Pelican Productions. Arts Theatre. 22 Mar 2019
Here they come again, a cast of thousands of young children being reared in the art of stagecraft by the sterling Pelican Productions team.
Jen Frith, Kylie Green and Bec Schembri have been running annual school-holiday theatre camps for 15 years, recently adding an extra one to cope with demand. Young South Australians are very keen on theatre and performance skills and, as is evidenced in every showcase Pelican production, they get them in spades. It’s a rich incubation space for the future arts industry.
This version of Disney’s The Little Mermaid comes very efficiently packaged indeed, minus interval.
It is set to a recorded score with a team of cast and backstage crew getting huge sets on and off flawlessly and romping along at a lightning pace.
The costumes are stunning. Never have there been more elaborate fishtails; massive glitzy entities which rise high in the air when the mermaids dance or bow and can give quite a shimmer as a swimming motion. The girls wear black tights so their legs, technically, are sort of invisible. Ariel, the mermaid heroine, must dart and dash about with this long tail protruding behind her, until, of course, she trades in her voice to lose her mermaid tail and become mortal in a deal with Ursula, the evil octopus queen of the deep.
Ursula is another piece of spectacular costuming. Her actress, Emma Pool, is elevated high in her cephalopod-inspired ball gown with writhing air-filled tentacles being juggled all around her by little aquatic servants, Mega tentacles on painted flats adorn the stage to complete the overarching sense of the sinister octopusian world. Pool gets to sing, most competently, some of the more demanding songs of the colourful Alan Menken score. It’s an evergreen Disney musical with much loved tunes, Under The Sea being the absolute favourite. In this production, it is performed within an absolutely delicious characterisation of Sebastian the crab by one Ariel Higgs.
Alternate casts for Pelican Production performances mean that one cannot see all the talent at once. Alex Hasler as the Prince is the only principal in all Little Mermaid performances. Ariel, the sweet-singing star of the show, is alternated between Zara Blight and Jelena Nicdao. In this performance, among the outstanding young talent is Neve Sargeant as Scuttle the seagull and Liam Holland as little King Triton.
The ensemble work is superb. Aged from 8 to 19, of all shapes and sizes, the ensemble of seagulls and dancers displays absolute discipline, each individual seeming to shine with joy, notably among them Jasper Darwent, Sierra Vannini and Aisha Skinner.
If there is one flaw to this short and sweet production, it is the sound. Pelican has very high production values and has always been very professional in its technical aspects but in this show it seems a bit too heavy on the amps. Even 8-year-olds in the audience were protesting the volume. Sound at shows is becoming quite an issue these days with so many mature performers complaining of accumulated hearing damage through their stage lives, so it is all the more vital that young talent be protected as prudently as possible.
Samela Harris
When: 22 to 24 Mar
Where: Arts Theatre
Bookings: trybooking.com
Adelaide Fringe. Burnside Community Centre. 16 Mar 2019
Graeme Denton, aka Marty McBubble, has serious bubble-making pedigree. Since 2017, he has been the proud holder of the Guinness World Record for the largest free floating soap bubble (indoors).
In The Scientific Bubble Show, he demonstrates his impressive skills with an array of large, beautiful, and gravity-defying examples. In setting up each of his "experiments", Denton takes every opportunity to share his encyclopaedic scientific knowledge in a fun and engaging way. In return, his audience of mini scientists are wide eyed and eager to test each hypothesis.
This show is a wonderful hour of educational entertainment. McBubble has great rapport with pre- and primary school age children, and keeps the show humming along at a good pace. The kids are excited, calling out answers and scrambling to be a part of the onstage experiments.
The hour is gone in a flash, and everyone is smarter for attending. Highly recommended.
Nicole Russo
When: Closed
Where: Burnside Community Centre
Bookings: Closed
Adelaide Fringe. Ambient Orchestra. Elder Hall. 15 Mar 2019
For some, the lack of formal structure in so-called ‘ambient music’ imbues it with a certain ennui and faux-intellectualism. For others, the emphasis on tone and impression in ambient music is mind altering, meditative and as important as any other music genre.
Well-respected American composer/conductor/academic Evan Ziporyn teams nine state-side musicians with students from the Elder Conservatorium of Music (and at least one member of the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra) to create a standard orchestral ensemble to perform music by Satie, Laraaji, Robert Fripp and Brian Eno, as well as his own composition Frog’s Eye.
The concert begins with a reimagining of Erik Satie’s ever-popular three Gymnopédies composed in the late 1800s. It is difficult to conceive of someone not having heard them. They can be heard as background music in diverse places like elevators and department stores, and in films such as Wes Anderson's The Royal Tenenbaums. Indeed, for some the Gymnopédies are regarded as a significant forerunner to contemporary ambient music.
Ziporyn experimented with both the phrasing and meter of the Gymnopédies. He broke chords apart and, with inventive pairing of instruments, he then arpeggiated them creating an interesting variant on the original.
The remainder of the first half of the concert is given over to Laraaji’s Dance No.1 which heralds back to the 1980s when Laraaji was ‘discovered’ by Brian Eno. Ziporyn clearly knows this music well, and with minimal conducting (that one could see; the real work being done before the concert even begins) he coaxes uncommon sounds from the ensemble that are light, meandering and fleeting at times, and hypnotic and resonant at others.
Ziporyn’s Frog’s Eye is lyrical and frequently melody driven, but every melody is fragmentary and soon gives way to another before it really establishes itself, and there appear to be no obvious relationships between the fragments. This is part of the composition’s appeal, but one has to very quickly get over any innate desire to ‘understand’ the music from a conventional theoretical approach. The tone bending on brass instruments is especially interesting.
An interesting reconstruction by Ziporyn’s of Fripp & Brian Eno’s Evening Star brings the generously long two hour concert to a close. Those for whom ambient music is not a new thing left Elder Hall deeply satisfied, and rested for the experience.
Kym Clayton
When: 15 Mar
Where: Elder Hall
Bookings: Closed
Adelaide Fringe. Mark Drama SA. St Barnabas Croydon – Main Auditorium. 16 March 2019
The Mark Drama is a dramatic presentation of the Gospel of Mark. Every incident in the whole of Mark’s Gospel is performed in theatre-in-the-round in 90 minutes and the audience will hear nearly all the words of Jesus as quoted in Mark. Englishman Andrew Page conceived of the idea some years ago and The Mark Drama is produced all over the world in many languages. No props, lights, costumes, or even actors are required – all you need is to throw fifteen Christians to the theatrical lions. Page thoughtfully provides a guidebook called The Mark Experiment through which the participants learn each of the six key parts of Mark’s Gospel in just ten minutes. The technique of learning and staging the play is copyrighted. For the St Barnabas production, the players had six weeks to memorise their speeches, but as per usual for The Mark Drama system, they only started working together on their interactive movements - under the direction of Reverend Ben Woodd and Henry Davis –shortly before the performance. Rehearsals for Saturday night started on Thursday and finished on Saturday morning, just in time for opening the two-night season later that evening.
The interior of the cavernous St Barnabas Anglican Church is bare, like somebody took all the fixtures and stripped the walls. Seats are arranged in a circle around a tiny acting area the size of a bathroom. The house was packed on opening night. The Gospel comes to life with the exuberance and enthusiasm of the mostly young adult players. They convey the excitement of witnessing miracles and the joy of gratitude from those restored - Jesus gets a big hug every time. Wry humour resides in gossipy asides and ironic flourishes. Amusing is the laziness of the disciples and their initial failures in belief, such as the storm and the walking-on-water incidents during the several crossings of the Galilee - wonderfully portrayed with some imaginary sculling. Yet the disciples do grow in faith and respect, and attempt to protect and advise him, as the end draws near. With a cast of fifteen whooping it up, the audience gets a palpable sense of the awe and agitation created by the presence of Jesus. It’s sometimes electric as the closely packed audience provides additional crowd.
David Lang’s demonstration of Jesus’s distress and anguish in the Garden of Gethsemane, and during the torture and crucifixion, were a startling contrast to his busy and capable Jesus of earlier chapters. Though he had little chance in his role as the Son of God to demonstrate his prowess as a PhD in musical composition. The theatre arena is used very effectively when the players perambulate down the three aisles and along the rows to demonstrate a Jesus constantly on the move throughout Palestine. The production is swift-paced, fun, spontaneous and educational. An unpolished gem.
Whether you are a reader of the Gospels or not, or a believer or not, this is entertaining, grass roots theatre where the didactic discourse is delivered with zesty passion.
David Grybowski
4 Stars
When: 16 to 17 March
Where: St Barnabas Croydon – Main Auditorium
Bookings: Closed
Adelaide Fringe. The Peacock at Gluttony. One Fell Swoop Circus. 15 Mar 2019
By A Thread is the creation of One Fell Swoop Circus. The show’s title is inspired by a single prop; a “Long spool of white rope run through pulley sheaves”, suspended high above the audiences head.
This apparatus provides a catalyst for a demonstration of cause and effect which is supposed to explore the relationship between trust and play.
It is an intimate venue. Lighting by After Dark Theatre creates a dramatic effect. Spotlights cut sharply through the lightly dusted atmosphere. The single strand of pure white rope which hangs from the top of Gluttony’s The Peacock, is illuminated by a single sharp beam all the way to its coiled mass on the floor. The anticipation builds; despite the show getting underway nearly a full 30 minutes late.
The ensemble performers – Sam Adlham, Ryan Darwin, Sarah Gray, Ellen Grow, Alyssa Moore, Jonathan Morgan, Charice Rust, and Latonya Wigginton – approach the rope, at first cautiously, as if it were a thing to be feared. The performance promises to be something more than just circus acrobatics.
For almost 50 minutes this talented gang of highly trained aerialists and acrobats find all manner of ways to use the rope, and each other to slip, swing, leap, fly, twist, spin, and dance through the air and across the floor. The ethereal soundscape created by Lee Stout perfectly underscores the action. There is a lot of talent on show.
But it is the narrative context of this production which is held together ‘by a thread’.
The show contains a solid 20 minutes of high octane, impressive tricks. The rest feels more like filler. Like a warm up. There is a lot of repetition.
On further reading one discovers that the directors created the work with the aim of adding a new dimension to how audiences understand acrobatic relationships. To show the parallels these relationships draw to everyday human interaction, and to explore play, risk and trust. It just does not translate.
The performers are having fun. Their more impressive tricks garner worthy applause. There is no doubt about their talent. But the vehicle on which this show is built needs further development and direction.
Paul Rodda
3 Stars
When: 15 to 17 Mar
Where: The Peacock at Gluttony
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au