Presented by Nick42Berlin. Tuxedo cat – Cusack Theatre. 19 Feb 2016
If the Fringe was a curated event, this ‘show’ would never even be allowed to finish its audition.
What I thought was going to be a touching, possibly risqué story about one man’s coming out, instead turned out to be a smutty, feebly scripted, and poorly delivered disorganized array of pornographic stories that simply confirmed that the ‘actor’ is untalented and has a penchant for giving offense.
Forty-five minutes into this hellish experience, the ‘actor’ wandered over to where his long-suffering tech was sitting and mumbled whether there was time for another ‘story’. You could almost hear the audience collectively intone the words “Please God, No! Turn on the lights and let us out of here.”
Execrably bad.
Kym Clayton
When: 18 Feb – 1 Mar
Where: Tuxedo Cat – Cusack Theatre
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
State Opera of South Australia. Freemason’s Great Hall. 18 Feb 2016.
Die Zauberflötte (The Magic Flute) is one of Mozart’s most loved and accessible operas.
It’s a crowd pleaser.
Its story line can be considered at a range of levels and, at its most basic level, is about the emotional journey of young lovers finding each other and wanting different things from relationships.
In that sense it’s an eternal story, but there is also a deeper level.
It is also about the journey of humankind progressing from original sin through to enlightenment grounded in humanism that transcends religious fantasy.
The opera is also imbued with the mystical traditions of Freemasonry – both Mozart and librettist Schikaneder were Freemasons – and so it is apt that State Opera should mount this production in the Freemason’s Great Hall on North Terrace.
However, the Freemasonry symbolism is obscure except to the cognoscenti, and Director David Lampard’s design doesn’t really make it any clearer.
His design concept, which is explained in detail in his programme notes, is an interesting addition to the canon of the re-imaginings of traditional opera, but without his notes it is not really obvious what he is trying to achieve, and therefore it fails. A large proportion of the audience are left wondering why some things in the design are the way they are.
That criticism aside, the production is colorful, the music is… well it’s Mozart so nothing more needs to be said, and the orchestral ensemble under the direction of Luke Dollman is terrific. The English translations of the dialogue (by Lampard) and the lyrics (by Timothy Sexton) ‘work’ well and are entertaining, and the singing for the main part is quality with some real standouts.
The opera has fourteen different scenes in multiple diverse settings, which presents a substantial challenge for any designer. Lampard’s split-level set design comprises a number of structural elements that are frequently dragged or trucked around the stage, but they are over-used and eventually their use becomes monotonous, clumsy, distracting and generally slows the pace of the production.
Some of the structures are imposing and make effective conduits for the Masonic symbolism; strongly illuminated in stunning fluoro-colours.
Daniel Barber’s lighting design is a true highlight of the production, although some of the finer aspects get lost, such as the visual effects cast by motorized gobos on the high and expansive celling of the Great Hall.
In all, there is an over-emphasis on the look of the show that results in something close to excess. Less would have been more.
Brenton Spiteri is excellent as the love struck Tamino, with lyrical flowing tenor lines. His scenes with Nicholas Spiteri as Papageno are entertaining. Lampard gives Papageno a “knock-about” feel, which at times seems to be underplayed.
Joanna McWaters is fabulously menacing as the Queen of the Night and uses her flowing costume to great effect. Her two famous arias, which almost define the entire opera and which the audience leaves humming at the end of the night, include several extremely difficult three-lined high F’s that are so high “only dogs can hear them”, as the inimitable Anna Russell once said! McWaters is not entirely comfortable with such stratospherically high notes but this does not diminish her solid performance.
Adam Goodburn is outstanding as the totally unpleasant Monastatos – he looks the part and his vocals again demonstrate his ever increasing stature in the local opera scene. Robert England is austere as Sarastro, and one longs for him to be more obviously benevolent.
Unfortunately one can easily but erroneously believe that he is the villain that the Queen of the Night holds him out to be. He struggles with some of the very deep basso profundo notes early in his performance.
Naomi Hede is superb as the virtuous Pamina and is responsible for some of the beautiful bel canto moments in the production. The Queen of the Night’s Three Ladies, sung by Deborah Caddy, Rosanne Hosking and Meran Bow is excellent, as are the three ‘child spirits’ sung by Sarah-Jane Pattichis, Lisa Cannizzaro and Rachel McCall. (Their curtain call hilariously borders on up-staging!) The supporting male roles are sung well, and Jeremy Tatchell again is imposing.
The Great Hall is stiflingly hot inside, and this may have contributed to the warm but not excessively exuberant applause from the audience at the end of the performance.
Kym Clayton
When: 18 to 24 Feb
Where: Freemasons Hall
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
Adelaide Botanic Gardens – Noel Lothian Hall. 19 Feb 2016
One of three shows in The Bunker Trilogy season, Macbeth is the only one adapted from an existing work. Written by William Shakespeare the piece follows the murder of the King, Duncan, by Macbeth who conspires with the queen in the act, and is then later assassinated by Macduff for his crimes.
For the purposes of this trilogy the play has been significantly cut in length, and edited in context, to fit the WWI bunker theme in which it is set. For the most part the cuts work; the dialogue is snappy, the ‘boring’ bits are gone, and the content is entertaining. Some of the edits however don’t work. Anyone unfamiliar with the work may leave the theatre with a few dangling questions – particularly who Macduff was and why he decided to avenge the King’s death.
Placing the action in a WWI bunker is interesting and effective, but doesn’t really add anything to the story line. Unlike the Trilogy’s other 2 shows, Morgana and Agamemnon, the bunker is used as a device here that is incongruent with many of the scenes; most particularly the royal banquet. In this particular instance the audience is included in the piece – the audience that wouldn’t normally be there if this were a WWI bunker – further confusing the themes and breaking any suspension of disbelief.
It is a production from which one has mixed feelings. The performances are top notch. Bebe Sanders plays a wonderfully engaging Lady Macbeth; though the emotional anguish she suffers when she begins to be haunted by her actions may have been just out of reach in this particular performance. Sam Donnelly plays just about the best Macbeth one has ever seen, with great passion, excellent diction and a pervasive madness that grows ever stronger throughout the performance. Donnelly and Sanders have a beautiful connection.
A tight reimagining of Shakespeare’s greatest killer that is not quite elevated by its new contextual surroundings, yet with spectacular performances.
This Macbeth is a mixed bag.
Paul Rodda
When: 18 Feb to 14 Mar
Where: Adelaide Botanic garden – Noel Lothian hall
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
Dan Goronszy Arts. Gluttony – The Grand Caravan. 17 Feb 16
Like the famous T.A.R.D.I.S of Doctor Who television fame, the world within The Grand Caravan is much, much larger than what it’s capable of containing, viewed from the outside.
Destination Home, as a deeply intimate 13 member only audience experience, works to awaken comprehension and empathy with thousands of people seeking the safe haven of a secure home, whatever type it may be, rental or non-rental. They are people walking the same streets you do or fleeing destruction of their home and seeking safety thousands of miles away.
Dan Goronszy offers a blended text/physical theatre/puppetry production of great simplicity. Yet Destination Home is concerned with deeply complex social, political and personal issues involving the fight to defend ones right to the safe haven of home against politically and economically enforced competition; to be the ‘right’ kind of homeowner/renter/citizen.
30 slightly smaller than hand size disembodied plastic heads of all skin colour shades, manipulated by Goronszy, are key to the production’s capacity to subtly develop a spiritual sense of a lost and wandering tide of humanity. They are battered on the rocks of mundane but deeply hurtful bureaucratic machinations each individual member of the tide encounters, expressed in voice and movement.
Goronszy’s performance is remarkably wide in its emotional and physical range without seeming to overwhelm her much closed in audience. She gives emotional life, flesh and blood, and pain to silent heads as they arbitrarily move from one fruitless point of hope to another.
Destination Home is timely during a period of global uproar over refugees and domestic battles fought over affordability of housing. Here is a production that breaks down all the arguments to the essential one, do we really value the humanity of all, or are we merely allowing it to be commoditised?
David O’Brien
When: 17 Feb to 5 March
Where: Gluttony – The Grand Caravan
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
Joanne Hartstone. The Cellar, GC. 17 Feb 16
Who is this man? If Thom Pain is at a loss to know, who are we to help?
He speaks a fractured stream of consciousness. There is narrative in there somewhere. Isn't there? There's the boy who was attacked by bees but thought they were trying to help him, to take away a pain that was already there. There was a dog. A horse walked into a bar.
And thus flow the existential contemplations. There's the woman he wooed with his one-card magic trick. Should he draw the raffle?
In his way of thinking, there is a pattern. He pauses to reflect on it. Yes, he has mentioned the boy and the bees. He needs a volunteer from the audience. Maybe not. He blows his nose on a handkerchief and then uses it as a prop to talk about brains. His thoughts skitter. Absurdist non sequiturs meander forth.
He seems an innocuous man and yet there is something threatening about him. He defies the fourth wall. He is unpredictable. He is confronting. His mind is made up and unmade in a trice. He is sincere. No, he is teasing.
His ramblings are peppered with wonderful one-liners. Listen carefully, or you'll miss them. They're funny.
He says he is a clever man - and he is.
It is a clever script and, when the show is over with its beautifully tailored ending, one recognises why this Will Eno creation was distinguished as a Pulitzer nominee. It is imaginative, alternative, rich in striking imagery, ideas and surprises. And yet, it is the sad tale of a small man.
New York actor David Calvitto has brought this character with this dense and complex script to Adelaide.
He plays it as if he is just a bit uncertain, as if it is just a bit improvisational. He seems devastated when a man abruptly storms out of the theatre and suggests that perhaps the whole audience would be better off following him. Did that man really leave or was he a shill?
Anyone who does not see this show through to the end is cheating themselves of a magnificent theatrical experience. It's not quite like anything one has ever seen or could ever forget. Bravo.
****1/2
Samela Harris
When: 17 Feb to 6 Mar
Where: The Cellar, GC
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au