House of Sand and Holden Street Theatres. Holden Street Theatres. 28 Feb 2018
Performance art, physical theatre, dance, mime, and voice.
Eliza Sanders is all these things in a sphere of her own invention.
She opens her Holden Street show, a strong young body clad only in black briefs alone upon the black stage. She is entwining arms and legs, forcing her body into challenging contortions, her limbs seeming to be arguing with each other. It is a strange, fluid tussle.
After a while, just as one is wondering where this is going, the most ethereal sounds emerge from the writhing form. A beautiful voice, strong and pure, sings forth. And the body writhes on.
The theatre is plunged into darkness.
Lights return and there she is, dressed in light overalls.
The only set in her black world is a pair of clothes lines strung across the stage with a few colourful pegs. This is immensely effective, albeit mysterious to begin with.
Sanders, directed by her renowned brother Charles, takes her audience upon a wild voyage of sound and movement. She is uncompromisingly lithe. It is dance with acrobatics and yoga. It is pretty much everything a body can do. And it is accompanied sometimes by shrill song, very different from that initial ethereal sound, mostly a mad, manic ongoing patter of stream of consciousness.
Wild dissociative references; sometimes lists, or random thoughts, or snatches of off key song - a mind drifting, a mind racing, madness.
Sanders’ movements always are skilled in the nature of one highly trained in dance, mime, maybe a bit of LeCoq.
Her energy is daunting and a bright and sweet face lives atop her gamin body.
There comes a point when she is not alone on the stage. There is a vivid patchwork thing which she adopts as a dance partner and then, oh, and then a wonderland of colour, ingenuity and imagination emerges.
It is quite the surprise and it really should be seen.
Samela Harris
4 stars
When: 28 Feb to 17 Mar
Where: Holden Street Theatres
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
John Hinton, Tangram Theatre and Holden Street Theatres. Holden Street Theatres - The Arch. 28 Feb 2018
This is the fourth year that science entertainer and Brit, John Hinton has contributed to making Holden Street Theatres the place to be during the Fringe. Previously, he performed a single show of the Scientrilogy each year, but this time, he is presenting all three. The trilogy comprises: The Element in the Room (concerning Marie Curie, the co-discoverer of radium), Albert Einstein: Relatively Speaking, and this one, Origin of Species... (Charles Darwin's theory of evolution). In each, the main character is the famous scientist him/herself.
Hinton doesn't delve deep into the science, although he could, as his shows are reviewed by relevant scientists for accuracy. He makes science fun, so it's a great show for the adolescents who are designing their own rockets or reading about dinosaurs, or mucking about with the microscope. The excitement of discovery, studious observation, curiosity and fascination with the natural world, and by the way, perseverance and hard work, are the driving scientific themes, and they are beautifully conveyed with Hinton's highly accomplished comic acting and characterisations, lots of movement with audience participation and little ditties (some are littler than others). His Darwin dons a full beard and speaks to us personally from his study anxious that a colleague is about to publish a theory of evolution similar to his. Unlike some stuffy bios that are strictly chronological, Hinton weaves a narrative with time shifts, twists, surprises and diversions. The school kids at the show I was at loved it, as did everyone else.
Whether you're a fan of these historical figures of science, or just seek great entertainment, Hinton has the shows for you. Bravo!
David Grybowski
5 stars
When: 13 Feb to 15 Mar
Where: Holden Street Theatres - The Arch
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
Andrew Kay and Associates Pty Ltd. The Flamingo, Gluttony. 28 Feb 2018
Not religious? Well don’t let that put you off seeing this high-energy display of joy and unbridled happiness that is completely infectious. You’ll leave with an aching face because you smiled so much.
The show is non-stop singing in a range of African languages, and some English, with a loose narrative that honours the life of the late and great Nelson Mandela. That most of the songs are not in English adds to the enjoyment – once is forced to concentrate on the hypnotic rhythms that are set by the African drumming and picked up by the chorus through their almost perfectly synchronised body movement and hand clapping. One also concentrates on the perfect and heartfelt smiles as the beautifully harmonised singing washes and soothes and then excites your inner being.
The show finished with Soweto’s take on the iconic Leonard Cohen secular hymn ‘Hallelujah’, and why not – there are scores and scores of various versions. Canadian singer k.d. lang famously once quipped she thought the song was about the “struggle between having human desire and searching for spiritual wisdom” which juxtaposes ‘Hallelujah’ nicely with an earlier song in the concert that was a humorous take on the eternal struggle of boy chasing girl and vice-versa.
A key message throughout the performance was that one’s present circumstances do not define one’s capabilities. There is always hope and a way forward, as Mandela himself showed.
This is a totally feel-good show from a group that was a hit at last year’s Fringe and deserves to be again this year.
Kym Clayton
4.5 stars
When: 28 Feb to 18 Mar
Where: The Flamingo, Gluttony
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
Adelaide Festival. State Theatre Company SA. Odeon Theatre. 28 Feb 2018
It’s not #metoo but #methree who find their way into the inner sanctum of the football club.
State Theatre tackles the issue of the day in a stark and brutal style. It is staged on a shimmering layer of water with extraordinary water-feature backdrops like a vast wet dream. But it’s a wet nightmare and it imprints on the mind, indelibly one suspects.
As a play, this Patricia Cornelius work comes at a slow, ominous pace. Three women each have turns on centre stage to deliver extensive soliloquies about who they are and where they lie in the socio-sexual world order. One is the sad team slag, one the would-be vamp and the other the innocent romantic.
The footballers are revealed, three of them, mean-spirited, privileged pack creatures. And thus do the interactions evolve between the three sorts of female and the three team players. It ain’t a pretty picture.
It has been going on and on for decades, the tales of sexed-up sports stars behind closed doors and the vapid girls whose adulation makes them easy marks. Cornelius pulls no punches. Yet, the action is set sparsely on the gleaming expanse of water. Black and white predominate. There is only restrained violence. There is no graphic sex. But, the impact is intense.
As for the aesthetic: this is one of those cases where the set is the star. Geoff Cobham and Chris Petridis have created a marvel of water engineering and playing light. Sometimes a stark photo realism effect brings images to super crispness. Sometimes, the theatre explodes in a wall of lightning storm. Sometimes it just showers torrents of soft spray. Sometimes there are just rippling lights in blackness.
One cannot call this an enjoyable night at the theatre. It feels long and it is unashamedly depressing. And yet, with Geordie Brookman directing and the cast of Rachel Burke, Miranda Daughtry, Anna Steen, Rashidi Edward, Dale March and Nathan O’Keefe, it most definitely rewards as spectacular high art.
Samela Harris
When: 28 Feb to 18 Mar
Where: The Odeon Theatre
Bookings: bass.net.au
Gordon Southern. Holden Street Theatres. 28 Feb 2018
Learn Chinese. Now. Learn Chinese.
Thus spake Gordon Southern to his audience of young and old, his first audience at Holden Street which happened to include a goodly class of students.
He acknowledged several times that some of the history references he was about to make in his comic monologue were before they were born as if it was not expected that the young should have to know about such old things. This was the nearest Southern came to making a mistake in his show. Except, perhaps, for not explaining what exactly the Millennial Bug was and why.
In every other way, this is a performer who makes an hour skate past in a trice. He is a performer who leaves one wanting more. Heaven help him. He’s given a lot. He’s given the heart and soul of his own life and the fastest and most furious history lesson under the Southern sun.
The high-energy chronology begins at 1989 with the symbolism and optimism of the downing of the Berlin Wall and contrastingly in the same year, the Tiananmen Square Massacre otherwise known as the "Tiananmen Square incident.”
“Learn Chinese, young people,” quoth Southern.
He races on through the end of Apartheid, the invention of the WWW, Waco, the Brixton Riots… Darting about the stage, occasionally pausing at the lectern to look at his notes or having a gulp of water, he machine guns facts and commentaries, throws editorial asides and meaningful glances.
Somehow, he gives his often terrible narratives in an almost cartoonish quality. Trump cops servings from several directions, ever the fascination with his little hands.
Oh, he has a very good Trump “fake” line which must be heard from the comic’s mouth. Not from a review. Among the flying facts is the beginning of Fox News in 1994. Fox gets a good going-over.
Why he lumps Hillary Clinton in with Harvey Weinstein and Bill Cosby is a bit mystifying.
But oh, what a bad day was November 8, 2016. Yes, 2016 was a very bad year.
Brexit and Trump and much more.
If he could go back and change anything, it would be to make sure his friends voted.
To top of the brilliance of the show, the man delivers a 30-second history of US wars a la Gilbert & Sullivan.
Yep. The facts are dark. But, dammit, the show is fun.
Samela Harris
4.5 stars
When: 28 Feb to 18 Mar
Where: Holden Street Theatres
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au