By Peter Maddern
One can experience very different emotions watching Adelaide’s own Hans, or as he would have it, the German boy making good in his adopted homeland. The show is glitzy, the banter at time sharp and never is there a moment for pausing – it’s a 60 minute smiling, singing, splash around on a long stage. If that is all you are after, then a Han’s hour might just be the way to kick your Fringe evening off – for many it would seem at Thursday’s modest turnout it was.
On the other hand, Matt Gilbertson’s whole character / alter ego is devoid of sense and originality. His own PR says he’s from Berlin “bringing a touch of Bavaria” but Berlin isn’t in Bavaria. As my accompanying German friend confirmed his German is worse than mine; he presents as a guy dressed in drag doing Dame Edna (who doesn’t present that way) lines we have all heard before. He can’t much sing and despite attempting to display an array of talents – from swinging through the air (what was that all about?) to playing the piano one thing is for sure that beyond stomping up and down he can’t dance.
It’s splashy and trashy and given the years he has been around the opportunity to define a character as a comic voice of Adelaide it seems has been foregone either for want of ambition and talent or due to the constraining influence of his maker’s other media responsibilities around town. Either way Hans sits nowhere much.
In a Fringe where there are 1200 other options and at up to $38 a seat, God knows why one would buy a ticket to Hans but under our scale of ‘if it’s okay to go to if nothing else was on’ I am obliged to give it 3 Ks. As for his invitation to leave if you don’t love him, you may well find yourself sorely tempted.
Kryztoff Rating 3K
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