Adelaide Festival. Adelaide Town Hall. 5 Mar 2015
Festival composer-in-residence and conductor Gavin Bryars was enthusiastically applauded at the conclusion of his curiously–titled composition Jesus’ Blood Never failed Me Yet. Written in 1971, it is his arrangement of a simple hymn by an unknown composer. Near-chance events led Bryars to acquiring a taped recording of an old man singing a stanza from a hymn in shaky-voice. Bryars turned this into a continuous loop and gradually overlaid it with a string and brass accompaniment.
From the Adelaide Town Hall podium, Bryars explains to the substantial audience that he found the old man’s voice deeply affecting and wanted to enhance it, and he certainly does.
Waiting for Bryar’s to beat in the orchestra, we sit in silence. Then, almost imperceptibly, we hear the faintest strains of a voice – seemingly from offstage. Initially we think it is bad stage management – someone idly humming from backstage who needs to be silenced quickly before the performance can begin – but it is anything but. It is in fact the forty-year old recording of the old man singing the hymn. The volume gradually increases and Bryars brings in the orchestra. Just a few violins at first, trying to fit in with the loose meter of the untrained voice. They settle in and almost in the fashion of Ravel’s Bolero, Bryars gradually enriches the soundscape adding additional strings, and then brass. The volume swells and fades as instruments enter and leave, and all the time the strangely affecting vocals of the old man ride gently above the waves of Bryar’s superlative orchestration.
It is long. The performance includes more than a hundred repetitions of the thirteen-bar stanza stretching over forty minutes: “Jesus’ blood never failed me yet, never failed me yet. Jesus’ blood never failed me yet. There’s one thing I know, for he loves me so. Jesus’ blood never failed me yet.” The repetition becomes hypnotic, and annoying, and one’s attention moves backwards and forwards between the solo voice and the music. We hopelessly wait for a variation in the vocals that we know will never eventuate. One’s mind earnestly seeks to find a pattern in the orchestration. What is its structure? Why aren’t the musicians turning the pages of their score? Is it really repetitive like the vocal line - it doesn’t sound like it is?
It is frustrating, it is soothing. It is transcendent. It is a testimony to the spirit of man.
Although Jesus’ Blood Never failed Me Yet is the main-stay, the programme also includes other gems in the first half. Howard Skempton’s Lento is a superb example of modern serious orchestral music that takes minimalism an extra step. It concentrates on pure melody and almost abandons attempts at development. The sound washes over you and lifts you to an entirely different place. It is both uplifting and melancholic.
Bryar’s The Porazzi Fragment (which is based on a musical idea of Wagner) is also almost despondent but the gentle insertion of filigree-like violin lines engender a serene restfulness. Arvo Pärt’s If Bach Had Been A Beekeeper injected a sense of pace and inevitably moving forward, and it swept us into two arias from Bryar’s opera G.
Soprano Anna Fraser’s performance of Ennelina’s Aria is imposing. With an almost imperceptible vibrato, her voice rises over the orchestra in a display of tonal clarity.
As impressive an experience as Jesus’ Blood Never failed Me Yet is, the highlight of the evening is bass, Alex Knight singing the Epilogue from G. This young man, an Australian, has a booming voice and a stellar international career is surely in front of him. His strength and evenness of tone across the register must be the envy of basses everywhere, and all from someone who is in the very early stages of his career. At times the score take him into the tenor range and he handles that with aplomb as well. Bravo. We need to hear much more from you!
Festival Director David Sefton has pulled one out of the bag with this concert. It is such a shame it is a ‘once only’.
Kym Clayton
When: Closed
Where: Adelaide Town Hall
Bookings: Closed
Davine Interventionz. Star Theatre One. 5 Mar 2015
As the title suggests, Flower Children, is a musical that tells the story of American folk rock vocal group The Mamas and the Papas. Produced by Adelaide’s own David Gauci and his company Davine Interventionz, this one off 5-show-only production could be Adelaide’s first and last chance to see the songs of this iconic ‘60s band incorporated into the musical story of their lives. Ownership of rights and a reluctance to make them available for musical reproduction being the issue.
AFI award winner and Green Room nominee, Peter Fitzpatrick, wrote the stunning story for the production, with musical interpretations by Aaron Joiner. Although Gauci’s production could do with more pace in the dialogue, Fitzpatrick’s story is absolutely the foundation and glue that hold this production together. The music is the icing on the cake.
It is a long show, but one finds oneself enthralled by the drama. The talented cast handle their characters incredibly well. There are standout acting and singing performances throughout the entire production.
Lisa Simonetti is born to play the infamous Mama Cass (Cass Elliot). In her solo number Dream A Little Dream Of Me, shivers roll down ones spine. Here she finds a powerful stillness, lacking during her dramatic dialogue; she oozes stage presence.
As the group’s make-or-break character, Mama Michelle (Michelle Phillips), Fiona DeLaine shows exactly what she is capable of. DeLaine has solid acting chops and is captivating during her later turn as the show’s narrator. She captures the subtleties of Michelle and projects them all the way to the back of the room. But then she sings, and hearts melt. Delaine’s rendition of Dedicated To The One I Love will bring a tear to your eye; a tear of joy. Her vocal quality is such that one may argue DeLaine sings it better than the original.
Her husband, John Phillips or Papa John, is superbly played by Lindsay Prodea who continues to impress with his ever growing versatility. Prodea is musically gifted such that he learned to play the guitar especially for the show. He not only pulls it off but is a dab-hand. Cuts and edits in the dialogue made Prodea’s part, in particular, difficult to navigate emotionally. Here he has some room for improvement.
David Salter makes four in the role of Papa Denny (Denny Doherty), the group’s tenor. Salter is a rare talent and again proves himself in this role, completely owning and living his character. His rendition of Monday Monday is hard not to sing along to, and does the original complete justice. Like DeLaine, Salter relishes in his narration role, completely capturing the audience with his story.
The choreography is perfectly constructed by Shenayde Wilkinson-Sarti, and musically Emma Knights keeps her small band in fine form. For the most part the lighting by Mike Phillips is wonderful, save a few scenes which are very white and far too bright. Gauci’s direction places the action simply and effectively on the stage. Set pieces are navigated, placed and struck effortlessly by the ensemble. More pace in the dialogue, as previously mentioned, would improve the longer scenes, and refraining from unnecessary entrances through the auditorium would be preferable. This odd choice continually breaks the connection.
The supporting cast of Fiona Aitken, Sam Davy, Mim Sarre, Katherine Chase, Fahad Farooque and Alana Shepherdson add the perfect 60s vibe. Their presence lifts the energy of the musical numbers and fills out the vocal harmonies wonderfully.
Alas, I understand the rest of the season is now sold; but kudos to the entire team on a wonderful production. Bravo.
Paul Rodda
When: 4 to 7 Mar
Where: Star Theatre One
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
Fairly Lucid Productions. Channel Nine Kevin Crease Studios. 6 Mar 2015
The Reckoning is a one-man play about gay-hate crime. At its heart is an exploration of the case of the death of Scott Johnson, a talented 27-year-old American mathematics PhD student who was found dead at the base of a 50-metre cliff near Manly in December 1988. He was gay. His clothes were apparently left in a neat bundle on the cliff-top. Police assert his death was a suicide. Others believe he was a murdered – the tragic victim of a gay-hate crime.
The central tenet of the play is that Johnson was indeed murdered, that the police did not thoroughly investigate his death, and that there may even have been a cover up. It delves into key aspects that might have comprised a thorough investigation, especially whether there were witnesses who have not come forward, or whether there are other victims who managed to escape their tormentors who might be able to help shed light on Johnson’s case. Most chillingly, the play explores the possible motivation and psychological profile of someone who might commit such a crime.
The play is bold in its conception, but it suffers from a lack of coherence. The programme notes indicate that no fewer than twelve writers contributed to the script, and this results in a range of styles that the sole actor, Ben Noble, needs to negotiate. He has to work his way thorough various speech rhythms, grammatical styles, characterisations, and lexicons. Although these variations are appropriate to the range of characters he plays, he just doesn’t handle them well enough all the time.
Many scenes are separated by original songs that are sung by Noble to a recorded solo piano backing track, but they are mostly lack-lustre: the music is almost exclusively bogged down in common 4:4 time and comprises relentless use of block chords. Noble’s voice is pleasant, but it is very light and unable to extract the inherent pathos of the lyrics.
Noble handled several characters quite well: his portrayal of the bi-curious factory worker who ‘stumbled across’ a naked man sunning himself near a gay-beat was quite affecting, but his reading of the contemptible and vile poofter-basher was unnerving and totally absorbing. Bravo. This was the high point of the performance, and the rest of the play yearns for text of the same quality.
Kym Clayton
When: 4 Mar to 15 Mar
Where: Channel Nine Kevin Crease Studios
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
Presented by the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. The Garden of Unearthly Delights - Le Cascadeur. 5 Mar 2015
Max and Ivan have arrived for the first time on the Adelaide Fringe so loaded with stars, comedy awards and critical acclaim that one wonders how they made the trip.
But they are talented fellows and are probably going to drag themselves away with an even heavier load.
Their show, Max & Ivan: The End is a narrative comedy describing the hapless occupants of an English town called Sudley- on-Sea. It's a lovely awful place which brags carparks, a reef of detritus, a nuclear power plant and a rest home.
It also has its local aristocracy, its gay arts icons, classic disagreeing councillors, a misunderstood aspiring children's book writer and woeful lovelorn nerd - among others.
These characters whisk in and out of the story, swiftly embodied by Max Olesker and Ivan Gonzalez aka Max & Ivan.
They call the show "sketch comedy" and, indeed, there are myriad little vignettes embodied in the overall story which tells of the evacuation of poor Sudley due to power plant malfunction.
The performers are of high-energy and quick reflexes. They shift patter and accents to and fro and establish a panoply of characters, some endearing and some repulsive. Therein lies much of the comedy. But it is not all funny. There's a thread of serious satire and a certain lampooning of British stereotypes.
Bottom line is that these are highly-trained and highly-disciplined performers working with a beautifully-crafted script.
They engage with chosen audience members, most successfully on opening night with a front row beauty called Melody who turned out to be a star in her own right.
Samela Harris
When: 5 to 15 Mar
Where: The Garden of Unearthly Delights - Le Cascadeur
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
Luminato Festival and others. Dunstan Playhouse. 4 Mar 2015
The title sounds ominous, like somebody or something must fail. But it's nothing like that at all. It's a love story - a gentle, heartfelt, sweet narrative of falling in love. There are no actors. There are puppeteers, live-screening their beer bottle-high creations performing in tiny sets under dim lights right there on stage - not too visible, but projected onto the big screen to a filmic effect. The Afiara String Quartet pries open your heart with compelling compositions; think of Yo-Yo Ma. But it's Kid Koala of Montreal at the keyboard, and making the necessary strange sound effects, who is pulling the strings - his creation and his musical score.
The lead puppet reminds me of Scott Adams's office-inhabiting cartoon engineer, Dilbert. What spell have they cast that this puppet of a robot, yearning for a fine looking lady puppet, should make me sigh? There is enchantment when he teaches himself to play a heart-shaped ukulele to woo his girl. There is magic in the air as we see them walk city streets in new lovers' rapture or sad disappointment. How quaint that a woman could fall for a robot with spider eyes, who could erase his memory by snipping the magnetic tape in his chest, and who lives in a flat furnished like it's the 1950s.
I had a lump in my throat the whole time, and I cannot be the only one, what with the standing ovation at the Australian premiere of this exclusive-to-Adelaide production. I still don't understand how I could feel so alive. How did they capture something so utterly human with such blatant make believe?
David Grybowski
When: 3 to 7 March
Where: Dunstan Playhouse
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au