Reviews

Bromance

Adelaide Fringe Festival 2018. Gallery Room of the National Wine Centre. March 1 - 9, 2018

The urban dictionary defines Bromance as ‘the complicated love and affection shared by twostraight males’.

Hollywood has made this term popular with its bromances – Paul Newman & Robert Redford, Will Smith & Tom Cruise and Owen Wilson & Ben Stiller, to name a few.

No Frills Cabaret

Adelaide Fringe 2018. Empyrean at Gluttony. 27 February - 18th March 2018

No Frills Cabaret is circus stripped bare; no set, no lighting, no MC, just a rotating banquet of some of the best circus and physical theatre performers Australia has to offer. 

The show is perfectly suited to the open roofed Empyrean, one of the many venues in the greatly expanded Gluttony. And, with a 6.50pm start time, it’s the perfect way to get in the mood for a whole night of Fringe.

Grace Jones

Adelaide Festival. Elder Park. 28th February, 2018

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.

In the Club

By Patricia Cornelius. State Theatre Company of South Australia. Adelaide Festival. 23 Feb - 18 Mar 2018.

One wants very much to unreservedly praise In the Club for its topicality, striking visual style, emotionally committed female performances, eagerness to challenge audiences, and refusal to offer easy answers or state the obvious about its chosen subject.

All of these aspects may well add up to a slam-dunk success for certain viewers, but this critic, though initially riveted and enthused, felt increasingly alienated by author Patricia Cornelius’ fractured storytelling, the impact of which was compounded by flawed male casting.

This is our Youth

By Kenneth Lonergan - an Underground Broadway & Between the Flags Production, Metro Arts Theatre. 28 February to 4 March 2018.

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.

Steel Magnolias

By Robert Harling. Villanova Players Theatre Company. Directed by Elizabeth Morris. Venue: Yeronga State High School Auditorium, Brisbane. February 24-March 11, 2018

The lights dim, the air conditioning cools, and the previews begin. But you’re not at the movies, this is Villanova Players’ first production of the year and before it even begins, the audience is captivated. Brisbane by Matthew Ryan, The Madwoman of Chaillot, High Society, the entire 2018 season has been compiled into individual trailers. All that’s missing is the popcorn.

When the lights go up on Steel Magnolias, there is already a buzz in the audience. What a way to start the year and encourage a following!

Cage

By Jordan Shea. life after productions. Old 505 Theatre, Newtown (NSW). February 27 - March 3, 2018.

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.

Your Bard

By Nicholas Collett. Adelaide Fringe Festival 2018. Treasury 1860: 17 February - 4 March, 2018 and Stirling Fringe @ Coventry Library: 11-12 March, 2018

The sub-title for Your Bard is ‘An Informal audience with Will Shakespeare in the Pub’ – and that’s exactly what you get. In the intimate front bar in Treasury 1860, and in just one hour, Nicholas Collett gives you the entire life of William Shakespeare.

Smoking with Grandma

Adelaide Fringe Festival 2018. Threewoods Playwright (Hong Kong). Bakehouse Theatre: 26 February - 10 March, 2018

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.

19 Weeks

By Emily Steel. Adelaide Fringe Festival. Adina Basement Pool/Apartment Hotel Adelaide Treasury. 27th February - 17th March, 2018

In 2016 writer Emily Steel was faced with a heart-breaking decision. In her second trimester of pregnancy she found out she carried the marker for Down Syndrome. After more probing tests, she was given conclusive positive results, meaning she would have to make the unenviable decision as to whether or not to terminate her pregnancy. Her play, 19 Weeks, reflects the painfulness of that time.

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