★★★
Adelaide Fringe. The Spiegeltent. 7 Mar 2020
The War of Words between Andrew Barton ‘Banjo’ Patterson and Henry Archibald Hertzberg Lawson is infamous in Australian literary history. In 1892, through the pages of The Bulletin, they engaged in an extremely lively City versus Country poetic debate, and in this show the protagonists look back at the men they were then, and acknowledge a grudging respect for each other’s work.
The two men are catching up a century or so later, at the Leviticus Bar & Grill at Heaven’s Gate. Lawson is late (as per usual, apparently), and immediately the differences between the grammar school educated law clerk and journalist, Paterson and the republican socialist, Lawson were apparent.
Warren Fahey and Max Cullen have been touring Dead Men Talking since 2014 and have these characters down pat, while the characterisations are a little exaggerated, they work in this context. The relatively unscripted nature of the show sometimes leaves a gap, but they move smoothly on, familiar with all the works they need to mention.
Both give potted histories of their lives, and while Paterson refers early to Waltzing Matilda, he doesn’t recite the iconic poem until the end, and even then it’s an unfamiliar mixture of what sounded like English and pidgin, although it’s described as Aboriginal (much like Frying Pan’s Theology).
Lawson makes no bones about his alcoholism and mental health issues, and even if he wanted to downplay this aspect of his life, Paterson makes clear that this needs to be faced as part of his legacy.
The repartee is not as entertaining as one might have expected; two such remarkable wordsmiths should have had a more interesting and stimulating wordplay rather than the ‘dad’ jokes and puns that featured, but perhaps they preferred to let the poems and songs themselves do the talking. Fahey has a fair singing voice and sang/recited some crowd favourites (The Man from Ironbark, A Bushman’s Song), while Cullen’s recital of Faces in the Street was a highlight. Paterson’s response to Lawson In Defence of the Bush seems to have the effect of making Lawson’s original works stronger.
For those who have never read the works of these two remarkable writers, or who just know the very familiar poems, this production will introduce, in a very gentle way, some of the works of two of Australia’s most revered writers.
Arna Eyers-White
When: 7 Mark
Where: The Spiegeltent
Bookings: Closed
★★★1/2
Adelaide Fringe. Madness of Two. Rumpus. 8 Mar 2020
It’s the Fringe and anything goes. Including artful lunacy.
So we have five talented actors, a mass of greasepaint, and a ukulele or two. What to do, they ask the audience as they cling to each other in a display of faux daunted ham. They throw up absurd ideas, and a banana.
And off they go trying out themes based on death and murder and, well, it is quite a busy blur. It is not the clown school of Commedia or Le Coq exactly, albeit costumes do give a nod to Harlequin and Pierrot. And there’s some classic shtick with songs, tumbling, and bumbling, some of it very funny indeed. There are some good lines and, most especially, with thanks to the clown called Wah, AKA James Hornsby, some really wonderful songs. He is quite a talent and, in this show by the new company he co-runs with Ellen Graham, he creates a beautiful, gentle clown character, large and slow, quiet and shy. Graham is his antithesis, hyperactive and athletic. She is a lithe physical-theatre exponent and very funny when needs be. Also noisy. But not as strident as the other two female clowns, Britney AKA Jasmin McWatters and Linda, AKA Zola Allen. Their high-octave girlie screaming and squealing is just too, too much and too often for this critic’s aural endurance. Like Holden Street when presenting the rock opera Ragnarokkr, Rumpus should issue ear plugs at the door. Director, Hew Param, please take note. Screaming is not inherent to clowning or, indeed, to any good theatre. This zany show has potential on too many levels to sink it with squeals.
There is yet Arran Beattie as clown Roger to mention. He can be shrill with the worst of them, but he also can ham it up fearlessly. His voice and comic presence are terrific. Indeed, there is so much that is good-spirited and original and zany in this clownish concoction that it makes a madcap contrast to a lot of the earnestly arty theatre around the Fringe. Then again, this little confection is not beer and skittles. Its slapstick silliness is underscored by some wickedly effective satire. The Under the Rug song is a standout commentary on political evasiveness and Don’t Worry is another song with revue-style substance. Behind the ga-ga-girlie shrills of this production lies a seam of seriously good creative artistry. Let us look out for what else the Madness of Two may do.
Samela Harris
When: 8 to 15 Mar
Where: Rumpus
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
Adelaide Festival. Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. Festival Theatre. 7 Mar 2020.
This year marks the 250th birthday of Ludwig van Beethoven, and around the world there are more events commemorating this than you can shake a stick at! At this year’s Adelaide Festival we have enjoyed the Lyon Opera Ballet’s Trois Grandes Fugues, which celebrated Beethoven’s Grosse Fugue Op. 133, and several of his string quartets, and throughout this year the Adelaide Symphony orchestra will perform all his symphonies and his violin concerto.
It is manifestly obvious that Beethoven is, and will likely continue to be one of humankind’s most loved composers, and almost everyone surely knows that the great man was tormented with chronic deafness. What is perhaps not as well known is that his affliction nearly pushed him to the precipice of wanting to end his own life. Beethoven wrote to his brothers about his turmoil in a heart wrenching letter that is now referred to as the Heiligenstadt Testament.
So, in this special commemorative year it is fitting this especially painful time in Beethoven’s life is explored so that we can appreciate the man’s musical genius all the more. The Sound of History does just that, and presents music composed by Beethoven before and after Heiligenstadt, and also presents a modern composition that is a musical interpretation of Beethoven’s pain.
Performed by Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, the program comprises extracts from Beethoven’s Septet in E flat, Op.20, the Piano Concerto No.1 in C, Op.15, Symphony No.1 in C, Op.21, and Symphony No.2 in D, Op.36. These excerpts are accompanied by short contextual explanations delivered by Professor Christopher Clark from the University of Cambridge. This part of the program is intensely interesting, and exposes a number of myths surrounding Beethoven’s deafness. Clark is erudite, and his material is factual, interesting and to the point. However, the event feels too much like a lecture – replete with giant slide projections on a screen hanging behind the orchestra – and the musical extracts become more of a ‘tease’. Such feelings are pushed aside when the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra performs Brett Dean’s Testament: Music for Orchestra, which is a musical response to the turmoil Beethoven must have been in as his hearing increasingly became worse.
Throughout the evening the projection screen also captures live images of sections of the orchestra as they play. This adds an extra dimension to the whole concert experience.
Dean’s Testament is a remarkable composition. It attempts to create in sound what Beethoven must have heard as his hearing failed. It plumbs the depths of emotion to express the despair felt by the man. Dean himself was to have conducted the concert but he is a recent COVID19 victim and is currently under medical isolation in hospital. A nice touch was to project a video message from him thanking Richard Mills AM who stepped in at the eleventh hour to ‘rescue’ the entire concert.
Mills demonstrates his undoubted class with his leading of the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra in a ‘safe’ reading of Beethoven’s Symphony No.3 in E flat, Op.55 ‘Eroica’. Mills and the orchestra take the mighty Eroica at a measured pace with the dynamics carefully planned from beginning to end: the strength of the opening chord; the potency of the funeral march; the energy of the scherzo; and the sheer might of the finale; all are in balance. One is never surprised – it is as we expect – and the result sends the audience home confirmed in their belief that Beethoven was, is, and will always be one of the greatest.
Kym Clayton
When: 7 Mar
Where: Festival Theatre
Bookings: Closed
Adelaide Festival. Lyon Opera Ballet. Festival Theatre. 7 Mar 2020.
Trois Grandes Fugues is a compelling dance experience.
One of the most divisive pieces of music ever composed (at least by a classical composer) is set to dance, three times. The dances are performed by members of the Lyon Opera Ballet and are styled by three different choreographers (Maguey Marin, Anne Teresa da Keersmaeker, and Lucinda Childs) who are all internationally acclaimed.
The music is Beethoven’s Große Fuge (or Grosse Fugue or Great Fugue). It was originally the fourth movement from his String Quartet No.13 in B flat, Op. 130, but he was persuaded to substitute it for something that would be more acceptable to the public, and the Grosse Fugue was subsequently published separately as his Opus 133.
Beethoven composed the Grosse Fugue late in his life, when he was completely deaf. In its day it was variously described as “incomprehensible”, a “babel”, and generally unplayable. It has received similar reviews even in relatively modern times. Beethoven agreed to excise it from his Op.130 through fear of box office failure, at a time when his financial circumstances were dire (which they often were).
However, the Grosse Fugue it has also been given high praise, and Stravinsky stated that it would remain forever contemporary. Even to a modern ear, the Grosse Fugue is a challenging composition. On a first hearing, it often polarises the opinions of the listener: it is either liked, or loathed (at least initially). It is strident, and at times atonal. It has complex and ever jarring rhythms that are forever changing. Individual instrumental parts are not easy to play and it is technically demanding to navigate and interpret as an ensemble.
The Lyon Opera Ballet set each iteration of the dance to a different recording of the Grosse Fuge, and they are all very different. Unlike Keersmaeker and Marin, the recording chosen by Childs is performed by a larger orchestral ensemble rather than by a strict quartet, and is therefore aurally more dense. For this reason, the Childs interpretation, at least for this reviewer, is not as effective as the other two in foregrounding the texture of the music. By contrast, Marin’s interpretation uses only four dancers and, for the most part, each follows the rhythmic and contour lines of one of the four instruments of the quartet. Indeed, it is fascinating to visualise each dancer as an instrument and to contemplate how they interact
Keersmaeker’s interpretation is most likely the audience favourite. A significant element of the choreography is ‘fall and recover’, with each recovery exploding into something different – turns, leaps, solos, duets – all of which heightens one’s appreciation of the music. Marin’s approach is also more contemporary than that of Childs, who takes a more ‘classical’ approach.
The fascination of this event is that the dance allows the music to become more accessible. One finds much more in the music by seeing it performed by dancers rather than by only hearing it performed by musicians. That might be said of any ballet, but in this case the Grosse Fugue is altogether quite a different musical beast.
The Adelaide Festival has presented us with a masterpiece.
Kym Clayton
When: 7 Mar
Where: Festival Theatre
Bookings: Closed
★★★
Adelaide Fringe. Mark Trenwith. The Factory, Garden Of Unearthly Delights. 8 Mar 2020
Let’s face it; the kids, age four to nine were hanging out to see this one. And a show called Mr Snotbottom was right up their alley. I have no issue with a performance involving bum jokes, fart jokes and a song about dog poo, but I am struggling to find three reasons to like it, therefore struggling to justify three stars.
Firstly, the volume during the introduction was just too loud for kids, and the sound dynamics pretty bad. Too much middle frequency and bad headset mics, so several kids near too me were shielding their ears. Can the crew not see this?
Secondly, both the scripting and the performances were very ho-hum, and not particularly thoughtful as to their intended audience. When we eventually got to a section about breaching Occupational Health & Safety conditions (!!!) the following line was delivered: “This goes completely against protocol. Do you understand that?”
The kids did not.
Thirdly, is the show about Mr Snotbottom or his technical crew sidekick Anthony? At first the children get to focus on one character alone; Mr Snotbottom getting dressed, attempting to put on his tie and being face-slapped for his troubles, and clearing out the noxious red underpants. The kids loved it.
But when things get to OHS and there are numerous bad ‘beginnings’ for the show, all three kids became confused and their attention wandered. A faux spaghetti western with no band and no Ed Sheeran attempts to put matters to rights, as does the song about dog poo, but by this stage it’s clear this is a show which oversells in all aspects.
It isn’t horrible.
It isn’t terrible.
It isn’t really, really bad.
It is, as my parents used to say, ‘barely bloody adequate’.
And so the conclusion is predictable and in no way edifying for the kids in the audience who missed the feel good potential of the point entirely: “The world is like a big bag of jellybeans”. Leave the brown ones until last.
Alex Wheaton
Where: The Factory, Garden Of Unearthly Delights
When: until Sun 15 March
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au