Adelaide Fringe. Kevin Crease Studio Live from Channel Nine. 8 Mar 2014
The theatre is rich with stories of heroic stand-ins. That it be the case of an actor supporting another actor in a one-hander about the perilous nature of an actor's life has a certain special piquance.
So it comes to pass that Bob Paisley is back in town - the Kansas actor who charmed audiences with his Driving Miss Daisy in the CIT series presented through Guy Masterson. And, it is Masterson for whom he is doing the eleventh hour stand-in. Masterson had to forgo his Fringe 2014 season for family reasons in the UK.
Happily, Paisley knows the award-winning John Clancy piece well. He has performed it in Edinburgh and the US. When Adelaide audiences last saw The Event in 2010, however, it was performed by David Calvitto who promptly won a Fringe Award. Paisley is probably going the same way.
It would be hard to find a more masterful replacement for Masterson. He is personable and able. His performance sweeps easily through the moods and styles of dramatic training - from formal delivery through direct address to the fourth wall, displays of deference, whimsy, heated expostulations, denunciations and comedy. It's a quaint and intense script intended as a virtuoso piece. It is delivered almost entirely in the third person.
It seeks to depict the isolation of the actor, his vulnerability as mouthpiece for the words of playwrights and his predicament at the mercy of costume-designers and directors. It looks at the composition of the audience, referred to as "strangers" and the question of whether or not a real relationship can evolve between stage and audience. It plays upon the devices of the theatre, snipes at the undercurrents of backstage politics and uses all the arts of the stage to present a wry abstract on how peculiar a beast is the theatre.
It also touches on life itself, the idea that every man is an island and, indeed, the existential questions of reality itself.
It's quite a piece. It takes quite an actor.
And there he is, outstanding in a pool of light in that wonderful new Fringe venue called the Kevin Crease Studios. It is a show to be recommended.
Samela Harris
When: 8 to 15 Mar
Where: Kevin Crease Studio Live from Channel Nine
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
Adelaide Fringe. Kevin Crease Studio Live from Channel Nine. 8 Mar 2014
Those who supported five.point,one through Pozible may ruffle their feathers with pride. Our young Adelaide company has done the city and the online funding system proud.
‘Notoriously Yours’ is an exciting piece of theatre.
It is brave and right on the zeitgeist of popular technology.
Who knew there were so many stagecraft applications for the mobile phone? Instant video projections, mirror, tape recorder, car headlights...
‘Notoriously Yours’ has been written and directed by Van Badham with the support of a tight and talented five.point.one team.
It is a thriller.
It is vivid in black and white - that being presented by the tight suits of the men in ties and the striking off-the-shoulder polka dot costume of the one female. Set against a big white screen, every scene creates aesthetics of black and white, be it tableaux and shadow play or giant video images.
It is a work of outstanding design values.
The narrative follows a libidinous Croatian Australian girl who hooks up with a hacker on an online dating site. But the game of anonymous sex is subverted by national surveillance and she is swept into a complex and intimidating scenario of spies, politics and national security.
Van Badham keeps the action sharp and snappy. It is one of those "where-did-the-time-go?" shows. One forgets that the seats are uncomfortable and could not care if one is hot or cold. The play is the thing.
The actors have already made their mark in Adelaide theatre and here they simply show why they always get good reviews. Matt Crook finds a delicate balance between being a ruthlessly purposeful spy and someone falling in love with the plant. Craig Behenna swings convincingly between poker-faced spy and jealous gun-runner. Brad Williams ably embodies sinister brother and sinister sex partner as well as sinister spy. An ill-fiting shirt is surprisingly effective in helping to establish character. Indeed, the costuming is terrific. As is the performance of Claire Glenn as "Her" - the central character whose night of lust turns into a very dangerous adventure.
There are shades of Julian Assange and Edward Snowden, there are hints of Tom Clancy, John Le Carre and even Orson Welles. And yet, with all its retro references, it is about as today as superstar selfies - but with a lot more future.
It also proves that very good things are Pozible.
Samela Harris
When: 8 to 12 Mar
Where: Kevin Crease Studio Live from Channel Nine
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
WOMADdelaide is well and truly underway for 2014 with an early crowd surge and packed centre stage for the first performance of the first day, Mokoomba. The group sport an eclectic mixture of instruments with electric guitar and bass, brass and drums and create an upbeat Afro-fusion of truly 'happy' music!
The group hail from Zimbabwe and take their inspiration from their cultural Tonga roots. Their music is uplifting and funky and the percussive energy makes dancing simply irresistible. The early set didn't stop the audience from getting right into the action as they joined in on a grape vine dance as emulated by the whole group onstage.
It is easy to see why this award winning group are one of the most exciting things to recently come out of Zimbabwe. Mokoomba presented a great opening set and what can only be described as a positive beginning to this great World Of Music And Dance festival.
Paul Rodda
Adelaide Festival. Malthouse Theatre. Her Majesty's Theatre. 5 Mar 2014
Tom E. Lewis became mainstream since playing the eponymous role in The Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith in 1978. Recently, he collated the issues of land, entitlement and family seen in King Lear with his experience of the same in the Aboriginal community. Such a conversation with co-creator and director Michael Kantor has resulted in this compelling adaptation of King Lear to Aboriginal conditions.
This production is a rough diamond. Thankfully shrunk to an hour-forty, Shakespeare's script is adapted in word, voice, intonation and even language to the red dust of Central Australia. The cast effortlessly switch from Shakespeare's verse, native languages and the colloquial Kriol.
An elder with a crown divides the mineral-rich land amongst his daughters on the bonnet of an enormous piece of rusting mining machinery that dominates the action whilst doubling as the front porch of a number of dwellings deftly represented in screen projections. The valuable land is an attractive prize to Goneril and Regan, and the role of the bastard mischief-maker Edmund in this rendition is more focused on his intercourse with the daughters than on bedeviling poor Gloucester and the hapless Edgar.
Tom E. Lewis was a sweaty and intense Lear, an old showman. Jimi Bani was a stand-out Edmund. His large frame negotiated the stage with grace and his oration was spot-on. The three daughters have more individuated lives than in the Bard's Lear, grounding them in realism. We don't see that much of Cordelia, but Jada Alberts (Regan) and Natasha Wanganeen (Goneril) do a superb portrait of what the Americans call trailer trash with verisimilitude. A live on-stage trio ably set the mood with Aboriginal and standard chords thanks to music director John Rodgers.
Great in concept, strong in script, convincing in production but a little underdone in ensemble performance.
David Grybowski
When: 5 to 8 Mar
Where: Malthouse Theatre
Bookings: adelaidefestival.com.au
Adelaide Festival. Shona Reppe. Odeon Theatre. 5 Mar 2014
This is the Best Show for Children - Theatre Awards UK in 2012. Creator, designer and performer Jona Reppe takes her place amongst a framework filled with instrumentation and devices of Victorian analogy. Dressed in a souped up lab coat, she introduces herself as scrapologist Dr Patricia Baker. And we are going on journey of discovery and investigation like a South Seas explorer through a scrapbook. This is a found object extraordinaire and we must discover its author and why the creator collected.
To the kids who don't know yet, a scrapbook is explained. Dr Baker makes this scrapbook very, very important and her forensic skills are ample. Every bit of matter is probed and sniffed to build a body of evidence. Page by page, the clues are revealed. Some are probed with magnification whose images appear on a nearby screen.
Besides her earnest enthusiasm, what I love about Dr Baker is her use of the scientific method. She is brave enough to make deductions, test them, and if they fail the test, out they go, and a new hypothesis is developed. This is a very valuable and fun lesson for the young'uns.
The mystery is solved in a heart-warming and charming conclusion. But it's no mystery why this show won Britain's top award.
David Grybowski
When: 5 to 9 Mar
Where: Odeon Theatre
Bookings: adelaidefestival.com.au