★★★1/2
Adelaide Fringe. The Vault / Fools Paradise. 17 Feb 2024
After queueing for quite some time the assembled throng was informed about a knife throwing act in the performance. This, we were told, was something to take note of, and we were admonished to not stand or make sudden movements during the act. It is sage advice with which to live your life.
The performance began 20 minutes late. My advice is ‘Don’t start late’. Especially in a festival packed with acts one after another.
And they were revealed, hastened onstage one after another by an MC whose name I did not catch. Somewhat sketchy audio aside, he did a pretty good job of whipping up the crowd hysteria, firstly for juggler Richard Sullivan who was excellent. With no time to catch our breath it was revealed Act 2 was the celebrated and aforementioned knife throwing Jess and his ‘voluptuous assistant’ Aja. The words are mine, the sentiment associated with macho strutting knife throwing at posing woman entirely his. To each their own I suppose; I thought it was poor.
Max & Simon from Only Bones contributed the idea of a vocal stylist doofing accompaniment to an excellent acrobatic display. The power in this guy's body had to be seen to be believed. I’ve never seen close-mic doof with acrobatics before, so there’s that.
An absolute highlight greeted us at the midpoint of the show; a suspended rigid pole brought Danny Golding to the stage. Hypnotic, sinuous and sensuous, Golding wrapped and climbed his way into some amazing poses and seemed to do so effortlessly. As he finished, he flicked the pole as he walked offstage, a deliberate little movement which said “I came, I saw, I showed you a little of what I can do.” Amazing.
With some help from a member of the audience (Jamie, and yes, it was a raucous audience on a warm Saturday evening) our MC got in on the performance with a ladder act. I forgot to take notes. I also was remiss in noting the suspended acrobatic work of Jessica Robbins, save that it was precise, outstanding and entrancing, and I most definitely did not take notes during Dr McQueef’s expose on vaginal flatulence. Yes, you read that correctly. Vaginal flatulence. A plastic recorder, the sort kids play in school, was involved. You should understand the kids do not play their recorders in the way this one was, errrr, tooted.
To conclude a show which promised so much and delivered some (it is, after all, billed as Crème de la Crème) Harley took to the stage and gave us a robust acrobatic workout from the suspended straps. Very well received, though I gained the impression the audience were still pondering what they had seen previously.
Alex Wheaton
When: 17 Feb to 16 Mar
Where: The Vault / Fools Paradise
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
★★★★1/2
Adelaide Fringe. Ukiyo / Gluttony. 17 Feb 2024
This is burlesque in a pure and simple rendition of the art. A melange of song and dance and provocative pose and skin and flesh and love and emotion. Some small parts are mimed, but the best of them is sung by Eliza Dickson.
For reasons which should become clear this review may turn into a polemic. Last year the majority of this cast treated us to Bones, a nails-sharpened clawing reveal of the beauty and fashion industry. This year Uncut does more, cuts deeper, then seeks to draw more than a little blood. Under the guidance of Fafi D’Alour it begins with a premise and part of an explanation for the show itself, using the power of song in Portishead’s Glory Box. In simple terms, it sets the stage for what is to come.
Fafi D’Alour becomes the dominant presence on stage, a huge red hat atop her head, drapes of red cloth obscuring her features, and attended by four acolytes (Dickson, Georgia Rose, Sarah Wilson and Tara Beyne), who work to the grind of a pure burlesque in When You’re Good For Mama. What is revealed becomes confronting theatre, especially so for men since in looking at the society of man (yes, I intended the pre-eminence of gender in this examination) D’Alour makes a level of disdain clear.
Working through some simple devices; fire eating, fire breathing, acrobatics, rope gymnastics and calisthenics and the songs which Dickson brings to life (Nobody Is Perfect) the five performers set out their view of the state of society and how it relates to them.
As we close in on the end of the show we close in on the bottom line of the performance – please do excuse that excruciating pun – as the cast bring to life the song Lick My Pussy, Lick My Crack. Ah, sapphic erotica, one of the great staple items of burlesque. And to round things out, the evil which does dare speak its name is introduced in the guise of Abba’s Money Money Money and thence the Flying Lizards 1979 hit Money. So that’s clear!
Look, Uncut is great burlesque because it exists on a diet of rage and love, but its message is in the same way inchoate. D’Alour will combine her dislikes and her injustices into one great scorecard of grievance, and that makes the performance almost visceral, especially for an increasingly fervent audience.
Alex Wheaton
When: 17 to 25 Feb
Where: Ukiyo / Gluttony
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
★★★★1/2
Adelaide Fringe. Holden Street Theatres, Barbara Hardy Garden. 18 Feb 2024
No one loved to play with plays and plays in plays more than Shakespeare - until Peter Goers came along.
He has taken the old Tom Stoppard concept of distilling Hamlet into a merry morsel and given it a thorough shaking in a madness mixer. The Goers Hamlet in Fifteen Minutes includes the play in a play and also a bonus variation of Hamlet in One Minute and then, hold down those eyebrows, an encore of Hamlet in Ten Seconds.
Short, sharp and exhausting to behold.
There are at least six colourful actors, and not always the same ones and often in multiple roles. Among them are Brian Wellington, Christopher Cordeaux, David O’Brien, Lyn Wilson, Kym Mackenzie, Ariel Dzino and Josh White.
Some of them play it straight. Ish. Cordeaux, so young and handsome and with such a lovely voice, fronts the cast as Hamlet. Wellington and Wilson are rather grandly bedecked as king and queen while Dzino, a fearless comic, leaps from role to role, bringing the house down as stricken Ophelia. She is a striking new discovery.
Goers is narrator. Sometimes. Rob Cusenza delights in alternate casting sessions. Very funny if you catch him.
Constant as flailing ghost and lurching gravedigger is O’Brien with some unforgettable shtick.
Audience members may be called upon. Everyone dies at least once. Except for Goers in his red silk kimono.
Chaos rains, reigns and is unreined.
If good acting there is, this lovely sunken garden setting is not its stage.
This is about arrant silliness. It is ham and stunts, high energy fun, and epic themes on a micro-molecular scale.
Oh, yes. The Bard’s pen is recognisable for, after all, the play’s the thing.
And, perchance, it might even pass for art.
It does pass the time, between the many shows at Holden Street Theatres. This brave troupe is playing it three times a night for the duration of Fringe.
Get thee thence and tell ‘em I sent you.
Samela Harris
When: 18 Feb to 17 Mar
Where: Holden Street Theatres, Barbara Hardy Garden
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
★★★★1/2
Adelaide Fringe. Holden Street Theatres, The Arch
Peter Goers is back doing the ninth of his trilogy of Fringe shows.
It’s the same old shtick. Just different.
Goers has a lot of material - personal archives, showbiz archives, archive archives…
He’s a living diarist with perfect diction and that familiar gravelly voice.
His life is an open book - and, he announces, his retirement will deliver us more books in print form.
Not shy of giving the old plug, our Peter.
And he has another show on in the Fringe, right there in the sunken garden next door.
In his sleek yellow jacket and vivid orange sneakers, he’s a link chain of anecdotes.
He’s the “ham".
The Wills sisters, Anne and Susan, are the titular “pineapple".
They materialise in spectacular pineapple costumes for a bit of soft shoe pizzazz.
They’re a hit.
Later, they return in black and silver bling for some nice old-school harmonies. Anne is razzle but Susan’s melodic lower registers shine forth. As for their comic patter. It’s so old it is new again.
The wonderful Robin Schmeltzkopf completes the variety lineup. Since there is a ham and pineapple pizza theme about the place, he sings the ultimate "pizza-pie" serenade. Oh, that voice.
But that is not all. The show ticks in exactly on the hour but it also contains a big, long, sentimental monologue. Not from Peter Goers, but from Sandy Stone.
Goers has written this Humphries-esque piece as a tribute. Sandy was ever the sweetest and most beloved of the Humphries stable.
Peter dons his Onkaparinga dressing gown, clutches his knit-covered hottie to his lap, and reflects a la Sandy on life in retirement. Unhurried, poignant, pure period Australiana. It is a shamelessly sentimental journey into the charmed old world of Chester Squares and Jubilee cakes and bakelite smokers’ companions. Humphries might just tip his fedora. Nice work, Goers.
And, of course, every audience member had to be thanked personally at the venue exit, another piece of olde worlde theatre trad Goers insists must not die on his watch…and it is quite the lineup at the door.
Sadly, the years are thinning out his famously "pre-dead” audience. There are under-50s in the house.
Isn’t it lucky that Goers is still only 48!
Samela Harris
Disclaimer: Samela Harris and Peter Goers are old colleagues and friends.
When: 17 Feb to 17 Mar
Where: Holden Street Theatres, The Arch
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
★★★★★
Adelaide Fringe. SAYarts. The Gallery at The Courtyard of Curiosities, Migration Museum. 17 Feb 2024
Sci Fi nuts will love this quirky off beat show with roots in time travel, time crime and a light dash of Matrix-like darkness.
You may recall films referencing time as a travel company enterprise, life experiences in the past experienced and mediated by cryogenic freezing. Evil greed of a controlling nemesis. It’s all in this show!
Josh and his brother Harry, the science genius, stumble discover time travel. They build a time travel empire. Josh is fixated on getting girlfriend and company CFO Steph back. Therein lies a paradox of temptation, bad decisions, feisty investigative journalism and unpaid interns boiling on revolt amidst a whodunnit scenario.
Playwright Jamie Hornsby’s script isn’t all rip ‘n’ tear comedy. There’s a subtle sub textual undertone of observation about the meaning of living in time, human value and relationships in time with others and the greater world.
That subtlety is brilliantly managed by Director Alby Grace. The cast of 10 artfully play the comedy off darker undertones with great aplomb. You think serious stuff while laughing. Slowly being prompted to ponder what ‘all the time in the world means.’ A damn serious issue in sci fi.
On a tiny stage, featuring brilliant tie dye come psychedelic costumes, the production rips along with the slick pace of a noir sci-fi flick. The funny lines are so deftly delivered by the three hapless interns. Steph is at once deeply serious and fantastically hilarious. The fine line between the evil in Josh and something better is brilliantly delivered.
Comedy has always been the perfect vehicle to get serious issues across. Combine that with the allure of science fiction, you double the power to achieve that aim.
Mission accomplished!
David O’Brien
When: 16 to 18 Feb
Where: The Gallery at The Courtyard of Curiosities, Migration Museum
Bookings: Closed