Reviews

Jon Bennett: Playing with Men

Adelaide Fringe 2021. Gluttony. Mar 3 – 21, 2021

Running onto stage to a mixed response due to his Adelaide Crows football kit (‘this was really cheap this year for some reason’), Jon Bennett sets our expectations with a rapid-fire delivery of notes about the venue and what we’re going to be hearing from him over the next hour. He promises a visit from a possum (who duly turned up in the second half), people shouting over the fence behind us, and some embarrassing conversations. It is perhaps a fitting venue to be talking about the strange and ancient world of male sport culture in Australia.

Bluebeard’s Castle

Music by Béla Bartók. Libretto by Béla Balázs. Opera Australia. Directed by Andrea Morton. Associate Director Priscilla Jackman. Conducted by Andrea Molino. Joan Sutherland Theatre, Sydney Opera House. March 1 - 10, 2021.

Hungarian is not the language opera buffs are used to, and likewise almost every aspect about this opera is wildly fresh.  Composed by Béla Bartók for an opera competition in 1911, it was rejected by the judges as not having enough action or drama to qualify as theatrical music.

How wrong the judges were! In the hundred years since, the opera has come into favour for the searing cinematic style of the music and haunting narrative.

Eugene Onegin

Written by Alexander Pushkin, adapted for the stage by Rimas Tuminas. Adelaide Festival 2021 (Australian exclusive). Screened live at Her Majesty’s Theatre. Mar 5, 2021.

Rimas Tuminas’ celebrated production of Eugene Onegin was meant to be a headline production for the 2021 Adelaide Festival. Unfortunately, Covid-19 prevented this. Fortunately, thanks to technology, we can enjoy the next best thing.

The Sum of Us

By David Steven. Yirra Yaakin / Perth Festival. Directed by Eva Grace Mullaley. Subiaco Arts Centre, WA. Feb 26-Mar 7, 2021

The Sum of Us, performed as part of the Perth Festival is Yirra Yaakin’s first queer themed production, and the first time that The Sum of Us has been performed with an all-indigenous cast.

Lamb

By Jane Brodie. Red Stitch Actors’ Theatre and Critical Stages Touring, directed by Julian Meyrick. The Q, Queanbeyan, 4–6 March 2021, and touring.

 

High Performance Packing Tape

Presented by Branch Nebula. Adelaide Festival 2021. AC Arts. Mar 4 – 14, 2021

High Performance Packing Tape starts with a massive bang. A lone performer lying prone on the floor strenuously expends all his breath to inflate a large balloon until the inevitable happens. It’s uncomfortable to watch, and immediately places the audience outside its comfort zone, as do many of the sequences that follow.

By using everyday items to create a performance, Branch Nebula have set out to challenge the audience’s notion of what theatre, dance and performance is, and can be.

Medea

By Simon Stone. Internationaal Theater Amsterdam / Adelaide Festival 2021 (Australian exclusive). Live streamed at Her Majesty’s Theatre. Mar 4, 2021

After lengthy queueing outside on a crowded pavement, patrons were invited to enjoy the live from Europe livestream of Medea, on a large cinema screen. A complex and ambitious live streaming undertaking, an audience in Mount Gambier was also simultaneously able to enjoy the experience, opening some of the best of the Festival up to both  country and city patrons.  Fortunately, audience members in all parts of Her Majesty’s had a clear view of this English sub-titled Netherland production, with both sound and visual quality being excellent.

The Best, The Fairest, The First

By Adèle Shelley, Clare Mendes, & Mazz Ryan. Melbourne Writers’ Theatre in association with Gasworks Arts Park, Albert Park, Melbourne. 3 – 6 March, 2021.

This play details and celebrates the wonderful and clearly little-known history of several women sporting figures. The play is structured in three parts and looks at women who were pioneers in three sports: swimming, cricket and running. All of the stories are told from a very personal perspective and highlight the obstacles that women face not only historically but also in contemporary society. The performance is also graced by the presence of Calisthenics Soloist, Nuj B, and local running legend Monica Wong.

One Day He Changed (and the next he was gone)

Written by Sophia Simmons. Presented by SAYarts. Adelaide Fringe 2021. Rumpus. Mar 3 – 7, 2021

Through the haze, a dozen conversations riff from one person to another, a comment or question from one prompting a response from another. It’s a strong opening, well written and tightly performed, framing a production collectively created by the members of SAYarts and pulled together by Sophia Simmons.

Katyn

Written, directed & performed by Jim Daly, with Carolyn Bock. La Mama Courthouse, Carlton. 2 – 7 March 2021

Katyn, says writer-director-performer Jim Daly, ‘proceeds from a response born in shock at the meaningless grotesque of the Katyn massacre’.  What he has made of his response is a play that is often opaque yet astonishing in its intensity, its physicality and its rage.

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