★★★★1/2
Adelaide Fringe. Ukiyo @ Gluttony. 20 Feb 2022
Oh Mr Spin, you made our day!
Mr Spin, with sidekick The Maestro on piano, delivers a funny, kid friendly, laugh a minute show, with a few adult jokes thrown in for good measure.
In matching suits and bright red socks, Maestro acts as the straight foil to Mr Spin – except when he doesn’t. Mr Spin’s primary schtick is to emphasise what can go wrong, and often does. There’s a real vaudeville vibe here, as the Maestro tries to keep Mr Spin and his tricks in line, but he soon gets into the vibe, taking on Mr Spin in the money trick and outsmarting him completely.
Mr Spin is a great juggler and a dab hand at the magic tricks, and manages to keep the kids laughing along as things go terribly wrong and then wonderfully right! The six ball saga, without giving anything away, is an exercise in pathos and joy, and of course every juggler should don a red tutu!
There’s a wonderful clothing routine that every child and parent can relate to – sleeves in the wrong place, jacket on backward, pockets gone weird – one doesn’t see enough of this simple but clever comedy. And yes, there are fart jokes.
There’s plenty of slapstick with a music stand that just won’t go together as a music stand should but where it goes most vaudevillian is when Maestro becomes the one man band with drums, piano accordion and trumpet and Mr Spin takes up the bass on a unicycle. This is, quite simply, hilarious heart in the mouth stuff.
This is simple comedy at its best – the nervous, sweaty Mr Spin and the too cool for school Maestro had the kids and adults completely entertained. And the adult jokes? The sheet music line is certainly on repeat.
Arna Eyers-White
When: 20 Feb to 20 March
Where: Ukiyo @ Gluttony
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
★★★★
Adelaide Fringe. Cirkidz. Peacock @ Gluttony. 20 Feb 2022
Ropes, string, the ties that bind – the young performers from the SA Circus centre’s Youth troupe explore them in a compelling and skilled theatrical work, and it shows Cirkidz as a fully grown up youth theatre company.
Ropeable explores the togetherness and aloneness of living in communities, with friends and families, using the ties to emphasise the bonds, to make more riven the deep cracks. It is a cohesive and well-crafted show, much more than tumbling and acrobatic skills brought together for a Fringe event. The young acrobats leap and spin their way through the production to Phoenix Pastro’s original soundtrack, at times pulsating, at others melancholic or pensive.
It should be noted that quite young ones are not really the audience here; the music can be a bit loud and they get restless about half way through as their attention drifts. Ropeable is an entertaining and skilled production from this company but it does not ‘speak’ directly to an audience as a children’s show might.
Using various devices - suspended ladders, rope towers, shoulders – on this stage in the round, the cast goes through their paces with a professionalism that belies their years. Mistakes are made, but so quickly glossed over and moved on that it barely registers. They work brilliantly as a group, and the trust level is palpable as they fall without hesitation into each others’ arms from great heights, supporting and strengthening each others’ routines.
One vignette features a stunning lighting effect; the stage and the performers are lit up with a yellow polka dot effect, creating an eerie edge to the acrobatic performance. This is so professional it’s easy to forget that many of the cast are performers in training.
A standout was the figure in the web-like harness who hung suspended in the air, supported by ten strings. They are cut through, one by one, by a slightly malevolent woman; the audience silent in delicious suspense as she cuts one after another until only one remains...
There is humour in the production; the hilarious pink string scene was a welcome relief from some of the more esoteric fare, and did raise the question, how long is a piece of string?!
Arna Eyers-White
When : 27 Feb and 6 Mar
Where: The Peacock @ Gluttony
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
★★★★★
Adelaide Fringe. The Arch, Holden Street Theatres. 20 Feb 2022
Peter Göers is performing the seventh in his “trilogy” of Fringe shows.
Oh, the audacity of this not-a-bit-new kid on the block.
He has ancient gags, antique anecdotes, and an almost fossilised audience.
And he is one of the great success stories of the Adelaide Fringe Festival.
It just works. It’s a treat. Love is in the air. Masks try but can’t defy the guffaws of laughter he elicits.
Göers is not alone in this show. He has his own a little company of performers with the beloved 19-Logies Anne “Willsy” Wills as something of a mirror-ball jewel in his crown. She comes out in a shimmer of giant spangles and does a gorgeous number as slick, coquettish, and seamless as the evergreen veteran she is. Applause. Applause.
The third member of the company is a new boy with timeless old talents. It is Joel Amos, a ballroom dancing GP. After Göers has spoken of dances and rejection, he does an extensive solo to The Tennessee Waltz by Patti Page .
With his arms outstretched to enfold an absent partner to whom he gazes adoringly, Amos twirls the stage. This unusual performance makes for a confection of sweet triste, a visual ode to the world’s wallflowers. Amos moves superbly, observing all the discipline of the trained ballroom dancer while also conveying a touching sense of the universality of loneliness. He brings the house down.
Meanwhile, Göers, the trusty raconteur, keeps the anecdotes and the gags flowing. Self-deprecatory, mischievous, satirical, gossipy... But there will be no content spoilers here. You have to be there. It is enough to say that Göers’ shows get better as the years roll on. Each show tops the last, like some miracle of epic showmanship. From a deep pool of showbiz lore and trivia, he has dredged a freshness of material, occasionally throwing in a tried-and-tested gag just because he loves it.
After the show, the three performers do a royal line-up to greet and thank individually every member of the audience. In itself, this is a charming old-school gesture and it sends its audience away smiling, walking frames and all.
Samela Harris
DISCLAIMER: This critic is friends with and works with Peter Göers and loves him to bits. However, she is as seasoned as a critic as he is as an entertainer and she swears that she would be the first one to blast him if he deserved it. In this case, he does not.
When: 20 Feb to 19 Mar
Where: The Arch, Holden Street Theatres
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
★★★★★
Adelaide Fringe. The Studio at Holden Street Theatres. 18 Feb 2022
Afghanistan is Not Funny is an outstanding piece of theatre written and performed by playwright Henry Naylor. In previous Fringe Festivals, Naylor has presented plays from his Arabian Nightmares series to critical acclaim, and this show is no exception.
Afghanistan is Not Funny is almost a return to Naylor’s roots – he started out as a stand-up comedian before becoming a serious and much lauded playwright. The text is beautifully written, as we have come to expect from him, with no word wasted. It is autobiographical and is about some authentic field research for a play he wrote for an Edinburgh Fringe festival in the early 2000s. It is about the war in Afghanistan, or more particularly about how it was being reported by the mainstream media. One wouldn’t have thought there was much comedy in this, but one can be mistaken!
Naylor’s research took him to the actual warzone, and the text recounts his time there, the events he witnessed, and his knack for getting himself into trouble. The things he witnessed gnawed at his guts and upset his equilibrium, but eventually resulted in a play and a screenplay that was of interest to no less than Hugh Grant!
Naylor brings a number of key elements to his play and performance: he is a skilled writer who keenly and incisively observes and reflects upon the human condition; he is a consummate storyteller; and he is a practised performer who knows how to wring every last emotional response from his audience. Crucially, he has a deep understanding of the fine line between comedy and tragedy. He is able to cross backwards and forwards between them with consummate ease, and his audience does not feel guilty at laughing at things that are downright sad. Indeed, Naylor gives permission for this to happen.
In typical Fringe fashion, Afghanistan is Not Funny is set on a bare stage with the barest minimum of properties, and other theatrical elements are also pared down. The blocking is a little clumsy at times and is a (very) minor distraction at times, but the absolute focus is upon a writer and his text. Everything else is extraneous.
Afghanistan is Not Funny is funny, at times, and always deeply moving. It is a triumph and not to be missed.
Kym Clayton
When: 18 Feb to 13 Mar
Where: Holden Street Theatres
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
★★★
Adelaide Fringe. The Studio at Holden Street Theatres. 18 Feb 2022
Meet Me At Dawn is an unsettling piece of theatre, on a range of levels.
Two women, Helen and Robin, are washed up on an unknown shore after having survived the sinking of their rented pleasure boat. They are understandably bordering on panic and irrationality, but they pull themselves together quickly and start looking after themselves and tending to basic needs, and they start working through how they might get rescued.
They are drenched, cold, scared, and they are alone, or are they? They soon discover there is another person nearby, but they are not sure who it is or whether they should approach her. Is it safe? Something doesn’t seem quite right.
Playwright Zannie Harris often gives both characters convoluted dialogue to explore their predicament, the state of the relationship, and what the future may hold for them. In some ways their discussions are almost academic because of their complexity and the existential topics they discuss. At times it stretches believability that two people in such a terrible predicament would converse in the way that they do. Arguably, Harris has overworked and overwritten the dialogue and given the two actors (Sarah Bos and Wendy Bos) an almost impossible task of bridging the gap between a sound storyline and engaging the audience in a theatrically positive way. About forty minutes into the performance there is a significant moment in the plot where a number of things become clear, but it should have been written in much sooner.
The production elements are pleasing. The cast come on stage absolutely drenched, and we feel their cold and discomfort. A nice touch by director Nescha Jelk. The soundscape by Sascha Budimski is ominous and does the job in convincing you that all as not as it seems. Mark Oakley’s lighting is evocative and punctuates the action well.
Kym Clayton
When: 18 to 27 Feb
Where: Holden Street Theatres
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au