Reviews

You Ready for This?

Adelaide Fringe. Presented by: Tutti Arts Inc. February 25th, 2023

I have to confess to becoming somewhat of a ‘Tutti groupie’, having seen two of their different shows this week, and ‘different’ is, in fact the word to use. The 4 Sisters of Invention, the stars of this show, spent a delightful hour explaining how their ‘difference’ is, in fact uniqueness. Aimee Crathern, Michelle Hall, Caroline Hardy and Annika Hooper have been singing together for 12 years, and it shows. There are no prima donnas.

Sex Magick

By Nicholas Brown. Griffin Theatre Company / Sydney WorldPride 2023. SBW Stables Theatre. Feb 17 – Mar 25, 2023

You’ve probably never seen a play like this, and with so many angles – erotic and playful, thoughtful, spiritual and political, and yet so inclusive and hilarious.

It’s queer theatre in all ways, pushing boundaries not just in love and sexual identities, but also shape-shifting the limits of play-making itself.   

I Know The End

By Alix Kuijpers. Adelaide Fringe. Studio 166 at Goodwood Theatre and Studios, Adelaide. 23 Feb — 26 Feb 2023.

Entering into the intimate, dimly lit space of Studio 166 we were met with comforting softness: an environment of pale sheets, pillows, and covered mattress, including draped audience seating.  One dancer, Fern Mines, greets you at the door to query your level of comfort with audience interactive moments then leads you to be seated. The other dancer, Caroline De Wan, is poised with slight unsteadiness on a mattress in the centre, book in hand. A gentle, routine series of actions around the ritual of bedtime unfolds, the two dancers finally snuggling as a couple under a sheet. 

BackBeat 60 presents 'The Beat Goes On!'

Adelaide Fringe 2023. The Warehouse Atrium at The Warehouse Theatre. Saturday February 25th 7.30pm

The Beat Goes On is not just a bargain priced, toe tapping and hand clapping night of great 1960s music, it is a cleverly crafted journey through the songs and stories of the beloved musicians who created the back beat, anthems and hits for the Baby Boomer generation. Spanning 2.5 hours (and I am reliably informed they have another hour of fabulous musical material for the ‘60s), this show’s story begins around the early 1960’s.

Orpheus

Adelaide Fringe. Rymill Park Lake. 17 February – 19 March 2023

Dave has a monochrome life until he sees Eurydice across a crowded Karaoke bar whilst singing Springsteen. And then it’s all colour and light, until… until… well, no spoilers. You have to experience this for yourself.

Wright is our narrator – but he doesn’t just speak, he draws us a picture with words, with the way he looks and lingers, how he moves his body, how he holds his body. And despite the cacophony from other shows surrounding this open-air venue on a Saturday evening, he is utterly captivating.

Disney 100 The Concert

MM Productions. Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House, Feb 23 to 25, 2023, then HOTA Gold Coast, outdoor stage, Mar 31 – Apr 1, and Riverside Theatre, PCEC, Perth, Apr 21 & 22.

The first delight of the evening was seeing so many young people walking into the Opera House for a performance by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. The little ones remained transfixed by over two hours of scintillating sound from the SSO accompanying highlights of Disney movies on a giant video screen.

Facing a daunting challenge were the singers who had to compete with the juggernaut of sound and vision. They needed a little boost at times to be heard. Pavarotti in his prime would struggle to get much of a look at an event like this.

A Curious Thing

Adelaide Fringe. Ayers House. 22 February – 11 March 2023

Mary Anning was born in Lyme Regis, England at the end of the 18th century, where science was not an option for a woman, even one as talented and passionate about studying the past through the fossils that she discovered at the foot of the cliffs where she lived.

For an hour in Ayers House in Adelaide, Michelle Nightingale and Michael Mills take us on a journey through her life: surviving as the ‘Lightning Girl’ and following the passions of her father and brother to discover significant remains of animals from the Jurassic period.

Air Play

By Seth Boom, Christina Gelsone, and Daniel Wurtzel. Acrobuffos. Canberra Theatre Centre, 24–26 February 2023, and touring.

Air Play is the result of a years-long collaboration between Daniel Wurtzel — who, with many different creations continuing around the globe, is a gifted air sculptor — and Acrobuffos, comprising the husband-and-wife circus duo Seth Bloom and Christina Gelsone.  A virtually wordless entrancement, it’s an ever-changing creation; as Gelsone describes it, it can be affected by an opening door, by the heated air rising from the audience, and even, mid performance, by a rain shower beginning outside the performance venue.

Takeaway

By Liz Newell. Curtin University’s Theatre Arts and the Hayman Theatre Company. Directed by Emily McLean. The Blue Room Theatre, Perth Cultural Centre, WA. Feb 21-25, 2023

Curtin University’s Theatre Arts and the Hayman Theatre Company presents their 2023 Stage One Production, which is ’traditionally” staged at the Blue Room, the World Premiere of Takeaway. This black comedy, set in the back room of a pizza restaurant, is “about how the more things change, the more they stay the same”.

Delphi Goes Bassooning – A Tiny Musical

Janet Swain. Adelaide Fringe Festival. Holden Street Theatres. Feb 23 – Mar 12, 2023

Self-professed gawky 14-year old Janet Swain was gifted a bassoon by her mother after she was the winning bidder at a railway auction. Although Swain longed to play the cello, she soon mastered the woodwind instrument and double reed, much to the delight of her mother, also a musician.

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