RCC Fringe. RCC Fringe – The Attic. 27 Feb 2019
One’s first task is to find The Attic! It’s actually the old UniBar on the 6th floor of Union House. Inside, the crowd’s anticipation is palpable. Perhaps you have seen the famous photo of Pussy Riot mounting the Lobnoye Mesto of Red Square in Moscow, waving a banner, wearing balaclavas and shaking their fists angrily at the post-Soviet oligarchic system? If not, it’s in the RCC program.
The Russian Orthodox Church expressly supported Putin in his emperor-like bid for an unprecedented third term in the 2012 presidential election. And the pussies rioted. The “iconic Russian feminist punk rock performance art collective” smuggled a guitar and amp into a church and danced furiously. Thrown out rather banally, they thought that was the end of it. But three of the five revolutionaries were later arrested, convicted of “organized hooliganism” and two were sent off to Gulag-like imprisonment. One of the jailbirds, Maria Alyokhina, wrote an account of the experience – Riot Days - and this show – lead by Maria - is a musical and visual interpretation of the events of the book.
At the beginning of the show, the Russian producer explains that there is no musical entity called Pussy Riot as such, but that for the first time, four key members of the “iconic Russian feminist punk rock performance art collective” will be playing together on stage. This is history in the making! They are accompanied by a couple of menfolk.
Even if you are not bowled over by the hard-driving, deep bass throb of post-punk apocalyptic thumping by a bunch of emos, one must appreciate what these brave women have done. They took on one of the most powerful authoritarian governments in the world because they were mad as hell and weren’t going to take it any more, and are definitely unbowed by the business.
The music is chaotic and raw. A narrative is shouted in spoken Russian and English surtitles overprint the still and moving image media which is, unfortunately, a little difficult to see in The Attic, and a shame, because it is the heart of the matter. The material is graphic and a terrific insight into the Russian justice system, such as it is. The show is tetchy, edgy, dangerous and unpredictable – things could spiral out of control.
While not accomplished art, it is compelling performance work, and exciting. A unique insight into the events of those dangerous days. The stuff Fringe is made of. Bravo!
David Grybowski
4 Stars
When: 27 Feb to 3 Mar
Where: RCC Fringe – The Attic
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
Adelaide Fringe. Empire Theatre at Gluttony. 27 Feb 2019
Beautifully balanced in killer heels, poured into skinny pants that show all his curves, and sporting a gorgeous emblazoned haute couture diaphanous jacket, Justin Clausen looks the classy diva and for an hour he belts out famous songs made famous by fabulous divas! He’s every woman who matters!
Accompanied by Jamie Burgess on electric piano, the pair perform songs by Tina Turner, Tina Arena, Olivia Newton John, Celine Dion, Whitney Houston and Cher to name a few. Burgess capably supports Clausen, including contributing to the humorous patter in between songs but which doesn’t always hit the mark.
The show begins tentatively but hit its straps with an excellent rendition of I Know Him So Well from the musical Chess that was made famous by two more divas – Elaine Paige and Barbara Dickson – in 1985.
Burgess and Clausen know how to whip the audience into shape, and soon have everyone clapping hands (and in time!) throughout I’m Every Woman made famous by Whitney Houston in the 1978 film The Bodyguard.
Although the show is a cabaret act, there is a serious moment as well. Clausen bares his soul and explains how he reacted to his mother abandoning him and his family when he was a boy. He explains how he went from being a happy kid who loved to sing songs with his mum – both trying to emulate divas – to having to find his own way as a solo act. It’s a touching moment and Clausen uses the story as an introduction to Tracy Chapman’s Sorry, but it felt a little contrived and it had the effect of dampening the energy of the show, especially at a time when both performers are riding on a high.
But the audience is sent out on a happy note, and Clausen’s impersonation of Cher is worth the price of admission by itself.
The show needs a little tightening, but it’s a good fun, feel good show.
Kym Clayton
When: 27 Feb to 3 Mar
Where: Empire Theatre at Gluttony
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
Adelaide Fringe. Compagnia Baccalà. Ukiyo at Gluttony. 24 Feb 2019
Let us begin how we intend to finish. Do not miss this show! This is true fringe fare. A rare and wonderful opportunity to witness some of the world’s best clowning and acrobatics. It simply cannot be emphasised strongly enough.
The delightful pairing of Simone Fassari (him) and Camilla Pessi (her) is exhilarating to watch. One is transfixed by their performance genius that, through facial and physical manipulation, has us enthralled and hanging off their every gesture. We are putty in the palm of their hands.
Worthy winners of over a dozen awards, Fassari and Pessi combine skills which would have the great Chaplin himself in awe. Step aside Rowan Atkinson and Frank Woodley, these aerialists take clowning to the next level.
Fassari and Pessi can command the attention of their audience with a mere apple and nothing more. They fill 20 minutes of spectacularly hilarious clowning with only a ladder as their prop. And when they take to the trapeze, one dare not breathe, but for the uncontrollable laughter.
The standing ovation and rapturous applause at the show’s conclusion echoes the opening statement. Do no miss this show. There are six performances remaining. 26 to 28 February, and 1 to 3 March.
Paul Rodda
5 Stars
When: 24 Feb to 3 Mar
Where: Ukiyo at Gluttony
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
Adelaide Fringe. Ukiyo at Gluttony. 23 Feb 2019
Jason Chasland is a force of nature in his one-man cabaret show Leather Lungs: Son of a Preacher.
In an exhausting one hour, he shocks, amazes, titillates, and affronts as he sings, gyrates and postures his way through a song list drawn from diverse divas such as Aretha Franklin and Tina Turner. John Farnham’s iconic anthem You’re The Voice is also given the Chasland ‘treatment’ and the audience joined in and couldn’t get enough.
At the very heart of the Chasland treatment is his amazing voice, which spans four octaves and some. He is as comfortable belting out an operatic soprano line (without any hint of falsetto, that God!) as he is in delivering an entirely intelligible basso profundo growl. This guy’s voice is gob-smackingly amazing and his ‘wow’ factor is worn all over the jaw-dropped mouths of his deliriously enthusiastic audience. Everything that Chasland sings demonstrates another aspect of his versatile voice. He sucks you into his world and makes you his personal play thing, and the audience loved being played with. Putty in his hands.
Without any diminishment, his outstanding vocal control allows him to sing whilst standing, sitting, prostrate or even upside down! However, the over-amplification in the small tent-venue often makes it difficult to hear him with clarity. This doesn’t matter so much in the songs, but his deliciously irreverent and bawdy patter is sometimes not entirely clear.
Chasland is another gender-fluid artist – there are a number in this Fringe – but his extravagant high-camp costumes and spiky stilettos make it abundantly obvious that he is bloke, if you get my drift. And in all this high-campery lies an important message in the show: you are what you are, and it’s OK to be different, and boys should be raised to not supress their sensitive side, and girls should not be discouraged from becoming ‘fierce warriors’. So, although Chasland parodies gender and sexuality, by doing so he draws attention to the sometimes (often?) ‘uncomfortable’ lives that gender-fluid individuals need to endure. This message is tossed out to the audience with passion and in less than sixty seconds, but it garners a huge affirmative response, including from some youths who try and fight off their mothers who are trying to shield them from some of the more spicy and confronting goings-on on stage!
Chasland’s lungs are probably leathery – they really get a work-out – but they are an amazing instrument belonging to a performer with an expansive and generous heart.
Highly recommended, but leave your kids at home!
Kym Clayton
When: 23 Feb to 3 Mar
Where: Ukiyo at Gluttony
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
Adelaide Fringe. Lewis Major Productions. The Odeon, Norwood. 23 Feb 2019
Simplicity blended with careful, gracious meditative silences.
That’s the quality of richness this engaging, calm, yet pulsating collection of nine contemporary dance pieces, sprung of myriad inspirations, offers.
The tone of the evening’s collected works is gently set in an overture, The Law of Least Effort (Tension). Carlie Angel sits in lotus position, in calm head bowed meditation, above her hangs suspended by rope-net a very large boulder.
There is peace in the moment, as the audience silently contemplates tension between the boulder and an at peace human. There is no urge for something to ‘happen’, because in the still silence, something is ‘happening’. Peace is being wonderfully expressed on stage, one can feel it being shared in the audience.
Talitha Maslin’s Mini Oper.1 gains its power from what is omitted, much as what is included in her passionate, raw and concise exploration of the idealistic, crushing standards of classical ballet and opera.
Maslin dances ragged excerpts from classics such as Swan Lake in a black dress with strategically placed cuts, sans pointe shoes, and in pained duress. It does much to deconstruct the classical style beauty myth. No gliding princess here. Just raw bare, stressed feet working overtime.
Here is a desperate pretty trying to live up to the song bird diva princess standard, and being crushed by reality in the attempt. A microphone stand with no microphone and sound leads disconnected on the floor adds further pressure to ‘be big’, all supported by Dane Yates’ equally classical/strident sound score.
Samuel Harnett Welk’s G I R L K I N G (pt. 1), performed in silence in red wash lighting, offers a dancer of extraordinary charismatic stage presence and an intensely expressive, controlled physical aesthetic of immense power and gracious athleticism.
Welk’s series of phrases, expressing a long number of subjects, is richly suggestive; not prescriptive. His choreography is so utterly mesmerising in its taut, unhurried shift from moment to moment, it matters not the ‘meaning’ or ‘subject’.
Here is play on an audience’s subconscious at its most effective.
Natalie Allen’s Climacteric is an intense expression of a ‘critical moment’. Birth/Death. Her repeated phrases of rise and decline are strong and clear with great impact, softened wondrously by a phrase in which she walks, hands up stretched, slowly releasing a steady trail of very small white balls.
Lewis Major’s choreography for The Australian Dance Theatre Youth Ensemble’s Two Pieces (excerpts) proves perfect material for the 15 member ensemble to offer a strong, engaging performance of contemporary moves in precision ensemble dance. Using chairs and mixed formations, it challenges them to deliver what they have within them with the fullest of their expressive capability.
Choreographer Pascal Marty and dancer Carlie Angel’s The Law of Karma (Day 1) plays with a physical expression of ‘karma’ using a whip.
It’s an audacious and, literally, cutting work. Smooth, powerful, fearless and dominating all at once.
While Angel may control the whip in motion, the whip’s innately dangerous ‘nature’ sets the boundaries of use, sets consequences for a wrong turn of wrist or body as the whip flies in glorious whirls, cutting snaps and sharp whispers in the air.
It is beautiful to watch. It’s also worrying as Angel’s circular relationship of interplay with the whip moves from being at one with it, to working warily against its capacity to strike like a viper.
Thomas Bradley’s 229 AVE VAN VOLXEM is a powerfully dark, baroque style work, brilliantly lit by Nic Mollison.
Bradley offers a strikingly dark, ghost-like street-lost person, deranged on a sidewalk, seeking something unknown.
The piece is very obviously exploring a deep, disturbed, questing, mental and emotional interior, effectively cued by Mollison’s stark side lighting which creates an eerie otherworldly setting; a table with chair set on top of it.
Bradley’s choreography is magnificent in its considered, deft, edginess as his character explores, seeks around the table, the chair and now unbound of his seemingly ordinary coat and trousers is even more a figure of an inner imagination than ever.
An intense, gripping finale to a genuine, only-at-the-Fringe evening.
David O’Brien
5 stars
When: 23 and 24 Feb
Where: The Odeon, Norwood
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au