Reviews

Mavericks, Madness and Murder Most Foul!

Adelaide Fringe – Adelaide Cemetery Tours. West Terrace Cemetery. 25 February – 19 March 2022

From the moment we’re given our lanterns and follow our guide, Tarn, we are immersed in the after-dark experience of a large cemetery. It’s filled with the remains of, and monuments to, famous and unknown residents of the city of Adelaide, from its first days as the land of the Kaurna people, to the founding fathers and mothers of the modern city – up to the present day, in a still-working cemetery where a plot can be bought for perpetuity, for less than the cost of your suburban home (just).

Ruthless!

Book & Lyrics by Joel Paley. Music by Marvin Laird. Directed by Jordan Best. The Q – Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre. 24 February – 12 March, 2022

Judy Denmark is the model of the perfect 50s mum, devoting her life to pandering to the every whim of her daughter, the adorable, talented and murderous Tina. With apparently no thought for her needs, Judy is content with enabling her exceptional daughter to perform, and she’s definitely not at all self-basting in the tasty juice of reflected glory. Or, is she? Could that be why her daughter is a sociopath?

Blindness

Adelaide Festival 2022. Australian Premiere. Queen's Theatre. Wed 23 Feb - Sun 20 Mar, 2022

There is a reason that the Adelaide Festival is renowned, and it is productions like Blindness that remind us what theatre excellence looks like.

9 to 5 The Musical

Music by Dolly Patron. Lyrics and book by Patricia Resnick. Based on the 20th Century Fox Picture. John Frost for Crossroads Live. Capitol Theatre, Sydney. Opening Night: February 24, 2022.Sydney

Dolly Parton is not only super talented, but amongst the most business savvy artists around, and she provided the first surprise of the night by beaming in as the narrator, surrounded by the solid gold glitter of the set like a Fairy Godmother.

This was the woman, who as a spring chicken, told Elvis Presley that no he could not have part of the copyright of a song she wrote just because he was the singer, thank you very much.

Hell in Las Vegas

Adelaide Fringe – Nineteen Ten Rooftop Bar. 24 February – 10 March, 2022

Two women twist on a turning hoop, suspended over the floating floor, hands and legs thrust outwards, each woman moving smoothly around the single hoop without knocking off the other. Then there’s a thumping soundtrack to a singing devil, twirling his blazing firesticks and gyrating around the stage, working with his very receptive audience on all sides of the stage.

Demagogue

Adelaide Fringe Festival. World Premiere. Safari Street Creative. The Studio at Holden Street Theatres. Feb 25 – 27, 2022

Interestingly akin to another Holden Street Fringe offering, Demagogue is about war. Not the terrible Ukraine war that is currently wreaking devastation or the deeply disturbing Afghanistan war the world may never recover from, but what seems at first to be a painfully deeply personal family battle that the combatants jockey to win despite the hopelessness for them, their beliefs and their fears.

Men Who Dance

Adelaide Fringe Festival 2022. Star Theatre One at Star Theatres - Hilton February 23 – 27, 2022

Sometimes the simplest things are the best! This is the case with Men Who Dance. It is simply that, five men who dance. Having said that, they don’t just dance - they sing and most of all, they entertain!

The five men in question - Charlie, Kurt, Ricky-Jai, Willian and Dhuruva - individually have their own styles but mould them into a tight unit for the hour they perform together.

Make Your Life Count

By Sarah Aiken & Collaborators. Arts House, North Melbourne. 23 – 27 February 2022

Sarah Aiken’s dance/video work represents or dramatizes the concept of, if you will, being and nothingness – or, as she puts it, ‘the paradox… of the individual swollen to grotesque importance while also reduced to ineffectual even invisible impotence.’  It is as if Sarah Aiken is saying, ‘Make Your Life Count – if you can…

Celestial Gardens: The Secret Sounds of Plants

Adelaide Fringe – Bicentennial Conservatory. 18 – 27 February 2022

Waiting in the warmth of the late summer evening, two dancers – woodland nymphs perhaps – dance gently through the crowd, floral arches lofted and turned above the silent dance. The calming mood momentarily paused by the usual Covid-safe activities, then we’re inside the massive conservatory (the largest single span glasshouse in the Southern Hemisphere) and bathed in ambient music and bold coloured lights.

Godz

Adelaide Fringe Festival 2022. The Vault at the Garden of Unearthly Delights – Adelaide. February 22 – March 20, 2022

We are summoned to an audience with the Gods. At their table, complete with gold tablecloth and ample wine for a bacchanal of epic proportions are seated Cupid (the god of love), Hercules (the god of strength) and Dionysus (the god of wine), who beckon to us to join them in their revels!

There is so much to commend in this show - incredible circus skills, a well written funny script, clever lighting and sound plot, and above all, the talent of the four performers.

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