Cabaret Festival. Random Creative Adventure. The Banquet Room.6 Jun 2025
Wheeling her carryon baggage on to the stage, apologizing for her lateness, Clare Bowditch immediately lets us know that this will not be your standard concert; you know, the ‘I sing, you watch’ kind. The patter seems random, then rehearsed (to the theme), then random again. She can’t seem to help herself, wheeling off into streams of consciousness whenever the fancy strikes.
And this is the charm of a Bowditch gig. Ever the over-sharer, she’s quite happy to tell you some of the most personal details, before moving into homilies of a good life should be lived. Randomly. Creatively. Adventurously.
To set her theme, she opens with One Little River, and before we know it, we’re already doing call and refrain, singing “go, go, go” at her command.
We’re introduced to high school mate Aurora Kurth, who appears out of the audience and quickly makes her presence known with a killer cabaret song – an original piece kinda like Send in the Clowns but a whole lot funnier and whole lot smuttier. Glorious! A duet from their early days follows, preceded of course by the story of their meeting and subsequent band break-up. Still, Bonnie Raitt’s I Can’t Make You Love Me was in good hands, just as much now as it was some 30 years ago.
Bowditch’s chronicle continued with stories from hotel lobbies and bars, including the fabulous The One and Super Nova, with the bonus distribution of Danish pastries which she’d knocked off from the hotel’s breakfast buffet.
The thing about Bowditch is that she’s really funny – not that rib-hurting, tear-inducing funny – her humour is that gentle recognition that stuff that happens to you is worth a good laugh when you look at it as part of the random, creative adventure that is life.
Bowditch and Kurth perform with a band who have it down pat; Esther Henderson, Clio Renner, Warren Bloomer and Marty Brown all add to the adventure. It’s all rounded out with a rousing rendition audience participation version of River Deep, Mountain High as it’s pointed out the show has gone overtime and we have to go!
As always, a highly entreating show, and an excellent cabaret addition in this 25th year.
Arna Eyers-White
When: 6 to 7 Jun
Where: The Banquet Room
Bookings: cabaret.adelaidefestivalcentre.com.au
