Adelaide Festival. A Homerʼs Coat project. Dunstan Playhouse. 4 Mar 2014
Earlier in the day, reefing through a copy of Homerʼs ‘The Iliad’, I wondered how one actor would bring to life this classic tale of war, treachery and machismo... 550 pages of detailed story line and rich characterisation.
An empty stage - right to the back wall; masses of stacked theatre lamps; a wooden table and chair and a dimly lit auditorium - no one was home.
Then a single spot lit a scruffy man in an old coat and hat. He carried a suitcase. But when Denis OʼHare opened his mouth, strolled towards the front of the stage, and made the comment that the story was better told in a pub, the audience understood his words immediately. This was not going to be a dry rendition. ‘An Iliad’ was a total theatrical experience and a truly contemporary re-telling of Homerʼs ‘The Iiliad’, the penultimate war story.
Homerʼs original contains all the great elements of a dramatic yarn... a nine years war between strong competing armies (The Trojans and the Achaeans); strong warriors (Agamemnon, Achilles, Paris, Menelaus and Hector); the gods (Zeus, Apollo, Hermes and others); human passion, wholesale destruction, and much more.
OʼHare condensed all of this into a witty, fast paced, lucid yarn that involved the audience, firstly as strangers who had dropped into his space, then as willing participants in his dreadful tale of pride, collateral damage, and in the end, total futility.
The width and depth of the Dunstan Playhouse stage was navigated with consummate ease by OʼHare. There were many visual actor/ audience connections enabled by the spill of light from the stage and even the odd audience interjection was absorbed into the, at times, improvised line delivery.
OʼHare was supported by the double bassist / percussionist, Brian Elliingsen, through nearly the entire production. In his own right Ellingsen brought great depth and poignancy to this lyric production and many times his ʻvoiceʼ shone out as strongly as OʼHareʼs.
The lighting was both subtle and dramatically strong but always in context. What seemed like a small one man show in a large space became a very large show in what sometimes seemed like a very small space. We are talking big Greek war here, all done with a table, chair, suitcase, voice, live music, technical effects, but never over the top and always in context.
Co-authored and performed by OʼHare and co-authored and directed by Lisa Peterson, this production does more than transcribe theatrically, Homerʼs The Iliad, but develops the theme that all wars are deadly from recorded time to the present. When is enough, enough?
This is a captivating production that captivated its capacity audience from the first word Oʼ Hare spoke to the final standing ovation.
Martin Christmas
When: 4 to 8 Mar
Where: The Dunstan Playhouse
Bookings: adelaidefestival.com.au
Adelaide Fringe. The Bakehouse Theatre. 4 Mar 2014
In 1998 Dawson Nichols performed his own one-hander ‘I Might Be Edgar Allan Poe’ at the Fringe and it won the Advertiser’s inaugural Fringe Award. Sixteen years on, Nichols is back with ‘Poe’ again and it is just as riveting and relevant, and deserves to play again to big houses and earn admiration and deep appreciation.
Make no mistake, ‘Poe’ is a tour de force and Nichols is an extraordinary actor. This is courageous theatre and the audience becomes its play thing. When it’s over you are spent and in awe, and somewhat troubled.
‘I Might Be Edgar Allan Poe’ is a psychological drama with welcome tracts of black comedy; the very blackest of comedy. Its central character is Joseph, an inmate of a psychiatric institution, who gradually lets us into his world - but on his terms. He explains that he thinks he could be Edgar Allan Poe because he has such a strong affinity with his writing. Joseph tells us who he is, why he is institutionalised, why he thinks the way he does, and how this stands in contrast to what others would call ‘normal’. Through Joseph, Nichols’ text explores the premise that one can never really know anyone else, and to try and do so is as much an examination of one’s self as it is of the person being ‘examined’. Maybe psychiatrists are just as ‘troubled’ as their patients?
Nichols plays a range of characters, including a resentful teenager and a highly amusing college lecturer (which was almost a lesson in how a stand-up comedian should expertly engage and ‘deal with’ his audience). Nichols moves backwards and forwards between them and Joseph, and inevitably towards Joseph’s final confession that is so achingly poignant that it evokes the strongest of emotional responses from the audience, which is by this time on the edge of its seat.
This is exceptional theatre. It is demanding, and it should not be missed.
Kym Clayton
When: 4 to 15 Mar
Where: The Bakehouse Theatre
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
Adelaide Fringe. Mixed Doubles Sketch Comedy Quartet. Holden Street Theatres. 3 Mar 2014
Direct from GB, Mixed Doubles brings good old fashioned sketch comedy to the Fringe at Holden Street. The quartet of Will Close, Megan Smith, Paul Aitchison and Rose Robinson met at Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts near London a few years ago and thought bringing a hearty laugh to people was the ticket to see the world. Without any blather, the crew launched into the material - humourous vignettes of life mostly from the experiences of people around their own ages of late 20s and early 30s.
What makes the English laugh about themselves also is very funny here in Adelaide, augmented with a few hilarious local references. The social scientists in attendance might agree that instead of mixed doubles, the guys and girls are playing against each other. The boys frequently serve out-of-bounds and have a less mature forearm, they get backhanded by the gals, and prove somewhat inept around the age-old question: What do women want? But this isn't a show for the Freudians. The audience laughed heartily at the zinger double-entendres, endearing facial expressions and even a bit of magic. Breakups and first encounters were a frequent feature, and these big moments have their bathos.
Quite simply, an entertaining hour of surprises and laughs in a fast-paced and well executed show.
David Grybowski
When: 5 to 16 Mar
Where: Holden Street Theatres - The Arch
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
Adelaide Fringe. The Garden of Unearthly Delights - Paradiso Spiegeltent.
Hans like a pop star is more like it, these days.
Matt Gilbertson packed the Spielgeltent to its rafters for his first show in the Garden of Unearthly Delights. The queue snaked on for ever around the tent and on the whiffy grass. Everyone was terribly excited; most of them already seasoned Hans fans.
Once people have seen Hans, they want to see him again. And again.
What is it about him? Is it being smothered by those terms of affection, all those "darlings" and "honeys"? Is it the self-deprecatory humour? Is it the idiosyncratic hotpants and bling costumes, all lovingly made by his mum? Is it the agility to hoof in boots? Is it the gags? Is it the sheer bravado?
It is the full package and then some.
Hans can throw out double-entendres, Mars Bar asides, and waspish vanities and still be the darling of straight men, old ladies and girls tottering on mega wedgies and riding the Soundcloud.
When not in off-the-shoulder spangles, Matt Gilbertson also travels the stations of YouTube and Vimeo. As the city's gossip writer, he depends on the zeitgeist. Which explains why he did not do ‘Gangnam Style’ in this show. It has had its day - in which time no one did it better than Hans and those stunning dancers of his, The Lucky Bitches.
The viral phenomena move on and this is a new show; new moves; new songs; new gags; new frocks. There's even an improved calibre to the voice, albeit Hans can casually throw in a few stray notes when he is out of breath. And there's wonderment. He is a toweringly big boy but he moves with such swift precision and hyper-kinetic skill that belies his size.
Backed by his mischievously-named band, the Ungrateful Bastards, he does a snazzy little tap routine in this show and you can hear the blokes in the audience muttering their admiration.
He picks on a few people, one in particular. On the first night this turned out to be a lawyer who took Hans's cheeky assaults in very good spirit. Hans takes this shtick right to the edge of acceptability and, although he knows when to stop, it adds a thrill of danger for the audience.
The longer he does it, the better our Hans gets. And the more beloved.
He is local boy made gloriously good. It's done with mirrors and hard work - talking of which, Hans noted, as he performed ‘Simply the Best’, that he was thrilled to work the mirrored venue of the Spiegeltent where, for the first time, his could enjoy a view of himself.
Hip grinding, singing in Spanish and German, strutting his enviable legs in fishnets, playing piano and accordion and belting out Beyonce, Matt had the audience eating out of his Hans. Again.
Samela Harris
When: 10 Mar
Where: Paradiso Spiegeltent
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
Windmill Theatre. Space Theatre. 2 Mar 2014.
Fugitive is the first work created in Windmill's trilogy of plays concerning the awkwardness and fascination to be found betwixt childhood and adulthood. While mainly playwright Matthew Whittet's take on things, director Rosemary Myers explains in the notes that the productions result from a multi-year collaboration of a group of artists.
Fugitive was produced first, School Dance second and Girl Asleep third. I saw the acclaimed School Dance in the 2012 Festival and thought it was a wonderful piece of work; it is reprised in this Festival. I have yet to pass judgment on Girl Asleep, but Fugitive seems an immature first go compared to the more accomplished School Dance.
The healthy bones of creativity and surprise, the fast paced action, the vignettes of teenage angst and ecstasy are all there but they are more jumbled and disconnected within a fantasy plot leaving a lot of unanswered questions that even all the theatrical technical magic can't patch over. What was in our hero's, Robin's, back pack that stunned the Sherriff's moth-ridden Star Wars-like storm troopers? The only thing I had in my back pack in high school was last week's lunch, so maybe that was it. Why wasn't a single other character curious enough to ask? Why did Robin disappear and why did he come back? At least somebody asked the latter question. Why did Robin have such a rage that his Robin Hood-like good deeds were offset by his violence, bullying and thuggery? What was the purpose of the white knight? Do plays with heroes and nerds perpetuate this type-casting in the school yard?
The performances were highly energetic, almost frenetic. Patrick Graham has a mischievous comic style with huge stage presence. There are marvelous surprising production moments generated by a host of creative contributors; but if you ask me, skip this show and see School Dance if you haven't done so already.
David Grybowski
When: 3 to 9 Mar
Where: Space Theatre
Bookings: adelaidefestival.com.au