The Dos and Don’ts of Doing It

★★★★★

Adelaide Fringe. Thomas Kostakis. 8 Mar 2023

It took me a while to relax. First, I assumed that the sex in question would be heterosexual; the sperm motif on the poster pointed to a potential exposé on the little bugger’s capture or use. Secondly, the set was that of a game show and the actors seemed to threaten an audience member with a first date television challenge; the handy readiness of a bed made me nervous. Did I have the right clothes on to take off? Once it was established I would keep my shirt on, I uncrossed my legs and enjoyed the show.

Thomas Kostakis has reimagined his nascent sexual encounters as a game of chance – The Dos and Don’ts of Doing It - with buzzers or bells for partner-pleasing behaviour. Spin the wheel and avoid the buzzer. It’s kind of like being on a f*cking freeway with stop lights.

And it’s very clever theatre. With the animated and talented Marc Clements as co-contestant, Kostakis’s experiences are laid bare as in Married at First Sight. His wry humour, observations and wit are delivered as narrator, contestant and himself – a really riotous rotation of voices. “In Sydney, I just have to lean over a park bench and I’ve got plans for the weekend.” “Why send pics of your flaccid dick? You wouldn’t go to a job interview with half a resume.” The sex is frank and overt, but stylised and emotionally effective, especially post-coitus or when disappointing. Clements and Kostakis work well together in conveying the tricky relationships. Director Alex Howarth shaped the whole shebang. Sound effects and lighting are carefully planned to enrich the experience.            

The beauty of the writing is that as the punchy game show sex wanes, reality intrudes in a subtle transition. After a flurry of buzzers and unsatisfactory experiences, our hero wisely seeks help. A clue to the solution is that the production is supported by a physiotherapist. Gay game show sex is not all beer and skittles, but sexual dysfunction is not unique to this flavour of sexuality. Anybody can be, and is, actually, a contestant in this game. Kostakis shares the frisson and the search for love and answers in a superbly inventive way with humour and sensitivity. Bravo!

David Grybowski

When: 7 to 12 Mar

Where: Holden Street Theatres – The Studio

Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au

Bones

★★★★

Adelaide Fringe. Ukiyo, Gluttony. 8 Mar 2023

I’m only guessing if I offer an explanation for the name Bones… a show which relies upon the human skeleton for the wonderful ways in which dancers and performers use their bodies…? The bare bones of our relationship with addictions in the modern world laid bare for all to see…? The bones of a performance of one hours’ duration to be enlarged at a later date…?

Bones may be all those things, or none. Utilising the skills of five performers - one man and four women - it explores the limits of addiction, both physical and mental. Within society there are many things to trigger our addictive nature: social media, materialism, substance abuse, food, sex and health and fitness. It is the latter addiction which had the greatest impact with me, since it seems these days everybody is wearing active wear, some flexing, some posturing and preening, some over-committing at the gym. The way the limits were examined by the young women, obsessed with body image, laid bare the issues. It really was a wonderful expose, as was the later exploration of sexuality and sex.

You may infer the dance was powerful, erotic, and very, very visual, yet even in the space of almost exactly one hour there existed audience members who were unable to curb their own impulses. A young woman opposite me snuck at least four looks and sent at least two texts in that time - a devotee to social media who simply could not control her compulsive behaviour. There were also two young men, one to either side of me, who similarly had to sneak peeks at their phones throughout. One of them had dimmed his screen; obviously a repeat offender.

None of this offers real explanation for why we pursue such activities. It’s human nature, and the fact that the male cast member had a chair and claimed a background as a clinical psychologist made little of explaining the behaviour. This was an expose through the physicality of dance, and an excellent one at that.

Alex Wheaton

When: 8 to 12 Mar

Where: Ukiyo at Gluttony

Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au

Innes Lloyd: Journey to the Centre of the Earth

★★★★

Adelaide Fringe. Alley Cat at Rhino Room. 8 Mar 2023

David Innes and Robert Lloyd, known together as Innes Lloyd, are rare thespians: they are writers, performers, mimics, singers, historians, and researchers.

Their show Journey to the Centre of the Earth is a retelling of Jules Verne’s classic 1864 science fiction novel that tells the story of Professor Lidenbrock and his nephew Alex as they travel deep down into a dormant Icelandic volcano in the belief they have found a passage to the centre of the earth. The way is shown to them after having discovered a medieval document prepared by an alchemist. They travel from Hamburg to Reykjavík and begin their adventure. Along the way they confront giant mushrooms, supposedly extinct fish and dinosaurs and mastodons, storms, various physical dangers etc. Suffice to say, they have a rugged time before they eventually find their way out. The story has been made into several films (most recently starring Brendan Fraser), in various languages, and has been set to music, most notably by Rick Wakeman.

With the aid of a flip chart, which serves as a sort of program and provides visual cues for the benefit of the audience, Innes and Lloyd act out Verne’s story in a brisk 50 minutes with great humour and stye. They pepper their script with impromptu responses to audience reactions that would do a stand-up comedian proud, and lay on lots of ‘fun facts’ and references (sometimes enjoyably obscure!) to all manner of things to keep the audience on its toes.

Innes and Lloyd are almost vaudevillian in their approach, and they constantly engage and delight the audience – the pace never drags! Their script is a celebration of language: it’s intelligent, witty, well written and always funny (with no reliance on ‘blue’ language to get the audience laughing!). They quickly put smiles on the face of everyone in the room, which stay there and get broader as the show progresses. This reviewer’s face ached!

A highlight of the show is an excellent backing track of sound effects and music that Innes and Lloyd have meticulously put together and flawlessly perform in sync with. It’s as if there is an invisible foley artist on stage with them. The sound effects, coupled with the oh-so-funny flip chart and the polished stage craft of Innes and Lloyd, adds up to a fun and stimulating show, and all performed in the tiniest theatre that has ever existed! You couldn’t swing an alley cat in it!

Kym Clayton

When: 8 to 12 Mar

Where: Alley Cat at Rhino Room

Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au

The Boomer and The Doomer

★★

Adelaide Fringe. Derek Tickner. Curiositeas. 5 Mar 2023

Curiositeas, up a narrow staircase aloft of Rundle Street, is an enchanting and tiny temporary Fringe venue that can make the smallest of audiences seem a full house. Proprietor Shannaka has decorated the arches and shelves and nooks and crannies of the archaic building with tea paraphernalia that the roving eye catches.

The Doomer and Boomer are an odd couple in presence but a sensible match in the planning stage. The pair tag-team their schticks with more entanglement than entertainment. In fact, they seem to occasionally loathe each other as part of the act.

Mark Allen as the doomer kind of gives a TED Talk of opinion and Wiki-facts of what’s gone wrong with the world. Initially full of complaints, his patter grows more practical, even infused with solutions. Unfortunately, Allen totally lacks any sense of stagecraft. He’s constantly in motion like a drunken sailor on a pitching ship. He looks down to the floor a lot, so I look down to the floor. And A4 notes, really? However, with each turn, Allen’s ideas grow better, and one realises he actually has serious commitment to greening and better wealth-sharing from business. As his confidence grew, his eyes lifted off the floor into the soul of the audience for some genuine connection. An ironic and humorous examination of the full cycle resource utility of cow’s milk vs oat milk, and a pretty good Brian Cox (TV physicist) impersonation are made.

Eric Tinker (Derek Tickner) reprises his successful MC Boomer rap but was unable to fill even the tiny tea house with volume. The Boomer is a marvelous invention of a crude and smug old man in mirrors and black beanie laughing out loud at his good luck to mature in the age of resource rape – exactly the doomer’s complaint. Being of similar age, I am guilty as charged and feel sorry for the three young women in the front row whose future is diminished by the generation currently frame-walking their way to nursing homes. In his next appearance, Tinker reprises his whimsical song of the good old days when “IT meant it,” and phones had cords. The mind-reading skit worked a treat and Cow Meditation has been bolstered to be even funnier - oat milk gets a second mention.

While there is a hint of a good duel between the two, the show is poorly written, casually delivered, under rehearsed and un-directed, and the performers disheveled. Not Tinker’s best work and hopefully not Allen’s either.

David Grybowski

When: 1 to 5 Mar

Where: Curiositeas

Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au