Reviews

The Black Cat

Penzak Productions. Adelaide Fringe. The Garage International @ Scots Church. Mon 11 Mar - Sun 17 Mar 2024

One of the delights of Adelaide Fringe, if you dare venture from the big names that pepper The Guide with full page ads, is seeing very fine theatre, dance, or other artforms from artists on small budgets, with (sadly) often smaller audiences.  For a number of years there has been ongoing discussion among the artistic rank and file about how to address problems of commercial shows and corporate interests making Fringe a difficult gig for independently-produced shows.  Case in point: Mark Penzak (Victoria) has brought a tight, professional show to town for its SA premiere

Hopelessly Devoted: A Celebration of Olivia Newton-John

MSO Conductor: Jessica Gethin. Creative Director: Mark Sutcliffe. Music Arranger: Nicholas Buc. Host: Tottie Goldsmith. Arts Centre Melbourne, Hamer Hall. 7 & 9 March 2024

This tribute to Australia’s beloved Dame Olivia Newton-John AC DBE did more than reprise and celebrate the songs she is so well known for; it gave the audience a chance to grieve her loss and acknowledge her contribution to cancer care in Melbourne. The performers and audience basked in the wonderful songs Olivia Newton-John gave us and the stories the performers shared brought her shining presence into the concert hall.

Skye Scraper: The Life and Times of a Drag Queen Accountant

Adelaide Fringe Festival 2024. Skye Scraper Entertainment. The Bally at Gluttony, Rymill Park, Adelaide. Mar 12 to Mar 17, 2024

Skye Scraper: The Life and Times of a Drag Queen Accountant is a sixty-minute audience with Ethel Merman, Anne Miller, and Joan Crawford all in one woman!

Skye bustles in seemingly late to the performance. At seven foot tall and wearing a business-like pants suit with more than a touch of bling, flaming red hair and the widest shoulder pads I’ve seen since Mommie Dearest, she is certainly eye catching!

SA Inventors Escape Room

Adelaide Fringe Festival 2024. The Park at Gluttony - Rymill Park, Adelaide. Feb 17 to Mar 16, 2024

Like Harrison Ford in Raiders of the Lost Ark I approached my first escape room with trepidation. How hard could it be?

Collaborating with Adelaide Fringe and Gluttony, the Escapeneers have crafted a thrilling escape room experience taking players back-in-time to learn of SA’s amazing and revolutionary scientific history – and save the world!

With puzzles designed by Yuri Vilmanis (Senior Software Engineer at Maptek) and a lot of research and planning, upon entering, the small room looks deceptively simple, and is air conditioned.

Angélique Kidjo

Adelaide Festival. The Festival Theatre, Adelaide. Tuesday 12 March 2024

Five-time Grammy Award winner and named in The Guardian’s top 100 most inspiring women in 2011, Angélique Kidjo returned to Adelaide for both WOMADelaide (replacing UK artist Nitin Sawhney after a medical emergency) and a one night only performance at the Festival Theatre. The acclaimed Beninese-French singer, songwriter, and renowned activist is celebrating her 40th year on the world stage and showcasing her most recent album Mother Nature

Spies Are Forever

Book by Corey Lubowich, Joey Richter, and Brian Rosenthal. By Special Arrangement with Tin Can Bros – www.tincanbros.com. North Shore Theatre Company. Music and Lyrics by Clark Baxtresser and Pierce Siebers. Directed by Matthew Dorahy. Zenith Theatre, Chatswood. 8-16 March 2024

A wise man once said ‘youth is wasted on the young’ however, if he had seen the opening night performance of Spies are Forever, I’m sure he would agree with me – the young are best to handle youthful enthusiasm, youthful confidence and have a great time doing it!

Before an enthusiastic and very supportive audience this cast of bright young things threw themselves into every aspect of the production and held it together despite technical difficulties, miscues, costume malfunctions and prop failures.

Qui a tué mon père

Adelaide Festival. Dunstan Playhouse. March 8-10, 2024

As the audience files into the Dunstan Playhouse, we find writer and philosopher Édouard Louis seated at a desk, typing on a laptop. The cyclorama behind him produced by Sébastien Dupouey and Marie Sanchez, transforms into a never-ending road, subtly lit, indicating that we are on a journey - initially, a clouded and foggy one, which eventually clears as the turmoil of this talented performer come to a crescendo.

Exit Laughing

By Paul Elliott. Directed by Dale James. Old Mill Theatre, South Perth, WA. Feb 23 - Mar 9, 2024

I was lucky enough catch the final performance of Old Mill Theatre’s Exit Laughing. This bitter-sweet comedy centres around three long-term friends who’s weekly bridge game has been a habit for years. The evening after the fourth players’ funeral, they meet yet again for a final game.

Chess

By Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus and Tim Rice. Encore Theatre Company. Denise Sam (Director). Denise Sam and Michael Stocks (Musical Directors). Darryl Rogers (Set Designer). Jason Bovaird (Lighting Design). Dwayne Parish (IT and AV). Anthony Phillips (Costume Design). Trista Little (Choreography). The Princess Theatre Launceston. 8-23 March 2024

Chess, the musical, was first performed in 1986, three years before the fall of the Berlin wall. It is nearly 40 years old and yet the eclectic music and story of political machinations retains relevance. Two superpowers contest world domination in a game. Antagonists are the unstable Freddie Trump (-er) and slightly more sympathetic Russian, Sergievsky. Sergievsky’s paean to Russia’s eternal heart connects individuals to nations in the lyric “Let man's petty nations tear themselves apart”.

The 39 Steps

Adapted by Patrick Barlow from an original concept by Simon Corble & Nobby Dimon, from the novel by John Buchan and the Alfred Hitchcock movie (written by Charles Bennett). Hearth Theatre by arrangement with Fiery Angel Ltd. Chapel off Chapel. 8 – 17 March 2024

There is nothing profound, meaningful, significant, ‘woke’ or relevant going on here.  Instead, we get a couple of hours of sheer entertainment, of hilarious fun, of amazement at the endless inventions and transformations, and at knowing, witty commentary on the conventions and cliches of the story itself.  All created for us by just four skilled and apparently inexhaustible actors. 

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