★★★★
Adelaide Fringe. The Octagon, Gluttony. 22 Feb 2023
Described as a “dark fusion of contemporary dance, ballet, burlesque…” Mansion tells the story of a family recently bereaved, who move into a haunted house. Well, that’s the bare bones of it, anyway, but this is a performance with technical values far, far above most Fringe shows, and the performances are strong and powerful.
Things started off perhaps a little shakily as the storyline slid into the farcically obvious territory of vamps and ghouls and a central character, the widow Mel Walker (who could do a more than passable turn as Courtney Love should she so choose) beset by the ghost of her departed husband. So much I understand, and there is much I do not, partly because the pre-recorded narrator and the voiceovers were weak links, verging in places on the risible. The script and the recordings need reworking.
Ah, but the show! Mansion is a muscular and robust piece of work, timing at nearly an hour and a quarter, and really with not a minute wasted. The cast of a dozen or so push what is possible within the realm of dance theatre, incorporating elements of circus rope and swing work into a show which keeps the surprises coming.
The highlight for me is that most difficult to describe: A zombie acrobat suspended in a gibbet awash with ultraviolet lighting to a soundtrack of industrial grade reworking of the Rolling Stones number Paint It Black. A note; the costumes and make up and latex masks are top notch… as I mentioned, the production values are exemplary. The show and the performers are sexy, vampish, zombified, repellent and curiously compelling.
Mansion is powerfully interesting and contemporary in its appeal. Is it perfect? No. There is the problem with the pre-recorded narration (it has no gravitas and no presence) and the ending is one of the lamest and least appealing conclusions I have ever seen. The intoned ‘thank you for coming to our mansion’ is a massive letdown since the scene might have ended on a pulsating highpoint about three minutes earlier. And don’t sit in the front row of the stalls – for some reason that doesn’t become clear, a row of people are seated around the edge of the stage on benches, and their heads successfully block quite a bit of the floor action.
Nonetheless, if you going to one big top experience, this should be the one.
Alex Wheaton
When: 22 Feb to 12 Mar
Where: The Octagon, Gluttony
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
