Reviews

To say that truth is stranger than fiction is a mere homily when one looks at the story behind this fascinating play. Yes, a woman of slight build did murder her fat, deaf and dumb, cousin in 1949… or says she did. But how could she dismember the body and subsequently throw pieces from the railway bridge under trains? And what happened to the head?

Matilda Waltzes into Finale for Successful Adelaide Cabaret Festival

The final celebration of Adelaide’s 2016 Cabaret Festival had plenty of Aussie touches as befits The Last Galah, the title of the night. There was Eddie Perfect in blue singlet and shorts, looking amusingly incongruous by also wearing formal white tails. His co-Artistic Director Ali McGregor teamed up with The Birds to start the show and began in an eye-boggling galah-themed shiny pink, grey and white creation. She outdid this later with a jacket covered in souvenir-shop koalas.

The idea behind this production is bridging the gaps that occur when one chooses, for whatever reason, to move away from home and friends. The program notes explain that six dancers will “wrestle with the physical and emotional distance they encounter while living at opposite ends of the planet”.

By its very nature much contemporary dance is esoteric, relying on the audience’s ability to relate to the movement, the interaction of the dancers and the use of space, and perhaps take from it a more personal interpretation of the performance.

It hard to know sometimes, if one should laugh or cry when attending The Adelaide Rep’s latest production – an unnervingly intense look at a dysfunctional family coming apart at the seams as, gathered together for the birthday celebration of their elderly patriarch, years of pent up resentment and bitterness come to the boil in a succession of vicious, but sometimes witty arguments.