Reviews

Smoked Ham

Peter Goers. Adelaide Fringe. Holden Street Theatres. 18, 19, 25, 26th Feb, 11, 12, 18, 19th March, 2017

Peter Goers’ latest show Smoked Ham is like spending the afternoon with an eccentric uncle and it is a pure delight. Greeting the predominantly mature audience in head to toe cycling lycra was an ingenious way to start; when I attended, laughter filled the performance space within seconds.

The Bailey Dolls and Friends present: The Vintage Variety Hour

Chris Daniels productions and Emma Knights Productions. Adelaide Fringe. Live on 5, Adelaide Oval Cathedral Room. 24th Feb and 3rd March 2017.

Classy dinner theatre in a classy venue. The Bailey Dolls and Friends present: The Vintage Variety Hour is a wonderful night of theatre, a delight to the ears and a lot of fun to boot!

The Bailey Dolls are Merrilyn Greer, Catherine Hearne, Leah Gauthier and Gillian Quinn, together with two very dapper friends, Buddy Dawson and Sebastian Cooper.  This wonderfully talented group are very ably accompanied by The Duckies – Emma Knights on piano, Sean Renaud on bass, Barnabas Smith on drums, and Chris Weber on trumpet.

The Sleeping Beauty

Ballet by Marius Petipa. Australian Ballet Production. Production & Additional Choreography: David McAllister. Music: Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Costume & Set Design: Gabriela Tylesova. Queensland Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Nicolette Fraillon. Lyric Theatre, QPAC. 24 February to March 4, 2017

The Australian Ballet’s sumptuously opulent 2015 production of The Sleeping Beauty finally arrives in Brisbane and if audience reaction is anything to go by it is a thumping success. David McAllister’s version, the first full-length ballet created by him since he became artistic director of the company in 2001, is reverential to Petipa’s 1890 Russian original with some judicious edits for time. Act lll’s divertissements have been reduced to the Bluebird pas de deux and solo sequences.

Stories In the Dark

Live in the Dark. Adelaide Fringe. Holden Street Theatres. February 18th – March 5th, 2017

Stories in the Dark is performed in complete darkness by a group of 3 actors, a cello and the audience’s own imagination. Darkness is something we don’t think about often, usually only when we are in it, and then it’s normally bed time, but director Tim Overton and the creative team have put together a new and interesting way to experience theatre.

Comfort Food Cabaret

Michelle Pearson. Adelaide Fringe 2017. The Market Kitchen. 23 Feb - 18 Mar, 2017

At the mention of Comfort Food Cabaret, this reviewer grabbed the opportunity to see this show. Promising to combine everyone’s favourite food with music, this show dishes up the goods in spades.

Michelle Pearson serves a tantalising feast for all five senses - singing and cooking her way through a three-course meal, plated up and fed to the audience. Heaven.

After Dinner

Written by Andrew Bovell. Directed by Kate Wissell & Joel Jarvis. Presented by StarheART Theatre. Adelaide Fringe Festival. Ambassadors Hotel. 23-26 Feb, 2017.

It’s always a pleasure to witness enterprising young artists forming companies with the aim to provide opportunities for performers to practice their craft in front of audiences (and critics). After Dinner is perhaps an unexpected choice for an Andrew Bovell staging, but StarheART Theatre deserve both encouragement and applause for taking this comedy-of-nightlife-manners, dating from the late 1980s, and breathing a most enjoyable life into it.

Terminus

By Mark O’Rowe. North of Eight. The Courthouse, North Melbourne. February 21 – March 11, 2017.

A show for the dark-humoured who appreciate quality writing and acting, with a generous splash of violence and a dash of the supernatural.

We join two lonely women and a homicidal maniac on a drama-filled night, venturing from light to darkness, ordinary to fantasy, as they push their limits and make deals with the devil.

We get to know each character intimately, although their names are never revealed. Through a series of monologues, we discover their rationalisation of their actions and eventually how their paths are intertwined.

Violet – A Musical

Music by Jeanine Tesori. Lyrics & Book by Brian Crawley. Davine Interventionz Productions. Adelaide Fringe. Star Theatre. February 22 – March 4, 2017

Violet is a relatively new American musical, and is a wonderful representation of the types of musicals coming from the Broadway theatre today; that is, not like the usual blockbusters that generally grace our Australian stages.

Pandora

Shakti and Garage International. Adelaide Fringe. Adelaide Town Hall. 23-25th February, 2017

Shakti is a dancer of Indian and Japanese heritage and the cultural influences are evident in her choice of choreography. Pandora takes us on a journey of self-imposed suppression and the artist uses the myth of Pandora’s Box as a catalyst for her performance.

This venue allows for a vast performing space. Dark lighting with a splash of red illuminates venetian blinds upstage. When open, they reveal Shakti, blindfolded with a red satin sash, her feet shackled and hands bound with handcuffs. She is wearing a black latex corset.

Tao Dance Theater

Asia TOPA. Choreographer – Tao Ye. Arts Centre Melbourne – Playhouse .22 – 24 January 2017

Melbournians are so privileged to have this new tri-annual Asian Performance Arts Festival in Melbourne;  ‘A festival celebrating Australia’s connections with contemporary Asia’.

From China we are honored to experience Tao Dance Theater’s works ‘6’ and ‘8’, performed for us by a marvelous troupe of young Chinese dancers.

As a truly exceptional and unusual experience, hopefully all Melbourne’s young dancers and choreographers will be/have been able to catch a performance.

Subscribe to our E-Newsletter, buy our latest print edition or find a Performing Arts book at Book Nook.