Adelaide Festival. Adelaide Town Hall. 8 Mar 2017
What’s in a name? What does La Gaia Scienza actually mean, and is it significant that a musical ensemble should name itself thus? It probably doesn’t matter to the actual music making, but the name possibly gives us an insight into why this particular ensemble is special.
La Gaia Scienza is the title of a book by German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, in which he explores, amongst other things, the idea that God – however one conceives of him, her or it – is, or should no longer be, the source of meaning or moral compass. ‘La gaia scienza’ also alludes to a phrase that has been used to typify aspects of the Provençal lifestyle from times gone by that nurtured a quest for excellence in the arts grounded in the seeming opposites of discipline and free spirit.
In a one-off concert, La Gaia Scienza presented a piano trio (Op.8, but the 1889 version) and a piano quartet (Op.60) by Brahms, and two shorter compositions by Schubert.
Opening with Schubert’s Notturno in E flat (D.897) immediately raised the audience’s expectations. This is an exquisitely melodic and moving composition, and is well known by lovers of chamber music even though it is not played enough on the concert platform. Performed on historic instruments, La Gaia Scienza got to the visceral heart of the piece and never erred on the side of oversentimentality. This was largely due to restrained use of vibrato on the violin (Stefanoa Barneschi) and cello (Paolo Beschi), and judicious pedaling on the piano (Federica Valli).
The applause from the audience after the Notturno was heartfelt and urged the ensemble to scale even greater heights of musicality, which they did in the two Brahms compositions.
Schubert’s String Trio in B flat (D.471) introduced Ernest Braucher on viola as the fourth member of the ensemble. It is an annoying piece: it is beautifully melodic and song like, which is exactly what we expect from Schubert, but it is too short and is an example of another piece by Schubert that was destined to part of something bigger but was never finished.
The inner movements of both the trio and quartet were sublimely handled. In the final movement of the quartet, absolute precision was momentarily surrendered on a few brief occasions to the raw emotion inherent in the piece, but this is what I think La Gaia Scienza is really about. When they make music, when they are deeply immersed in performance, strict discipline is only a means to an end, and that end is freedom of expression that comes only from profound understanding of what is written on the page.
This concert was an example of outstanding programming by the Festival’s directors, and the large and exuberant audience whooped and wolf-whistled their approval.
Kym Clayton
When: 8 Mar 2017
Where: Adelaide Town Hall
Bookings: Closed
Lost In Translation. Live at 5, William Margery Room, Adelaide Oval. 10 Mar 2017
Lost in Translation is Nick Fagan's vehicle for getting himself on stage. Judging by the company's first three productions including this one, Fagan has a knack for finding new high quality American plays never seen before in South Australia that involve hardboiled persons on the lower rung of the ladder of opportunity struggling with making sense of life - including their crimes and misdemeanours - with a whiff of violence or a bit of biff. The Motherf**ker With The Hat is a terribly amusing modern day farce penned by Stephen Adly Guirgis, who won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2015.
This is my new best show of the Fringe. Jackie returns from prison in upstate New York to the bed of Veronica, his sweetheart since Grade 8. But Jackie suspects that the motherf**cker with the hat beat him to it. He seeks anger management counselling from his parole officer, who, while he has drawn a line under his druggie past, has the moral compass of Tiger Woods. The dialogue is snappy-fast, funny and ironic, and full of New York - with more ** than stars in the sky.
Co-directors Matt Houston and Fagan have assembled a terrific cast that has crafted characters of recognised type yet are highly individualised. Fagan's Jackie is anxiously restless, struggling to break free from recidivism, yet is sweetly honest in his relationships. His angst is contrasted with Patrick Gibson's calm new age smugness as the counsellor, Ralph, and between them we see the play deepen from farce into a duel on moral relativism.
Rosie Williams is wonderful as Veronica - drug-addled and shrill but clear thinking enough to know what she wants. Ralph's wife sees the writing on the wall and her situation is very effectively and warmly channelled by Lana Adamuszek. Jackie seeks help from cousin Julio - David Salter's faux-Mexican makes this role a risible standout.
The Motherf**ker With The Hat is a ripper black comedy with a life-coaching bent. You might learn something while you're laughing. Bravo!
P.S. It's on for only one more night - Saturday March 11 - and I would not miss it!
David Grybowski
When: 10 to 11 Mar
Where: Live at 5, William Margery Room, Adelaide Oval
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
Ruth Hollows. Holden Street Theatres. 9 Mar 2017
This is a 30 minute gem of a play by Claudia Osborne and Thomas De Angelis of the Sydney area, or thereabouts, and directed by Osborne. Wally, played with aching insecurity by Sam Brewer, reluctantly attends a party with his spunky housemates - or at least I thought they were housemates - created by Charlie Devenport and Grace Victoria. (I hope I got that right because for the first time in my experience, the program did not identify the actors.)
Wally isn't in the party mood - he just wants to be left alone - and his downward spiral toward anxious withdrawal is reinforced each time his mates ask, "Are you alright?" He is so much like myself, I was astonished. Sometimes at a party, I just want to disappear underneath the wallpaper.
A rather simple tale is superbly augmented by Daniel Harris's animation comprising back projection designed to interact with the performers, and with hugely enjoyable shadow play.
There is an enchanting scene where shrinking violet, Wally shifts to bug size and meets up with a couple of praying mantises urging him to return to the party and get off the grass. Bravo!
A delightful Fringe surprise that put a smile on my dial from go to whoa. Go see!
David Grybowski
When: 9 to 11 Mar
Where: Holden Street Theatres
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
Adelaide Fringe. Bakehouse Theatre. 9 Mar 2017
Playing an Edwardian lad in industrial Newport, South Wales, Daniel Llewelyn-Williams steps onto the stage rugged up in a heavy woollen suit and swaddled in a great big neck scarf. It is to the immense credit of his dramatic skills that he did not once for a minute appear to be hot working under lights on a warm night in the confined quarters of the Bakehouse Theatre. Sleeveless summery audience members, however, started to sweat just looking at his attire.
Llewelyn-Williams brings this solo piece to the Fringe under the Guy Masterson umbrella - which, for experienced Adelaide audiences, is a strong assurance it will be a quality piece.
And it is.
Llewelyn-Williams is appealing on many levels. The story he brings is of a kid living in poverty in dismal docklands. He seeks nothing more than his father’s approval while knowing that his covert obsession with becoming a magician would devastate his dad for whom a grim labouring job is a respectable achievement. Thus does the boy describe his life and demonstrate his growing prowess at the art of magic, referring to the great Houdini's as the apex of all illusionist achievements.
The lad grows up as we watch. He tells of his dreams and fears. He tells of his hope to impress against the odds with an impossible feat. Audience members hold their breath as the narrative becomes more graphic and frightening.
The performer has us in his spell.
And suddenly an hour has gone and we have been treated to yet another brilliant piece of Fringe theatre.
Samela Harris
When: 9 to 18 Mar
Where: Bakehouse Theatre
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
Adelaide Festival. Restless Dance Theatre. Hilton Hotel. 7 Mar 2017
Restless Dance Theatre’s Michelle Ryan and company have created an extraordinary, technically sophisticated spartan work as truly intimate as the onsite production venue, Adelaide’s Hilton Hotel is gargantuan and imposing.
Intimate Space is a unique journey for a very small audience in which distinctly eye grabbing, against-the-grain, physicality draws the audience closer and closer into a relationship with characters operating a lot like those from Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. The only difference being, there is no quixotic madness at hand, rather, a deft, almost mystic series of experiences, some gentle in transition of space and emotional timbre, some like a lightning strike shock.
Little things like checking in, the delightful concierge asks which of a selection of lovely personality types you might be checked in as; an attention holding bell hop who’s very uniform holds secrets you find with a magnifying glass; a whippy bodied bell hop who guides the guests on their journey’s beginning; the explosive, fluoro lit white costumed dance in the industrial laundry.
The shifts in place, mood and choreography are endless, and fascinating. Intimate Space achieves something significant, especially within the public spaces of the venue, best summed up in the delightful pair of couples who dance a deftly modified classical form pairing. The contrast of young dancers with and without a disability giving life to a performed expression of emotional intimacy publicly, contrasts with the humorous, nonetheless perceptive, realisation of what it is to be hidden away in basement laundries and industrial kitchens. As signs pointed out make clear though, you never know whose watching.
Such beauty, warmth and uniqueness is gifted in this work.
David O’Brien
When: 3 to 18 March
Where: Hilton Hotel, Adelaide
Bookings: Sold Out