Adelaide Cabaret Festival. Space Theatre. 7 Jun 2025
Rizo’s Home is an absorbing, liquorice allsorts Neo Cabaret.
Home’s structure is ever so subtle; delicately laced with hippy culture, intertwined with classic cabaret dress tropes, a hint of circus, a dash of shadow puppetry, German Kabaret, and 1930s Hollywood glam, alongside 1970s pop glam
Rizo describes the show as a “happening.” It certainly is.
The first deftly played 10 minutes were enough in themselves to prove the night an audience pleaser.
Beginning with a relaxed bluesy number, Rizo’s person is hidden within a ballooning white dress. The dress is then lifted off her by a rope to the ceiling, revealing her in black panties and nipple caps, before she redresses in a black shoulderless pant suit.
Home as a theme proves incredibly fruitful, emotive and comic material in Rizo’s hands. Her own songs with a pop standard here and there, bookend spoken word that embraces what ‘home’ can be in a multitude of ways we never thought of.
And that voice! Rizo has an extraordinary range that can switch from growl to high note in a millisecond without effort. Sadness of the always travelling artist sits alongside a confident Jewish New Yorker formed from an ambitious hippy kid in Oregon.
Each story feels like visiting a different room in Rizo’s life. They’re all connected, but so strangely dissonant in extremes of joy, sadness, hope and achievement. Somehow, Rizo’s performance holds all these strands together within a street smart happy go lucky persona, brilliantly capable of accommodating a life of excessive experience.
Rizo’s band are the finest unit you could want backing you. So accomplished and assured in their ability—segueing from blues to Jazz and pop rock without you really noticing. A band totally made for Rizo’s rich anarchic voice, as her voice is perfect for that band.
A night not without tech niggles here and there, which Rizo brilliantly handled, one being a laugh out loud moment involving a stage hand. If there’s anything out of place, the balance between song and spoken word segments could be tightened, allowing greater flow to the production.
David O’Brien
When: 7 to 8 Jun
Where: Space Theatre
Bookings: Closed
