★★
Adelaide Fringe Festival. The Piglet (open-air) at Gluttony - Rymill Park. 3 Mar 2021
Jon Bennet styles himself as a story-teller, not a stand-up comedian. His show Playing with Men is receiving it’s SA première at this year’s Fringe and is a gentle look at his adolescence and growth to early adulthood, all through the lens of his involvement in Aussie rules footy.
On a very chilly evening in the open air venue (or ‘paddock’ as Bennet describes it) we are introduced through anecdotes to his family, his mates and girlfriends, his sporting heroes and enemies, and his pets. The stories are an eclectic mix of the banal and the boorish, with some almost leaving a bad taste in your mouth, vicariously speaking! There are a few laughs – not many – but that’s not really the point, because Bennett is actually trying to make a number of serious points about masculinity, empathy, and living a good life, even though he apologises for doing so again and again and again throughout the performance.
The show doesn’t really know what it wants to be yet. It’s billed as comedy/theatre, but it’s neither one nor the other, and the incessant apologising reinforces this view. The script needs tightening to make it really work, and the whole thing would be much better in a more intimate and cosy venue, like a room in a pub or a footy club.
Kym Clayton
When: 3 to 21 Mar
Where: The Piglet (open-air) at Gluttony - Rymill Park
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
★★★★
Adelaide Fringe Festival. Holden Street Theatres - The Arch. 3 Mar 2021
Presented by Deadset Theatre Company, ‘Dark Wind Blowing’ is a world première and a winner! Director Zoe Muller has adapted Jackie French’s novel of the same name and has produced a taut and gritty play that engages from start to finish. Her casting is spot on, and eight of the nine actors are under the age of 18. Despite their tender years, they all give highly credible and nuanced performances.
The story centres on a group of senior high school students and their relationships. It addresses bullying, mental health and suicide. Despite such dark themes, there are also laugh-out-loud moments that briefly lighten the gravitas but do not ever diminish them.
Lance, played by Hamish Philips, is a disturbed boy who is known to his peers as 'Loser'. He desperately wants to fit in and be accepted, but he doesn’t really know how, and, like a wounded animal, the others circle and mercilessly taunt him. Lance of course lashes out, with appalling consequences. Philips plays the role beautifully: sensitive use of facial expression, body language, and voice all support what is clearly a well-researched approach to realising the character.
Mike, played superbly by Connor Ferguson, is latched onto by Lance as his best chance of a friend, but Mike does his best to avoid this. Mike is not boorish like his mates and ultimately helps Lance face up to the devastation he creates when he reacts to the bullying. Ferguson plays Mike with a pleasing mix of knock-about mischievousness, boyish embarrassment at the first flush of romance, and importantly empathy and integrity. He carries all this easily in his stride, and is an emerging talent to be watched and cultivated.
Adept support is provided by the rest of the ensemble, with individually crafted and believable characters created by Prudence Cassar, Charlie Butler, Teliah Shepherdson, Lazuli Chittleborough, Isiah Macaspac, and Mikayla Partick. Mandy Rowe is the only member of the cast on the wrong side of 20, and she plays the school teacher with a sufficient sense of harassment.
In true Fringe style, the setting is minimal with nothing more than a bare stage with a few milk crates as seats. The script and acting is strong enough to allow the audience to fill in the rest of the blanks, although Muller’s adaptation of the novel is perhaps a little overwritten in the sections where Lance’s retribution unfolds victim by victim.
Deadset Theatre Company was founded in 2017 and exists to create theatre that allows young people the opportunity to pursue challenging roles onstage, through scripts that are current, relevant and relatable. It is doing that brilliantly but is also creating a quality theatre company more generally. Long may it exist.
This production is worth seeing.
Kym Clayton
When: 3 to 7 Mar
Where: Holden Street Theatres - The Arch
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
★★★★
Adelaide Fringe Festival. Adelaide Planetarium, UniSA. 28 Mar 2021
StellarSphere – Full Dome Sound Bath Experience is sublime. It is a visual and aural event that transforms your day and replenishes your soul.
Many of us have been to planetariums and enjoyed journeys through the night skies, but this event is different. Darren Curtis and Bradley Pitt are composers and sound engineers, but they dabble in the esoteric. They take digital data obtained from NASA space missions and other arcane sources (such as resonant pyramid chambers (?!), star ‘sounds’, and natural ecosystems) and ‘process’ the data to produce music, which then accompanies the projections on the ceiling of the planetarium.
The projections are a mix of the astronomical sequences one would expect in a traditional planetarium experience, but there are also visual representations of evolving complex biological systems, as well as mandala designs. The images are stunning.
The original music sounds other-worldly but has a relationship to the established tonal systems that we all intuitively understand and experience every time we listen to music. The music is electronic and soothing, with a mix of esoteric acoustic instruments such as Tibetan singing bowls. It is easy to lose oneself in the music. There is nothing to contemplate – no obvious structure that demands attention and analysis. The audience settles back in reclining chairs and becomes one with it, almost taking leave of one’s body for a few minutes to explore other dimensions.
The whole thing is profoundly restful and immersive. At times it is disorienting, but in an entirely fulfilling way. This event is definitely worth experiencing.
Kym Clayton
When: 25 Feb to 6 Mar
Where: Adelaide Planetarium, UniSA, University Boulevard, Mawson Lakes
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
★★★★★
Adelaide Fringe. Norwood Concert Hall. 28 Feb 2021
A two hour long children’s theatre show is not to be sneezed at. Yes, there was minor boredom, and yes, some scenes dragged, but it shows that if the identification factor is strong then kids will adapt their thinking from screen to stage as required. I thought the much loved Mary Poppins might be too long for the kids (sample of three ranging in age from five to ten), but the youngest proclaimed loudly as we walked down the stairs afterwards; “I love Mary Poppins”.
Indeed. All three grandchildren have watched the 1964 film version starring Julie Andrews multiple times. A theatrical version starring young Adelaidean Issy Darwent for Adelaide Theatre Academy is simply not in the same league – or is it?
Darwent did an exceptional job as Mary Poppins, easily identifiable to children as the much loved nanny. Tiffany Buchan played Bert, a stretch of a character for her, especially in the singing, but her support for Darwent was strong. Incidentally, this was a young cast, and a surfeit of young women at Adelaide Theatre Academy meant a number of roles were played by girls instead of boys. Confusing? Not really.
There were other changes from Disney’s film version, some reflecting the original 1930s books of PL Travers. Mr Banks leaves the bank, then returns. In this version it is a misunderstanding and he is rewarded. Mrs Banks is a suffragist. Try explaining that these days… since the film was based in 1910 London, the books set in the 1930s but filmed in 1964 in Hollywood maybe it all makes sense. It speaks to the enduring nature of Mary Poppins, and the enduring nature of love and relationships. The set was well dressed, never overdressed, and the unfolding storyline easily followed, even with some of those deviations as mentioned.
And a criticism, the only one, poorly tuned wireless microphone systems are an abomination. When they trim frequencies and attenuate room acoustics they are worse than no amplification at all, and Norwood Concert Hall is a difficult acoustic environment in which to work. The major sound issues, luckily, remained only that for the first 10 to 15 minutes.
The standout performances were those of the fully wound up and totally energetic Jasper Darwent and Elliott Purdie as the children, Jane and Michael, respectively. They were astounding; working together or as part of the ensemble, they rarely miss a cue, and the enthusiasm they bring lifts the show for the entire audience. Truly an outstanding performance for what it promised, then was able to deliver.
Alex Wheaton
When: Closed
Where: Norwood Concert Hall
Bookings: Closed
Adelaide Festival. Belvoir, Queensland Theatre and Brisbane Festival, in association with Australian Theatre for Young People (ATYP). Ridley Stadium. 28 Feb 2021
A new Adelaide Festival phenomenon has arisen. It’s the Fangirls fan! Count this veteran critic right in there among them.
This brand new Aussie musical has all the good ingredients and then some. If there are any shortcomings to the show, they are utterly forgiven since the whole package is such a classy feel-good experience.
Ironically, it is a show with a very dark side to it. It deals with the psychopathology of fandom and the online cult of fan groups. It delves so deeply that one wonders how it can extricate itself. It does so with one song too many. Including interval, it is a two-and-a-half-hour show after which its audience leaps to its feet and whoops with glee.
What is it?
It is a breath of fresh air. It is a brilliant idea. It is as serious and relevant as it is lively good fun. It is exciting. It is an exposure of dazzling new talent. It is top notch professional theatre. It is on the internet zeitgeist. It taps a huge, cross-generational nerve.
Furthermore, it is a loud, pop-style musical which does not leave one's ears ringing, albeit it very cleverly makes the seats vibrate beneath one.
The storyline follows Edna, Jules, and Brianna, 14-year-old girls ardently in fan-love with a young English pop star called Harry. They moon and swoon about him and fantasise about meeting him. Edna, the most obsessed of the three, belongs to one online fan cult in which she shares her fan-fiction ideas with a gay American fanboy nicknamed Saltyspringl. Edna is utterly convinced that it is her destiny to meet the object of her adoration, and to run away with him, thus saving him from exploitative celebrity. When it is announced that Harry’s group is to tour Australia, the passions hot up but things don’t turn out to be straightforward - at all. So, there’s all sorts of drama.
This gives the music a chance to stretch its wings, so to speak, and the songs have a broad emotional range. And there are a lot of songs along with a lot of fabulous dance numbers and utterly whizzy lighting.
Book, music, and lyrics for this brave new show are by Yve Blake and it has been snappily directed by Paige Rattray with expert support in video content, choreography, sound and of course, lighting. Applause to the whole five-star team.
As for the cast, here’s welcome to some fabulous new talent whose names one cannot doubt will become familiar in due course on the Australian stage. Chika Ikogwe, for starters. She plays Jules, the most charismatic and also mean-spirited of the three girls. It’s a complex character but this performer is up to every nuance and then some. One falls in love with her. Karis Oka absolutely dazzles as Edna. What a voice. What a dancer. They are supported beautifully by Shubshri Kandiah as sweet, hapless Brianna and also by Danielle Barnes with the tricky counterpoint role of Edna’s battler mum. She artfully adds an element of poignancy. Ayesha Madon, a powerful singer and dancer, goes all the way as the over-the-top fan girl. Oh, boy, she is a loud one. And then there’s James Majoos as the funny, clever Salty, ever-so-gay with star quality written all over him. Talking of which, there’s AYDAN. Yes, he spells his single name in caps. He’s already found stardom on the Australian music scene in the likes of Australia’s Got Talent and The Voice and he is absolutely the perfect fit for the character of Harry, the superstar subject of the Fangirls’ fixation. AYDAN has absolutely magnetic presence onstage.
Move over kids, you need to make room in the squeal pit for a few oldies.
Samela Harris
When: 28 Feb to 14 Mar
Where: Ridley Stadium
Bookings: adelaidefestival.com.au