Adelaide Festival. Her Majesty’s Theatre. 15 Mar 2014
Isabella Rossellini is the daughter of Ingrid Bergman. It has nothing to do with the sex life of insects, but it is one of the reasons she was a big drawcard at the Adelaide Festival. She knows it and she generously included a little tribute to her mother at the end of her show, along with a wistful reflection on her mother's "perfection".
Isabella is perhaps something of a rebel daughter.
In her ‘Green Porno’ presentation, she revels in tales of the glory of the duck vagina and the ignoble smallness of the gorilla's penis. She wears whiskers and dresses as a hamster - murderous little creature which culls her litters by eating her own young. Good home economics, Rossellini suggests.
Studying biology and natural history turned Rossellini on to the fascinating peculiarities of insect and animal sex - and brought out the actress in her. Hence, she shows a series of film clips in which she embodies the creatures in question.
She performs the sado-masochism of the snail with glee and fearlessly has herself cannibalised as a praying mantis. She's a hilarious house fly and a decidedly erky spider. Many of these clips can be found on YouTube and it is worth watching them. They depict the essence of the show and the sweetly cheeky way in which Rossellini handles the subject. It is as quirky and funny as it is informative.
It is all good and proper science, after all.
And her show is not a theatrical business but a platform presentation. She performs from a lectern. She wears spectacles. She uses notes.
She is a beguiling lecturer with lots of props and an impish sense of anthropomorphic humour.
On her first night she played to a packed house which responded to her 75 minutes of scientific entertainment with rousing zeal.
She had just added another delightful ingredient to a wonderfully diverse and classy Adelaide Festival.
Samela Harris
When 15 to 16 Mar
Where: Her Majesty's Theatre
Bookings: adelaidefestival.com.au
