Joanne Hartstone and Hector Macpherson Brown. A Jethro Compton Production. Noel Lothian Hall (the old tram barn) - Adelaide Botanic Garden. 14 Feb 2016
The bunker crew were here with their trilogy of Agamemnon, Macbeth and Morgana in 2014 and scooped up a BankSA Award for the latter. Back then, I gave Macbeth a fulsome review, and as the others were picked up by other reviewers, I, heaven forbid, actually had to buy a ticket to see Morgana. I simply couldn't fit in Agamemnon, so I'm very happy about this reprise season.
Writer James Wilkes presses all my buttons by setting adaptations of these classical works in a World War I bunker. The audience creeps into a dark and cramped, pseudo-smoke-filled, pseudo-underground shelter on the Western Front. You are pleasingly trapped for a sensoround experience as the light of day is extinguished upon the closing of the wooden door. Ka-boom! Rat-tat-tat! There is a war going on outside. Inside, a metre in front of you, the action is immediate and intense.
For those who have lost the plot since high school, Aeschylus tells of the agon (contest or struggle) between Agamemnon and Clytemnestra. Agamemnon, you surely recall, was the King of Argos, and returned from the Trojan War to his wife, Clytemnestra, with the former slave of the Trojan king, Priam, as his concubine. Not a good homecoming. Wilkes captures the narrative arc with dramatic situations and personae compatible with the times and makes the story his own. Deftly switching between the front and the home front, the heart-breaking realities of wartime domesticity are played out with palpitating intrigue.
It's early days, but as in 2014, I'm sure a Bunker Trilogy show will be a highlight of my Fringe. The acting is superb, the story is fascinating, and the production values are completely encompassing. I have been to the Western Front and toured the relicts there, and director and designer Jethro Compton has nailed it. Bravo! Your eyes will widen in horror at certain times (I'm not even speaking of the trench warfare) and you and your companion will be stirred to a debate about duty to home and duty to country.
PS It's great to see a Fringe drama with more than one actor, and four is a crowd in the confined theatrical space. It's wincingly realistic, except for the appallingly insufficient first aid that is practiced.
David Grybowski
When: 12 Feb to 14 Mar
Where: Noel Lothian Hall (the old tram barn) - Adelaide Botanic Garden
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
The Dance Pad. Gluttony - The Peacock. 14 Feb 2016.
There are some shows where you sense within the first minute or two that it’s going to be a ‘dud’. Cuban Flow was one of them.
The advertising for this show promised so much more than it gave. It promised a Cuban cultural experience, and if that is what it was then the budding Cuban tourist industry has just been dealt a significant body blow. References to daily Cuban life were hackneyed and uninteresting, attempts at humor were cringe-worthy, and choreography was energetic but passé and lacked originality.
The cast comprised two buff Cuban guys – Piter Pantoja Lopez and Cruz Vazquez Borges – and a chorus line of “sultry sexy Tropicana show girls” (according to the advertising) who never really looked comfortable. One suffered a wardrobe malfunction and for a time the most interesting thing on stage was whether she might rival Janet Jackson.
Regrettably there were several attempts at getting audience members on stage, and more regrettably two of them were subjected to a tasteless simulated sex routine at the hands of Lopez and Borges
Curiously the audience lapped up the show.
Thankfully Cuban Flow has ebbed.
Kym Clayton
When: Closed
Where: Gluttony – The Peacock
Bookings: Closed
By Thomas Monckton & Circo Aereo. Arts Projects Australia with support from Creative New Zealand. Royal Croquet Club - The Panama Club. 13 Feb 2016
The concert pianist makes an entrance so excruciatingly awkward, he's bound to get a good clap. Squeezing through a tiny tear in the curtain, birth is given to a disheveled, lanky, wild-haired man in evening tails, dropping bundles of music and obsessively starting over to achieve poise and perfection. But he's no run-of-the-mill virtuoso. Kiwi Thomas Monckton trained at the Jacques Lecoq School in Paris - famous for its graduates (including Geoffrey Rush) in physical theatre and comedy - and teamed up with co-creator Sanna Silvennoinnen and NZ/Finland's Circo Aereo to bring us this acclaimed show that's been touring the world since 2013.
Nothing goes right for the pianist and Monckton hilariously wrestles with the sheet music, the grand piano's dust cover, the stool, the keyboard cover, a chandelier, the lighting guy and the audience, after fully mastering the curtain. Acute professional embarrassment and frustration, and obstacle-toppling inventiveness in attempting to start the concert are couched in the language of mime (language of mime, get it?), contortioned acrobatics and physical gimmickry. We cheer our hero ever onward - even as he swings from the chandelier - in his quest to tickle the 88s. After a while, I wished he'd just get on with a bit of playing, as some of the business was getting repetitive. But you’ve got to love the guy, with empathy in things going wrong, and for his sheer skill in making you laugh with preposterous slapstick.
David Grybowski
When: 13 Feb to 5 Mar
Where: Royal Croquet Club - The Panama Club, Panorama Theatre
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
LER Productions. The Garden of Unearthly Delights – Deluxe. 13 Feb 2016
Costumes, costumes, costumes.
The Seastar Rockers are famous for them. Full body suits transform the all-singing, all-dancing team of performers into the assorted creatures of the deep. Most spectacularly attired is Harriet the Hammerhead shark. But there is also Supreme Stingray, Daphne Dolphin, Pirate Wally the Walrus and, of course, dancing penguins, one of whom is a Hipster.
The music is loud and easy on the ears. There are myriad catchy songs which start off on the theme of who is who, i.e. "I am Daphne Dolphin". The lyrics are straightforward, reiterating characteristics of sea creatures and, in some cases, advising on some of the environmental perils of the sea. There are jokes. The cast not only performs in chorus lineups and solos but moves around among the children.
As for the children, they stand beneath the stage and do all the dances. Some of young ones don't stop bopping for the full 45 minutes of the show. Some of the older ones are busy working out which performer has changed into which costume. Mums and dads are just happy to see the kids having fun with an anthropomorphic taste of natural history.
That's something for everyone, a wholesome bit of enviro-entertainment. Furthermore, it’s a local company well worth supporting.
Samela Harris
When: 13 Feb to 14 Mar
Where: The Garden of Unearthly Delights – Deluxe
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
Presented by Gumption Theatre Co. The Studio, Holden Street Theatres. 13 Feb 2016
Children's Theatre on the Fringe has a meaty program this year.
If any of the presentations provides rich investment in the culture and fun of theatre to nurture our future Fringe audiences, it is Prince Pipsqueak.
This is a ripper of a show.
It holds the children utterly entranced. It is an interesting narrative performed by skilled young actors who offer no half measures in their performances. Theirs is total energy, total focus and total engagement.
The Prince Pipsqueak story tells of a young prince who wears pink fairy wings, loves to dance, chases butterflies, and plays with the girl up the road, Poppy. She's the farmer's daughter and she's a bit of a farty tomboy. The only thing the prince and Poppy have in common, says the narrator, is that they are best, best friends.
Their relationship is explored with lots of energetic play before the nitty gritty of the plot descends. The king and queen are hitting Hawaii for a holiday and Pipsqueak has to run the kingdom. Pipsqueak is aghast. The King challenges him as a weepy weakling who must prove himself. Poppy volunteers to prop him up. There is counsel from a range of local identities, all brilliantly played by the narrator, Peter Cortissos. From gangsta rapper through to suave Frenchman, he does one and all with nary but a change of hat. He's hilarious, captivating and convincing - an actor of substance.
Once Pipsqueak accepts the mantle, he becomes arrogant and insists he can and should do it all alone because he is a male and men are supposed to run things. It was ever thus.
Poppy is an emancipated girl and she's having none of this misogyny. She dumps him.
And, through song and folly, character changes and plot twists, Pipsqueak clues up, Poppy forgives him and everyone, including the King, reaches self-realisations and acceptances of the fact that there is strength in difference.
The play is produced and directed by Abbie Johnstone and Jason Marsiglia and its messages are delivered with lots of pure fun and games and character development, the script incorporating enough broad references and asides to keep the parents amused on their own level.
It is all staged very simply with a ladder, a hatstand, a dress-up box and some drapes concealing the "backstage" area. Children are invited to sit on an array of rugs and cushions at the front of the stage. It is very comfortable.
Hugo Fielke plays Pipsqueak. He's a bright new talent who uses his long, lanky limbs as gloriously gawky comic tools. Alicia Case is Poppy. She's another exciting new player on the Adelaide stage with just a hint of the young Vivian Vance in her comic presence.
This production can't be recommended too highly.
It is five-star proper children's theatre with no shortcuts.
What's more, the children don't just love it, they relish it.
Samela Harris
When: 12 Feb to 13 Mar
Where: The Studio, Holden Street Theatres
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au