In & Out. Tuxedo Cat - Perske Pavilion. 23 Feb 2015
I found this play to be a little gem in its conciseness and execution. Created, co-directed and performed by Sonja Bishopp, Emma Annand, Ryan Forbes, and Adam Ibrahim, we have a pair of childless couples as neighbours in a nice suburb with freshly mowed lawns and a barbeque in every backyard. The women do yoga and drink tea while one guy is an accountant and the other a carpenter. If the title didn't set the tenor for you, the first scene certainly did when the men meet for the first time (one couple having recently moved into the neighbourhood) and innuendoes involving hot, juicy snags came think and fast. The conflict resides in the men's clandestine love and the repercussions in their marriages, including the women investigating their own sexuality.
Bishopp and Forbes in an interview seemed to be concerned with the cultural oppression of homosexuality, both politically and through social engagement, but this is a scant theme of the play. There were background references to harsh legal penalties for homosexuality, but this device was irrelevant to the action. The power of the work was conveyed in the themes of unrequited love, and forbidden love in the context of marriage, through the development of the relationships between the four characters as the situation unfolds. The fact that the extramarital affair was homosexual added an additional concern for their spouses and danger for the men, but it was not pressured by the legal regime - the legal regime was not the problem. I didn't see the necessity of a fifth character - an ice cream man.
Initial lighthearted and humorous scenes of playful fun and engagement gave way to palpable feelings of bewilderment, betrayal, anger, hurt, and plain old sadness. The performances were physical and quick-footed while also being emotionally nuanced and subtle, with the exception of Sonja Bishopp - playing the spurned wife of a man helplessly falling in love with his neighbour - who was theatrically overwrought in her uptightness so that humour and empathy were lessened. The pace was fast, and a couple of times, peak scenes were played out with alternative outcomes or with thought balloons which generated additional interest.
This play was devised by students for an in-house Victoria College of the Arts (VCA) festival of new works last September. This is a great way for the cast to start their careers.
David Grybowski
When: 23 Feb to 1 Mar
Where: Tuxedo Cat - Perske Pavilion
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
Hans. The Garden of Unearthly Delights - Aurora Spiegeltent. 23 Feb 2015
I haven't seen a Hans show since he was a neophyte entertainer dressed in lederhosen doing a high-kneed dance playing oompah-pah music on his accordion at the Weimar Room on Hindley Street back in the late '90s. Boy has his schtick come a long way! Now it's tighter clothes, wider girth, three lovely showgirls and a back-up band belting out the hip hop. And the audience was well oiled with anticipation and lapped...it...up.
And if you're going to do a great cabaret show, why not do it as a German? Most of us would think they invented cabaret, and Hans, for all his modernism, is steeped in the traditions that define the genre - lots of make-up, exotic clothes and gender-bending, jokes and barbed banter on our suburban lives, quick-witted exchanges with audience members, crisp and loud dance tunes but also some old favourites, plenty of dancing, and supreme of all, lots of audience participation.
He brings everyone into the show in a most personal way, that even if he didn't speak to you directly, or if you weren't one of the lucky three men coaxed onto the stage for a dance contest (the winner experienced the added good-natured humiliation of being tied up and serenaded), you feel touched and moved by his energy and bonhomie. I swear he tried to make eye contact with everybody.
There are only two more shows and I strongly suggest you see at least one of them. Bravo!
David Grybowski
When: 23 Feb to 9 Mar
Where: The Garden of Unearthly Delights - Aurora Spiegeltent
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
Y2D Productions. Royal Croquet Club - The Menagerie. 22 Feb 2015
One man, two stages, and a very clever twist. Leo is a solo show that offers more than one experience: a live actor in single stark room, oriented in landscape, and his recorded counterpart in portrait, twisting reality as he appears to climb walls and bend normality.
Set inside three walls, the actor has just his suitcase and his hat for company and entertainment. The show becomes more surreal as he realises that not all is as it seems, and he pushes the limits of what he can do.
It's a well-crafted concept that grows with the character as he delves deeper into a dreamlike world in which the laws of gravity don't apply. The piece combines acting, acrobatics, music, cinematography and artwork to produce a genuinely unique show. It does rise and fall somewhat. There is a gorgeous scene where the characters draws a room for himself, complete with table, chair, window, wine and companion animals, but also slower moments of repetitive movement that are unnecessarily drawn out.
There are some technical aspects of the show which I find challenging.
Seeing the show around lunch time, light occasionally penetrates the tent and makes the screen dull and hard to see. With the live performance and it's recorded sibling sitting side-by-side, my eye is constantly drawn away from the recording, where the magic is happening, to the clearer and better lit (but less interesting) live version.
This is compounded further by my seat position. Much of the action is taking place on the left-hand side of the performance box, and with the screen also on left-hand side of the stage, those seated on the right-hand side of the auditorium must work to ignore three quarters of the stage in order to focus on the screen. This effect would be lessened by switching the performance box and the screen around, ensuring the performer is centered on the stage, or just by giving the screen more prominence.
Whilst the aforementioned does impacts the enjoyment factor, it doesn't take away from the originality of the piece. With lovely moments of humour and delight, it's a family-friendly show that should please.
Nicole Russo
When: 14 Feb to 15 Mar
Where: Royal Croquet Club - The Menagerie
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
Highwire Events & Entertainment. Gluttony - The Peacock. 22 Feb 2015
They say good things come in small packages. In this case, it turns out super awesome circuses also come in small packages! In its current incarnation, Le Petit Circus features three wonderful performers whose infectious smiles and fun antics keep the applause coming throughout.
Jake Silvestro, Jane Schofield and Ollie Versteegen perform admirably in Gluttony's The Peacock in incredible temperatures and (on this unique occasion) minus their costumes due to an overzealous member of the cleaning staff. Despite the heat and less than ideal attire, they put on a fantastic show that kept their audience, young and old, whooping and cheering for more.
With acrobatics, juggling and trapeze, there is no lack of circus action. Individually they shine; Schofield was a crowd favourite with her show of strength holding up troupe member Silvestro and hula-ing more hoops than you could count whilst monitoring 6 spinning plates. Silvestro impressed with his cart wheeling and Versteegen's back flipping and classic "detachable thumb" trickery won hearty appreciation.
But the troupe is at their best playing off each other in acts including a hilarious game of not-quite musical chairs.
Le Petit Circus trio get a "hats off" for performing a great show under really trying circumstances. Packed full of energy and excitement, this is a must-see family event for the Fringe season.
Nicole Russo
When: 17 Feb to 15 Mar
Where: Gluttony - The Peacock
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
Strut & Fret Production House. The Garden of Unearthly Delights - Deluxe. 22 Feb 2015
Out she comes, dressed in nothing but bright blue paint, with boofed up blue hair, Yana Alana's curvaceous contours smack the senses. After further celebrating blue in song and with blue flowers and curtains, she blows her own horn, figuratively and literally, in this risky and unpredictable show.
In her quotes from her fictitious book, 'Go Fuck Yourself,' marvelously witty ditties sung in her sparkling voice, and a major running blue with her dour keyboard accompanist over her inappropriate phone use during the show, we get Yana Alana as the blue bitch in her One Woman Show, which is very nearly a two-woman show.
In between scenes concerning medication, mediation and meditation, Yana belts out her original songs with a vigorous gusto. Having fired the accompanist, Yana attempts to carry on with the help of an audience member at the keyboard, and of course this doesn't work out and the show pretends to grind to a halt. But she reinvigorates with a hilarious song about not being able to say sorry - a topic close to all Australians on a political and personal level.
Introducing herself, she invited the audience to be as honest and revealing as she would be. In a self-disclosing show such as this, I am often distracted by thinking about what's behind the material. What's under the blue paint? Yana Alana the comedian, singer and award-winning cabaret performer in her vivisection of performance art and artists.
David Grybowski
When: 13 Feb to 1 Mar
Where: The Garden of Unearthly Delights - Deluxe
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au