Reviews

Bella Green is Charging For It

Adelaide Fringe Festival 2021 The Lark, Gluttony. Feb 19 – 28 2021

Bella Green takes us through her journey from working at a fast-food joint to being an apprentice in a sex dungeon, without self-deprecation or self-pity – indeed, with genuine pride and refreshing confidence. Her stories smash through any stigma or discomfort that we, the audience, might be feeling. There’s none from Bella: she revels in the provocative, but it’s not all done for laughs. Bella quit her most degrading job because of her moral compass: not as a sex worker, but in a call centre for a bank.

The Anniversary

Performed and devised by Clare Bartholomew & Daniel Tobias. Directed and devised by Peter Houghton. fortyfivedownstairs theatre, 45 Flinders Lane, Melbourne. 10 – 21 February 2021

Jim (Daniel Tobias) and Barb (Clare Bartholomew) are both familiar yet surprising characters. These personas are an innovative invention of the director and the performers and they draw on a variety of comedic strategies to bring them to life. Jim and Barb undoubtedly belong to the Commedia dell’Arte tradition where the characters are mostly driven by their bodily needs and their primary emotional desires. Food and love are often the motivations for their actions providing enormous comic circumstances usually played out physically. 

The Underground

By Elysian Creative. Fringe World Encore season. Directed by Rafaela Lico. The Main Hall, The Girls’ School, East Perth WA. Feb 18-20, 2021

The Underground played an Encore Season as part of Fringe World’s encore weeks - transferring from the tiny Home Economics venue, to the very large Main Hall - and getting great sized audiences too. The premise of The Underground is a love story set in a very exclusive, invitation only club. It features lots of Latin dance, a huge amount of costumes, some sizzling vocals, a dash of comedy, a spot of audience participation, live percussion, a very impressive guest spot and a lot of heat.

Carlotta: I’m Not Dead Yet Darlings!

Adelaide Fringe 2021. Presented by Michael Griffiths. The Chamber at The Queens. February 19-21, 2021

The audience was abuzz on the afternoon I attended. A steamy venue could not dampen the enthusiasm of the crowd as we all anticipated being in the presence of greatness. Carlotta - only first name required - is a living legend. Having packed several lifetimes into her 78 years, she was not short of material as she sashayed onto the stage.

The talented Michael Griffiths opened the show with the standard ‘As if we Never Said Goodbye’ - it was packed with perfect sentiment, given Carlotta has graced our stages and screens for the past 62 years.

Whale Fall

By Ian Sinclair. Produced by The Kabuki Drop, Commissioned by PICA and co-presented with Perth Festival. Directed by Melissa Cantwell. PICA Performance Space, Perth Cultural Centre, WA. Feb 17-27, 2021

Whale Fall looks at transitions across multiple generations, family dynamics, the human body and ecological change. An Australian family drama, set on the beach, the story plays against the story of a dying whale, as it slowly falls to the bottom of the ocean, to form a new biodiverse ecosystem.

The Thought That Counts

Adelaide Fringe Festival 2021, Black Box Theatres. Feb 19 – Mar 21, 2021

This interactive offering from the mind of Joshua Kernich is a tremendous ten minutes of surprising, thought-provoking fun. You gather with a handful of others around a large TV screen and a pixelated character walks through a familiar landscape from a platform video game of the 1990s.

Children of the Sea

By Jay Emmanuel with co-composition by Kavisha Mazzella and Pavan Kumar Hari. Encounter and Performing Lines. Directed by Jay Emmanuel . Subiaco Arts Centre, WA. Feb 10-13, 2021

Children of the Sea is a powerful theatrical work about survival and resistance, based on two years of research from writer/director Jay Emmanuel and interviews with over 60 survivors, border officials and human rights lawyers at Australian detention centres. Highly emotional and very moving, this powerfully presented piece is presented by Encounter and Performing Lines.

Arabian Nights

Rimsky-Korsakov - Scheherazade. Ravel - La Valse. Queensland Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Johannes Fritzch. Concert Hall, QPAC. 19-20 Feb 2021. Broadcast ABC Classic 13 Mar 12 Noon.

Before the concert began, concertmaster Warwick Adeney did some QSO housekeeping by informing the audience that the conductor of the concert, Johannes Fritsch, had been appointed Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor for the orchestra for the next three years. Fritzch had previously held the same position with the orchestra from 2008 – 2014.

The Reichstag is Burning

By Joanne Hartstone. Hartstone Kitney Productions. Adelaide Fringe 2021. Black Box Theatre. Feb 19 – Mar 14, 2021.

The team that has delivered such gems as The Girl That Jumped Off the Hollywood Sign and That Daring Australian Girl are back with their new offering The Reichstag is Burning. Having already well established themselves as award-winning writers and producers of the cabaret genre it is, perhaps, no surprise that their latest production invites the audience to spend the evening in the Katakombs Kabarett in the Weimar tradition.

The Kaye Hole

Adelaide Fringe Festival 2021. The Octagon at Gluttony, Rymill Park. Feb 19 - Mar 20, 2021

What do you do to top off a long, hard (but enjoyable) day of Fringing? You visit The Octagon at Gluttony and see The Kaye Hole of course!

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