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
Adelaide Festival. Complicite. Dunstan Playhouse. 7 Mar 2017
Richard Katz’s voice travels round and round in one’s head beneath the headphones. Is he behind me? Ooh, he is blowing in my ear. My ear feels hot. How could it?
It is a perceptional illusion. A trick of the mind. An alternative reality. And what is reality, anyway?
Katz riffs on existentialism moving around the stage which is his London studio. The vast sound-absorbing foam baffle curtain stands behind him. A binaural head stands before him. His five-year-old daughter comes and goes in sound bites we are hearing through our headphones. He’s babysitting. She does not want to go to sleep.
But, he has a story to tell.
There is a table with more microphones, a chair and a lot of plastic water bottles. He introduces the deep American voice of the protagonist, Loren McIntyre, the National Geographic photojournalist who is taken to the Brazilian Amazon to find and record the mysterious Mayoruna tribe. The story begins. Just Katz on stage and us under our headphones. One on one. Five hundred of us... It feels like a radio play on steroids. A boat plane over the river. Sound effects. Voices. Jungle.
Things do not go to plan. Loren follows the tribe into a strange half-village, half-world. He is not a prisoner. Or, is he?
Only the head man can communicate, but it is telepathic. The American is sceptical. Village life, tribal plans, white invaders, the jungle, flesh-eating maggots… The set is dark. There is just Katz up on stage, running around in the dark talking, gesticulating, adding his voice to the layered soundscape which is filling our brains. There is no other reality.
The story unfolds. It is scary and gruesome and yet wonderful. Strange substances are consumed. Altered states. One thinks of Carlos Castenada and The Teachings of Don Juan. Eek he is now licking a psychedelic frog. Loren’s predicament is extreme. Katz, meanwhile, is still babysitting in London.
The two worlds whiz by all contained between the ears.
The sound quality is excellent. The sound technology is superb. The performance is almost superhuman.
This is Simon McBurney’s Complicite. His production is based on a book, Amazon Beaming by Petru Popescu. The book is based on a true story.
It makes for a profoundly different experience, a truly Festival-worthy experience which comes in through the ears and imprints upon the mind’s eye.
Samela Harris
When: 7 to 11 Mar
Where: Dunstan Plahouse
Bookings: adelaidefestival.com.au
Adelaide Fringe. Matt Byrne Media. Maxim’s Wine Bar. 5 Mar 2017
Byrne packs ‘em like sardines into Maxim’s on the Parade, but the audience doesn’t seem to mind! The cosy upstairs venue at Norwood fits about 100, though I’m told it has had up to 130 with standing room only. Such is the draw of Byrne’s home grown shows. Every year now for 20 earthy rotations of the sun he has created a bawdy spoof on a topical theme; this time around it is channel 7’s My Kitchen Rules.
Confession: I’ve been an MKR tragic for 8 seasons, but the format is really wearing thin, and Byrne has identified most of the reasons why in his hilarious two (+) hour show.
The time absolutely flies by, and by the end of the performance one is doubled over with aching ribs from all of the laughing.
The jokes flow thick and fast. There are puns-a-plenty and even more innuendo; but it is the performers' characterisations that steal the show, and they all have more than one standout in their repertoire.
The cast of four – Matt Byrne, Niki Martin, Marc Clement, and Stefanie Rossi – play at least 15 characters including the celebrity chefs and the contestants within the show.
Byrne plays the Gordon Ramsay rip-off, Gordon Ramraid, and almost manages the same level of vocal intensity as the all-swearing, all-shouting celebrity chef. As the ever camp Scotsman, Colin, he finds his pace and slides effortlessly into the role, highland dancing and all. Niki Martin gives us Nigella’s Awesome with sultry style. No melon is left un-creamed in her raunchy rendition, and yet Martin’s Yiayia Moussaka is her standout character and an absolute crowd pleaser.
Marc Clement spectacularly shifts from one character the next and gives each 150%. His Jamie Bolivar lisps and lilts over dialogue with uncanny accuracy. As Byrne’s Scottish partner, Justin, Clement ramps up the camp, and his Master Moussaka is scarily accurate. Stefanie Rossi makes the fab four complete, with a lesser known celebrity chef in Rachel Rayban but still makes her larger than life. Rossi shines as the hippy niece Moonbeam alongside Byrne as Daddy Moontides, and really breaks new ground with her Asian inspired cooking demonstration as celebrity chef, Pooh (with an ‘h’).
The small stage doesn’t hamper the big numbers and choreography and audience participation is full tilt, with an Adriano Zumbo inspired Zorba the Greek dance breaking out. Plenty of other characters make an appearance, including Clement’s python that just can’t resist a good pheasant plucking.
Ultimately the winning team is decided by audience acclimation, and just like in real life it is the personalities that win the day – not the cooking.
With another two weeks of shows remaining there are plenty of opportunities to get a solid dose of potty humour and laugh until you snort inappropriately, so be sure to make the trek up the Parade and don’t miss this, the 20th year of spoof for MBM.
Paul Rodda
When: 5 to 19 Mar
Where: Maxim’s Wine Bar, Norwood
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au