★★
Adelaide Fringe. Lisa Angove. Star Theatres. 6 Mar 2023
The program opines that the Irish playwright and novelist, Samuel Beckett, is widely regarded as one of the most influential writers of the 20th Century. While he obviously was an important writer and the Nobel Prize winner for literature in 1969, there are few who have gone inside people’s heads in theatre the way Beckett has.
Footfalls is grim viewing. The action is minimalist: a middle-aged woman in decrepit condition simply paces across the front of the stage dressed in a ragged and worn dressing gown, or worse. Occasionally she stops to converse with an older voice that we identity at that of her mother.
Lisa Angove’s woman is a study of pitiable pain and confusion. But she never changes it up to signal the distinct parts of the play as outlined by Beckett. Her grimaces are awesome but tiresome. Angove too often attacks the lines with screeches and loses fidelity. Some of the staging elements evoking symbolic representations of Beckett’s themes are awol, so the show is even more minimalist than even Beckett imagined. The Beckett estate has been known to close down reprises that don’t obey the stage notes with precision, so how did they get away with that?
The direction by Phil Roberts is derived from Ralph Wilson’s direction in some way. Even the program notes are Wilson’s. The mother’s voice – Joyce Glynn – is recorded on scratchy old media and irritating pauses occur betwixt the live and recorded components. Her intonation is the ticket.
If you don’t know Beckett, this production might scare you off forever. But you’ll have fun figuring out what the heck is going on.
David Grybowski
When: 6 to 10 Mar
Where: Star Theatres – Star Theatre Two
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
★★★
Adelaide Fringe. Casey Jay Andrews and Joanne Hartstone. 5 Mar 2023
The title promises something spooky or sinister. Prior to the performance, writer and actor Casey Jay Andrews explains to the audience the basics of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse found in the Book of Revelations, but it’s drawing a long bow to link either of these to her more tame narrative.
Casey is an accomplished and clear raconteur and ideally suited to tell her tale. She writes with the familiar device of simultaneously advancing disparate anecdotes that blossom into stories and you guess the connection. The stories are familiar and warm-hearted but what little that is dramatically at stake for the protagonists is tempered by humour at the fancy of their actions. Casey’s enthusiasm thus seems over-egged and it’s all very cute. They say it’s best to write what you know; all the principal characters are female, even the horse, and the few males are not very nice. The ending is tied together like a parcel and presented to you as a gift.
And by the way, horses aren’t saddled up in their stalls waiting for someone to steal them.
David Grybowski
When: 2 to 12 Mar
Where: Treasury 1860 - Courtyard
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
★★★★★
Adelaide Fringe. Cirkidz. The Peacock @ Gluttony. 5 Mar 2023
Wow. Just wow. This is Cirkidz?
They were good in previous productions, for instance last Fringe’s offering Ropeable, but this is next level. Cirkidz is not just speaking up; it’s speaking a whole new language. It’s a harder, sharper language, working on that nebulous area between the body and the brain. The conversation is big, bold and at times brassy. It’s vulnerable, and it’s questioning.
Mettle is a new circus show and apparently “explores the mental toughness and passion that propels you toward achieving your vision for life”.
I’m never sure about these vague descriptions of shows – if you didn’t see them written down you would be clueless half the time, and just enjoy the production for the visual performances. Because there is certainly plenty of that!
But this time, there is a spoken narrative. It comes after you’ve settled down a bit, after you’ve noted that this is a step beyond what you’ve seen them do before. It all starts to shift shape a little, to make its own sense, to cement your suspicion that you’re seeing something special. The body and the brain. The connections. The disconnections. The pain. The passion. The laughter. The despair.
The ensemble work is exemplary. While there are some standout performers, there are no stars. The troupe work together, each forming part of the whole – there are no passengers here. And the athleticism is remarkable. They have honed their craft; movements are not left to dangle in the air or slide to a slow stop, they are sharp, clean, precise. Feet and arms stop when and where they should, incising the space before moving on.
Mettle also notes “that if you can't see the light at the end of the tunnel, you will light that sucker up yourself”. The light is used as motif for a number of the vignettes and the strength of these performers’ - body and brain – just shines through.
There’s plenty of humour to be had here as well – the ‘don’t touch the sweets’ routine is both hilarious and impressive, as the artists contort those bodies under and over themselves. Musical skills are also on show, as some of the cast take to the bass, keyboard and percussion for a beautifully performed vocal piece.
There is so much more to be said here – the seesaw routine is exciting, thrilling and unmissable. Towers of chairs have you holding your breath, and red cotton string will have you chuckling.
One often hears young people described as the performers (or audience) of the future. Forget that. These are the performers of now. They’re match fit, and the show is exemplary. Congratulations Cirkidz. With reference to another of the amazing routines, you’ve nailed it!
Arna Eyers-White
When: 13 Mar
Where: The Peacock at Gluttony
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
★★★★
Adelaide Fringe. Holden Street Theatres. 4 Mar 2023
Having seen Janet Swain’s solo show last week (Delphi Goes Bassooning is a singular triumph) it comes as no surprise that I should follow up with a viewing of her band performance, four women of sequins and sass from the Northern Rivers region of NSW who go by the name of The Loveys.
It is worth noting that the bassoon does make an appearance! There is a fabulous moment when Janet performs a solo, propping her foot up on the fold-back front of stage, flashing legs and channeling the like of Hole’s Courtney Love. Not often noted as an instrument of cabaret performance its place in The Loveys’ line-up appears ridiculously natural alongside the bass guitar (Pamela), percussion (Belinda) and beautiful white ukulele (Jenny). These days there is always a ukulele, though Janet rounds the sound out with keyboard. There is also, of course, a full complement of vocals, subject to a few vagaries and blurts in the sound before being largely sorted.
And the show itself? A loose take on life as a mature woman, seeking love and seeking friends and seeking sex. Three of the four have been divorced or outlived their partners, so rich experiences form part of the between-song patter, and more intimate reflections are used to build the narrative of the songs themselves. Songs of love and loss, all beautifully rendered, some hilariously so.
Spinster Daughter reclaims the term as a positive; Daddy Joined the Circus sees Belinda joining Jenny on the uke for some lovely picking; Sex at 72 has a number of mature women in the audience cackling with recognition. There’s a cover song in there as well; The Loveys pay homage to Sia Furler and the brilliant Chandelier – the song of freedom gets the twin uke attack and some complex vocal harmonics.
It is almost exactly what one might expect from four women (aging up to 72, if you’re asking) and their take on the personal side of life. There is no politics, no particular world-view, it is not that sort of cabaret. But the insights, the humour, the camaraderie are all real and powerful.
Have I Left It Too Late? they opine in one of their songs. Judging by this performance, absolutely not.
Arna Eyers-White
When: Closed
Where: Holden Street Theatres
Bookings: Closed
★★★★1/2
Adelaide Fringe. Grace Emily Hotel. 3 Mar 2023
Ben Roberts, founder of the Ukulele Death Squad, has performed a Fringe Springsteen show previously, pulling songs from various stages of the Boss’s lengthy career, leaving few punters unsatisfied with his choices.
He’s taken a risk this time, performing the entirety of Springsteen’s 1982 Nebraska album on the ukulele. The album itself was a risk; recorded on a four track TEAC in Springsteen’s rented house as a bunch of demos, most of the songs didn’t work for the E-Street band. While the ‘Electric Nebraska Sessions’ are apparently out there, most of those tracks have never seen the light of day. A few, such as Born in the USA, Glory Days and I’m On Fire survived the addition of the band, and went on to 1984’s Born in the USA. For the most part however, the songs were too raw, too personal, and Springsteen and manager Jon Landeau decided to release the demos as the album.
Nebraska appears constantly in critic’s choices, but it never really sold well, didn’t get airplay and, bar for Atlantic City, the songs rarely get an airing. Yet it remains an essential part of Springsteen folklore and, for the tragics (comme moi), a vital component of the lexicon.
There need be no concern here; Roberts has grasped Nebraska with both hands, and held it victoriously aloft. From the start, he takes control of the songs, making them his own, yet never strays from the essence of Springsteen’s intent. Introducing the album, he acknowledges the song writing, the storytelling, and notes the lack of traditional forms: choruses, bridges, the singalong hooks. And death. The album is full of death – of people, of love, of relationships – and a dog.
In introducing each track, Roberts contextualises with a potted social and song history, a bit of opinion, and often shares some of the difficulties he had in getting the songs down. The voice reverb is a tad heavy, which could make the lyrics a bit fuzzy and the uke a little sharp at times, but overall Roberts brings an unmistakeable Springsteen vibe to the room, no mean feat. The audience is deathly quiet as he works his way through this most sombre of set lists. Bass and tambourine percussion come via cannily played foot pedals, and he manages to fill out the sound while giving the songs the space they need.
State Trooper, for example, is about as sparse as they come on Nebraska. Two chords, over and over and over. Roberts adds to it with some stunning fret picking and slide, but allows it to remain the tragic cry for help that it is. Ah, please don’t stop me.
To close the show, Roberts plays his own composition Glass of Water, acknowledging that it’s essentially homage to the style of song writing Springsteen employed on the album: a well told story, no lyrical repeats, no choruses. He takes the opportunity to showcase his uke playing and if you’re still thinking that the uke is about the jangle of Tiny Tim (or worse, Scott Morrison), you need to see this to understand.
Some people were there to hear Springsteen’s Nebraska, others to hear a remarkable uke player; they both came away richer.
Arna Eyers-White
When: 9 and 16 Mara
Where: Grace Emily Hotel
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au