Here We Are

★★★★★

Adelaide Fringe. Emma Beech. The Mill. 23 Feb 2023

There we are. A seated audience. There she is. Emma. The black clad, tall authoritative storyteller. An improvisational experience is to be had, the show blurb promises. How does that work?

Well, there’s a scripted bit outlining things. We can say stuff. Ask questions. Emma can ask questions. Emma will decide what she does with responses or random chat. Not in a fashion we might necessarily expect.

Nothing occurs in a fashion expected in this created-from-the-ground-up show.

An expressed liking for the doors of the performance space, a love of Dublin or a question about the gold chain on Emma’s black slacks prompts tales from Emma’s life that take on an extraordinary otherworldly life, as each tale links up in the afterglow of the previous one.

We become conscious that some power has seized the words uttered by audience members and extracted from them something deep, complex and challenging. We sit transfixed by the quixotic nature of the stories told. They seem so unreal yet here they are.

How bizarre it is these stories have been prodded out into live expression by a couple of words from an audience. That the sum total of an hour has created a once only moment of thought, reflection and new understanding of the great and small issues of life.

Tonight’s audience experience is unique to us only. Please take the chance to make yours.

David O’Brien

When: 22 Feb to 18 Mar

Where: The Mill – The Breakout

Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au

Done To Death, By Jove!

★★★★

Gavin Robertson & Nicholas Collett in Association with Virtually Creative. Goodwood Theatre. 22 Feb 2023

Brits Gavin Roberston and Nicholas Collett have been acting, directing, playwriting and creating theatre separately but also quite comfortably together since the ‘80s. They are so congenial with each other they can probably wear each other’s underwear.

The opening deceit is that four of the cast are held up in traffic and the two actors will take on the multiple roles of all six. I fell for it, of course. In this hilarious spoof of the murder mystery, Collett smears his mouth with Miss Marple’s lippy, Robertson holds up Poirot’s moustache with his blue-taped finger, and the pair play Holmes and Watson as a Laurel and Hardy act.

They unleash the devices of classic good old British comical theatre and radio for farce, quick costume changes, hats galore, sound effects, mix-ups, double-takes and behind-the-scenes antics by the actors playing the actors playing the characters. They employ every accent known to the British Isles. It’s fast, funny and furious. When you have famous fodder for mirth like our quartet of detectives and all the implicated townfolk from Midsomer you can muster, I guarantee you, your troubles will melt away into smiles and laughter and yes, wonderment at the shear virtuosity of Robertson & Collett. Bravo!

David Grybowski

When: 17 to 26 Feb

Where: Goodwood Theatre

Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au

Mansion

★★★★

Adelaide Fringe. The Octagon, Gluttony. 22 Feb 2023

Described as a “dark fusion of contemporary dance, ballet, burlesque…” Mansion tells the story of a family recently bereaved, who move into a haunted house. Well, that’s the bare bones of it, anyway, but this is a performance with technical values far, far above most Fringe shows, and the performances are strong and powerful.

Things started off perhaps a little shakily as the storyline slid into the farcically obvious territory of vamps and ghouls and a central character, the widow Mel Walker (who could do a more than passable turn as Courtney Love should she so choose) beset by the ghost of her departed husband. So much I understand, and there is much I do not, partly because the pre-recorded narrator and the voiceovers were weak links, verging in places on the risible. The script and the recordings need reworking.

Ah, but the show! Mansion is a muscular and robust piece of work, timing at nearly an hour and a quarter, and really with not a minute wasted. The cast of a dozen or so push what is possible within the realm of dance theatre, incorporating elements of circus rope and swing work into a show which keeps the surprises coming.

The highlight for me is that most difficult to describe: A zombie acrobat suspended in a gibbet awash with ultraviolet lighting to a soundtrack of industrial grade reworking of the Rolling Stones number Paint It Black. A note; the costumes and make up and latex masks are top notch… as I mentioned, the production values are exemplary. The show and the performers are sexy, vampish, zombified, repellent and curiously compelling.

Mansion is powerfully interesting and contemporary in its appeal. Is it perfect? No. There is the problem with the pre-recorded narration (it has no gravitas and no presence) and the ending is one of the lamest and least appealing conclusions I have ever seen. The intoned ‘thank you for coming to our mansion’ is a massive letdown since the scene might have ended on a pulsating highpoint about three minutes earlier. And don’t sit in the front row of the stalls – for some reason that doesn’t become clear, a row of people are seated around the edge of the stage on benches, and their heads successfully block quite a bit of the floor action.

Nonetheless, if you going to one big top experience, this should be the one.

Alex Wheaton

When: 22 Feb to 12 Mar

Where: The Octagon, Gluttony

Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au

Watson: The Final Problem

★★★★

Adelaide Fringe Festival. Goodwood Theatre. 19 Feb 2023

Watson: The Final Problem is a stage adaptation in the form of a substantial monologue of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories, especially ‘The Final Problem’. Sherlock Holmes finally has it out with his nemesis Professor Moriarty and meets his end (or does he?). Wanting the put the record straight – what did actually happen to Sherlock Holmes? – the story is told by Dr Watson who recounts aspects of his own early life (as a commissioned officer in the British army) through to how he and Holmes first meet, and finally to their last adventure trying to catch and outsmart Moriarty.

If one has read the Sherlock Holmes stories, particularly ‘The Final Problem’, one knows how it is all going to turn out unless the playwright has taken liberties with the Conan Doyle’ original. As it turns out, the text follows the original and so there are no surprises. So, what’s the point of difference? A quality theatrical performance relies on an interesting plot, characters that are distinctive and about which you care, text that is attention-grabbing and comes to life when spoken, creation and resolution of tension, and on-stage spectacle and physicality that holds your imagination. Watson: The Final Problem has most of these elements to varying degrees, which makes it quality theatre, but this reviewer found the brooding tension to be largely unvaried which held the show back from being great.

Not only is Tim Marriott the co-writer of the script (with Bert Coules), he also performs it. Coming in at sixty minutes this is no mean feat for a single actor, and it takes someone of Marriott’s skill and expertise to pull it off. He plays a resolute Dr Watson with a quintessential English manner, and it’s an object lesson in stagecraft. Marriott’s approach and body language is well chosen for the aged war veteran Watson, and his diction is flawless. His physicality is impressive, as he throws himself about the stage in sync with a masterful sound underscore as Watson recalls brutal aspects of the Anglo-Afghanistan War in which he served. Mariott’s vocal skills are polished: his clarity and articulation is first-rate. He moves around the set with purpose, which is tastefully decorated in the style of befitting a gentleman in Victorian England.

Marriott is a masterful story teller, and a superb actor, and Watson: The Final Problem is worth seeing for that reason alone. It’ll have you constantly sitting on the edge of your seat.

Kym Clayton

When: 12 Feb to 18 Mar

Where: Multiple Venues

Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au