★★★★1/2

Adelaide Fringe. Holden Street Theatres, The Arch

 

Peter Goers is back doing the ninth of his trilogy of Fringe shows. 

It’s the same old shtick. Just different.

 

Goers has a lot of material - personal archives, showbiz archives, archive archives…

He’s a living diarist with perfect diction and that familiar gravelly voice.

His life is an open book - and, he announces, his retirement will deliver us more books in print form.

Not shy of giving the old plug, our Peter.

And he has another show on in the Fringe, right there in the sunken garden next door.

 

In his sleek yellow jacket and vivid orange sneakers, he’s a link chain of anecdotes.

He’s the “ham".

The Wills sisters, Anne and Susan, are the titular “pineapple".

They materialise in spectacular pineapple costumes for a bit of soft shoe pizzazz. 

They’re a hit.

Later, they return in black and silver bling for some nice old-school harmonies. Anne is razzle but Susan’s melodic lower registers shine forth. As for their comic patter. It’s so old it is new again.

 

The wonderful Robin Schmeltzkopf completes the variety lineup. Since there is a ham and pineapple pizza theme about the place, he sings the ultimate "pizza-pie" serenade. Oh, that voice.

But that is not all.  The show ticks in exactly on the hour but it also contains a big, long, sentimental monologue. Not from Peter Goers, but from Sandy Stone.

Goers has written this Humphries-esque piece as a tribute.  Sandy was ever the sweetest and most beloved of the Humphries stable.

Peter dons his Onkaparinga dressing gown, clutches his knit-covered hottie to his lap, and reflects a la Sandy on life in retirement. Unhurried, poignant, pure period Australiana.  It is a shamelessly sentimental journey into the charmed old world of Chester Squares and Jubilee cakes and bakelite smokers’ companions. Humphries might just tip his fedora. Nice work, Goers.

 

And, of course, every audience member had to be thanked personally at the venue exit, another piece of olde worlde theatre trad Goers insists must not die on his watch…and it is quite the lineup at the door.

Sadly, the years are thinning out his famously "pre-dead” audience. There are under-50s in the house.

Isn’t it lucky that Goers is still only 48!

 

Samela Harris

 

Disclaimer:  Samela Harris and Peter Goers are old colleagues and friends.

 

When: 17 Feb to 17 Mar

Where: Holden Street Theatres, The Arch

Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au