Reviews

Flamenco Fire – Australia’s only national flamenco company – have been performing their unique mix of traditional and contemporary Spanish Flamenco with international and interstate musicians and dancers since 1999. To celebrate their vibrant 20 years together, they premiered their new show – Veinte Años – at the Brisbane Festival.

Written by Cindy Lou Johnson, Brilliant Traces is a two hander, performed very ably by Krystal Brock as Rosannah DeLuce and Brendan Cooney as Henrey Harry.

This year the Brisbane Festival has showcased a brilliant range of musical acts – none so eclectic as Mzaza, whose individual band members have cultural heritage that mirrors Australia’s waves of settlers from Greece, Latvia, Bosnia and France. This band of free-spirited World musicians have a playlist that mixes their original jazzy and internationally inspired compositions with covers from writers as discombobulating as Serge Gainsbourg. The result is a blend as refreshing as a Bobo Parisian spiked with a cool shot of Ouzo.

Lily Fish is a phenomenon.  She is astonishing.  She is a comedienne, a mime, an acrobat and a chameleon.  In this show, the stage is totally bare, and the house lights don’t even dim.  There’s just Lily Fish and a plank.  Her character – and storyteller - Jofus – is dressed more or less as a clown and the ‘plank’ is a roughly 60 cm piece of wood.  Those are her resources.  There is some minimal narration – in a strange ‘clown’ voice and with lightning quick audience interactions – but the story,