Reviews

Get Sweatier with Cheryl and Chardee

Adelaide Fringe 2019. The Keg Room at Hotel Victor, 23rd Feb, 2019. Ferguson Room at the National Wine Centre, 24th Feb 2019. HAT's Courthouse Cultural Centre Auburn, 1st March, 2019.

Cheryl and Chardee entertained us at the 2018 Fringe with Get Sweaty, in 2019 they’re back to help us Get Sweatier. Cheryl and Chardee met at dance class in their teens where they formed a strong bond over their mutual love for the much adored and sadly missed morning television show ‘Aerobics Oz Style’.

Bubble Show: Milkshake and the Winter Bubble

Adelaide Fringe 2019. The Jade. February 22 – March 16, 2019

Fringe favourites, The Bubble Laboratory (aka Iulia Birze and Kurt Murray) are back once again to entertain children of all ages with their bubble skill, puppetry and clowning.  Best known to young audiences as Milkshake and Doctor Bubble, this year Birze and Murray bring us an adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Match Girl. It’s a fairy tale with moments of much sadness but delivered here with great pathos. It’s refreshing to see a children’s production that is not entirely sugar-coated.

Heavenly

Queensland Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Daniel Blendulf. Piano: Paul Lewis. Soprano: Morgan England-Jones. Concert Hall, QPAC. 16 February 2019

Queensland Symphony Orchestra’s first concert for the year was indeed a ‘heavenly’ affair of exalted music from Mozart and Mahler.

Dirty Tattooed Circus Bastards

Adelaide Fringe 2019. Empire at Gluttony 15 February - 17 March, 2019

Touted as Cirque du Soleil meets Motorhead, Dirty Tattooed Circus Bastards is more reminiscent of Jackass meets Spinal Tap.  Over the course of an hour you will feel amused, amazed, confused and, at times, worried for the performers’ wellbeing.

Performed by two bearded and inked Irishmen, Martin Mor and Logy Logan, this show appears to have been constructed as an attempt to see how much dangerous, hilarious stuff two mates could fit into an hour.  In reality, these two are skilled and slick circus performers with a gift for comedy.

The Worst Little Warehouse in London

Adelaide Fringe 2019. Cupola at the Garden of Unearthly Delights. Feb 15 – Mar 3, 2019

Almost like a rite of passage, our young Australian artists make the pilgrimage to the United Kingdom to see if they can make a break into the theatrical tapestry that is London.  That was the case for Lala Barlow and partner Robbie Smith as they departed Australia, survived the long-haul flight and arrived at Heathrow with a sense of adventure and excitement, ready to embrace all that old Blighty has to offer.

Dietrich: Natural Duty

Adelaide Fringe 2019. Noel Lothian Hall and Stirling Fringe. Botanic Gardens. February 15th – March 17th, 2019.

Dietrich: Natural Duty has been performed around the world, and it is Londoner, actor, singer and dancer Peter Groom, as both author and performer, who brings this legendary Hollywood star to life.

How to Rule the World

By Nakkiah Lui. Sydney Theatre Company. Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House. Feb 11 – Mar 30, 2019

Nakkiah Lui’s madcap satire begins with the promising premise of three well-educated, ambitious if marginalised Australians – an Aboriginal, Korean and a gay Tongan – trying to snatch power in the Senate by getting elected their own carefully selected bland white male.  

Back Left

Adelaide Fringe Festival 2019. Tandanya Theatre. 20th Feb – 3rd March, 2019

The Back Left project is the brain child of Professor and Head of Movement at California University Ezra LeBank, together with Mexican dancer and choreographer Isabel Aguerrebere. Their intent was to take our daily unconscious movements and flip them; thereby awakening our senses.

Blackrock

Adelaide Fringe 2019. Glassroom Theatre Company. The Arch, Holden Street Theatres, 17-24 February 2019

What would you do for your friend? Your mate? Your family? Blackrock asks these questions in Nick Enright’s 1990s play about male behaviours after a teenage girl is raped and killed. Unfortunately, Jack Cummin’s production doesn’t really help us with the answers.

It starts well, the brooding teenage figure of Jared (played by the director), sitting on a rock, looking out to sea. The language of Jared and his cousin defines the context for the next fifty minutes: this is a boiling pot of uncertain masculinity, where the boys rule, right?

Matador

The Melba Spielegtent, 35 Johnston Street, Collingwood. February 14 – Mar 2, 2019

Fiery love equals the bloody sport of a Spanish bullfight!

Matador is written, directed and produced by Bass G Fam, who has developed a passionate fusion of dance, burlesque and circus acts that circumnavigate the emotional roller coaster of raging love.

This is a torrid romance between a female Matador (Kelly Byrne) and the male Bull (Ned Zania). Along with a talented cast of performers, Matador brings zesty high energy, modern and Latino choreographed dance to blazing life.