Strut and Fret. The Garden of Unearthly Delights – Rymill Park. 24 Feb 2015
As home to the premiere season of this new Strut and Fret show, Adelaide is being treated to the most highly anticipated (and priced) show of the 2015 Adelaide Fringe.
Billed as an evening of “visual and edible wonderment”, ‘Fear and Delight’ asks that their audience “shed their inhibitions and experience an interactive feast of theatre and culinary wonder…”
The Complete Experience finds the addition of an immersive, ritualistic, cult-like initiation in which audience members are lead on a culinary and visual journey through Adelaide’s Rymill Park. Guests are confronted by characters participating in unconventional acts as well as theatrically prepared appetisers which tickle the imagination and challenge the taste buds.
On the menu are selections like ‘Oyster Black Seafood with Edible Sand’ served from a clam shell; ‘Beef Jerky with Ant Mayonnaise’ presented on a cow skull; and martini cocktail glasses filled with a ‘Jelly of Seaweed, Water Plants, Frog Spawn, Roasted Meal Worms and Fried Grasshopper’.
In some instances the descriptions are theatrical only; but in the case of the ants and meal worms – that is exactly what you’re eating!
After our brief, interactive ceremonial jaunt, we are seated for the main meal. As VIP guests at the ‘Fear and Delight’ show our table is formed from the sides of an enormous raised stage, 25 seats long on each side, on which the performance will later take place.
This front row location proves to be one of the key draw cards of ‘The Complete Experience’, experience.
Carefully prepared by internationally renowned chefs Didier Prince and Roy Wiggers of ‘The Dutch Food Slingers’ the main meal is as experimental and theatrical as the actors serving it. Whilst Heston Blumenthal might look twice to see what interesting creations this duo has delivered, I doubt that he would try them twice. Much of the food is over-cooked in concept and a tad underdone on flavour. This is not to say it doesn’t taste of anything but one does struggle to finish most of the offerings available. The ‘Roast Chicken Leg with Claw’ is, however, both notable and delicious.
The official wine sponsor, d’Arenberg, turns out a great selection to accompany the meal including ‘The Money Spider Roussanne’ and ‘The Derelict Vineyard Grenache’. These wines are excellent choices and continue to be enjoyed by ‘The Complete Experience’ guest’s right through the show.
When the show begins, all that came before is forgotten. The performers have us transfixed as they move through the delicate choreographed performance that is ‘Fear and Delight’.
British musicians, ‘The Correspondents’, provide a live soundtrack to the evening with vocals in the supremely capable hands of Mr Bruce, and musical direction by his partner in musical crime, DJ Chucks. The electro swing stylings of Bruce are intoxicating and he is ably supported by Australian-born Simone Page Jones on female vocals. What this performance has, that others of its kind seem to be lacking, is a theatrical narrative which is intrinsically tied to both the soundtrack and the choreography.
‘Fear and Delight’ is more dance than acrobatics and this is its strength. Renowned French dancer, Anne-Caroline Boidin, provides much of the contemporary dance flair and her commitment and energy is outstanding. She is not alone though. The whole cast, whether comedian, acrobat, aerialist or dancer, collaborates on the movement that ties the performance together.
The acrobatic trio‘15ft6’ of the Netherlands are technically superb. Spending most of her time in the air, or at the mercy of her trusted colleagues, acrobat Tain Molendijk stuns the audience with both her agility and aerial beauty as she flips and flexes all over the stage.
Aerialists Saulo Sarmiento and Nick Beyeler turn the heads of female audience members (and some of the males) with bodies many would kill for.
At the conclusion of the performance, the audience is invited to dance the night away at ‘The Devil’s Lighthouse’ with cocktails specially designed by Bompas and Parr.
‘The Complete Experience’ is complete. The show is absolutely worth a look and I encourage you to check it out. Love or hate the prequel it is a unique and memorable experience - albeit not a cheap one for those considering the purchase. Either way, there is something here for everyone and it must be seen to be believed. Go, for the fear and for the delight.
Paul Rodda
When: 13 Feb to 15 Mar
Where: The Garden of Unearthly Delights – Rymill Park
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
Black Cat Theatre. The Kings Hotel. 24 Feb 2015
Black Cat Theatre - an ensemble of students and young adults - doesn't think theatre in Adelaide is highbrow enough and thus have dedicated themselves to the noble cause of putting the classics on stage. I had a crack at reading Franz Kafka's pre-WWI novel, 'The Trial,' but dropped it before the end, having found it a bit turgid. I didn't feel that bad because Kafka didn't finish writing it. In fact, he never finished any of his novels, so there.
So I have great admiration for Hugh Scobie for writing an adaptation of an incomplete novel and resuscitating it in this world premiere production. And for Veronica Jefferis for her evocative and thematic illustration.
In 'The Trial,' we witness Joseph K's bewilderment as he is arrested for a never-specified crime and confronts bureaucracy, idiocy and indifference as he navigates a labyrinth court and justice system that doesn't make any sense. Almost any lay person caught up in the courts would immediately sympathise with K. But the play operates on many levels through its use of court metaphors for other meanings, and the fear and anxiety created by the sinister authoritarian regime behind the whole thing.
Scobie's adaptation is pretty good. He focuses more on the absurd and less on the sinister and violent elements of the text, yet makes K's frustrations palpable and accessible. Scobie himself plays Joseph K, looking a little bizarre with his Rastafarian hair bundled up back of his head. No sacrifice should be too great for theatre, Hugh. The remaining cast of five take on the major roles of the novel with Adam Bates adding interest to his Examining Magistrate by channeling Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow. The short play includes a long interval that was in fact longer than the second act. And it's the first time I've seen a play without any actors.
David Grybowski
When: 24 Feb to 5 Mar
Where: The Kings Hotel
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
In & Out. Tuxedo Cat - Perske Pavilion. 23 Feb 2015
I found this play to be a little gem in its conciseness and execution. Created, co-directed and performed by Sonja Bishopp, Emma Annand, Ryan Forbes, and Adam Ibrahim, we have a pair of childless couples as neighbours in a nice suburb with freshly mowed lawns and a barbeque in every backyard. The women do yoga and drink tea while one guy is an accountant and the other a carpenter. If the title didn't set the tenor for you, the first scene certainly did when the men meet for the first time (one couple having recently moved into the neighbourhood) and innuendoes involving hot, juicy snags came think and fast. The conflict resides in the men's clandestine love and the repercussions in their marriages, including the women investigating their own sexuality.
Bishopp and Forbes in an interview seemed to be concerned with the cultural oppression of homosexuality, both politically and through social engagement, but this is a scant theme of the play. There were background references to harsh legal penalties for homosexuality, but this device was irrelevant to the action. The power of the work was conveyed in the themes of unrequited love, and forbidden love in the context of marriage, through the development of the relationships between the four characters as the situation unfolds. The fact that the extramarital affair was homosexual added an additional concern for their spouses and danger for the men, but it was not pressured by the legal regime - the legal regime was not the problem. I didn't see the necessity of a fifth character - an ice cream man.
Initial lighthearted and humorous scenes of playful fun and engagement gave way to palpable feelings of bewilderment, betrayal, anger, hurt, and plain old sadness. The performances were physical and quick-footed while also being emotionally nuanced and subtle, with the exception of Sonja Bishopp - playing the spurned wife of a man helplessly falling in love with his neighbour - who was theatrically overwrought in her uptightness so that humour and empathy were lessened. The pace was fast, and a couple of times, peak scenes were played out with alternative outcomes or with thought balloons which generated additional interest.
This play was devised by students for an in-house Victoria College of the Arts (VCA) festival of new works last September. This is a great way for the cast to start their careers.
David Grybowski
When: 23 Feb to 1 Mar
Where: Tuxedo Cat - Perske Pavilion
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
Hans. The Garden of Unearthly Delights - Aurora Spiegeltent. 23 Feb 2015
I haven't seen a Hans show since he was a neophyte entertainer dressed in lederhosen doing a high-kneed dance playing oompah-pah music on his accordion at the Weimar Room on Hindley Street back in the late '90s. Boy has his schtick come a long way! Now it's tighter clothes, wider girth, three lovely showgirls and a back-up band belting out the hip hop. And the audience was well oiled with anticipation and lapped...it...up.
And if you're going to do a great cabaret show, why not do it as a German? Most of us would think they invented cabaret, and Hans, for all his modernism, is steeped in the traditions that define the genre - lots of make-up, exotic clothes and gender-bending, jokes and barbed banter on our suburban lives, quick-witted exchanges with audience members, crisp and loud dance tunes but also some old favourites, plenty of dancing, and supreme of all, lots of audience participation.
He brings everyone into the show in a most personal way, that even if he didn't speak to you directly, or if you weren't one of the lucky three men coaxed onto the stage for a dance contest (the winner experienced the added good-natured humiliation of being tied up and serenaded), you feel touched and moved by his energy and bonhomie. I swear he tried to make eye contact with everybody.
There are only two more shows and I strongly suggest you see at least one of them. Bravo!
David Grybowski
When: 23 Feb to 9 Mar
Where: The Garden of Unearthly Delights - Aurora Spiegeltent
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
Y2D Productions. Royal Croquet Club - The Menagerie. 22 Feb 2015
One man, two stages, and a very clever twist. Leo is a solo show that offers more than one experience: a live actor in single stark room, oriented in landscape, and his recorded counterpart in portrait, twisting reality as he appears to climb walls and bend normality.
Set inside three walls, the actor has just his suitcase and his hat for company and entertainment. The show becomes more surreal as he realises that not all is as it seems, and he pushes the limits of what he can do.
It's a well-crafted concept that grows with the character as he delves deeper into a dreamlike world in which the laws of gravity don't apply. The piece combines acting, acrobatics, music, cinematography and artwork to produce a genuinely unique show. It does rise and fall somewhat. There is a gorgeous scene where the characters draws a room for himself, complete with table, chair, window, wine and companion animals, but also slower moments of repetitive movement that are unnecessarily drawn out.
There are some technical aspects of the show which I find challenging.
Seeing the show around lunch time, light occasionally penetrates the tent and makes the screen dull and hard to see. With the live performance and it's recorded sibling sitting side-by-side, my eye is constantly drawn away from the recording, where the magic is happening, to the clearer and better lit (but less interesting) live version.
This is compounded further by my seat position. Much of the action is taking place on the left-hand side of the performance box, and with the screen also on left-hand side of the stage, those seated on the right-hand side of the auditorium must work to ignore three quarters of the stage in order to focus on the screen. This effect would be lessened by switching the performance box and the screen around, ensuring the performer is centered on the stage, or just by giving the screen more prominence.
Whilst the aforementioned does impacts the enjoyment factor, it doesn't take away from the originality of the piece. With lovely moments of humour and delight, it's a family-friendly show that should please.
Nicole Russo
When: 14 Feb to 15 Mar
Where: Royal Croquet Club - The Menagerie
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au