Chalk and cheese doesn’t begin to describe them.
Steve Davis is a thorough man. He believes in research and preparation.
For a performance partner, he has thrown his lot in with one of the all-time spontaneity kings in town: Ralf Hadzic, a man known to many as Adelaide’s chauffeur to the stars.
The only thing these two men have in common is the number 17. Seventeen is the number of years Ralf spent as an invisible TV star dancing around in the Fat Cat suit and 17 is the number of years that Steve spent in the unseen world behind the mike of radio on stations from Murray Bridge and Adelaide to Budapest.
They summon fate as an explanation for getting together to put on a show; a sense they had that one day their paths would have to cross.
Those paths finally crossed on the radio when Ralf joined the radio station at which Steve was morning show host and news editor. That was the early 90s.
They found they had both studied radio presentation and media with the great Vaughan Harvey.
The only difference was what they did with the training. Steve went into spoken word and Ralf fell silent within the Fat Cat suit.
Now here comes their Fringe show, 2 Cats on a Hot Fringe Roof.
There is just nothing ordinary about it - or them.
They offer up a taste of their characters and the way in which the spark of their collaboration was struck in one of Steve’s renowned Adelaide Show podcasts: check it out here.
Their show, 2 Cats On A Hot Fringe Roof, is described as a 60-minute comedy cabaret.
Steve will do stand-up about kid’s television and how we communicate in the “childish” era of social media, while Ralf will be sharing the jewels of his collection of exclusive blooper reels of old Fat Cat footage featuring Jane Reilly, Patsy Biscoe, et al. Archival outtakes and gotcha moments plus Hadzig gags and anecdotes, come on down.
It’s certainly promising to be wild and different and risky and, to add to the suspense, they have a barrage of celebrity friends they’re inviting along to see the show for which they have finessed Glynn Nicholas as director.
Not only but also, they are doing the outrageously unexpected; spoiler alert here! They are not going to sit around waiting for critics to review their show. They are going to review their audiences. New reviews every night to be posted on The Adelaide Show podcast reviews page here.
“I’ve been performing for years and one thing that you never get used to is that anxiety about whether or not the reviewer understood and liked your show,” says Hadzic of his life in the Fat Cat suit.
“Steve has been writing theatre reviews for 20 years so we thought, why not put those skills to work for our show,” he adds.
Davis says writing audience reviews is not just a Fringe novelty angle.
“Live theatre is a communal experience,” he says. “If you just turn up and sit in your seat passively, you have stacked the odds against you enjoying the show, while you also rob fellow audience members and performers of the energy you could have added through engagement.
“We’re not expecting audience members to get up on stage or carry our show, but by writing an honest review of each night’s audience, we are honouring the importance of their role in adding the magical spark that makes live comedy worth going out to see,” says Steve.
Samela Harris
When: 18 to 27 Feb
Where: The Historian Hotel
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
Here comes the Fringe you have before you have a Fringe - or at least a piece of theatrical fun and games with a couple of well-known names.
Gretel Killeen and Glynn Nicholas are powering into town to do an offbeat two-hander they have very fashionably called #UsTwo.
Perhaps playing on the sexual theme of #MeToo, the Aussie television veterans have devised a show to tell the world the essential differences between the male and female of the species - from their perspectives. One might define it as a quirky double bio show.
Gretel Killeen has lived a fairly public life on television in The Project and Go Back to Where You Came From, not to mention Big Brother and opinion columns in The Guardian. She has also hosted the Logies and turned out a stream of books among them one entitled The Night My Bum Dropped.
Glynn Nicholas has a high recognition factor in Adelaide. He sprang to attention as a busker in Rundle Mall in the early 80s. His immense popularity was unprecedented. Trained in mime by the legendary Zora Semberova and with circus skills from the USA, he became a beloved identity as host of the children’s show Here’s Humphrey and as a television clown and comedian. Among other things, he was memorably the character Pate Biscuit, a delicious character parody of distinguished folk singer Patsy Biscoe. He went on to have his own shows, hosted The Big Gig, wrote and performed Man Overboard, co-wrote Eurobeat and generally has had a thriving and motivated career writing, producing and performing in comedy.
He and Killeen have had very different career trajectories although, like Killeen, Nicholas can brag a hot-selling book.
Their very odd claim, however, is to have spent the last 30 years avoiding working with each other.
Now they are old and wise, experienced in life and love and showbiz and they have stories to tell and even some “outright lies".
And there begins the promise of some very interesting funny business.
Their promo material sings with teasers.
“In the show, Gretel will reveal why you should never marry a man who has a nickname for his willy, why people who wear sensible shoes live longer, and how to train your children to save for your retirement,” says Glynn Nicholas.
“Glynn will reflect on why failure to practice guitar hasn’t helped anyone working on this project and why, when his daughter lovingly calls him ‘a player’, he pretends to be indignant,” adds Gretel.
#UsTwo opens at Holden Street Theatres on January 12.
When: 12 to 20 Jan
Where: Holden Street Theatres
Bookings: holdenstreettheatres.com
Adelaide Town Hall. 30 August 2018
This week the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra – affectionately known to us simply as the ASO – launched its 2019 season with great fanfare in the Adelaide Town Hall.
The ASO is one of SA’s best known, most enduring and most important cultural institutions. Throughout 2019 it will perform more that 100 concerts. Phew! Even if you aren’t a regular concert goer, or maybe you are ‘orchestra shy’, there is something for everyone.
The program is available online at aso.com.au. Be sure to check it out soon as some of the special ‘gala’ events will be heavily subscribed.
There is a lot to look forward to in the upcoming season. The Season Opening Gala will see Simon Tedeschi perform Grieg’s ever popular Piano Concerto, paired with Sibelius’s Finlandia and Holst’s The Planets. Everyone knows these fabulous pieces, even if you don’t think you do!
The Beethoven Piano Concertos will feature, all five, to be played by Australian virtuoso Jayson Gillham. Everyone knows the slow movement of the fifth concerto – it featured in the iconic film Picnic at Hanging Rock.
Legendary violinist Pinchas Zukerman will return for a concert with a World Premiere and one of Tchaikovsky’s great masterpieces, his Fifth Symphony in a matinee performance on Thursday.
Last Night of the Proms will celebrate the best of British in an evening of pomp and ceremony. Flag-waving and sing-along included, of course.
There will be a symphonic tribute to the legendary rock artist Prince! iOTA, Brendan Maclean and Prinnie Stevens will supply the vocals! We miss you Prince, but your music will live on!
There will also be Star Wars and Harry Potter spectaculars, as well as the ever-popular Master Series of concerts featuring acclaimed works from the classical repertoire, as well as new music!
And if you’re still not sure, you can sample concerts in advance. The ASO has created a Spotify playlist for each of concert, so you can get to know the music, and its free! Just go online at aso.com.au.
So, what are you waiting for! Head online, or grab a programme from your local stockist of fine promo material!
Kym Clayton
It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of Nicky Bomba in all his various musical guises. One of the most talented and versatile musicians around right now, he’s turned his hand to many projects, and in recent times has been making quite an impression fronting the massive Melbourne Ska Orchestra.
Regularly venturing to our fair city, and always to rave reviews (admittedly, often from me!), they have some great ska albums under their belt. Always pushing the envelope – MSO’s last collection of tunes, Saturn Return, was released on USB – they’ve really gone the whole hog this year with their One Year Of Ska concept, a program that has the Orchestra release a new tune each week for the full year. It’s a massive 52-tune collection of ska heaven!
As we near the end of June there is no doubt that MSO has come a long way already. Themes within the releases become evident as time passes, with the first quarter covering a range of well-known, and less well-known, ska classics from across the ages and the current quarter showcasing movie and TV show theme tunes. What’s next? Who knows, but it will definitely be cool!
Looking at what’s been done so far, the 13-track ska classics suite covers a swathe of ska, and really is a logical and beautiful place to start the year-long journey. It’s an ode to the ska of days gone by, and includes tunes from the obvious stars of ska like the Skatelites’ Confucious and Man In The Street, the Specials’ Message To Rudy, Madness’ Night Boat To Cairo, Toots And The Maytals’ Monkey Man, or the Wailers’ classic Simmer Down, but some lesser known greats are here too, including Prince Buster’s Al Capone – the first release MSO made in the 52-tune behemoth – and Byron Lee’s Frankenstein.
With such a breadth of tunes included, this classics collection serves as a brilliant intro to the many facets of ska, as well as showcasing the sizeable talents of the MSO.
If the first collection pays tribute to music, the second suite is an ode to film, where the MSO present some fantastic versions of tunes from the big and small screens. Reading through the list, some choices are obvious, lending themselves very well to ska. But others are a surprise, keeping things fun all way through. The Austin Powers Theme kicks it off, with a ska-bossa nova take on the shagalicious tune which includes a couple of cheeky interludes of Dave and Ansel Collins’ Double Barrel. The theme from Curb Your Enthusiasm backs up Austin, and is a fairly logical choice too, but then it gets interesting with less ska-ish numbers, like the Doctor Who Theme, which comes across subtly and very well, the Family Guy Theme, which works spectacularly well, and then a great rendition of Star Wars, which is a fantastic medley of the Imperial March, Luke’s Theme (Main Titles), The Force Theme (Binary Sunset), and The Cantina Band so, just like the original Star Wars, this too is an epic (and yes, I am a Star Wars nerd!).
The mash-up of classic and modern fun continues with the themes from The Flintstones, Game Of Thrones, Hogan’s Heroes, and a bit of Latin flavour with Narcos. Silliness ensues with the Monty Python Theme, which skips along joyfully, while the James Bond Theme keeps the mix suave and cool.
There are a few more tunes to round out the collection, so keep your eyes peeled for those. Signing up to the MSO’s email-out, will ensure delivery of a link to the new tune right to your inbox each week, keeping you up to speed with all things ska.
And if the relentless releasing of new tunes each week is not enough for you, then get ready to concentrate all the ska you can imagine into a single night of joy, as the Melbourne Ska Orchestra are about to grace Adelaide’s shores once again! On Fri Jun 22, the MSO plays the Governor Hindmarsh, and with a 20+ crew of players, they’ll blow the place apart!
It may be cold outside, but the MSO will be hot, hot, hot! See you skanking down the front!
Luke Balzan
When: 22 Jun
Where: The Gov
Bookings: thegov.com.au
Adelaide Repertory Theatre. The Arts Theatre. 18 Mar 2018
Frankenstein’s Creature is alive and well and coming to a community near you.
That is the premise of the Nick Dear play of Frankenstein.
Of course, Frankenstein is based on the original Mary Shelly character, the mad scientist who creates The Creature in his laboratory.
In Dear’s adaptation for the National Theatre in London, one which scored success as a film starring Benedict Cumberbatch as Jonny Lee Miller, The Creature finds himself out in the big wide world trying to make sense of things.
It is a far cry from the classic yarn and it has stirred director Kerrin White and the Adelaide Repertory Theatre into producing it for a season starting April 5 in The Arts Theatre.
According to the British critics, it is a wild ride through an intriguing path of horror and also innocence.
The Creature would like to help people but they are horrified by him. He finds refuge and builds relationships not knowing who he is or why he is as he is. It is a turn-around of the classic story, compelling, electrifying and moving.
Kerrin White plans to give it a wild, Gothic atmosphere.
He has cast Steve Parker and Patrick Clements in the principal roles of The Creature and Victor Frankenstein.
Clements describes his character of Frankenstein as a man compelled to find ways to beat death since his own mother’s early death.
“Why does God get to be the only one to play God?” he asks.
“The emotional journey is interesting and fun to play in this version of the story because we see Victor after the creation of The Creature and he is dishevelled and tortured by his failings and accomplishments. Now we get to follow him in his downward spiral of madness and obsession.”
Clements says he does not intend to overplay the idea of the iconic Frankenstein but to examine the character and flaws of the man and play him as Victor. He describes his fellow actor, Steve Parker as “invested in this production and making The Creature his own.”
“The audience is going to have a wonderful journey in watching his performance.”
Meanwhile, Parker describes Clements' energy as “the opposite of mine which works brilliantly for this production.”
Parker was surprised when first he read the play and discovered that The Creature was the star and not the support character as we have all previously understood it.
He undertook lots of research and went on a training regime to gain fitness and trim down albeit, he says, “I fear I will never be as willowy as Benedict Cumberbatch or Jonny Lee Miller, the original actors in this play.”
He thinks audience members will relate to The Creature as depicted in this thrilling work.
“We all start innocent, but it’s not long before the realities of life place larger and harsher demands on ourselves,” he explains.
“As the conflict between a personal desire to be loving and good grows with the outside world’s constant bombardment of demands and petty harms, we tend to, in the least, cut ourselves off and, at the extreme, to seek revenge. I want to emphasise that The Creature did not start out as a villain but was made so by events and experiences beyond his control. Not as an excuse for his actions but perhaps as an explanation.”
The Rep's production of Frankenstein, based on the novel by Mary Shelley and adapted for the stage by Nick Dear runs at The Arts Theatre from 5 to 7 and 11 to 14 April, 2018.
Samela Harris
When: 5 to 14 Apr
Where: Arts Theatre
Bookings: adelaiderep.com