Adelaide Cabaret Festival. Magic Mirrors Spiegeltent. 17 Jun 2017
Drag, nationalism, popular culture nostalgia and politics; perfect Weimar cabaret period material for an era which seems to be going back to the future per those days, delivered with star dust laden show biz attitude blended perfectly with a strong undercurrent of ‘up yours!’
It’s Courtney Act dressed to the nines with a subtle yet obvious tilt to Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz.
Proud Aussie, Courtney relays tales of her journey to L.A., to learn, discover and understand what makes Trump’s America what is; to gift them with Aussie magic and celebrate Aussie culture. Not as easy as it looks. For that matter, Courtney doesn't let us off the hook either.
Kicking off with Olivia Newton John’s, Xanadu, and arriving on stage wearing sparkling red roller skates it is clear this show will take no prisoners - Australian or American.
There is feel good nostalgia as hits of the 80s such as Men At Work’s, Down Under is delivered along with a hilarious Sia sight gag, all mixed with a clear intention of exposing, with loving satire, the self-satisfied ease Australia with which views itself. This then coupled with condescending U.S. views of good ol’ Aussies.
In turn, Act enthusiastically relishes relaying confusion, surprise and, with a nothing-can-shock attitude, bizarre American tales.
A more vibrant, wickedly funny, and polished production one could not want for.
Musically it is no-holds-barred perfection. Courtney’s voice works the emotive and comic range of the song set impeccably, providing excellent transitions between sharp piss take satiric observations.
David O’Brien
When: 16 to 18 June
Where: Magic Mirrors Spiegeltent
Bookings: bass.net.au
Adelaide Cabaret Festival. Peter Coleman-Wright & Nexas Quartet. Adelaide Festival Centre. 17 Jun 2017
Aussie opera baritone Peter Coleman-Wright won a 2002 Helpmann Award for Best Male Actor in a Musical (Gale Edward's production of Sweeney Todd), was once nominated for a Grammy, and has had a swag of operatic roles and recordings. Not exactly schooled in opera, his achievements were recognised with an honorary doctorate from the University of Melbourne and the hand in marriage of soprano Cheryl Barker.
For his two-day Cabaret Festival appearance, Coleman-Wright collaborated with the Nexas Quartet and put on a rather straight forward musical documentary on the Jewish diaspora fleeing the nascent Nazi government. He clearly honours and is in awe of this Weimar jazz legacy that Hitler so conveniently managed to spread around the globe, and he was especially interested in how Kurt Weill so successfully integrated American themes to keep the music fresh, after Weill took up residence in New York. I guess Weill had to do something after The Threepenny Opera closed on Broadway in 1933 after an unlucky 13 performances.
Composers In Exile is a musical history lesson, beginning with a female narrator and a handy map of Weimar Germany to lend context. The main talent - Hans Eisler, Arnold Schönberg, Robert Gilbert, Bertolt Brecht, Robert Stolz, Eric Korngold and others - are introduced by members of the quartet giving their biographies in first person. Coleman-Wright reserved Kurt Weill for himself. While the quartet members are virtuoso saxophonists, they are not actors and the flat vocal delivery dampened the proceedings.
Coleman-Wright chose songs illustrative of the political and social themes of the day, and they were always melodic and gentle. His nuanced and beautiful singing and the quartet's work deserved more applause from the tiny and shy audience. I have never seen such a small turn-up in the Dunstan Playhouse, ever, for any show.
An informative and entertaining night.
David Grybowski
When: 15 and 16 June
Where: Dunstan Playhouse
Bookings: Closed
Adelaide Cabaret Festival. Dunstan Playhouse. 14 Jun 2017
The most primal thing of all linking us as human beings is that out of earshot beat we know as a pulse, the heartbeat. We don’t consciously think about or even mark its presence unless we focus on it.
Director, Kate Denborough has taken this unconscious everyday reality and fashioned from it a work of extraordinary complexity exploring how the beat within, becomes expressed without; in motion, sound, silence and vision.
As a production title, Out of Earshot makes clear its emphasis is on that which cannot be, or is not, easily heard. It’s very much a work crossing the boundaries in terms of audience reception; deaf and hearing impaired most especially, for whom this work will greatly appeal.
Denborough's synthesis of sound, light and movement is firmly founded on the deft, richly powerful Jazz percussive prowess of Myele Manzanza.
Manzanza is the lighting rod, or touchstone through which designers Paul Jackson, Stephen Hawker and James Paul’s minimal, yet uber high tech, set, utilising motion sensitive floor technology, ‘speaks.’ Three large oblong LED monitors project lighting schemes sparked by the beat of drum, human feet, and hands.
As choreography progresses from the simple warm expression of Manzanza playing a tattoo on a dancer’s body, mimicking the human pulse, to dancers encompassing the whole stage in response to broader, wilder, more complex drum kit thrashed rhythms, questions quietly cross the mind.
When Manzanza air-plays the sticks, whilst the dance continues and the monitor flash of heartbeat projection stops, what’s really being communicated here? Is the beat still there? More potently, the phrase in which dancer Gerard Van Dyck reacts as if struck and reshaped by Manzanza’s whip and strike of a drum stick begs the question, is this out of earshot beat more emotionally powerful than any other sense?
This particular question is significant to this writer who, like ensemble dancer Anna Seymour, is profoundly deaf. Had I turned my hearing aids off, what might have been the difference in my perception of the beat, the force, the energy and the communication?
For communication is the subtle ‘under the hood’ heart to the work. Sound is seen. Beat is seen and felt. Somehow this is a kind of ‘heard’ experience.
Out of Earshot is a special gift, not to be missed, to be pondered deeply long after.
David O’Brien
When: 14 and 15 Jun
Where: Dunstan Playhouse
Bookings: bass.net.au
Adelaide Cabaret Festival. Space Theatre. 12 Jun 2017
Desperation, financial and spiritual, neediness, guile, repressed angst, rage, hopelessness and wrenched from the heart nostalgia powers Liz back to the family home after decades away. Her Christmas Eve is alike to Dickens’ famous tale in which her life recounts itself to her as ghostly memories of Christmas past, present and hope of a Christmas future to realise.
Christie Whelan Browne offers up a sharp no nonsense woman of the world with a steel hard attitude hiding a much softer, brassier, vulnerable young self, desperate to remember, recount, reconsider so much of her life as she settles into a vigil like evening of remembrance, play, booze and revelatory moments.
Whelan Browne owns the character with great depth, moving from spoken text to song and back with peerless timing and musical phrasing challenging her to maintain a structured, smooth flow.
She is sassy, funny, dark, vulnerable and brilliant. She is a child wanting, a teen rebel glorying in past memories, a woman confused and angry that she’s been misunderstood by her Mum, and ready to confess to so much.
Steve Vizard’s book is fantastic. The larrikin spirit of the comic sketch writer he was famed as in the 80s and 90s is still there in outline with this work, but choosing to work within a musically based framework has done something to his outlook. Something good.
Director Andy Packer has kept it simple, but in challenging ways. He’s ensured Whelan Browne has the right flow of emotion and action within the constricted square revolving set consisting of bed, settee and clothes hanger. Packer’s direction is especially valuable for seamlessly blending monologue in drama and song.
Joe Chindano’s score is deceptive in its simplicity. It reels off sophisticated, unexpected trills of treble glissando and backed by violin, is remarkably evocative stylistically in unexpected ways.
David O’Brien
When: 12 Jun
Where: Space Theatre
Bookings: Closed
Adelaide Cabaret Festival. Artspace. 9 Jun 2017
Gillian Cosgriff’s return to the Adelaide Cabaret Festival after her debut six years ago reveals a greatly matured artist since then. To The Moon and Back is at once light hearted, glamorous, laid back, philosophical, poignant and wonderfully silly.
That’s a lot to cram into an hour in a show about space, and a tall order to run it all smooth as butter.
Cosgriff achieves the task because at the core of the performance is her breezy laid back Queensland spirit taking things on with a confident calm and always with a smile and solid direction, ensuring every possibility in her writing has been given life.
Space is a big thing. It can be small too. Cosgriff really dives into her subject with gusto, obsessive gusto. Clad in space suit white, Cosgriff merrily quips away. How we get from the usual things about space to the origins of our species is wonderfully bewildering.
Musically, the production is huge fun. What a ball Cosgriff has with a Roland synthesiser, running out a fantastic set of songs each in total contrast to the other, dealing with quirky space play mates to deeper stuff, plus playfully mucking around with a set of effects foot pedals.
I’m pretty sure Adelaide will love Gillian Cosgriff to the moon and back after the warm embrace of this production.
David O’Brien
When: 9 to 11 Jun
Where: Artspace
Bookings: bass.net.au