Adelaide Festival. Adelaide Festival Theatre. 11 Mar 2023
Numerous composers have written Requiem Masses, the Roman Catholic funeral mass, such as Mozart, Cherubini, Saint-Saëns, and Berlioz, but none are quite like the one from Verdi’s pen. It was first performed in Milan in 1874 and was written in memory of Alessandro Manzoni, a national poet of Italy, whom Verdi admired very much. Some notable musicians at the time panned it suggesting it was too operatic and not sufficiently reverent and solemn. A case in point is the Dies Irae (‘Day of Wrath’) that is so astonishingly vibrant it would easily be at home in a Stravinsky ballet.
With almost all of his substantial oeuvre already composed, Verdi is at the height of his powers when the Requiem Mass has its première, and his signature use of transcendent melodic phrases, spirited and varied rhythms, and contrasting textures comes to the fore throughout the score. It is thought that Verdi was as much concerned with the humanity associated with end of life as he was about the religious aspects, if not more so. This is significant because the music doesn’t respond so much to the text as it does to human emotion. More on this later.
Messa da Requiem is enormous in scale. Presented by Ballett Zürich, one of Europe’s most esteemed ballet companies, the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and the Adelaide Festival Chorus, Messa da Requiem involves more than 200 artists: 170 Adelaide singers and musicians and 36 dancers. The Festival Theatre stage is fully exposed, and it is filled to almost overflowing. It is an awe inspiring sight to behold, and the memory of it will persist in the minds of the capacity audience for years to come. The power of the production is almost immeasurable, and, arguably, its impact will speedily eclipse that of previous Adelaide Festival headline events.
Messa da Requiem faithfully presents Verdi’s musical and choral score, and dancers perform a sequence of sixteen balletic tableaus which, according to award winning choreographer and producer Christian Spuck, and in sympathy with Verdi’s own thinking, are more an interpretation of and response to the music than to the religious text. This reviewer freely confesses to not being a dance aficionado, and was smitten by the precision, athleticism and pure emotive power of the dancers. The figures they sculpted on stage with their bodies as both individuals and groups were evocative, sensuous (yes, even within the context of marking the occasion of death!) and achingly beautiful. In this endeavour they were assisted by the chorus who formed an immense corps de ballet, and worked with the dancers to sculp visions of biblical inundations, giant reptiles that might have been conjured up from a Bosch painting, and teeming multitudes of tormented souls at the day of the Final Judgement. One’s mind could conjure almost any interpretation, but that is probably the point: constructing an indelible and highly personal response to Verdi’s daring and bravura music, which in turn is meditating on the mysteries of end of life.
The Adelaide Symphony Orchestra is at the top of its game under conductor Johannes Fritzsch, who is the Principal Conductor of the Queensland Symphony Orchestra. The woodwinds and brass are especially fine. Christie Anderson, who is the Artistic Director of the Adelaide Chamber Singers, produced superb results from the choir. One could hear individual words of the latin mass as if it was being sung by a single singer rather than by a massed choir. Christian Schmidt’s stage design is minimalistic but gothic in its conception. The use of immense and cavernous space underlines the insignificance of man. Emma Ryott’s simple costumes use a restricted colour palette and concentrate on blacks and dark hues. The effect is solemn, and the use of flowing black tulle dresses in one scene was striking. Martin Gebhardt’s lighting was positively sympathetic to the dance and to the general temperament of the piece, and the use of a mobile lighting unit that was moved around across the floor by dancers was extraordinarily effective as it cast menacing shadows of dancers on the undressed walls of the set.
And to the soloists, who are all Australian artists with international recognition and careers. Soprano Eleanor Lyons was exceptional, and her Libera Me with the chorus was sublime. Paul O’Neil has a generously warm tenor voice, and his performance of Ingemisco was heartfelt. Bass baritone Pelham Andrews was exceptional in the middle of his range, and he sang both Tuba Mirum and Confutatis with humble reverence. Mezzo Soprano Caitlin Hulcup sang sublime duets with Lyons, and was particularly impressive in the Agnus Dei and the Recordare.
But even though there were excellent singers on stage and an impressive orchestra in the pit performing the magnificent music of Verdi, with skilled dancers on stage at the pinnacle of their craft, the greatest accolade must go to Christian Spuck, whose choreographic and collaborative genius has produced a truly memorable, important and enduring work of art.
Bravo, brava, bravi!
Kym Clayton
When: 11 Mar
Where: Festival Theatre
Bookings: Closed
★★★★
Adelaide Fringe. The Latebloomers. Ukiyo at Gluttony. 10 Mar 2023
When you think of Scotland, it’s almost certain you think of icons such as tartan and kilts, stirring folk songs (such as Auld Lang Syne, The Bonnie Banks o’ Loch Lomond, and The Skye Boaty Song), highland dancing, single malt whisky, shortbread, deer hunting, the rugged highlands, the ‘shitty’ weather, and of course salmon fishing.
If you are actually a Scot, there’s bound to be many other images and issues that wash through your psyche, such as your ‘dislike’ for the English (which goes way back to the wars of Scottish Independence in the 13th and 14th Centuries, and more recently to the so-called Highland Clearances of the 19th Century), through to the desire for independence from Great Britain, and Brexit.
This show – Scotland! – covers most of the abovementioned territory in fifty-minutes of oh-so-funny madcap tomfoolery performed by three skilled artists. They are The Latebloomers, and not one of them is Scottish, but you wouldn’t know it. They hail from the UK, Sweden and Australia and they first met at the Jacques Lecoq International Theatre School in Paris. They are exponents of physical theatre, clowning, and mime, and they are extremely good at it.
From the time you enter the venue, they can be seen lurking in the shadows pulling funny faces and gawking at the audience, almost baiting us to respond, which we do of course, by laughing, because they are immediately funny. The scene is set and on they come, a human tsunami of three, but with the energy and passion of three score and more!
They are dressed in tartan and one quite quickly answers the question: What does a Scotsman wear under his kilt? No spoilers here! And from this point on the pace is frantic and the smiles on our faces get wider and wider. Occasionally our smiles shift into worried looks as the trio look for ‘volunteers’ from the audience but that almost shifts to ‘pick me, pick me’!
A highlight of the show is their mimicry, and particularly the sounds they make (amplified through personal PA systems). They mime fly fishing, playing bagpipes (using stools as props!), birds of prey swooping down from the crags of Ben Whatever high above, fighting the English at Culloden, and the list goes on! It’s exhausting, and the volunteers from the audience are a hoot as well!
The person who sat alongside of me casually remarked just as the show was about to start that she had no idea what the show was about or what she was in for, and hoped that it would be OK: “ I have an hour to kill, so I’ve taken a chance”. She left thrilled, and laughing, as did I. This is true Fringe.
Kym Clayton
When: 10 to 19 Mar
Where: Ukiyo at Gluttony
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
Adelaide Festival. Marrugeku. Dunstan Playhouse. 10 March 2023
Telling it like it is means knowing where the whole bad shit thing starts from.
The opening solo phrase of Jurrungu Ngan-ga [Straight Talk] establishes, with authoritative ease, an unperturbed and peaceful existence of indigenous human life, free expression and health.
The stage is bare and there is minimal lighting. The free run of spirit in a body writhing and vibrating at one with its environment is buoyed on through Sam Serruys, Paul Charlier and Rhyan Clapham - aka DOBBY’s tautly focused electronic score.
On this foundational phrase, Choreographer Dalisa Pigram and Director Rachael Swain form an entire history of cruel subjugation; of indigenous Australians and refugees both incarcerated and dying in custody.
Each phrase of the production is - one after another - of surveillance, capture, subjugation and punishment right throughout history.
None of this is imaginary.
Costumed in the thread and colour of the refugee by Andrew Treloar and framed subtly by Abdul-Rahman Abdullah’s jail-wall set with indigenous Australia, past and present, mediated through video projection, it is real history distilled through powerful expression of body in motion.
Dancers present with back to the audience, and we see faces on the screen, we see real, in time observation of harassment.
Innocent, it is not.
The overlay of colonial anachronisms - such as on pointe dance, sans pointe shoes – and the magnificent set of chandeliers descending, along with a break into theatre and confronting dialogue seal the heart felt goal of this work.
We’ve been told straight what the deal is.
Our response?
David O’Brien
When: 10 to 12 March
Where: Dunstan Playhouse
Bookings: adelaidefestival.com.au
★★★★★
Interactive Theatre International. Royal Coach Motor Inn. 10 Mar 2023
I think I’ve found the best Fringe Show ever!
For a couple of reasons Confetti & Chaos is just a brilliantly excellent and totally scatty show to be part of. Oh yes, I said ‘part of’. The audience can become totally immersed in the action as it unfolds, if they wish, and on opening night many people so wished.
Suddenly, you have theatre provided by the people, for the people, and it can be a little dangerous. The scenario is simple; you attend the venue for Confetti & Chaos as a guest invited to the wedding reception of Stacy and Will. Her parents are Raymond and Lyn (an excellent performance from an actor we saw a few years ago as Mrs Fawlty in the other show). There’s a few others, including best man Ricky, who is something of a scene stealer, getting down to his underpants for the scene involving Abba’s Dancing Queen. Music tends to be a running gag through the show; and the completely appropriate wedding song is Elton John’s I Guess That’s Why They Call It The Blues.
“No other wedding invites such charming calamity and tenderness,” their press material says smugly, and for once it’s true. I can honestly say I have never attended a wedding reception which was so funny. The audience is involved from the get-go. It stands to reason that each night will be different, depending on the level of audience involvement, which determines just how close the whole show comes to teetering wildly on the edge. A huge shout out to the table front and centre who supplied some wonderful interjections.
This is the English organisation who bring us the Fawlty Towers The Dining Experience, so you can be sure you’re getting a reasonable quality product. Also, as part of a dining experience, a 3 course meal is provided in the ticket price. It’s not gourmet, but it’s perfectly adequate. The thing here is the actors are not constrained by the roles they are playing. Unlike in ‘Faulty Towers…’ their characters are not known, so they can take the humour and the narrative as far as they like, just so long as they’re able to return to the central storyline as required. Since they’re playing along with the audience this works a treat.
Alex Wheaton
When: 10 to 19 Mar
Where: Royal Coach Motor Inn
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
★★★★★
Adelaide Fringe. Haus of Kong. Wonderland Spiegeltent. 9 Mar 2023
Wicked sequins, latex, glitter and so much hard core choreographic sass, this is indeed a world tour level show.
For all the fierce outer attitude, there’s a tremendous spirit of audience bonding. This is a show that’s as much as with the audience as it is for them. The audience understood this. There was such a strong feeling of actually being in the show.
Adelaide’s Kween Kong and interstate pals Spankie Jackzon and Hannah Conda know a thing or two about pacing the power of high energy show stopping dance numbers alongside sharp, deftly deployed self-deprecating humour. They are not trapped by established conventions of drag and drag performance. Hell no! They’re totally willing to subvert them in hilarious fashion. Substance of costume magic is subverted in order to highlight greater substance of character, spirit and gleeful comedic artfulness.
The wig pulling routine is absolutely priceless.
Everyone gets a star spot. Brilliant support dancers Marty and Adrian get to show off their chops without being upstaged by the stars of the night.
Show stopping high energy happy times. Totally recommended.
David O’Brien
When: 8 to 18 Mar
Where: Wonderland Festival Hub – Hindmsrsh Square – Wonderland Spiegeltent
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au