Reviews

I Still Have No Friends

Adelaide Fringe. Odd Sockz Theatre. The Mercury Cinema. 7-16 March 2025

A young woman addresses an audience at a youth leadership conference when there is a huge explosion, a blinding light, and then… darkness.

So begins a twenty-first century retelling of Lord of the Flies, where instead of an island, it’s a conference centre; in place of the conch, is a school blazer, but the power dynamics of high schoolers trying to work out how to survive is familiar.

The Taming of the Shrew: Table Top Shakespeare

Presented by Forced Entertainment and co-produced by Berliner Festspiele. Adelaide Festival. 8 - 16 March, 2025

Have you ever been just a little enamoured with a mustard filled beer stein, or bewitched by a green juice extract that is able to disguise themselves just by inverting? Welcome to a 45-to-75-minute serve of a magical re-telling of all of Shakespeare’s 36 plays in eight days. Each play features a collection of household items, and for Taming of the Shrew, starring roles were taken by an orange, Tic Tacs, a flavoured soft drink, an ornamental rose and a delicately chosen and placed collection of shed and domestic essentials.

Come From Away

Book, Music & Lyrics: Irene Sankoff and David Hein. Director: Matthew Henderson. Musical Director: Tom Fernee. Choreographer: Natalya Munro. CentreStage. Play House, Geelong. March 7– 22, 2025.

Come From Away marks the 117th production in 15 years for CentreStage, Australia's largest amateur musical theatre company, based in Geelong. This award-winning musical, recognised with over 30 major theatre accolades, boldly addresses the sensitive topic of the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks in New York. The narrative recounts the captivating true story of 38 aircraft (transporting more than 7,000 international passengers and 19 animals) being redirected to Gander Airport in Newfoundland.

That Knave, Raleigh

Adelaide Fringe. Main Theatre at Adelaide College of the Arts. 22 February - 15 March 2025

Sir Walter Raleigh spends a lot of time locked up in the Tower of London. Whether it’s for marrying the Queen’s lady-in-waiting without permission from the monarch, or treason against the King, Raleigh has found a way to live a reasonable life from within a prison cell, seemingly his only trouble being where he last had his clay pipe.

Raleigh cheats death with unusual frequency too: we’re told of death sentences aplenty, but delayed, then quashed, then renewed once more. This is a life of a true adventurer, but is he a visionary or a victim?

Ritual by Untamed Circus

Presented by Untamed Circus. Adelaide Fringe Festival 2025. The Vault at Fool’s Paradise, Victoria Square, Adelaide. March 8 to 23 2025

Ritual by Untamed Circus uses the occult rites as a platform to successfully showcase their circus skills. Untamed Circus is the be congratulated for the standard of their acts. There are moments that even this hardened circus skills reviewer has never seen before!

Sylvia

By A.R. Gurney. Hunters Hill Theatre. Director: Moja Band. Club Ryde. 7 - 30 March, 2025

American playwright and novelist A.R. Gurney (1930-2017) wrote over 40 plays, many of which are comedies based on shrewd observations about society and relationships. His last play, Love and Money, written in his 80s, is described as “a buoyant comedy about wealth, the nature of trust, and the prospect of aging with dignity.”

ButohBAR – OUT OF CONTROL II

Created by Yumi Umiumare & ButohOUT. Co-creator & producer Taka Takiguchi. Presented by Abbotsford Convent and Asia TOPA, Arts Centre Melbourne. Industrial School and Sacred Heart Courtyard, Abbotsford Convent. 5 – 9 March 2025

In the wide concrete space of the Industrial School and Sacred Heart Courtyard at Abbotsford Convent, a small, lithe man (butoh master Atsuchi Takenouchi) beats a drum as if in homage to a huge, draped deity on a huge, draped throne.  Occasionally, the man sings - although he can scarcely be heard over eerie, hypnotic music and the hubbub of strange creatures around him.  There are knee-high piles of shredded rags that sidle about and accost you.  There are masked black-clad hunched creatures with exaggerated breasts or genitals.

Pride and Prejudice

By Jane Austen, adapted by Janet Fletcher. Adelaide Fringe. Tyndale Theatre. 7-15 March 2025

The classic Jane Austen novel is brought to life ‘in the round’ of the Tyndale Theatre, with gentle performances from all that entertain whilst raising the consequences of quick judgement and questioning the motivation to marry. The story is primarily about Elizabeth Bennet, swift to judge a Mr Darcy, who similarly forms harsh opinions about Miss Bennet and her family – and the narrative explores how they reconcile their pride and prejudice.

Confetti and Chaos

Presented by Interactive Theatre International. Adelaide Fringe Festival 2025. Adelaide Royal Coach, Kent Town. March 7 to 16 2025

Interactive Theatre International have toured The Faulty Towers Dining Experience, their homage to the iconic BBC comedy series Fawlty Towers, around Australia and across the UK for many years now, so it is logical to branch out and devise a new work, Confetti and Chaos.

A Room of One's Own

Adelaide Fringe. Main Theatre at Adelaide College of the Arts. 22 February - 15 March 2025

‘A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction’ says Virginia Woolf, as part of her talk given to two female colleges at the University of Cambridge in 1928. Rebecca Vaughan is Woolf, delivering a TED-talk long before they were a thing, about the challenges facing women in society – particularly creative and intellectual women, who legally still needed a man for many things now independent of gender.

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