Adelaide Fringe. Holden Street Theatres. 13 Feb 2014
Ancient Japanese street theatre delivered via South Africa. It sounds very "Fringey" and, indeed, it is.
Even the name, ‘Epicene Butcher’, is puzzling. It makes no sense at all until one has seen the story told which only happens after the Chalk Boy has warned on the blackboard that this item is definitely not for vegetarians.
‘Epicene Butcher’ is Jemma Kahn's show but she has a stage assistant who, despite the red Lolita glasses, lipstick and nail polish, we are assured is essential to this form of Japanese performance called Kamishibai. It is the early forerunner to Manga - illustrated story telling or "paper drama". It was once the provenance of monks. Now, under Kahn delivery, it is definitely an out-there moveable feast which roams from the philosophical to the raunchy to the mythical to the political.
The Chalk Boy punctuates the stories by writing a few key intro words on a blackboard. He also presents each audience member with a sweetie.
Kahn appears as a vivid cross-cultural creature with fluffy pink leggings, shorty short skirt, chain and skeleton necklace... Her South African accent is not immediately evident. She's a beautifully-trained performer with a rich voice, absolute enunciation and very good timing. This is why, of course, she can hold an audience in thrall with a box full of drawings.
The audience is seated on the stage of The Arch, gathered around Kahn and her picture box.
It is proximate theatre.
First she tells the story of the monk and the carp which does not prepare one for the erotica which is to follow. Then again, there is a deliciously quirky analysis of cat dreaming which features the famous YouTube cat, Maru. And, there is a tale about Mario of the early computer game. Epicene, it eventuates, is a geisha pursued by the royal butcher in a strangely sweet tale about cannibalism. A little cameo about Nelson Mandela largely delivered in Japanese is least successful of the collection while a wordless depiction of tsunami-ravaged Fukishima brings a tear to the eye.
In less than an hour, Kahn has taken her audience through a rich range of experiences and a wealth of wonderful artwork, much of her own creation in collaboration Gwydion Beynon.
It is so different, so intimate, arresting and intense that it will live long and happily in mind's eye.
Samela Harris
When: 16 to 28 Feb
Where: Holden Street Theatres - The Arch
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
Adelaide Fringe. Paradiso Spiegeltent – Garden of Unearthly Delights. 14 Feb 2014
Dr Dan Von Dandy and his gorgeously gaudy wife Kitty Witless are lost in time. Living in the Roaring Twenties, they were happily touring speak-easies and cabaret bars entertaining audiences with their delightful and original tunes, when disaster struck. Caught in an untimely avalanche, they were frozen solid.
Recently thawed into the current day by global warming, they have emerged to discover that their best numbers have been unceremoniously usurped by modern musicians, without so much as a nod to their creative genius. In an effort to set the record straight, Dandy and Witless are now touring the world showcasing a selection of their greatest hits as they were “meant” to be.
Making it’s Australian debut in the Fringe, ‘The Vaudevillians’ is the creative offspring of rapidly-rising drag star Jinkx Monsoon and cabaret performer Major Scales. It’s not-stop ham mixed with swinging versions of familiar songs such as Madonna’s “Music” and DJ Kool’s “Let Me Clear My Throat”.
The true gold in this show is the hilarious and well-executed banter between the pair, who work off each other seamlessly. The musical numbers are less consistent but get better as the show progresses. The high point is the show's penultimate song, a brilliant performance of 'I Will Survive", which had most of the audience in stitches.
Monsoon and Scales are both incredibly talented. It's clear that they have put a lot of love into crafting the show's story and characters and it translates in a really enjoyable piece of theatre. It does have its flat points, and could benefit from some direction to tighten up the loose spots but it is, nonetheless, absolutely worth seeing.
Nicole Russo
When: 14 to 16 Feb
Where: Paradiso Spiegeltent
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
The Royal Adelaide University Old Footlighters Club. Holden Street Theatres. 12 Feb 
14
They're ageing like a good Grange.
The classes of the fifties and sixties are classier than ever. Their pens are sharper and pith pithier.
The Royal Adelaide University Old Footlighters Club revived the art of university revue in 2006, long, long after they had left uni, and have turned into the cult show of the Adelaide Fringe.
They dare to say this is absolutely their last show.
There's a wrinkly rabble refusing to believe this could be so.
Heavens, they have only just recruited Keith Conlon into the team. He's a fresh old blood.
With Richie Gun, Rob Morrison and Bob Lott, he is able almost to revive the Adelaide University Jazz Band of the 60s - Anna Michael joining him on most acceptable ‘Ain't Misbehavin’' vocals.
There are some top notch skits in this revue, as well as some very odd ones and very lateral ones. There are incisive political skits, silly skits and cry-with-laughter funny ones.
My ribs are still aching from the restaurant scene, ‘What a Choice’. Oh, and ‘Dual Britannia!’ It's an anthem to the roundabout. High spots are many. Kitty Peake as Gina Mineshaft - divine, and what an ending. Then there's Bob Lott skilfully chanting some complex scansion in ‘Popes I have Known’, a more serious theme. Bob and Kitty pair for ‘Time on our Hands’, the sweetest homage to retirement. Keith Conlon turns up as a political candidate sniping at "Christopher (hear me whine) Pyne" while running on a pronunciation policy. A lovely, quirky piece. The Gentlemen Footlighters line up en masse to deliver ‘The Creed’ - a big male priestly choir chanting the life and times of Tony Abbott. This is a top skit. There are zany moments such as the vegetable orchestra of ‘Fruit Cha Cha’ and unlikely moments such as the uber arty spoof on Pina Bausch choreography. This is a big number and it must have taken very serious rehearsal.
Wayne Anthoney has directed this production and his showbiz skills shine through the discipline and the general neat snappiness of the show.
This lovely, lively, fearless cast also includes John Potter, Margi Butcher and Margy Hill, Tisha Brown and Andy Ligertwood, Michael Johnston and Paul Kolarovich with Jenn Havelberg on choreography, Bill Kay, invisible but indispensable as ever, stage managing. The support team goes on. There is even a band of young musicians alongside these golden oldies.
Perchance, one of the secrets of the Footlighters' riotous success post prime is that, unlike their student selves, they now not only perform the satiric material, they are the material. They send up their own ageing processes - retirement homes, hearing tests, medical visits - a practice, one suspects, which is keeping them young.
Samela Harris
When: 15 to 22 Feb
Where: Holden Street Theatres – The Studio
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
Holden Street Theatre. 12 Feb 2014
When thinking of Albert Einstein, "funny" is not a word which comes to mind. Unless John Hinton has been playing with the great physicist.
Last time he was in Adelaide, Hinton was in the guise of Charles Darwin. He loves, it seems, to play with facts and very clever men. But, is he a teacher, an actor, a singer or a comedian? Those are the questions.
As Einstein and wearing braces and very big hair, Hinton comes across as every student's dream teacher. This show is pretty much a theoretical physics lesson embellished with partial biography and some added theoreticals about how the man may have felt about this and that.
Hinton plays with the knowledge, demonstrating theories by using living audience members as props. It is surprisingly effective. Happening upon drama students who are not a bit reluctant to go onstage was a major bonus for his first performance. They turned those audience participation segments into fairly jolly improv. Acting students should be compulsorily provided for all such shtick.
For this show, Hinton brings a charming accompanist who plays his wives as well as the keyboard. He turns theories into songs and comic routines, and even indulges in some serious contemplation. The audience gets to vote (or does it?) on who should develop the nuclear bomb and it is here that the show takes a rare slow moment, to encompass Einstein's regrets.
Hinton rolls the clock to and fro, very successfully turning the Theory of Relativity into a rap song. Here there's complete audience participation as everyone learns how to sign MC2 with their hands, rapper style.
Einstein ages via a bottle of talc, his black hair tossed with talc for the grey effect and then soused for the whiter years. With a bit of good lighting, that talc can make a few clever emphases, too.
Hinton has worked hard to make a lot of silliness out of seriousness and to impart the scientific erudition along the way. He is strong of voice, corny of accent and lithe of body.
It's all lots of clever fun.
Samela Harris
When: 15 Feb to 16 Mar
Where: Holden Street Theatres – The Studio
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
Bitch Boxer - Fringe
Holden Street Theatre. 12 Feb 2014
That a performer so fresh from drama school should be delivering this sort of dramatic punch is knockout.
The scrapbook of Holly Augustine will be full of just such pieces of heavy-handed wordplay since the piece that the young actress is presenting is 'Bitch Boxer' - the portrait of a young woman determined to prove her worth by becoming one of the first women in Olympic boxing. Women were only included in Olympic boxing in 2012 so the play, written by Charlotte Josephine, is right on the knocker, so to speak.
The aspiring boxer is one Chloe, a pretty tough chick from Leytonstone in the UK. The thing that makes her different is the power of her love for her late father, a devotion heightened by raw emotions at what her mother did to her father. So, while this play is the depiction of a feisty boxer with driving ambition it also, and most potently, is a love story.
On the one hand, it is hard-hitting. On the other, it is deeply touching.
It is, simply, a beautifully conceived and crafted theatre piece.
Not surprisingly, it has been reaping awards wherever it goes - a Soho Young Writer's Award, an Old Vic New Voices Edinburgh Award and our own Holden Street Theatres' Edinburgh Award for 2013 - which is what brings it here for this Fringe.
The one mistake playwright Josephine has made is in its name. Bitch Boxer is a bitch of a name. It is unenticing to a swathe of the theatre demographic. Ironically, it seems to become a good and catchy name after the experience - for the experience is rich and intense. It earned sell-out seasons in the UK.
Staged by Snuff Box Theatre in Collaboration with Richard Jordan Productions under the direction of Bryony Shanahan, it is a play of logistical economy.
There's a camp chair, a duffle bag and a boxing square marked on the black stage in talc. This is Daniel Foxsmith's quietly apt design.
The rest is the most eloquent lighting design by Seth Rook Williams. And the power of Holly Augustine.
She knows all the moves, light and fast on her feet, convincing with the fists. She accompanies her motion with the pattern of oomphs and uhs which represent blows given and received. Head and body whip back from the assault of her invisible opponents.
Her narrative is littered with expletives. It is tough. It is tender. It is sad. It is happy.
As a performer, she is fearless, high-energy and able to swing easily through a broad gamut of human emotions. The audience is utterly engaged. At her first Adelaide performance, the applause went on and on.
Even for one who despises boxing, this is a winning work - and another feather in the Holden Street curatorial cap.
Samela Harris
When: 12 Feb to 16 Mar
Where: Holden Street Theatres - The Studio
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au