★★★
Adelaide Fringe. Safari Street Creative. The Holden Street Theatres. 23 Feb 2022
Off with the heads of the dominant patriarchy! At least that’s what the daughter thinks. The action opens with parents Chris and Kate angsty-busy on their phones, tolerating a waiting room, delving out political diatribe and trading withering repartee worthy of David Williamson or West Wing. Don’t try to grope for the details, the gist of it will get you by. Actors Spencer Scholz and Samantha Riley exude who they play; Chris is a political leader in government and Kate is the party’s campaign manager. They have all the charm of snakes. But while Scholz and Riley only just got engaged, Chris and Kate are a confusing and messed up un-coupling. And they have been called into the school to deal with their daughter’s mischief. But we learn it is they who should have their hands slapped.
In this world premiere, playwright Spencer Scholz parrots the claptrap and cliches we’ve come to expect from these shallow characters but he creatively entangles politics with poor parenting, and amply shows how destructive are the party games of their work lives when turned on each other and applied to their daughter. The play takes on a fistful of social and political issues and is very sophisticated for a new writer. It is biting satire with nifty phrases, like “do you want to be right or do you want to win?” as Chris and Kate assess and reassess the pros and cons, and the core of what they do. Yet the actors rip through the script, shout and trounce on some nuance. So many potent moments deserve more time and the dialogue dissolves into ugly bickering. Maybe there wasn’t a director as no director credit is given. But whoever was boss managed to turn a radio play into lively theatre with dynamic doses of movement and body language. Riley is especially watchable – she looks the part and Scholz generously gave her the best opportunities for character backgrounding and garnering audience sympathy for Kate.
The power parents are caught in the headlights of their political careers, and it doesn’t appear like anything will change, so sadly the Chris and Kate you saw at the beginning is what you get in the end. A tragi-comedy.
David Grybowski
When: 22 to 27 Feb
Where: The Holden Street Theatres
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
★★★★★
Adelaide Fringe. Veda Hille and Amiel Gladstone. Holden Street Theatres. 23 Feb 2022
Creative director Martha Lott of Hindmarsh’s Holden Street Theatres has innovated again. Using loot from the Holden Street Theatres’ Edinburgh Fringe Award, she had brought to Adelaide four 70-minute film renditions of theatrical productions emanating from Vancouver, Canada, that were first shown at the 2021 Edinburgh Fringe, and called it the On Screen Program. In today’s Covid-compromised world, this is another way to see world-class theatre as it can’t always come here by Qantas. Lott makes the viewing experience a very comfortable one with widely spaced comfy chairs - and side tables for your dinner and drinks purchased on site - facing a wall-mounted screen in a lovely room of a Hindmarsh heritage home.
Call me a luddite, but I never heard of Craigslist. It’s a comprehensive way of connecting with people about all sorts of things: buying and selling, jobs, housing, discussion forums, community events including rants, etc. I looked it up for Adelaide and it’s under-utilised compared to what I saw on the Vancouver site. I quickly found this little gem, “To lady who bought us hot chocolate at Timmy's on 8th Avenue in New West thank you very kindly that was so sweet of you and may I say you are one attractive lady.” Now take this nugget, make a song out of it, visualise it for theatre or camera and multiply by 100, and you have the crown jewels of a wonderfully whimsical show. Bravo!
In our Covid-compromised days, Craigslist would have been a terrific outlet for the locked down and lonely (and also the prowler as my example could indicate, but this show doesn’t go down dark alleys). Writer, musical director and producer Veda Hille is classically trained and is the pandemic artist-in-residence at The Clutch in Vancouver. This project, a collaboration with Bill Richardson and Director Amiel Gladstone, is one of a few to get the company through. The production values of single performers shown in isolated squares of black stacked together like unconnected apartment dwellers epitomises the sadly sweet people driven in droves to the Craigslist community. All the songs are of the musical theatre variety keying off the quirky posts.
The performances without exception are of top quality that speak with body language, props, eccentric accoutrements, fine voices and zany personalities to match the material garnered or interpreted from Craigslist postings.
This production is entirely covid-influenced in choosing the Craigslist community as its topic, devising a production style to reflect quarantine, creating the show with social distancing in the studio and filming it for export. Craigslist is a lesson in how to make theatre about isolated people in a way where nobody sees anybody and then to show it around the world without leaving home. Bravo!
The other three shows of the On Screen Program are: Inside/Out: A Prison Memoir, 1 Hour Photo, and The Darlings: A Provocative Evening of Drag from Vancouver.
David Grybowski
When: 15 Feb to 20 March
Where: Holden Street Theatres
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
★★★
Electric Dreams. SA Museum Pacific Cultures Gallery. 22 February 2022
Producer Electric Dreams from Britain creates dynamic amusements using interactive virtual reality (VR) technology originated by London’s StudioGoGo. There are a number of VR shows at the Fringe and Electric Dreams is presenting two of them, as well as a day-long conference on immersive storytelling and this one.
Wonderful that a show entitled Anthropocene is located in the midst of the museum’s collection of objects from the Pacific. The geological timeline of the earth is divided into time-chunks and we are living in the Holocene. However, there is a movement to have all or part of it renamed the Anthropocene to reflect Humankind’s effect on the geological record through anthropogenic effects like increasing CO2, cultivation, urbanisation and other processes.
On stage is a large QR code giving audience access to the performance guide which is rather difficult to read given the background colour is slate grey and all the writing and symbols are far too small - ironic given this work is based on good design. Composer Jamie Perera gives an introduction and some explanation concerning the origins of the work. It’s complicated. Perera and his team accumulated data relevant to climate change and its social implications eg GDP) - all of it harmfully rising in accelerating trends especially since 1850 - and converted it into sound; a process known as sonification. Perera makes a good example by holding out his hand and singing tones that vary high and low with the length of his fingers (something to try at home.) These data are displayed in a chronological chart in the performance guide along with major anthropological events like the origin of farming and the Industrial Revolution over the last 12,000 years. Good luck trying to relate these data to the music, but that’s not the point, just taking in the audiovisual components is enough for your role.
The show comprises a film and score. Who created the film is not clear, maybe Perera did? The music is increasingly complex - strident and rather unrelenting. As layers of sound are added so are layers of imaging, similar to the way sediments are layered in a geological section. Finally, you view over a dozen thin strips of images on the small screen which are associated with the sonified data. Occasionally, screen-wide images are overlain and recorded voice-overs compete with the orchestral score. The whole thing increases in tempo and urgency – one is reminded of Koyaanisqatsi: Life Out of Balance from 1982.
Anthropocene in C Major was all of contemplative, mesmerising, hypnotic, cacophonic and a little tedious at various times due to the stability of the overarching audio and visual theme. Some help arrived with Julian Ferraretto playing an electric violin, but one wonders how he felt competing with the electronic orchestra and voices? Perera remained on stage the whole time behind a PC. At the end of the film, he explained that every show is different, but his own role in the live showing is not clear.
Perera spoke of climate change anxiety and even grief in his epilogue. If you’re feeling either or both of these, you will find no comfort here. But if you are in denial, this show will give you a good shake. It’s a curious and technical project matching the data to your senses.
David Grybowski
When: 19 & 22 Feb
Where: SA Museum Pacific Cultures Gallery
Bookings: Season Closed
★★★★1/2
Adelaide Fringe. Ukiyo @ Gluttony. 20 Feb 2022
Oh Mr Spin, you made our day!
Mr Spin, with sidekick The Maestro on piano, delivers a funny, kid friendly, laugh a minute show, with a few adult jokes thrown in for good measure.
In matching suits and bright red socks, Maestro acts as the straight foil to Mr Spin – except when he doesn’t. Mr Spin’s primary schtick is to emphasise what can go wrong, and often does. There’s a real vaudeville vibe here, as the Maestro tries to keep Mr Spin and his tricks in line, but he soon gets into the vibe, taking on Mr Spin in the money trick and outsmarting him completely.
Mr Spin is a great juggler and a dab hand at the magic tricks, and manages to keep the kids laughing along as things go terribly wrong and then wonderfully right! The six ball saga, without giving anything away, is an exercise in pathos and joy, and of course every juggler should don a red tutu!
There’s a wonderful clothing routine that every child and parent can relate to – sleeves in the wrong place, jacket on backward, pockets gone weird – one doesn’t see enough of this simple but clever comedy. And yes, there are fart jokes.
There’s plenty of slapstick with a music stand that just won’t go together as a music stand should but where it goes most vaudevillian is when Maestro becomes the one man band with drums, piano accordion and trumpet and Mr Spin takes up the bass on a unicycle. This is, quite simply, hilarious heart in the mouth stuff.
This is simple comedy at its best – the nervous, sweaty Mr Spin and the too cool for school Maestro had the kids and adults completely entertained. And the adult jokes? The sheet music line is certainly on repeat.
Arna Eyers-White
When: 20 Feb to 20 March
Where: Ukiyo @ Gluttony
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
★★★★
Adelaide Fringe. Cirkidz. Peacock @ Gluttony. 20 Feb 2022
Ropes, string, the ties that bind – the young performers from the SA Circus centre’s Youth troupe explore them in a compelling and skilled theatrical work, and it shows Cirkidz as a fully grown up youth theatre company.
Ropeable explores the togetherness and aloneness of living in communities, with friends and families, using the ties to emphasise the bonds, to make more riven the deep cracks. It is a cohesive and well-crafted show, much more than tumbling and acrobatic skills brought together for a Fringe event. The young acrobats leap and spin their way through the production to Phoenix Pastro’s original soundtrack, at times pulsating, at others melancholic or pensive.
It should be noted that quite young ones are not really the audience here; the music can be a bit loud and they get restless about half way through as their attention drifts. Ropeable is an entertaining and skilled production from this company but it does not ‘speak’ directly to an audience as a children’s show might.
Using various devices - suspended ladders, rope towers, shoulders – on this stage in the round, the cast goes through their paces with a professionalism that belies their years. Mistakes are made, but so quickly glossed over and moved on that it barely registers. They work brilliantly as a group, and the trust level is palpable as they fall without hesitation into each others’ arms from great heights, supporting and strengthening each others’ routines.
One vignette features a stunning lighting effect; the stage and the performers are lit up with a yellow polka dot effect, creating an eerie edge to the acrobatic performance. This is so professional it’s easy to forget that many of the cast are performers in training.
A standout was the figure in the web-like harness who hung suspended in the air, supported by ten strings. They are cut through, one by one, by a slightly malevolent woman; the audience silent in delicious suspense as she cuts one after another until only one remains...
There is humour in the production; the hilarious pink string scene was a welcome relief from some of the more esoteric fare, and did raise the question, how long is a piece of string?!
Arna Eyers-White
When : 27 Feb and 6 Mar
Where: The Peacock @ Gluttony
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au