Derek Tickner. Broadcast Bar. 21 Feb 2019
Ah, the Broadcast Bar, where the grudge is real. The steep stairs and the one lit light chandelier and the bar supported by ancient VHS movie covers. Yet inside a Beckettian version of somebody’s brain, one finds hospitality and escape, and the world premiere of Eric Tinker’s Tinkerings.
Tinkerings, you will learn, are songs with tinkered lyrics – either completely re-themed or satirical takes on the original. This Tinker is good at, and one finds comedy with music more immediately accessible than stand-up. Tinker takes melodies from the likes of Wilson Dixon, Tom Basden and Pulp. His own libretti, like Cow Meditation and Philosophy are actually brilliant, dripping with double entendres and fantasy. Tinker’s satires of Bowie and Jagger, while not polished, have humorous veracity.
Perched on a stool and strumming simply, Tinker has a fetching sonorous register delivering mid-country Pommie vowels. The lyrics are quirky and ironic, and extend to farcical conclusions using dollops of lateral thinking. There are references betraying an interest in history and science, somewhat in the Monty Python vein, like the song comparing the Tudors and the Vikings. At half time, Adelaidean Fergus O’Regan comes on for a funny song focusing on the phallus. Tinker returns in a ludicrous wig claiming to be Billy Ray Cyrus and after some chat exposing a wounded accent, launches into Achy Breaky Heart 2 – Zombie Apocalypse, another hit of the night.
There’s a naivety and honesty about Tinker – apologies for stiff fretting fingers, losing one’s place while reading the words, throwing sheets of music around, strumming to the lowest common denominator – it’s goofy but charming. All forgiven in a ten minute open mic set, but a one-hour one-man show commands a greater commitment to the gig.
David Grybowski
3 stars
When: 21 Feb to 7 Mar
Where: Broadcast Bar
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
Presented by Standard Theatre. Bakehouse Studio Theatre. 21 Feb 2019
When is a monologue not a monologue? Answer: when it is a lecture.
Bob Paisley, fondly remembered for his Bill Clinton Hercules a Fringe or so ago, has donned a brown suit and bow tie, popped a pipe in his pocket, and turned into a somewhat raddled and addled university professor who is giving his last lecture on western civilisation. To that end, he is trying to squeeze in a pressure cooker of topics, beginning with mathematics and the joys pi and ending with European art and the mystery of the Mona Lisa’s smile. Among many things, he has a go at iambic pentameter and why actors spit, sings a sweet wee song with a ukulele, marvels at the human and non-human phenomenon of book reading, sings praise to paragraphs, mocks poets, and in uproarious overkill, gives his expose on the Mona Lisa.
It’s all desperate machine-gun delivery from the fine Kansas actor; a torrent of Brian Parks’ quirky content, directed by John Clancy. It’s one of those things that provokes different laughs and guffaws from different parts of the audience at different times. But everyone laughs at the end, whether they want to or not.
Samela Harris
3 ½ Stars
When: 21 Feb to 2 Mar
Where: Bakehouse Theatre
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
Presented by Oyster Creatives. Bakehouse Theatres Studio. 21 Feb 2019
There’s nothing like a couple of fine old English actors and a meaty bit of intimate theatre.
Oysters is a dense dark comedy created by Neil Salvage who also plays the principal role as the composer, Brahms. The conceit is that Brahms didn’t much like his own music and was generally a drunken curmudgeon. Hence, his response to a party held in honour of the first performance of his new violin concerto is to retreat to a back room and drink everything in sight. He then has assorted contretemps with his composer, his publisher, his friend Clara Schumann, and a powerful Viennese music critic.
Salvage says in his program notes that he found the characters and tensions contained in the play well documented as he researched his subject and, indeed, this hour-long Fringe piece has been “distilled” from his screenplay.
Onstage with him, playing three enabling characters, is Nicholas Collett, showing the qualities which have made him an award winning Royal Shakespeare Company actor. Also, stepping in from Adelaide as she has done before with challenging Fringe roles, is The Adelaide Critics Circle Emerging Actor of 2018, Stephanie Rossi, playing a very nicely nuanced Clara Schumann.
An unusual added ingredient comes in the form of Korean violinist, Ahram Min, who might symbolise the spirit of Brahms’s music or perhaps his would-be conscience. She plays quick grabs of music, sometimes for satire, sometimes for illustration. When not playing, she functions as a reactive commentary to Brahms’ behaviour; frowning, gasping, smiling. It is a difficult balance and a strange ingredient, both puzzling and interesting.
Of course, the play belongs to Salvage. It is a fierce performance and admirable.
Samela Harris
4 Stars
When: 21 Feb to 16 Mar
Where: Bakehouse Theatre
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
David Gauci & Davine Productions. Theatre One at the Parks. 20 Feb 2019
Well, well, well. A modern musical with proper old-fashioned catchy tunes. How utterly refreshing.
The American team of Kooman & Dimond created this chirpy comedic confection to both satirise and celebrate the fine era of reality TV in which we live. Judge Judy in her iron-fisted court has become a television institution, now the highest paid host in TV history. She’s worth $147 million. Her success is based on the way she takes down the trailer trash-types of the US.
In this zany musical having its Australian premiere at The Parks, Judy's counterpart, Judge Jackie, finds herself in trouble with the studio executives who want to up her ratings by adding a love element to her case load. Or maybe celebrity couples.
They send in a brash and overpowering executive who could be straight out of The Producers. Meanwhile her loyal bailiff tries to keep the show on the road while Jackie juggles not only threats to her stardom and her usual succession of stereotypically hapless American lowlifes, but also the ghosts of her past marriages. Add to this plotline a string of catchy songs, a bit of dancing, and some audience participation, and there it is; a very modern and very unpretentious musical comedy about and for the proletariat.
David Gauci’s Davine Productions, which used to be Davine Intervention Productions, has prided itself on a bit of class in its productions and it pulls out all the stops here. It has top performers performing shamelessly to a very high standard.
Katie Packer displays a sensational array of growling grimaces and scowls, sneers, glowers, and frowns as grumpy old Judge Jackie. She also displays accomplishment as a soprano and is a good mover; just like Judge Judy, not. Her wonderful foil is Bailiff Henry who also is the compere of the show. He is played by the distinguished Adam Goodburn, so his characterisation is thoroughly rounded, his connection with the audience excellent, and his singing absolutely gorgeous. Oh, and he’s pretty light on his feet, too. As is Paul Rodda, former competitive dancer and now a stalwart of the musical theatre. He can be depended upon for a good American accent and he was clearly having a lot of fun being the brassy, vulgar TV executive. His Reality TV song was among the high spots of the show.
But the show needs a cast of other characters to keep the court room busy. They are embodied by all-singing and all-dancing Casmira Hambledon and Joshua Angeles paired up as plantiffs and defendants, some goofy, some ghastly, some obtuse, stupid, and even totally crackpot. They bring the house down repeatedly, these two versatile and fearless players, the high comedy of the production. Their doomsday-prepper couple really takes the cake as a slice of unique Americana.
Martin Cheney and his fine three-man band are onstage, the bare bones of the back of the piano somewhat detracting from Gauci’s slick court room set. Louise Watkins’s costumes are a hoot, the lighting’s good but, on opening night, the sound system is deafeningly over-amped and detracts from a lot of the singing, putting some audience members into defensive mode.
Then again, with the constant threat of audience participation, everyone is always on edge. It seems a particularly superfluous element of this show but it is written into the script and there are always one or two audience members who seem to respond to the threat of humiliation. Indeed, on opening night, the added chorus dancer quite upstaged the cast; not the usual outcome and very funny.
It’s a bit of a hoof to The Parks but the theatre is beautiful and the show is schmick enough to make the trip eminently rewarding.
Samela Harris
4 stars
When: 20 Feb to Mar 2
Where: The Parks Theatre
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
EDITORS NOTE: Paul Rodda is the Editor and Creative Director of the Barefoot Review.
Lion House Theatre, Joanne Hartstone, and Holden Street Theatres. Holden Street Theatres - The Manse. 20 Feb 2019
A tiny room in the old manse of Holden Street Theatres is filled with memorabilia and collectibles signifying a life well lived and souvenired. British actor and theatre creator Casey Jay Andrews makes the necessarily small audience comfortable on sofas and soft chairs. There is so much to visually comprehend; one is partly inattentive to her preamble.
Old photos, mostly of women in giveaway 70s hairdos, are gently tabled one by one and projected onto the wall above the fireplace for all to see. A catalogue of portraits and family gatherings. Casey shifts to poetic prose underlain by her score of gentle electronic music. Her narration is augmented by historical voice recordings of the principal women of the story and excerpts read from American Gelett Burgess’s 1923 manual on manners, courtesy and gratitude, Have You An Educated Heart?
The book and Casey’s story are tied by sharing the gift of life. A cancer in the family is bad enough, but what if your Mum and her three sisters were all affected by breast cancer? Casey’s art teacher has already fallen to the dreadful disease. If it doesn’t take your breathe away, maybe you stopped breathing already.
Forty minutes of poignancy, immediacy and honesty. How much time does one have left to see this show and read that book? One leaves with borrowed strength to be more grateful.
PS Cards are handed out after the show to acquaint you with the Know Your Lemons campaign that helps women identify visual symptoms of breast cancer.
PPS Gelett Burgess (1866-1951) is credited with inventing the word blurb in its meaning used today.
David Grybowski
4 stars
When: 16 Feb to 16 Mar
Where: Holden Street Theatres – The Manse
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au