Adelaide Festival. Her Majesty’s Theatre. 4 Mar 2025
A luminary of the Cabaret Festival, Camille O’Sullivan returns to Adelaide with an extended and more weighty show in Loveletters as a full attraction for the Festival of Arts. This is perhaps a mixed blessing; the show itself is vague in places; it is rambling and unfocused and yet poignant. It is as raw as Camille’s emotions are raw. It does, I suspect, need a sharpened direction which runs counter to the notions which swim through O’Sullivan’s narrative.
The stage is dressed with animals and clothes upon clothes stands – two cats and a dog. There is a rabbit lamp on a side table, make of that what you will. O’Sullivan peers from side of stage – and pivots from behind the side curtain, almost defying herself to be in the right place and immediately begins greeting the audience with a round of profuse thanks for making it possible for her to be back in Adelaide. It is endearing and the audience sweeps her and pianist Feargal Murray (‘my oldest dearest friend’) up into the evening.
This evening is a paeon to those who are no longer with us, and she makes clear that this not just about the music, it’s about the words. Beginning with Summer In Siam, it becomes clear this is a celebration of the lives of some of her friends, principally Shane McGowan and Sinead O’Connor. When her friends died, she didn’t play their songs; she read their words. A long story of their friendship precedes Broad Majestic Shannon, and so the genesis for the show is clear. Tom Waits Martha makes an appearance, as does the slightly oddly placed Amsterdam, the Jacques Brel classic. This, I suppose, is a nod to her previous performances here as part of the Cabaret Festival, a way of ushering in some of her audience who may not have been entirely comfortable with the 2025 performance from Camille.
Her voice has a rasp, her breath can be heard pulling back into the throat, she sounds raw and emotional in places (no surprise, of course) and in places, ragged. Nick Cave’s Jubilee Street is played with a thumping swagger, evocative of Patti Smith in the way the song launches into the break. This is followed by another nod to her cabaret days of yore, Kirsty MacColl’s In These Shoes. Back in the day I recall seeing her perform this in bright red sparkling four-inch heels; tonight it is less striking silver flats.
There is an interval and a costume change. Camille wears a red jumpsuit and – initially, at least – a tan jacket. She dips back into cabaret with the heart wrenching Look Mummy, No Hands. I had to look this one up – a 1997 song from Fascinating Aida.
By now the emotion is palpable – O’Sullivan takes a detour into the world of David Bowie and thence back to Sinead O’Connor - and she is by now quite flitting from one thought to another, moving forward from the microphone to talk to her audience mid-song, scolding herself, working through what might be described as blarney. It is brave and it is honest, but is it of a standard for a Festival performance? I’m not sure, but note in passing I saw Roky Erickson perform some years ago; mesmerizing yet similarly questionable.
“I don’t wanna cry no more, so cut me down from this here tree” she intones, from Take Me To The Church from O’Connor’s final album, ‘I’m Not Bossy, I’m the Boss’. Back to Nick Cave for The Ship Song and the night could not go by without acknowledging the beauty of Leonard Cohen’s words with Anthem, where there is a crack in everything, that’s where the light gets in. One last homage to The Pogues with Rainy Night In Soho and Fairytale Of New York closes proceedings, and as a collection of Loveletters, it was perfectly enough.
Alex Wheaton
When: 4 Mar
Where: Her Majesty’s Theatre
Bookings: Closed
Adelaide Festival. Landmark Productions. Presented by Arts Projects Australia and the Adelaide Festival. Dunstan Playhouse. 28 Feb 2025
Good old Beckett. One had forgotten how driftingly absurd is his existential perspective.
Krapp is his shortest play. It is ridiculously brief. Some forty-five minutes. And yet, it is an epic lifetime.
One actor performs in the dark, at a table illumined by a one-bulb light. He’s the old man Krapp revisiting his younger years in a diary tape-recorded when he was thirty-nine. It is one recording from a lifetime of tapes, just one special spool.
“Spool” becomes a key word. Not only does the old man like the sound of it, it has its own meaning in the grand unravelling of memory. He unwinds the spool and feeds it into the old-school tape machine.
We’re of a generation now who would find this cumbersome technology incredible, and, indeed, the Playhouse’s sophisticated sound system and the practicalities of high class theatre do not permit the old tape to sound the way it probably would have. It comes over loud and clear as Krapp punches at the old spool tape recorder's buttons.
He stops it and starts it. Life comes in jumps. Eventually, he puts in a new tape and speaks for himself. The present-day Krapp is more seen than heard, albeit he shambles to and fro across the stage to retrieve this or that. His sourcing bananas from an idiosyncratic locked drawer, then peeling and eating same with a slightly clownish relationship to their skins is a highlight to an audience which seems eager to laugh. Well, isn’t every audience, come to think of it. Beckett has never been funny-bunny. His characters are adrift in the somewhere nowhere of life and time. Godot never comes. Krapp is a thwarted old man scouring his past. We see him in a predicament. We invade his privacy. We dip into the chance pile of his memories, of loves lost and youthful aspiration, the counting days of his mortality.
There is so little on that black stage so eerily lit by Paul Keogan, so little time expended and yet…
Krapp’s Last Tape was written for Patrick Magee, an Irish actor of excellence and, through its years has been performed by the best, Harold Pinter, Michael Gambon, and Brian Dennehy among them. Stephen Rea stands tall among them, an Irishman with a distinguished career, here directed by Vicky Featherstone. Quite right for an Adelaide Festival. He delivers Krapp with astute physicality, a rumpled elderly presence in body and soul. And, he leaves us properly haunted and pondering the mysteries of the human predicament, again, as well we should in an Adelaide Festival.
Applause. And the rest is silence.
Samela Harris
When: 28 Feb to 3 Mar
Where: Dunstan Playhouse
Bookings: adelaidefestival.com.au
★★★★1/2
Adelaide Fringe. Prospect Productions. Holden Street Theatres/Domain Theatre, Marion. 28 Feb 2025
"Old is the new black”, they tout in their Fringe program.
Yes, it is. It’s not so much chic to be old as it is inevitable and everyone is headed in the same direction, so let’s make it fun.
It is not the first time that smart and sassy senior Maureen Sherlock has snaffled the golden years for a spot of fun and games. ’Twas she behind Alzheimers the Musical: A Night to Remember. And her mind garden of gags and send-ups is still a seething bed of fecundity. The funnies and sillies don’t stop through this new confection of elderly jests.
Four seasoned all-rounder actors people the stage: Maureen Sherlock, Sue Wylie, Kathryn Fisher, and Rose Vallen. They embody neighbours and a newbie in the retirement world, each with their peculiarities.
Slide projections reveal that they dwell in Paradise Park, a stereotypical retirement village which is trying to move with the times. To that end, community activities are adopting woke titles and volunteerism is a big thing.
The show opens with a great big full cast number, "YOLO - You Only Live Once". Of course, the lyrics are funny but then again, the message is not. Indeed, the message of the show is that one must laugh while one can. And Maureen Sherlock will help you do it.
The production is in revue format, a series of skits and songs with Paul Brokensha onstage on keyboard, and like any revue, there are changes in pace with outright, unambiguous humour coming way out on top but also some slow and wistful moments. Generally, it is compassionately observed. One can make fun of shortcomings and suffering but in the end of the day, they are not fun. Sherlock laughs with them, not at them. But she certainly doesn’t hold back. If there is an edge, she takes the mischief right there. Her frolic of the ancients features punny songs like “A Little Help from Depends” and a great love song, “Voltaren”. They keep coming.
Indeed, astutely directed by Rob George, there’s a fast-paced hour of them. Piece de resistance is “I’ve Had Everything” sung to the tune of “I've Been Everywhere” and listing every “-itis” known to medicine and then a mass more. It’s all very clever and hilariously delivered.
Fab cast, fab fun. You can be ageist if you are old.
Maureen Sherlock is without doubt doyen of the zany oldies genre; lovely, quirky, naughty humour. The balloon reproduction lesson is a hoot. And so are the promo ads onscreen.
But, that’s enough spoilers. Beg and bribe for tickets. The houses are selling out in a screaming hurry.
Samela Harris
When: 28 Feb to 9 Mar
Where: Holden Street Theatres/Domain Theatre, Marion
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
★★★★★
Adelaide Frinte. Cirquework. Yusaku Mochizuki. MOA in Gluttony. 21Feb 2025
Once you’ve seen one Nouveau Cirque show, you’ve seen them all, right? Wrong!
YOAH is a brilliant blend of cirque and physical theatre, at once moving, entertaining and simply breathtaking.
YOAH’s five performers deliver an exquisitely simple silent narrative following a young woman’s quest for fulfillment. The young woman’s light, hooded attire evokes innocence and misery in equal measure.
The opening silks act, masterfully performed by our protagonist, Tsumugi Masui, propels the young woman into a strange, dark place inhabited by four rather sinister, black-clad, traditional Kasa hatted diabolo wizards.
The encounter takes the young woman deeper into this world where light seems to lead her on.
The diabolo wizards possess their own powers, each seeming to manifest different stages in the quest.
Masui’s presence throughout, linking each episode, ensures Artistic Director Yusaku Mochizuki’s narrative continuity, while the precision of each act, performed with variously great emotion, gravitas, humour, and energy is driven by Jin Takemoto’s taiko drum influenced (sometimes almost medieval) score. Naoki Inui and Yuuka Nakashima’s choreography links everything elegantly and effectively, while Go Ueda’s superb lighting and Hiroyuki Nakatsukasa’s dazzling animations create stunning backdrops.
It turns out Mochizuki, the Artistic Director, is also a diablo master; he creates a dynamic dazzling beginning to the quest.
Kyle Fowler’s cloud swing is breathtaking, while Tomohiro Morita’s clown and juggling act brings joy to the narrative.
The high point (excuse the pun) of the both the narrative and show is Yuya Takatori’s incredibly unnerving, lofty chair balancing act!
A flurry of diabolo madness, executed with great pizazz by Mochizuki and Morita elevates the tone and energy of the show towards its climax where Masui comes full circle, now a vibrant, alive woman, on the silks.
This is a great opportunity to see a superb example of modern circus with no sexualized or agenda driven content. Visually, it is a work of art!
And one thing is certain, the Cirquework artists are at the top of their game!
Go, see it!
John Doherty
When: 21 Feb to 23 Mar
Where: MOA in Gluttony
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
★★★★
Adelaide Fringe. The Lab at Fool's Paradise. 23 Feb 2025
Ryan Simpson, aka Accordion Ryan, is a helluva funny guy! New Jersey born, currently residing in Vienna, Austria, Simpson brings a wealth of street entertainment brilliance to this show-busking, you survive simply by engaging passersby and holding their attention. However, Accordion Ryan is much more than simply a streetwise entertainer! Simpson is a maestro accordionist who leverages his skill on the instrument as a foundation for sharp, witty comedic engagement with his audience.
The show I joined on Sunday evening was underattended, but this did not deter Accordion Ryan from cavorting and leaping around with great abandon to connect with his multigenerational audience to make the show" our show, our space. This is a "get involved, sing along” show and even with a small audience it was impossible not to get caught up in the show! My fifteen-year-old niece loved it and sang along enthusiastically; a smile never left either of our teen or sexagenarian faces!
I won't list the songs here; suffice it to say there's a range of pop classics, iconic Aussie chart toppers, bawdy tunes, and originals, all worthy of getting your pipes warm for!
Is the rejuvenated Fools' Paradise on Victoria Square the best venue for this show? Perhaps not. But there is no choice in this. The Fringe assigns venues, and one can't help but think this guy would kill it in the Garden or Gluttony!
So, as the great Molly Meldrum would say, " Do yourself a favour!" Go! See it!
John Doherty
When: 20 Feb to 2 Mar
Where: The Lab at Fool’s Paradise
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au