★★★★
Adelaide Fringe. Interactive Theatre International. Ukiyo, Gluttony. 18 Feb 2024
The thing kids really love about theatre is being involved in it. Oh, and slapstick. This show has both in spades, and literally had kids rolling around on the floor.
Signor Figaro is the head chef, and today he has called in sick. Signor Baffo, currently the head (possibly only?) dishwasher takes the call to close the restaurant for the day, but at the urging of the audience, decides to realise his dreams and create the food on the menu. How hard can it be?
The thing is, no matter how much you rehearse a children’s show, the moment you invite them on stage it’s anyone’s game. That’s often the delight with this genre, and Signor Baffo did not disappoint. In attempting to prepare runner beans (cue sight gag here) and make a sausage roll (no guesses required here), Baffo involved everyone in his hapless attempts to get this right. There were a few flat moments, but once he got into the meat balls and spaghetti all was forgiven. Tennis will never be the same again!
But it was the pancake making exercise that shone for the little ones. As the uncontrollable pair of wacky brothers stole the scene, rolling around the flour dusted floor, Baffo improvised brilliantly, pulling everyone back into line, though not always for very long! Getting children to lay eggs, taking baby milk from the audience for the pancake mix and finally tossing them every which way, he had those short people in the palm of his rubber glove clad hand.
A most entertaining hour in the kitchen, enjoyed by kids and adults alike!
Arna Eyers-White
When: 18 Feb to 17 Mar
Where: Ukiyo, Gluttony
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
★★★★★
Adelaide Fringe. Presented by Showmen Productions. The May Wirth, Gluttony. 18 Feb 2024
As the lights go down in the May Wirth, a montage of shots from a television show shines from the stage. Fanciful creations made entirely from balloons have the audience gasping with delight. Turns out they are from Blow Up, a television competition which the excited Justin tells us he actually won! No one was more surprised than him!
Justin goes on to give us a potted history of his background in circus and magic, and how his newfound love of ballooning has led to the creation of his new show, which combines all three. And like all good shows, it starts off with a bit of fire action, and an assistant appearing seemingly out of nowhere.
There’s a lot of interaction with the kids in the audience, and they just love it. One is chosen to go inside the big balloon-filled glass box (which immediately reminds me of the kid who crawled inside one and had to be smashed out, but that’s another story) and according to a message inside one of these burst balloons it’s decided that Justin will make a poodle, apparently the first animal he ever made.
And so he does, a nice compact poodle, which he gives out to an audience member. But then he’s presented with bigger balloons, so makes a bigger poodle. And then again and again, until he’s making huge, man-size poodles which of course no one wants to take home with them because they cannot fit them in the car!
Sam, his partner and friend (who also features in Circus The Show) is introduced to assist with some of the act. Juggling, illusions, some magic and a bit of life philosophy; Justin had it all. Of course his wacky assistant (Imaginathan?) had to have his moment to shine – an enormous balloon went over his head, and his body, until he was jumping around the stage fully enclosed!
It’s great to see a new show for kids in the Fringe, and this is a winner. It’s interactive, it’s funny, it’s clever and it makes kids want to emulate what’s going on. Justin brings an energy and authenticity to the stage that kids immediately relate to, and the adults don’t think it’s half bad either!
Arna Eyers-White
When: 17 Feb to 17 Mar
Where: The May Wirth, Gluttony
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
★★★1/2
Adelaide Fringe. The Vault / Fools Paradise. 17 Feb 2024
After queueing for quite some time the assembled throng was informed about a knife throwing act in the performance. This, we were told, was something to take note of, and we were admonished to not stand or make sudden movements during the act. It is sage advice with which to live your life.
The performance began 20 minutes late. My advice is ‘Don’t start late’. Especially in a festival packed with acts one after another.
And they were revealed, hastened onstage one after another by an MC whose name I did not catch. Somewhat sketchy audio aside, he did a pretty good job of whipping up the crowd hysteria, firstly for juggler Richard Sullivan who was excellent. With no time to catch our breath it was revealed Act 2 was the celebrated and aforementioned knife throwing Jess and his ‘voluptuous assistant’ Aja. The words are mine, the sentiment associated with macho strutting knife throwing at posing woman entirely his. To each their own I suppose; I thought it was poor.
Max & Simon from Only Bones contributed the idea of a vocal stylist doofing accompaniment to an excellent acrobatic display. The power in this guy's body had to be seen to be believed. I’ve never seen close-mic doof with acrobatics before, so there’s that.
An absolute highlight greeted us at the midpoint of the show; a suspended rigid pole brought Danny Golding to the stage. Hypnotic, sinuous and sensuous, Golding wrapped and climbed his way into some amazing poses and seemed to do so effortlessly. As he finished, he flicked the pole as he walked offstage, a deliberate little movement which said “I came, I saw, I showed you a little of what I can do.” Amazing.
With some help from a member of the audience (Jamie, and yes, it was a raucous audience on a warm Saturday evening) our MC got in on the performance with a ladder act. I forgot to take notes. I also was remiss in noting the suspended acrobatic work of Jessica Robbins, save that it was precise, outstanding and entrancing, and I most definitely did not take notes during Dr McQueef’s expose on vaginal flatulence. Yes, you read that correctly. Vaginal flatulence. A plastic recorder, the sort kids play in school, was involved. You should understand the kids do not play their recorders in the way this one was, errrr, tooted.
To conclude a show which promised so much and delivered some (it is, after all, billed as Crème de la Crème) Harley took to the stage and gave us a robust acrobatic workout from the suspended straps. Very well received, though I gained the impression the audience were still pondering what they had seen previously.
Alex Wheaton
When: 17 Feb to 16 Mar
Where: The Vault / Fools Paradise
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
★★★★1/2
Adelaide Fringe. Ukiyo / Gluttony. 17 Feb 2024
This is burlesque in a pure and simple rendition of the art. A melange of song and dance and provocative pose and skin and flesh and love and emotion. Some small parts are mimed, but the best of them is sung by Eliza Dickson.
For reasons which should become clear this review may turn into a polemic. Last year the majority of this cast treated us to Bones, a nails-sharpened clawing reveal of the beauty and fashion industry. This year Uncut does more, cuts deeper, then seeks to draw more than a little blood. Under the guidance of Fafi D’Alour it begins with a premise and part of an explanation for the show itself, using the power of song in Portishead’s Glory Box. In simple terms, it sets the stage for what is to come.
Fafi D’Alour becomes the dominant presence on stage, a huge red hat atop her head, drapes of red cloth obscuring her features, and attended by four acolytes (Dickson, Georgia Rose, Sarah Wilson and Tara Beyne), who work to the grind of a pure burlesque in When You’re Good For Mama. What is revealed becomes confronting theatre, especially so for men since in looking at the society of man (yes, I intended the pre-eminence of gender in this examination) D’Alour makes a level of disdain clear.
Working through some simple devices; fire eating, fire breathing, acrobatics, rope gymnastics and calisthenics and the songs which Dickson brings to life (Nobody Is Perfect) the five performers set out their view of the state of society and how it relates to them.
As we close in on the end of the show we close in on the bottom line of the performance – please do excuse that excruciating pun – as the cast bring to life the song Lick My Pussy, Lick My Crack. Ah, sapphic erotica, one of the great staple items of burlesque. And to round things out, the evil which does dare speak its name is introduced in the guise of Abba’s Money Money Money and thence the Flying Lizards 1979 hit Money. So that’s clear!
Look, Uncut is great burlesque because it exists on a diet of rage and love, but its message is in the same way inchoate. D’Alour will combine her dislikes and her injustices into one great scorecard of grievance, and that makes the performance almost visceral, especially for an increasingly fervent audience.
Alex Wheaton
When: 17 to 25 Feb
Where: Ukiyo / Gluttony
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
★★★★1/2
Adelaide Fringe. Holden Street Theatres, Barbara Hardy Garden. 18 Feb 2024
No one loved to play with plays and plays in plays more than Shakespeare - until Peter Goers came along.
He has taken the old Tom Stoppard concept of distilling Hamlet into a merry morsel and given it a thorough shaking in a madness mixer. The Goers Hamlet in Fifteen Minutes includes the play in a play and also a bonus variation of Hamlet in One Minute and then, hold down those eyebrows, an encore of Hamlet in Ten Seconds.
Short, sharp and exhausting to behold.
There are at least six colourful actors, and not always the same ones and often in multiple roles. Among them are Brian Wellington, Christopher Cordeaux, David O’Brien, Lyn Wilson, Kym Mackenzie, Ariel Dzino and Josh White.
Some of them play it straight. Ish. Cordeaux, so young and handsome and with such a lovely voice, fronts the cast as Hamlet. Wellington and Wilson are rather grandly bedecked as king and queen while Dzino, a fearless comic, leaps from role to role, bringing the house down as stricken Ophelia. She is a striking new discovery.
Goers is narrator. Sometimes. Rob Cusenza delights in alternate casting sessions. Very funny if you catch him.
Constant as flailing ghost and lurching gravedigger is O’Brien with some unforgettable shtick.
Audience members may be called upon. Everyone dies at least once. Except for Goers in his red silk kimono.
Chaos rains, reigns and is unreined.
If good acting there is, this lovely sunken garden setting is not its stage.
This is about arrant silliness. It is ham and stunts, high energy fun, and epic themes on a micro-molecular scale.
Oh, yes. The Bard’s pen is recognisable for, after all, the play’s the thing.
And, perchance, it might even pass for art.
It does pass the time, between the many shows at Holden Street Theatres. This brave troupe is playing it three times a night for the duration of Fringe.
Get thee thence and tell ‘em I sent you.
Samela Harris
When: 18 Feb to 17 Mar
Where: Holden Street Theatres, Barbara Hardy Garden
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au