Reviews

Adelaide’s beautiful Elder Park along the banks of the River Torrens was abuzz with excitement. We were all there to see the statuesque goddess Grace Jones perform as part of the Adelaide Festival. We were going to have to wait though. If you were to believe the rumours, then this diva was going to be fashionably late.

Bright lights and the thumping sound of the band echoed Jones’ arrival 45 minutes past official starting time. All was forgiven quickly, when the deep tones of her break-through hit “Nightclubbing” rang through the air.

Step out on Brisbane’s lower Edward Street these days and you’d be forgiven for thinking you’d been beamed up on Broadway, dropped on a steamy sidewalk somewhere near the Iridium Club. There’s a new basement Jazz bar, 24/7 kebab kiosk, and late-night coffee. And it’s all staggering distance from the Metro Arts Theatre, a hub of the city’s thriving community arts scene, including Underground Broadway’s current micro-run of This is our Youth by Kenneth Lonergan.

Three Australian men wake up in big trouble in a jail cell somewhere in Asia after a night they can’t remember. The simple but striking set gave the production immediate credibility. The concrete floor and wall were set off against a bright yellow sun peering through the steel bars in the window. The sound scape too was effective – perhaps the only thing missing was the smell of a stinking jail hell-hole, but mercifully the audience was left only to imagine this.

Smoking with Grandma is a ‘mixed media’ work from Hong Kong, involving a warm and loving relationship between a Chinese grandmother and grand-daughter.

You enter the darkened main studio at the Bakehouse Theatre, and the mood is sombre and intriguing. On a screen up-stage is film footage of single wafts of smoke, whilst the stage floor is lit from a single light bulb hanging from the ceiling, under which is single wood chair.