Songs From The Middle. Adelaide Cabaret Festival. Dunstan Playhouse. 20 Jun 2015
Songs from the middle class, I think, although the kitchen in which Eddy pensively poses in the program pic is a bit posh compared to the middle class kitchen I grew up with. But we at least could afford to have food in the fridge and usually kept the door closed.
Eddy Perfect takes some time to explain that the reason for this show is that since he had a baby, the issue of where is home has arisen. He roared up the Nepean Highway a long time ago to the big smoke, so it was an interesting question. Eddy asked us, "Does anyone know where Mentone is?" but all regular patrons of the Art Gallery of South Australia would be familiar with Charles Conder's 1888 painting, A holiday at Mentone. And this song cycle show is his love letter home.
I've got to tell you, Songs From The Middle is the hit of my Cabaret Festival. Eddy looked sharp in his silver suit and hair fashionably sculpted by strong coastal winds or by running into a door. And he still hasn't lost those kilos he stacked on to play Shane Warne in his (he also wrote the book and lyrics) award-winning eponymous musical in 2008. Look, not important, OK?
Here's what's important. He's very cute. No, OK, OK. The music written by Eddie Perfect and celestially orchestrated by Iain Grandage are in such delicious foil with Eddy's ironic suburban-issued lyrics that I was absolutely delighted by every song, if I wasn't also laughing out loud, reminiscing about my own growing up, moved by stories of Mentone's memorial characters, or simply swept away by the aural beauty of it all. Grandage led musicians from the Australian National Academy of Music playing horns and strings, and a percussionist who had more arms than a Hindu god as she banged away on a seven metre long set-up of instruments.
Many of his songs start with banality and end with profundity. What seemed like a witty ditty about his sister working at Bunnings was really about how the local hardware store man was hung out to dry. Sinister examples of Susan, Mark, Galileo and Jesus liking it better the way it was are reflections on both memory and ambition. Tagging graffiti along the Frankston line is a cry for identity and meaning. The Ikea song was my favourite where the anticipation of relationship failure signaled by yet another hopeful nesting visit to the flat box shop with the new live-in is too much to bear. Or how about the aliens who land in Mentone and ask a kid, "What do we do?" The kid's list of small town activities is so attractive, the aliens hightail it.
And it's all delivered with a natural ease, sincerity, a winning smile, style and clarity. How could you not love the guy? And the music was magnificent! Bravo!
David Grybowski
When: 18 and 20 June
Where: Dunstan Playhouse
Bookings: Closed
