Reviews

Private View

Adelaide Festival. Restless Dance Theatre. Odeon Theatre, Norwood. 29 Feb - 9 Mar 2024

I have had the privilege of enjoying three Restless Dance Theatre shows in the last few years – each with a distinct style and innovative use of location and space, and each delivering a strong, lingering message.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

By William Shakespeare. Bell Shakespeare. Playhouse, Sydney Opera House. 2 - 30 March 2024.

Shakespeare’s magical comedy here opens darkly on a ruined wall of old planks and openings, fronted by a clutter of upturned tables and chairs.  No colour or fairy lights in sight.

Indeed, this foreboding atmosphere suits the cruelty at stake in Athens as Theseus orders that Hermia (Ahunim Abebe) must face execution if she doesn’t obey her father and marry Demetrius (Mike Howlett).  Hermia however longs for Lysander (Laurence Young), while her old schoolmate Helena (Isabel Burton) adores the unyielding Demetrius.

I Hide In Bathrooms

Astrid Pill and Collaborators. Vitalstatistix, Waterside Workers Hall, Port Adelaide. Tue 5 Mar- Sat 16 Mar, 2024

Astrid Pill and collaborators have delivered a multifaceted hybrid solo work for the Adelaide Festival, part theatre, part performance art, part installation.  Within this creative construct, Pill’s exquisite stage presence and ethereal, nuanced, multidisciplinary performance is something to behold.

The Wharf Revue: Pride in Prejudice

Created by Jonathan Biggins, Drew Forsythe and Phillip Scott. Playhouse, Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC), Brisbane. 5 to 9 March, 2024

There are so many laughs in The Wharf Revue: Pride in Prejudice that I want to see it again immediately! This show is so much more than know-it-all political satire: it is cleverly constructed and thoughtfully scripted; it provides much-needed comic relief through an overview of crazy current events that will make you think while you are crying with laughter! Key to the success of the 20-something-year-old revue is the astuteness and craft of its creators, Jonathan Biggins, Drew Forsythe and Phillip Scott, and the experience that the performers bring to their sharp material.

Le Freak!

Presented by Heartfelt Havoc. Adelaide Fringe: The Lark at Gluttony. 5-10 March 2024

This award-winning absurdist circus might have a style that’s influenced by the 1970s but its messages are very much 2020s.

At this year’s Fringe there is a lot of circus masquerading as burlesque that pulls its stockings onto the legs of cabaret, but there’s nothing else with the satirical bite of Le Freak! It does more than poke fun at the hypocrisies of capitalism – pink-washing, government agencies, corporate control – it even has a dig at the festivals that host the group.

Me, My Cult and I

Adelaide Fringe: presented by Colin Ebsworth, Jack & Jill’s Basement Bar. 5-16 March 2024

Raised in a cult, Colin’s parents were matched in a mass wedding in Madison Square Garden in the 1980s by a charismatic Korean who said he was the returning messiah.

Ebsworth offers a prologue on how this isn’t going to be a laugh-out-loud show that pokes fun at the Unification Church cult, but as his quick-witted storytelling unfolds with history, hard-hitting emotion, and comedy, I can’t think that anyone would be upset, even if they wanted wall to wall chuckling.

Adore Handel’s Little Black Book

Adelaide Fringe Festival 2024. Adore Handel. Dom Polski Dwa at Dom Polski, Adelaide Mar 4 to Mar 10

Adore Handel’s Little Black Book is a one performer show that transports us back to 18th Century Europe and the sexual exploits of Adore Handel (alias Luke Bell), some successful, some not, all delivered with tongue in cheek and song.

Adore Handel is a real housewife of the 18th century telling tales of rubbing shoulders with Mozart, Bach and Vivaldi and is a time travelling pansexual fashionista with a quick wit and a baritone voice to die for!

After Rebecca

Presented by The Miscellany Co-operative and The Garage International. Adelaide Fringe: The Garage International @ Scots, 5-16 March 2024 (then ACT Hub, Canberra, 19-25 March 2024)

‘Last night, I dreamt I went to Manderley again’ is one of the most famous opening lines of a novel, originally written by Daphne Du Maurier in the 1930s. That story concerned a young woman in a whirlwind romance, whisked away to the country estate (Manderley) of a millionaire whose first wife tragically died in an accident.

Emma Gibson’s version moves the opening to be contemporary Australia, and whilst adopting similar themes and characters, takes the story in a different direction to become one frighteningly familiar to women everywhere.

Much Ado About Nothing

By William Shakespeare (slightly adapted & updated). Melbourne Shakespeare Company. Central Park, Malvern. 17 February – 10 March 2024

Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing doesn’t really need a lot of adapting or updating.  It’s contemporary already – although this version is set in the 1960s.

The Sound of Music

Music: Richard Rodgers. Lyrics: Oscar Hammerstein II. Book: Howard Lindsay & Russel Crouse. Director: Karen Shnider. Musical Director: Kent Ross (assisted by Alex Byrne). Choreographer: Suzie Pappas. Presented by Theatrical at the National Theatre, Melbourne. March 2 - 17, 2024.

The final collaboration between Richard Rodgers & Oscar Hammerstein II, The Sound of Music (based on the 1949 memoir 'The Story of the Trapp Family Singers') has stood the test of time. Sixty-five years since its stage debut (nominated for 14 Tony Awards) and nearly sixty years since its movie release (winning five Oscars including Best Picture) audiences still can't get enough of it!  The attraction of this musical is universal and can even soften the most resistant individuals who are not typically interested in theatre.

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