Reviews

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?

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…