Reviews

I have to admit to being a Benjamin Britten opera fanatic, have been since University. However, I was not as familiar with his string quartets, that is, until I attended Convergence at the Elder Hall, performed by the esteemed Australian String Quartet on the eve of their 40th birthday.

Two clowns create ‘fragile’ havoc as gallery installers; Rachel Colquoun- Fairweather and Will Bartolo, a first-rate duo, work together seamlessly in their much-heralded show Masterpiece. They collaborate as opposites, in motivation, gag and performance. They step out on to the stage with a clunky shoe shuffle routine, holding on to the large art canvas (covered in bubble wrap and blue tape). It takes two people and four pairs of hands in white gloves to handle this piece of art. They are buffoons and want their audiences to be entertained with their story.

Chamber music is intimate and vulnerable and in the Primrose Potter Salon the players’ interactions with the music and collaboration with each other are on full display. The Alma Moodie Quartet features violinists Kristian Winther and Anna da Silva Chen, violist James Wannan, and cellist Miles Mullin-Chivers.

There is a wonderful connection underlying this piece. Circus performers are always testing the limits of human endurance and capability and so too were the first astronauts, especially the first woman.