Reviews

Writers’ Week is an essential component of each Adelaide Festival, where writers from across Australia and around the world flock to talk about their work to crowds of people who gather in the lush surroundings of the parklands. It’s a diverse and sometimes controversial event – there’s often attempts to ‘cancel’ a speaker who has said something someone else didn’t like. However, in most cases, our democratic principles of free speech win out, and everyone gets their chance to engage in honest debate.

Not your usual Festival venue - a cherished community hall on the southern fringe of the city.  Nor is this the customary measured stroll into a performance where you are ushered to a numbered seat in a softly illuminated auditorium.  The audience arrives as the cast wanders about, warms up or says hi.  We interact with various performers, take a sticky label to write the name of our favourite theatre work thereon and affix it to our chest, somewhat gingerly wondering if one might be called upon to participate in some way.  Next, the chaos of finding a seat in the random

The husky vocals of Jamie Alexandra wisp around the double bass player standing in the centre of the room, and this qualified sexologist promises to ignite conversations and cultivate a safe space for positive sexuality. We’re told this will be the education we should have already had.

Following sold out seasons walking the streets of Kensington, Bowden, and Parkside, this year’s street theatre from Oily Rag Theatre is in the lush suburb of St. Peters. Its wide streets and big houses give some clue to their age from the early developments of the Adelaide eastern suburbs, but it is through the stories from Milly and Tilly that we get a richer knowledge of the history of the area’s buildings and their inhabitants.