Sven Ratzke. A show with the music of David Bowie. Adelaide Cabaret Festival. Space Theatre. 22 Jun 2016
You'll have to skip reading this review and go straight to the box office; there were only 3 seats left as of Thursday morning for the remaining 3 shows, so get on your pogo stick.
In his return to the Adelaide Cabaret Festival, direct from Bendigo, Sven Ratzke is the eponymous Starman, the extra-terrestrial who was afraid to blow our minds in the David Bowie song. Starman opened with his band comprising bass guitar, drums and keyboard/effects in a startling outfit, looking like a black pitcher plant in ill-fitting tights. While all his costumes were exotic, they lacked the panache of Bowie's threads.
The Starman connected the Bowie songs with a wonderfully wandering and bizarre narrative; a peripatetic sojourn from earthly cities and distant stars. The songs and the prose had a distinctly celestial theme and Ratzke's nuclear-fueled rocket energy took us amongst the spheres. Ratzke and his musical director Charly Zastrau shone Bowie through a particular type of jazzy prism, where the familiar melodies mixed with fascinating arrangements. After the round of applause following a nostalgic number, the Starman temporarily transformed into an appreciative Sven the showman, which was very sweet. Sven harked back to his Dutch/German base with amusing mimicry. The Starman is a wonderful invention from a Bowie song and a touching homage to the great man.
P.S. In August, Sven is doing an incredible 27 shows at the Edinburgh Festival, so get in your spaceship and blast off with Starman.
David Grybowski
When: 22 to 25 June
Where: Space Theatre
Bookings: adelaidecabaretfestival.com.au
