Hew Parham. Adelaide Cabaret Festival. Artspace. 11 Jun 2016
Imagine cabaret is a glove: a beautiful, glamorous, very expensive stylish must have, to die for glove, styled with the finest songs; sharp, biting, sexy, rebellious.
Now imagine a tall white face French clown takes that glove and turns it inside out exposing its stitching, a flaw here or there, a hidden patch; these are the things behind the glamour we usually don’t want to know about.
Welcome to Rudi’s The Rinse Cycle, where suffering is entertainment of the most miraculous order.
Under Sarah Dunn’s superb direction, Hew Parham delivers the performance of his career. His Rudi is a masterful clown willingly suffering in the laundromat of life by giving up performances on the command of an offstage voice to cleanse his smelly artistic soul.
From rudely hilarious violin played on multicoloured long johns, to heart wrenching, ultra angst laden renditions of Weil and as many cabaret standards as possible - even anti standards - Rudi turns himself inside out for our amusement; just like he has that glove of cabaret.
There is nothing he will not do, not a musical cadence he will not seek to reach, not a ridiculous moment will he not pass the opportunity to fall into.
Parham’s clowning, paired with song, is exquisitely rich in emotional depth, powerful in vulnerability, and overwhelming with white hot truth. At the same time, he’s ruggedly unforgiving in parody to the point a song is not needed for the bit involving wearing a flannel shirt. See it. You’ll get it!
The rinse cycle of cabaret through to popular music culture is a very thorough and rough treating one, much to the audience’s sheer delight.
Aaron Nash’s superlative accompaniment on piano provided Parham’s performance with the musical gusto and rebellious gravitas needed to make a perfect production.
David O’Brien
When: 11 to 13 June
Where: Artspace
Bookings: adelaidecabaretfestival.com.au
The Therry Dramatic Society. Arts Theatre. 11 June 2016
Big Fish is big business in so many ways. The story has its origins in Daniel Wallace's 1998 novel. Then it was a Tim Burton film in 2003 and finally we see here the Broadway musical of 2013. Therry puts on a big show with a cast of 28 and easily triple that including the creative and production teams and the orchestra. The set (design uncredited) is a work of modern art. And there is a cornucopia of extravagant characters. (The action takes place mainly in some previously unheard-of part of small town Alabama where black Americans are not extant.)
Being new to the story, I had no idea what was going on for the first 20 minutes and I loved it! A knee-slapping dance caused fish to fly out of the river. Then there is some witch foretelling the future of our hero, Edward Bloom, a la Macbeth. There is a bit of normalcy and then Bloom entices a giant out of a cave. And yes, there is a giant on stage! You learn that anything can happen in this show, as these scenes are manifestations of Bloom's imaginative parables. Turns out to be a very sweet intergenerational story and at the centre of the intrigue are the source of Bloom's fantastical stories and a son searching for his "real" father.
Actor Andrew Crispe very successfully invests Edward Bloom with goodness and country-style domesticity. His song, Fight The Dragons, playfully rendered with child star Oscar (someday winner) Bridges as Young Will, his son, was one of my favourites for recalling a young'un's yearning for adventure, and for father-son bonding. Rebecca Raymond plays Edward's wife with equal veracity and wonderful voice. Bravo! Lindsay Prodea's Will Bloom spent a lot of time with a furrowed brow and annoyed with his father. He maybe should stick to the river of the play, as he was wobbly on the high Cs. Scott Nell was a wonderfully gentle giant - great deep voice and skillfully dancing on stilts. What a costume! There's a lot more - a mermaid, an entire circus full of performers, assassination attempts by blow darts, nothing is too far out.
The creative team comprising director Amanda Rowe, musical director Mark DeLaine, choreographer Kerry Hauber and lighting designer Jason Groves whipped their cast and crew into a proper good night out. There is evident a fantastic team effort to create the costumes and sets for a great number of very different outlandish situations. And did I mention Sandra Davis for costumes? Bravo!
David Grybowski
When: 9 to 18 June
Where: Arts Theatre
Bookings: trybooking.com, bass.net.au, or direct 8410-5515
Tripod with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. Festival Theatre. 11 Jun 2016
Cabaret has a unique way of encouraging performers to lay bare their hidden inner demons for all to see, and for Yon, Scod and Gatesy it has afforded them the opportunity to explore their gaming demons. They are gaming nerds and, if you are to ask Dr. Yon, even addicts.
The premise of the show surrounds the trio’s love for gaming and music, but it is taken to a whole new level with the addition of the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. Under the skilful direction of Austin Wintory, Grammy-nominated composer for games such as Journey, Assassins Creed Syndicate and Leisure Suit Larry, the stage is set for an awesome collaboration.
All of the usual Tripodisms are there; wonderful parodies of everyday events; friendly banter; amusing digs at each other; and toe tapping tunes with wonderful harmonies. A previous knowledge of games and gaming life is required, however, and if you are only there for classic Tripod antics, you may come away disappointed.
The irony is of course, that those who would get the most from this show aren’t at the cabaret – no, they are at home, sitting in the dark with snacks and drinks at the ready, playing the very games Tripod are singing about!
Paul Rodda
When: 11 Jun
Where: Festival Theatre
Bookings: Closed
Samah Sabawi, Lara Week and Daniel Clarke. The Bakehouse Theatre. 10 Jun 2016
Where there is a wall, there is also a city its inhabitants call home in the sacred and emotional way expected of communities deeply attached to their history and culture; especially those coping with just over half a century of war in all its guises and forms, greater or lesser, challenging their right to exist.
Samah Sabawi’s Tales of a City by The Sea is poetically beautiful, discerning and honest in its examination of life in Gaza.
No angry, politicised, locked in sensationalism to be found here, despite what has been said of this work during 2016. Sabawi’s play is an astutely balanced, modern appraisal of what it means to live as a Palestinian under siege.
In Jomana (Helena Sawires), an at once deeply poetic and idealistic character and hard realist, Sabawi offers up the many conflicting issues facing those behind the wall. Sawire’s performance is one of carefully exposed layers of thinking, feeling, strength, and vulnerability upon which the production is grounded, brilliantly supported by an ensemble of characters who vibrate with a shared intensity and considered passion of great power.
Jomana rails against young privileged members of her community who treat activism against the occupation as if it was something trendy and bemoans the closed minds of older generations incapable of seeing past their own justified fears and prejudices. Her poetic utterances, intertwined with Aseel Tayah’s soul gripping song, gently shower the 2008/09 events Sabawi’s play concerns, with the patina of a loved, yet hard, history in a state of constantly being reconciled to; one of violent change.
In the midst of this Jomana is greatly challenged by her love for American-Arabian Doctor Rami, (Osamah Sami) as he is challenged by his love for her and commitment to giving his skills to save lives there. How this conflict between two cultures and hearts, which differ yet share a true love for humanity, is the challenge thrown up to audiences to consider.
The profound grace of this production lies in the honest and forthright manner of Sabawi’s writing. She articulates the seemingly unwinnable battle of minds between hard line political and social stands preventing peace, without a trace of dogmatism. Added to that is Lara Week’s very simple and beautifully utilised set of white sheets hanging on wire in a series, which the cast simply slide back and forth to reshape each scene, alongside Shane Grant’s simple, polished lighting design and Khaled Sabsabi’s superbly crafted realist sound design.
David O’Brien
When: 8 to 18 June
Where: The Bakehouse Theatre
Bookings: bakehousetheatre.com
Adelaide Cabaret Festival. Artspace. 10 Jun 2016
In this world premiere, Maeve Marsden and Libby Wood, with the musical rocketry of Kiwi Jeremy Brennan, take us by the swizzle stick through the history of gin with re-lyricked songs and documentary prose.
Today, gin is a hot day's refreshment of choice but the girls have done their homework. Gin was widely abused in mid-17th Century London to the point of societal breakdown amongst those who couldn't afford scotch, and the gin and tonic helped the medicine go down in the mosquito-infested colonies.
The girls and Brennan break into song in a variety of styles to illustrate a point and tag team the entertainment. While there is an impressive array of different gin bottles decorating the set, I had no idea there were so many interesting varietals until they sang I've Been Everywhere subbing in gin labels.
A lightly entertaining show they may reprise at the Adelaide Fringe where it belongs.
David Grybowski
When: 10 to 12 June
Where: Artspace, Festival Centre
Bookings: adelaidecabaretfestival.com.au