Reviews

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.

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.

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…

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.