Mar 04

FRINGE 2017 – #FirstWorldWhiteGirls: Botox Party – The Parlour – 5K

There are so many problems in the world, this problem includes which show to watch for the Adelaide Fringe. Well, this one is something worth checking out. Tiffany is back again with her real problems but now it seems age and her narcissism have caught up.

#FirstWorldWhiteGirls: Botox Party is a satirical show that provides a series of silly songs, sparkles, shimmer and familiar sentiments.

Tiffany is back, not only with her dreadful dilemmas but also with an awkward “cashed up” #BFF, Madison. Madison has a wonderful stage presence as Tiffany and gives a good balance between the two. Madison can almost match Tiffany’s sensational singing, but surely her singing is still fantastic. The tandem works very well, and it’s funnier because it can be seen amongst first world white girls have similar stories.

There are a lot of topics touched upon that is relevant to current events and the latest trends, especially in the First World. It is helpful to be in a light, joyful mood as the comments can be sensitive, especially if you decide to wear your ‘politically correct’ hat on.

There was never a dull moment, as skits and songs are heartily humorous. Truly a therapy on trying to get over the obstacles of the problems of the First World. Even surprises from support acts, and an interactive segment that still intertwines to the whole theme. Also a sneak peek on Tiffany’s ‘upcoming album’ and an impressive medley. The lights give a wonderful effect throughout the performance and is exceptionally executed.

A notch up from the previous shows, when you thought it couldn’t get better… the problems just become heavier. Sometimes it’s good to laugh at your problems, but the laughter from the #FirstWorldWhiteGirls’ problems are lit.

 

Mar 03

FRINGE 2017 – Adventure Rooms: Gaol Break – 4K

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This is the second escape room that I’ve done at this year’s Fringe, so it’s hard to say much about Gaol Break without giving too much away or repeating myself from the previous session I did at Adelaide’s other escape room venue, Escape Hunt.

Instead, I’ll just say that if you’re looking for an awesome time out with your friends, family, or colleagues, then book yourself a session at Gaol Break. It’s fun, engaging, and challenging, and you’re guaranteed to have a great time. Gaol Break is probably best for kids 12 and older, but teens will definitely enjoy it, and there are a mixture of mathematical, word-based, and physical tasks that will keep everyone entertained.

Without giving too much away, here are a few tips and tricks:

– Be sure to communicate with one another – there is no way you will escape if you can’t work together;

– Don’t get too cocky after the first section of the escape room – it only gets harder and harder as you go on;

– Things are often simpler than you think they are;

– Sometimes you just need to take a step back and look at things from a different perspective;

– Try not to waste time on the first parts of the room – you will need it for the final part.

Give Gaol Break a go if you’re interested in something that will challenge and entertain you this Fringe.

Kryztoff rating: 4K

Mar 02

FRINGE 2017 – Baby Got Back – Spiegel Zelt at Gluttony – 4K

Like its stars, this show delivers exactly what it promises in the blurb, and then some – flesh, profanity, hilarity, sex and nudity. Lots and lots of nudity.

Led by hilarious MC Memphis Mae, who enlisted the help of the audience to “make her ass famous”, the all-girl troupe took us on a celebration of all things debaucherous and sexy, ranging from traditional striptease to butt-art (it has to be seen to be understood) and some quite strange acts in between.

Best taken tongue in cheek (or wherever else the ladies on stage might suggest you put it), the show is at times truly hilarious, as well as downright titillating. Occasionally somewhat disjointed, “Baby Got Back” is nonetheless a very entertaining way to spend a late hour exploring the Adelaide Fringe.

This show is definitely not for the prudish, easily offended, or the faint-hearted. You have been warned. But if out there, crude, and sexy floats your boat, this may just be the late night show for you. Probably don’t go with your parents or somebody you’ve only just met, though.

Oh, and you will never look at a donut or a balloon the same way again. Trust me on this.

4K

Mar 02

FRINGE 2017 -LACONIC : A SHORT FILM FESTIVAL – KOFFEE INK – 4K

Laconic : A Short Film Festival featuring film and animation by emerging South Australian film makers.

Presented in the intimate setting of Koffee Ink Cafe at Adelaide Oval where sofas, tables and chairs were arranged in front of a large tv screen normally used as background tv and live footage of sports events happening at the oval, it was good to see the space being used in a different way and it worked well.

Seven short films including 3 animations were shown over 75mins. The sound quality was very good although I found the noise of the airconditioner  occasionally distracting during quieter moments.  Other noise was avoided by the cafe only serving refreshments  during a 10 minute intermission once the showing had begun and being closed to the public for the duration of the ticketed event.  Koffee Ink is a licensed cafe with good coffee and a range of food.  The crowd on opening night was small ; perhaps partly due to the weather.

The films were quite varied.  The 4th film shown (whose title I unfortunately missed) was very well received, a comedy about online dating with a clever twist in the tale.  With the exception of one film from Vancouver, all the films were South Australian. The final film was a gentle and charming animation : Greta Bradman – My Hero with music and song from Oscar Straus’ Chocolate Soldier.

Arrive early to get a front row seat on the comfy couch.  There are a range of films to be shown throughout the season and the content will vary from night to night.  The remaining opportunities for viewing are on March 7th & 8th at 7:30pm.  For anyone interested in short film format this is a good opportunity to see the directions in which talented local artists are taking it.

Mar 02

FRINGE 2017: THEATRE – Ophelia’s Shadow – The Bakehouse – 2.5K

Ophelia’s Shadow, is one of several abridged, adapted and modernised versions of Shakespeare’s plays that are on offer this Fringe. This particular show focuses on the character of Ophelia in Hamlet, with lashings of 90s garage rock, plenty of black clothes, and grungy dancing. It aims to use the character of Ophelia to explore the continued societal demands on, and attempted patriarchical control of, women in today’s society, with mixed levels of success. If you are unfamiliar with the original text, both the plot and any meaning within the adaptation may be equally difficult to discern.

While promoted as a feminist rock-musical, the majority of the show is still made up of the original Shakespearean text. When songs do feature, they are most often as background accompaniment, rather than actual segments of the play being performed by the characters therein. A notable exception to this is when Hamlet (Luke Middlebrook) performs his “to be or not to be” speech, bouncing around the stage like a bad Peter Garrett impersonator. Even setting aside the odd choice to include this speech in a show purporting to focus on Ophelia, the mangling of this famous and emotionally impactful soliloquy into an irreverent and often gratingly monotone “song”, which gives no credence to the rhythms inherent in the original poetry, is primarily just painful.

There are elements of the show which demonstrate promise. Miriam Slater is grounded and capable as Ophelia, with a good grasp of the meaning and feeling behind the lines being spoken, a pleasant singing voice (the contrasting folk ballad near the end of the show being the musical highlight) and excellent physicality. As Ophelia descends into madness via the medium of interpretive dance, we get to see an emotional connectivity sadly lacking in a lot of the other parts of the show.

As the lead singer of the band, Frances McNair has a strong voice, appropriate to the style of music, seething with a good blend of anger and power. However, when she sings into the microphone, it is held so close to her mouth that the words become jumbled and it’s well-nigh impossible to discern which lines of the play have been adapted. The segments where she sings unaided show that her natural voice easily carries throughout the venue and the amplification is unnecessary; some attention could actually be given to reducing her volume in the group pieces as it does have a tendency to overpower everyone else – even those singing the melodies. Unfortunately these group harmonies also suffer from continual discordance and more attention could be given to rehearsing these pieces.

While this production is unlikely to have wide appeal, and is certainly not the vehicle for anyone unfamiliar with Shakespeare to cut their teeth in that area, it is not without merit. New explorations of Shakespeare’s plays always provide the opportunity to extract something new from the text and, if nothing else, this piece is likely to get audiences discussing what they’ve just witnessed.

Kryztoff rating: 2.5K

 

Mar 02

FRINGE FILM AND DIGITAL / MUSIC – THE FAR PARADISE – 5K

by Riccardo Barone 

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“The far paradise” is an 1928 Australia silent film directed by Paulette McDonagh, successful performance at the box office when it was on. Yes, the attendance was extragood. But not today, in the 2017. What a pity! Why so disinterested today in what we used to be? Because it is not fashion? Art will never die just because other Artists spread it out and care about the past as foundations for the future. Silent movies are not only a huge part of what-we-were but an important witnessing of how we used to feel emotions, because involves more senses of what’s involved today. For at least an hour and a half the audience had to listen to what is used to supply the mute screen: music! So we could say in the past people were more keen to sit and listen without distractions, more focused, more interested. Impossible requirements and too many “demands” nowadays, isn’t it?

The music played for the silent cinema was so important as the movie itself because it had the responsibility to tell a story, to descript a movement, to characterise a person, to let the audience deeply understand and feel exactly (or partially, depending on the ability of the Performer/Composer) what the movie’s director wants to express.

The Fiddle Chicks move across the time with their amazing performance. Such a beautiful, complicated and exhausting amount of work there is behind their show! They perfectly reincarnate the Composer’s figure of the last century, who marvelously marries the image with the sound in a continuous storytelling. And it’s even more difficult when it has to be done with two violins! So no use of low registers, but in return what’s more expressive of a bowed, fretted instrument such as a string instrument? The violin  is definitely one of the best ways to capture the the moving images on the screen and let them vibrating in the surrounding space.
Hundreds years of composition tradition is still living through The Fiddle Chicks.

Kryztoff Rating  5K

Mar 02

FRINGE 2017 – SOUND & FURY’S “SHERLOCK HOLMES” – TANDANYA ARTS CAFE – 4.5K

Sound and Fury members Maritzer, Hercamp and Aussie Adamczak calmly stood in front of their audience at the Tandanya Arts Cafe, waiting for late-comers, assuring each audience member that “this isn’t a part of the show”. Yet it was! Cracking jokes, improvising and remaining confident at what would usually be an awkward time in a performance; the three men immediately made the audience feel welcome as they prepared all for what was to come. Once the show was underway they started heckling the only reviewer in the audience (me) later stating “Oh man, I hope he’s not the reviewer”, honestly, a great way to start the show!

Improv is an incredible art form and it’s incredibly commendable when an actor is so strong with improvisation that the audience can’t tell what is scripted and what is not. That’s the beauty of this piece. Maritzer, Hercamp and Adamczak bounce off one another so well that even if there were mistakes, vert few would be recognisable. However, throughout the show there seemed to be a constant struggle with technical execution. The lighting and sound operator lacked in timing. At first it seemed deliberate and got a few laughs but, it slowly got more and more irritating as an audience member. Albeit frustrating, the actors again were heroic in the way they dealt with these issues and in the end it added to the show.

This performance was a well rehearsed mess, in the best possible way. Constant references to Adelaide and it’s surrounding areas making the audience feel all bubbly about their hometown was the best way for these three to make a connection, and they did it perfectly! ‘Throw away’ remarks and on-stage conversation worked really well and didn’t take away from the confusing yet, well thought out ‘plot-line’.

It’s hard to critique a performance where very very little was unenjoyable. Great acting, great performers and great down to earth guys off stage too. A must see.

 

Kryztoff Rating: 4.5K

Mar 02

FRINGE 2017: YouTunes – The Pocket – Stirling Fringe – 5K

By Tom Eckert

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On a pleasant hills summer evening you are treated to a venue that wouldn’t be out of place in a Brooklyn basement. All dark hangings, blue and red light and a smoke machine it is minimalist and intimate, never being more than three metres from the back of the stage.

You can’t help but sit in awe of Page’s rig of microphones, keyboards and an effects peddle with more capacity than the NASA space program.

The man himself is unassuming. Tall, a bit goofy but with a sombre edge under there somewhere. More importantly however, he is incredible quick witted and probably one of the most ingeniously creative musical individuals around.

If you are not familiar with Page’s shows, he is a virtuoso of loop peddle performance. Idiosyncratically he will often sample random elements of the environment  or himself to create sounds that he will then often build an entirely improvised piece out of.

This is no mean feat with potentially unknown or awkward keys (“it’s somewhere between G and G#”) and subject to individuals (often poor) sense of rhythm. Despite this, Page never drops a single beat and works with blistering speed over his sampling tools building these songs from scratch often with a great deal of stylistic inventiveness and no small dose of wit.

By his own admission, he has decided to utilise the sampling of the audience in order to challenge himself as he finds his traditional multi-instrumental looping set too “easy.” In view of this, I would encourage him to take on the real challenge and to abandon all contrivances in in sampling. None of “make this sound” or “sing at this pitch.” Instead he should aspire to create soundscapes out of purely improvised samples from an audience, leaving it only up to their interpretation. There I think he will find his holy grail of musical challenge.

A phenomenal performer and a phenomenal mind. We are lucky to have him.

Kryztoff Rating: 5K

Mar 01

FRINGE MUSIC / FOLK – GIRL OF THE WORLD – 5K

by Riccardo Barone 

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After a successful overseas tour, the celestial voice of Siobhan Owen comes back home. Adelaide should be very proud of witnessing the life of this amazing Musician.

The entire concert is a journey between cultures from all over the world, and specifically between languages.

The Welsh Musician sings traditional songs sliding between various languages such as Japanese, Irish and overall Welsh, following a very precise historical language path regarding the roots and the development of her origins land’s language.

The songs are performed and accompanied by herself playing the celtic harp with such an unreal fairy intensity, like a delicate tear of a Dragon falling from the highness of the most unknown enchanted places, or folk traditional village dances, smelling goat barbecue, watching children running in circle, at sunset, listening to whispered stories of lovers.

A celestial journey entwined in a lilium echo, storybook of an awesome Musician who enchants the audience capturing them in a dream veiled of magic, wisdom and grace.

Kryztoff Rating  5K

Mar 01

FRINGE COMEDY – Becky Brunnings: Beaming – The Piglet at Gluttony – 3K

Photo courtesy of adelaidefringe.com.au.

Photo courtesy of adelaidefringe.com.au.

Becky Brunning is an unassuming comic. In her words, if she were a sandwich, she’d be egg. Largely based around her supposed personal failings and a deep love for food, there’s something relatable in Brunning’s show for anyone who’s failed their driver’s test, been the least attractive friend or attempted Dry July.

By Brunning’s own admission, this is a new show. It’s clear she’s still working out a few slow bits and lines that sounded better in her head. Despite a few dry interludes, Brunning gave an enthusiastic and moderately engaging show and was, in most instances, truly funny. This show is suited to adults of any age, particularly those with a feminist bent and those who understand the struggles of eating too many chips.

Kryztoff Rating 3K

by Kai Niezgoda