking in public places – and then things start to get nasty. 

Utton conducts a long racist rant.  It begins rather mildly – a few flat jokes, some off-colour remarks (no pun intended), seemingly harmless stuff.  But ever so creepily, he slowly builds with more sinister remarks.  I say to myself, these things might be heard in an English pub, or a kitchen in Leeds, but not around here.  I honestly don’t know what to make of it.  Is he for real?  He seems realistically awkward and not funny, yet so unselfconscious, like he really believes this stuff about Jews, blacks, homosexuals, Muslims.  He even uses some of his Hitler gestures.  What an idiot!  He makes the usual right wing arguments about immigrants taking jobs and sending them home, about the Jews robbing the Palestinians of their land.  I’ve heard all this before, but gosh, this is unrelenting.  I’m starting to feel really uncomfortable.  Are people behind me walking out?  I want to walk out.  I don’t know if it’s real or not and I want to stop this guy.  It’s all rubbish.  Still, I know some people say this sort of stuff, I hope I don’t.  Then he says, see?

David Grybowski

Afro Celt Sound System (UK)

It's been a long ten year gap between WOMADelaide appearances for the Afro Celt Sound System, but on the off-chance they were concerned, the high decibel greeting they received as they stepped on stage confirmed they were far from forgotten.

Since first performing at WOMADelaide in 1997 as a little-known drum and bass collaboration experimenting with a modern fusion of Celtic and African music, the band has evolved into a world renowned musical force.  Closing out the cycle in 2011, this year's festival sees them returning off the back of the release of their "best of" anthology, Capture 1995-2010.

In an extended 1.5 hour set, the band treated the overflowing Stage 1 audience to a set of old school drum 'n bass and tribal dance tracks, proving beyond a doubt they've still got what it takes to get 5000-odd people moving.  As always, Johnny Kalsi, much loved front man of the Dhol Foundation (WOMADelaide 2006) was a crowd pleaser with his powerful dhol drumming and charismatic banter.  N'Faly Kouyate carved insane solos out of his kora, wielding the traditional West African instrument like a rockstar.

If their aim was send the crowd home on an exhausted high, it was a job well done for the Afro Celts - welcome home to WOMADelaide's favorite sons!

Nicole Russo

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Photos by Nicole Russo

Adelaide Youth Theatre. Loreto College Theatre. 29 to 31 July

There is something about watching a group of enthusiastic youngsters take to the stage that makes you smile uncontrollably.

Directors Jason Ferguson and Niki Fantone have drawn out of their cast of youngsters a wonderful 70 minute performance which captures some of the best moments from the popular Disney story of Aladdin. The entire cast were wonderful to watch and some especially cute moments came from a male cast member who is a mere six years old.  He not only wowed the crowd, but took a brave tumble on the chin (literally) and lived to act another day.

Perhaps most impressive was the incredible line up of costumes, the intricate dance routines choreographed by Amber Platten and Haydee Watkins and the outstanding set projections all which were pulled together in a little over a week. Design by Jopuka Productions under the skilful eye of Joshua Aspinall was an absolute standout.

Musical Director Michelle Nightingale had the young cast ship shape with their harmonies and excepting for a few microphone issues and volume inconsistencies the overall sound was excellent!

This young cast ought to be commended for their outstanding energy, focus and dedication. I can’t wait to see what some of these kids are capable of – many of them likely to be the adult stars of the future.

Paul Rodda

The Famous Spiegeltent, 19 Feb to 20 Feb

In a casual mid-afternoon slot, a relaxed audience filtered into The Spiegeltent to be seduced by the vocal honey of Ali McGregor, accompanied by Barnabas Smith on drums, Alana Doors on double bass, and Matthew Carey on keys.
In Something Old, Something New, McGregor presents a set of smooth, easily digestible jazz and blues tunes perfect for the time slot.  As the title suggests she includes material old and new, covering the classics, a number of pop reinterpretations and trialing some previously unheard tracks.
This show is a simple pleasure, nothing less but nothing more.  If you're looking to whittle away an afternoon in The Garden, grab a glass of wine and a seat for a cruisey hour of soothing cabaret.
If you like what you see, you can catch more of McGregor at this year's Adelaide Cabaret Festival.

Nicole Russo

Amadou & Mariam (Mali)

As Amadou Bagayoko and Mariam Doumbia were carefully led onto the stage, full realisation of just what these two magical performers have overcome to achieve what they have hits you square in the face.  This husband and wife team, who met at Mali's Institute for the Young Blind, are a dynamic singing/songwriting pair who clearly don't consider blindness to be a stumbling block to their shared love of music and performing.

Their set of Afro blues was loud, upbeat and incredibly fun, with a distinctive traditional Mali feel overlaid with jazz, rock and Cuban rhythms. Amadou was impressive on guitar, and the two were joined onstage by gorgeous and energetic vocal backup and a dynamic band who kept the tempo high.

Amadou & Maria's breakthrough album Welcome To Mali is available now.

Nicole Russo

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Photography by Nicole Russo