★★★★
Adelaide Fringe. Wilkins The Adventurer. Goodwood Theatre. 25 Feb 2023
Sir George Hubert Wilkins is without doubt Australia’s greatest adventurist and explorer. And you never heard of him, right? He was a pioneer of air and sea exploration, a keen recorder of scientific data and way ahead of his time on global meteorology, and as the documentary title suggests, a film and still photographer, particularly of the polar icescapes, Aborigines and Innuits, and the Western Front. These photos form an enchanting and valuable record of times long gone. Like Forrest Gump, he seemed to be at the right place at the right time for great events. Wilkins was on the 1921/22 Shackleton-Rowett Expedition to the Southern Ocean on which Shackleton died, and he photographed King George V knighting Sir John Monash on the battlefield. Monash said of him, “[Wilkins] was a highly accomplished and absolutely fearless combat photographer. What happened to him is a story of epic proportions. Wounded many times ... he always came through. At times he brought in the wounded, at other times he supplied vital intelligence of enemy activity he observed. At one point he even rallied troops as a combat officer ... His record was unique." More often, he was creating the great events with many world firsts. And he was born near Hallett in 1888, the last of 13 children, on a property on the wrong side of the Goyder Line. His birth house is still there, ready to visit, thanks to its restoration by admirer and fellow aviator, Dick Smith.
Adelaide’s Peter Maddern is a Wilkins tragic - as many people familiar with his story are - and he lovingly spent two-and-a-half years researching and creating this documentary comprising images of Wilkins in action but mostly of Wilkins pointing the camera. He takes us chronologically and faithfully along on Wilkins’s adventures in chapter-like sequences: the Balkan war, Canadian Arctic expeditions, the Western Front (in which he was wounded), post-war Gallipoli, the 1919 England to Australia Air race (in which he crashed), Shackleton’s last voyage, and Stalinist starvation in 1922. A 1923/25 survey for the British Museum of bird life in northern Australia was his undoing with Australia - his intimacy with the plight of the Aborigines and his criticism of Australian authorities for environmental degradation earned him the disapprobation that has thwarted his recognition in this country. In 1928, he and a comrade made the first flight over Antarctica. Only five months later, he flew from Alaska to Spitsbergen over the Arctic. For this he was knighted and got a ticker tape parade in New York. But wait there’s more! In 1931, he was the first to take a submarine under Arctic ice. The venture was so reckless, even Randolph Hearst ended his support. However, the US Navy thought so highly of him that they scattered his ashes at the North Pole and returned to do the same for his wife a few years later. The first US nuclear submarine was named for Wilkins sub, the Nautilus.
Maddern admits that he’s not a professional documentary film-maker. Nonetheless, I reviewed the film in the 2021 Fringe and it remains punchy and vitally interesting throughout. Maddern readily employs the Ken Burns effect to make even still photography come to life, his own narration, background scores and voiceovers of Wilkins and others.
Don’t let the weird poster picture of a seaplane coming at you out of Wilkins’s nose put you off. This is a must see for everyone who hasn’t heard of our hero, and for the fanatical fans, fantastic! Bravo!
PS There are two recent biographies of Wilkins: The Last Explorer: Hubert Wilkins, Australia's Unknown Hero, by Simon Nasht (2007) and The Incredible Life of Hubert Wilkins: Australia's Greatest Explorer by Peter FitzSimons (2021).
David Grybowski
When: 25 Feb
Where: Goodwood Theatre
Bookings: Closed
★★★★★
Adelaide Fringe. Neylon & Peel (WA). Holden Street Theatres. 25 Feb 2023
The “Beep Test” is a “thing” familiar to most school children. It is a crucial fitness measure which is counted in their overall school achievements. A lousy showing in the beep test can bring down the school dux. Such is the premise of this fast and furious home-grown Aussie musical.
Thus does Sandra (Jo Jabalde), the top student of Year 7C, struggle against the odds of the sports-star students to keep her high marks and, importantly, to please her demanding but demeaning mother.
She is up against Zach (Josh Reckless) and Jane (Sara Reed) who are super sporty rivals desperate to come out on top. There is also hapless Cooper (Jack Keen) who, with his interest in computer gaming, is the outsider and general victim of school teasing. Shamelessly favouring his footy-mad pet, Zach, the PE teacher (Lachie Hewson) pushes the cause of fitness with the hero-worship of champions. For anyone who is not a school sports fan, this psychology rubs in a very wrong direction. But, Naylon & Peel have squeezed a goodly dose of humour out of it, as well as an old fashioned tale of compassion and moral values. Yep, it is cornball. But it is irresistibly high energy and fun-filled, the cast, when not jogging through songs, performing some very creditable dance routines. The choreography is extremely slick and good looking and the cast members are fit as proverbial fiddles and very well-rehearsed and able as hoofers, especially Hewson as the hulking big coach fellow. For all his muscular bulk, this young actor moves like a dream. He’s a very expressive actor, too. Indeed, all characters are clearly and compassionately evoked. It’s an extremely competent production all round.
Connor Neylon and Jackson Peele are products of WAAPA. The Beep Test is not their first musical and one hopes not their last. It is an appealing show, impeccably enhanced by the obviously formally-trained cast and a fabulous accompanist.
The production has been earning five-star reviews wherever it has been performed - and here’s five more.
Samela Harris
NOTE: Programs available only by QR codes on the phone are the critic’s nightmare. One cannot and must not look at them during performance and definitely not take notes on them. Dropbox is an app. For heaven’s sake. Accept cookies. QR programs are odious and detract from a good impression of a young company.
When: 25 Feb to 5 Mar
Where: Holden Street Theatres
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
★★★★★
Adelaide Fringe. Flying Bridge Theatre Company (UK) via Joanne Hartstone. The Bally, Gluttony. 24 Feb 2023
They tout it as “a surrealist comedy”. It is far more. It is like a deep dive into Beckett, Sartre and Kafka. Written by American satirist C.J. Hopkins, it is absurdist, existential, satirical, and deliciously manic with a nod in the direction of Laurel and Hardy. Most importantly, it is a rivetingly good piece of theatre superbly performed in impeccable American accents by a couple of ace actors from a Welsh theatre company.
Here, just to add to the descriptive melange, it is presented in a seriously cute round tent called The Bally set beneath trees on the verdant slopes of Guttony in Rymill Park.
Tousle-haired Sam in denim bib-overalls is the innocent hick parrying with sleek straight man, Bob, who wears shirt and tie. Both are lost in torrents of verbiage, sometimes puzzled, sometimes combative, sometimes political. Ostensibly, they are sharing a bottle of bourbon after a game of cards which was abandoned because of the loss of the nine of diamonds. Their subjects segue in discursive circles touching on seals and fishing, capitalism and crime. Yes, even horses. They are anarchists who hate anarchists. They express the best and worst of American nationalistic sentiments. They talk ceaselessly, incessantly, desperately, furiously. They are trapped in frenetic, meaningless discourse bringing to mind the predicaments of Godot and Endgame and NoExit.
But these are the prisoners of Horse Country, performed with peerless vociferance by Daniel Lllewelyn-Williams and Michael Edwards and directed by Mark Bell,.
The play’s humour is lateral with surprise throwaways. The audience concentrates to keep up. This is not hard, since it is rivetingly intense - but only for 65 breathtaking minutes.
It was a hit at the Edinburgh Fringe and it is destined to be a hit here.
A sensationally satisfying dose of transfixing bafflegab.
Samela Harris
When: 24 Feb to 10 Mar
Where: The Bally, Gluttony
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
★★★★
Adelaide Fringe. Goodwood Theatre. 25 Feb 2023
Done To Death, By Jove! is a hoot! It’s a two hander where at least six are needed (actors that is, not six hands!). It’s a who dunnit and borrows from the style of The 39 Steps, The Play that Goes Wrong, segments from the TV series The Two Ronnies, and arguably from the Farndale Avenue Housing Estate Townswomen's Guild Dramatic Society etc formula. We have on stage two consummate award-winning actors – Nicholas Collett and Gavin Robertson – who both give an object lesson in physical humour and general stagecraft. It’s a delight, especially in the last fifteen minutes of the sixty minute show when the pace hots up and its bordering on chaos (of the best kind!).
So, what’s it all about?
Collett and Robertson take to the stage as Sir Nicholas and Sir Gavin, both mainstays of a touring theatre company that has experienced a major mishap. The truck carrying the cast, crew, set, properties – the whole box and dice so to speak – has broken down en route to the theatre. What to do? Because the show must go on, the two Sirs valiantly travel on to the theatre and hastily cobble together what they can by way of costumes and properties and perform the show, playing all roles by themselves. You get the picture. There are lots of madcap costume changes, sound effects that go wrong, missed lines, false starts, and a set that doesn’t entirely work. Yes, it’s a hoot!
In an attempt to solve the case and find out who murdered Lady Fanshawe, the two Sirs play the roles of Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple, and Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson, as well as numerous witnesses, including two hilarious Scottish twin sisters, and a florist who could also be a flautist depending on your accent! Because the tech crew is stuck on the broken down truck, the two Sirs operate the laptop that has the sound effects on it, but it all gets hopelessly out of order which adds to the comedy.
But it could have been funnier, if the script was as strong as it was in the last fifteen minutes or so. Earlier in the play, the script calls for the two characters to break the fourth wall a little too often and to have side conversations between themselves as they sort out the myriad problems they need to solve. Initially its funny, but the script seems to rely a little too much on this stratagem, and the gag starts to wear thin. But, in the last quarter hour the style of the script comes into itself, and it is oh-so-funny!
Nicholas Collett and Gavin Robertson are an absolute delight, and it is obvious that they are having the time of their lives presenting this very silly but very funny play … that all goes wrong!
Kym Clayton
When: 25 to 26 Feb
Where: Goodwood Theatres
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
★★★★
Theatre Travels and Olivia Ruggiero. 23 Feb 2023
Vocal artist Olivia Ruggiero sings like an angel. The title of the show announces her two musical interests: Broadway for American musicals and diva for opera. Olivia performs in Adelaide already well-awarded. Her collaboration with director Carly Fisher resulted in Puppets which won Broadway World Sydney’s Best New Play, and Olivia receiving the best solo performance award last year.
Together, they created a syllabus of musical favourites and some less known but more fun numbers for Broadway Diva. When you are not lulled into a submissive buzz, you are enchanted by Olivia’s expressions or empathising with her prodigious love of her craft. Hers is a family story with Gran introducing her to musical theatre and Mum handing out flyers. Olivia presented a balanced mix of medleys and complete songs, all ably accompanied by Thomas Saunders on the keyboard. I Don’t Know How to Love Him of Jesus Christ Superstar was a moving emotional introspection. Jeanine Tesori’s (the most prolific and honoured female theatrical composer in history) very funny song about the frustrated Girl in 14B is a highlight of lively interpretation. A couple of short arias including an animated rendition of Puccini’s O Mio Babbino Caro were a very welcome change-up from Broadway.
Olivia looked fantastic in a firm-fitting sequined gown and she stayed cool in the evening heat. While her songs are imbued with heartfelt meaning and interpretation, her conversational tone with the audience, while honest, is a little too practiced. That slight fault is overwhelmed by her talent, love of craft and gumption. Brava!
PS – The show is presented in the lovely sunken gardens behind the cottage on the Holden Street Theatres premises. Being outdoors, the black vinyl seats cooked in the 40 degree sun for eight hours. Even at 7 pm, my bum was boiling, like a steak sizzling on a hot rock.
David Grybowski
When: 21 to 25 Feb
Where: The Barbara Hardy Garden – Holden Street Theatres
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au