Adelaide Fringe. Bonython Hall at RCC Fringe, University of Adelaide. 8 Mar 2019

Briefs is a scantily clad all-male high-testosterone gender-bending burlesque and circus act. After the drag queen MC welcomes the large crowd with risqué and bawdy humour that whips the crowd into a laughing and wolf whistling frenzy, it’s full-throttle sexy entertainment for the next hour.

Each member of the Briefs team has his own speciality: aerial work (in a cage no less); juggling; magic and chemistry (with spectacular chemical eruptions happening all around); high energy and high quality exacting dance; and of course strip tease that really teases. Throughout the boys are showing as much of their toned and buff bodies as they can without the show being re-classified as X rated.

There is a loose narrative that sort of binds the show together, and it is about acceptance of diversity and not unnecessarily intruding on someone else’s life. There is a veiled reference to Trump’s “draining the swamp” catch-cry and an all-out attack on the political class that is letting society down all around the world.

The set – and in particular the way it is lit – is highly technical and implemented with precision and style. The production elements are well and truly a cut above your average Fringe show. Much thought has gone into the design and execution, and it pays off in buckets! Costuming is lavish, but in the back of everyone’s minds is, ‘when is it going to come off?’

The MC is the lynch pin in the production but his patter is a tad laboured at the start (opening night jitters?) and is unnecessarily repeated at the end.

Briefs is in-your-face adult entertainment and it has one on the edge of their seat with a smile on their face the whole time. Recommended.

Kym Clayton

When: 8 to 16 Mar

Where: Bonython Hall at RCC Fringe

Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au

Adelaide Fringe. Michelle Christine. 15 Mar 2017

Free show! Yes, truly!

What does one expect from a free gig?

Cheap, stale, old stand-up routines? Superficial, technically well executed, left of field, clever stuff from that pretty girl on a flyer who looks like a cute Canadian Mountie?

Nope. Not gonna happen.

All the free-loaders got the shock their lives.

Michelle Christine didn’t really officially ‘start’ the show. She worked up to it chatting with the front row audience with ease then began the tale.

Christine is a story teller and a bit more. Deceptively, delightfully so as the audience was regaled with the ‘story of a failure who became a comedian’, told in a spirit reminiscent of a Bugs Bunny/South Park animation.

Christine seemed at first ‘Stan, Cartman, Kyle and Kenny’ traipsing across the frozen wastelands of Canada in Winter seeking her fortune, dumping her boyfriend. Then, like a savvy, bright eyed cruisy Bugs, she would pull off save-the-day scams accompanied by a happy little shimmy and a cheeky smile.

Deftly looping the audience conversationally into her tale, Christine formed that intimate bond which makes a great tale feel so close and personal. She makes the rude bits extra human and funny; the embarrassing, crushing moments less black and more crash-bang-in–bright-lights funny.

It’s not punchlines that make this wonderful gig work, but very subtle timing cued by body moves. That little shimmy dance, that sharp, yet contented little smile punctuates the show’s pace superbly. Pure craft at its finest. For free.

Yes. You should go before the season ends. You should be embarrassed and thrilled, that you saw greatness in action for free.

David O’Brien

When: 17 Feb to 19 March

Where: Turi E Caffe Bar

Bookings: FREE

Music in the Key of Yes. Adelaide Festival. Secret Chord. Festival Theatre. 15 Mar 2017

Fresh from its world premiere in the Sydney Festival earlier this year, 1967 Music in the Key of Yes is a 50th anniversary concert celebration of the socially nation-changing 1967 national referendum. With a 91% affirmative vote, Aborigines were given access to Federal laws and services designed to protect and help Australians, and were finally counted in the census! Only fifty years ago? Jeez.

There is a starry line-up of Aboriginal musicians and singers who run through a catalogue of songs thematically linked to Aboriginal issues of rights, of country and of concern - many of them are resolute hits bound to take you back and once again swell you with national pride, and reflect on those fleeting moments of unity.

Some songs are designed to take you all the way back to the '60s, and time travel is aided by two large screens showing newsreel footage of the protests and players of the referendum, and to a lesser extent, the outburst of civil right demonstrations around the world at that time.

After thoughtful respects were paid to the traditional land owners, the opening number, My Island Home, was a disappointment. Penned by Neil Murray of the Warumpi Band but popularised by Christine Anu - whose cover was APRA's 1995 Song of the Year - it became a trite truncated pop tune in the hands of musical director Jordan Murray and co-arrangers James Henry and Iain Grandage, having that lovely longing squeezed out of it. I didn't think that the arranging team improved or re-invented any of the originals and some of the more truncated versions left me unsatisfied.

Treaty was reduced to a theme with the energy carved out of it. Adalita did a stirring version of Solid Rock, originally sung by Goanna Band. Ursula Yovich, Alice Skye and Thelma Plum were all strong and emotional voices. Dan Sultan spent too much time trying to rev up the audience, although the audience did need some encouragement - it's always confusing how far to get carried away seated at the Festival Theatre. Yirrmal showed masterful control in native dance and song as well as in contemporary callings. He has that steely centred concentration similar to David Gulpilil that is at once mesmerising and frightening, and you can't take your eyes off of him.

A great idea, great music selection, great musicianship, but let down by the arrangements. No wonder Sultan had to make such an effort.

David Grybowski

When: 15 Mar

Where: Festival Theatre

Bookings: Closed

Presented by Joanne Hartstone in co-production with Greenwich Theatre. The Queens – The Red Queen. 20 Feb 2016.

Babylon is one of three productions by the Flanagan Collective this Fringe. It envisions what would happen if government was taken over by a political party that had absolutely no idea what it was doing.

Immediately the play has potential appeal. After all, might we not be heading in that direction if Trump should win the U.S. Presidential race? There is a substantial amount of audience participation in Babylon. For example, the audience is allowed to name the party – tonight’s audience settled on ‘The Gender Tits Party’ (groan!) – and elect the Government Ministers, and eventually the Queen. Audience participation is always a bit touch and go, but they were generous, including Frank Ford, one of Adelaide’s living treasures, who became Minister of Education (oh wish that he was!).

Although it was overdone and at times bordered on being cringe-worthy, the audience interaction had the effect of creating a sense of lunacy that made the ultimate fall and decay of the government that much more palpable. Dominic Allen was the principal actor and was particularly effective in his manic Hitleresque monologues. He was quite unsettling in fact.

The Flanagan Collective poured their heart and soul into this show. The production elements were good – lighting, sound, music, costumes – but the script is unbalanced and would benefit from some judicious editing and re-framing of the audience participation sections.

Kym Clayton

When: 12 Feb to 14 Mar

Where: The Queens – The Red Queen

Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au

Duende Collective. Tuxedo Cat - Perske Pavilion. 15 Feb 2016

The Duende Collective has picked up Adelaide's, and now Sydney's, Ollie And The Minotaur by Duncan Graham after its last appearance in the Fringe in 2008. We start with three women having drinks at some beachside getaway. They are clearly longtime friends. I don't know how Graham knows what women banter about without those pesky men about, but Laura Brenko, Dee Easton and Shannon Mackowski are so accomplished in these roles, I felt like a fly on the wall.

Director Alan Grace scored the trifecta with the casting. Mixing drinks, eating Snakes, and loafing around on the furniture, I found their performances and interactions absolutely 100% real. Bravo! But it seemed the yakety yak went on for half an hour before the narrative started. When things finally did get rolling, the hierarchy of the relationships began to nicely emerge and the menace began, as things best left unsaid got said. The hurt and frustrations were palpable, and Brenko's Bec's vacillations were effectively foiled against Easton's Thea's steely resolve. But the "lights have gone out, oh, they're on again" device used to revert to some moody lighting was a cheap trick.

Spoiler alert! The climactic revelation left me baffled. How could a woman - who had a drunken night with the bestie in a cave, and having an alcohol-impaired memory of "a man over her" - nine or so years later, be shocked and betrayed to be informed that, hey, you were raped that night? Wouldn't she at least have a suspicion, a month later when she was pregnant with Ollie, that there was a minotaur in the cave? Unless you just don't want to hear about it.

David Grybowski

When: 12 to 23 Feb

Where: Royal Tuxedo Cat - Perske Pavilion

Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au

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