Bakehouse Theatre. 23 Feb 16
Satirising television news media competing on a big story is an idea with plenty of promise.
Quite a bit of work has gone into this production. It has a large, enthusiastic cast. It has quite impressive multimedia.
Clearly the play is supposed to be funny, but no one was laughing at the Tuesday preview. Perchance, they were checking their watches.
The play seemed to go on for ever, so laboriously did it tease out its interpretation of that siege in King William Street. Its conclusion was that it didn't happen and, hell, I don't know what its conclusion was. There were some wacko popping champagne bottles with some sad transgender drunk in a brothel and PAC boys were running around. Desperate news reporters tried to beat up some news.
The play's assumption is that some fusty anchor in Sydney is obsessing about sponsors and ratings and thinks Adelaide is such a dead end that the very name of the town means a plummet in ratings.
The assumption is that female television reporters dress and behave like vapid flirts fixated by their status on social media.
The assumption is that reporters fabricate information.
The assumption is that the police are dolts.
Nothing really hits the mark. The Jay Weatherill take almost gets there. The stories on the news ticker are amusing. The police terminology moment raises a smile.
But really, this is one of those Fringe experiences when nice people are having a lot of fun together on stage and the audience is not.
Todd Gray stands out and is good at prompting fellow performers who lose their lines. Dan Brasher is fun.
Ironically, after this lacklustre piece of satiric theatre, the cast sweeps back onto the stage and performs an absolutely wonderful curtain call. It is the highlight of the show.
** (one being for the curtain call)
Samela Harris
When: 23 Feb to 5 Mar
Where: Bakehouse Theatre
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
Michael Allen. 22 Feb 16
To ‘chase the feeling’ means being on the coat tails of many feelings and sensations. It’s a perfectly normal quite automatic part of human experience. With one exception, that’s not automatic on the emotional scale of understanding, autism.
Michael Allen’s Chase The Feeling was borne out of meeting and experiencing the work of Adelaide’s Company AT, an all-autistic theatre company in existence since 2007. His experiences influenced and inspired his thinking on the subjects of anthropology and theatre, which Allen’s current Masters of Philosophy is focused on.
So, as Allen’s program notes observe; anthropology operates on a kind of material objectivity. Theatre is all ideas and subjectivity. Actors are skilled communicators of social constructs and verbal language, which autistic people struggle with.
How can this mix work? Simply by getting on the stage, with whatever material there is at hand in a social or otherwise context, immediately allows relationships and ideas to be reconsidered, seen anew.
The brilliance of Chase The Feeling is its focus on the difficult ‘question and answer process of exploration’ required by an autistic person to establish what is what, in an emotional and social context. The explorative and improvisational process the actors embark on becomes a brilliantly theatrical, nonetheless investigative, anthropological journey. It is all thanks to Allen’s superb script constructed of characters, events and discussions he experienced with Company AT.
The performance is executed brilliantly by ensemble of three, Tahlia (Leeanne Marshall), Actor 1 (Julian Jaensch) and Actor 2 (Nicole ‘Nikki’ Allen).
With ease the ensemble follows the lead of Tahlia as she tries to work out what she should know, should feel, should understand about this theatre business, and everything else, as she’s prompted by an offstage voice.
Around all the questions, Actor 1 and Actor 2 bring to life any number of vignettes. From directly welcoming the audience and asking if they understand what’s going on, to throwing Tahlia into surreal scenes questioning if theatre is merely an out there form of community television, to role playing the bone crushing experience of dealing with a social worker.
The idea of actually chasing, defining, knowing, then expressing a feeling in a theatrical context is so subtly done. Marshall, Jaensch and Allen so successfully play up the theatricality and humour of their material you almost lose sight of the core social impetus to the work the drama merely services. You begin to see what many might not consider; the process of establishing social and emotional norms is in itself a remarkable theatrical act offering a new range of possibilities.
David O’Brien
When: 22 to 27 Feb
Where: The Bakehouse Theatre - Studio
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
Presented by Scrap Laboratory. The Jade Monkey. 20 Feb 2016
A children's show about bubbles; how could you possibly go wrong? Let's face it, bubbles are universally loved, even adults struggle not to be amazed by a giant shimmering sphere floating above their heads.
This show is indeed bubble-tastic, but also so much more. Brilliantly performed by Australian-Romanian duo Kurt Murray and Iulia Benze, it is an hour of slapstick comedy, tumbles and turns, bubble artistry and great tips for overcoming common childhood fears.
Murray plays Doctor Bubble, the poor bubbleologist who simply wants to start the show, if only his sidekick Milkshake wasn't afraid of everything he mentions. Benze is perfect as Milkshake, the hilarious clown whose numerous phobias keep derailing all Doctor Bubble's best efforts.
This performance has its audience laughing and gasping throughout. Shrieks of delight pour from the children gathered at the front of stage as, arms outstretched, they jump and leap at the snow storm of bubbles raining down from above. The crescendo is the glorious finale to a genuinely delightful show, but not the finale gift.
For those with time to stick around, you can line up for the opportunity to get inside your very own bubble.
Do yourself a favour and check it out! No age range or judgment applies.
Nicole Russo
When: 20 Feb to 13 Mar
Where: The Jade Monkey
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
Presented by Studio Flamenco. Gluttony - The Bally. 20 Feb 2016
Have you ever wanted to learn to dance the Flamenco and visit the streets of Madrid and Seville? Practice your Ole! and come along, because Flamenco Fun for Kids is here to skill you up and take you there.
Living up to its name, this show contains plenty of vocalisations, dancing, hand clapping, finger snapping and foot stomping to the accompaniment of traditional Spanish gypsy song. Directed and performed by the members of the Studio Flamenco dance troupe, it features special guest Zoe Velez as Farida the Flamenco Fairy, who you might recognise from appearances on the Wiggles. Velez is an accomplished dancer, singer and children’s performer, and it's a pleasure to watch her on stage.
The show is highly interactive, with lots of opportunity for the younger audience members to jump up and dance along with Velez and the group. Best appreciated by ages five and up, it's a fun and informative afternoon in the surprisingly comfortable and well air-conditioned Bally tent.
Nicole Russo
When: 20 to 28 Feb
Where: Gluttony - The Bally
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
Dances For A Small Stage Australia. Lisa Lonero Allen and Rachel Kennedy. 19 Feb 2016
Thrilling describes the significant achievement that is Dances for A Small Stage Australia.
It is rare for live music to be composed and performed live on stage for contemporary work, let alone for five pieces in the same program. So solid is the conceptual base to each piece, they stand on their own with great strength and clarity, strong enough to hold further development over time.
Zebra Crossing: A Journey Within choreographed by Lisa Lonero Allen, with music for violin performed by Frank Giles proved a perfect grand opening statement.
Carlie Angel is incredibly powerful in Zebra stripe pantsuit costume with black and white Mohawk and face makeup. Angel punches out with sharp body moves and absolute, passionate control Lonero’s sophisticated, smooth choreographic mix of leaps, sweeps and gestures of command given to dancers Cazna Brass and Margot John. Giles’ deft mixing of his classically styled composition using effects pedals clothes movement with an extra complementing layer of dulcet grace. Giles’ contribution ensures the piece is a gripping, heartfelt and a complete experience as Angel transforms from a desperately seeking freedom creature, into something else entirely.
Muse, choreographed by Daniel Jaber and Madeline Edwards with music composed for Cello by Jakub Janokowski proved the evening’s big tease.
The relationship between artist and muse is a much studied and loved one. Jaber’s choreography seeks to celebrate not just Edwards as his creative muse pieces from Jaber’s body of work, but the relationship between dancer and musician too.
While knowing the entirety of choreographic pieces chosen would’ve been a bonus (I have sadly missed some) make no mistake, of the nine vignettes offered, those pairing Edwards with musician Jankowski are brilliantly inspired and tremendously exciting.
Edward’s interaction with Jankowski while on the floor, or around him as he plays, offers a powerfully electric expression of the invisible spirit of communication and response between artists. Janokowski stirringly plays highly modernist riffs off the Cello. Edwards’ legs and body respond to it. Jankowski responds back.
Muse holds a spirited exploration of creative passion that’s going to be all the more complex and powerful after further development.
Conversations blends flamenco dance with traditional and non-traditional guitar score. Choreography and performance is by Emily Mayes with guitar by Casper Hawksley.
Alike to Muse, Conversations works on the relationship between musician and dancer, where different stylistic backgrounds come into contact.
It’s quite intriguing to note how well a non-traditional guitar score can work with flamenco dance and vice versa. Conversations moves in and out of the traditional/non-traditional over the course of the work without any sense anything is seriously amiss at all. At each phase of dance and music, Mayes approaches then retreats from Hawksley, while making it clear they are slowly but surely getting closer to each other, understanding a little more of what the other does.
As an experiment, Conversations offers quite a challenge and in terms of the work to date, enough has been done to suggest moving gear up to crazy brave in a rehearsal studio is now warranted.
Phrenic brings Carlie Angel’s choreography to the stage, with Beatrice Hanna’s live score for violin, and another level of dance excellence.
Angel’s choreography for Phrenic revealed an impressive, awe inspiring ability in the most complicated, difficult manner possible.
Suspended mid air by a series of rope loops allowing Angel to turn, rise and drop in such a manner she could be performing a circus arabesque or seem as sleeping on an invisible bed in the air, Phrenic shows off phenomenal choreographic talent.
Angel’s elegantly smooth air based air dance serves the goal of giving expression to how to find physical and emotional relaxation while caught up in situations we do not want to be caught up and held by.
It’s an emotional piece in which Angel’s body strives for a peace it’s clearly not getting as she fights, relents, and fights again. Slowly but surely, Angel reaches high, only to descend low again. That she’s caught up in a tangle, her body in a state of capture, fuels the energy of the work greatly superbly accompanied by Hanna’s gentle heart wrenching score.
No More Silent Nights closed the evening with much humour and warmth. Directed by Rachel Kennedy with choreography by Kennedy and dancers, the music comes from Rebecca Gayther-Moore on keyboard.
Welcome to motherhood is the theme. Dancers Lisa Lonero Allen and child dancer Charlotte Stratton-Smith offer up a happy heart-warming series of vignettes in which Lonero Allen as Mother and Stratton-Smith as daughter run through the happy and difficult moments of bringing a child up.
It’s a loving work, in which choreography has been created allowing young Stratton-Smith an equal weight of work with Lonero Allen meeting the physical capabilities her youth allows, and she excels herself as dancer and creative partner with Lonero Allen.
Tantrums, happy play times, doubts and fears all get an airing. There’s always a resolution and happy hope in the air as traipse lightly sweet choreography finds Lonero Allen and Stratton-Smith bouncing bubbly across the dance floor, accompanied by Kennedy singing songs off stage lyrics which add a lovely lullaby feel to the work.
David O’Brien
When: 19 to 28 Feb
Where: Stomping Ground Studio
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au