Feb 23

FRINGE – Stuart Bowden: She Was Probably Not a Robot – Tuxedo Cat – 3.5K

Stuart Bowden: She Was Probably Not a Robot, is an endearing mix of silly, sweet and macabre.

The end of the world is not nigh, it’s here. The apocalypse is upon us and everyone is dead. If you’re lucky, you might even find out how you died. Well, almost everyone is dead; there is a sole survivor, a man left alone in the world, trying to find a way to go on with life when those he loved are gone. Then, the unexpected arrival of Celeste, an intergalactic visitor with a remarkable hobby, brings about a new friendship and opens up the possibility of a different future.

The plot isn’t exactly complex, the staging bare and the props often akin to a primary school craft project or simply suggested rather than physical. However, this is all part of the show’s charm and the writing is both funny and beautiful. Bowden engages the audience with his quirky, adorable, childlike manner, as he weaves a tale full of dark material and yet manages to make it very amusing and highly enjoyable.

This is a delightful show, not afraid to delve into the realms of absurdity and serving up its humour in various shades of black, while managing to maintain a comprehensible storyline and make some poignant observations about life.

Kryztoff Rating: 3.5K

Feb 23

Movin’ Melvin Brown – The Ray Charles Experience

by Heather-Jean Moyes
Movin’ Melvin Brown – The Ray Charles Experience truly rocks. If you like any of the following: Ray Charles, The Blues Brothers, Gospel, James Brown, Nat King Cole, The Beatles, Sam Cook, Percy Mayfield or soul, blues, or music performed well then you will love this gig. Brown sings like Ray Charles with nuanced traits and trademark mannerisms as he dips into Ray’s play list. But Melvin is so much more than this. For those that know the man they are aware of the range that this professional entertainer has. It’s vast. Far from a tribute band this show is like a night in Vegas. I’m pretty sure Ray didn’t tap dance but Marvin does. And man can he tap. Whether you can remember Bill ‘Bojangles’ Robinson (a truly great laid back, ‘make it look’ easy tap dancer of early C20th Hollywood) or not, it doesn’t matter. You will appreciate the footwork. It is just spectacular how Melvin can sing, dance and entertain without skipping a beat or loosing his breath. Through the night Brown powers his way through Ray’s life, singing songs from a range of artists and in doing so gives us an entre into Ray’s personal story and cultural milieu. Apart from the song and dance, Melvin has charisma. He thinks like a star, he is a star. The band keep the party going, with keyboard player George Papanaum, lead guitarist Steve Salvi, base guitarist Nikki Steadman, and drummer (saving the day – called in at the last minute) Jim Glaister, joining back up vocalist Francesca Sansalone. It’s cool, its high energy, and out of the box. On at the Garage International @ Town Hall (behind the Town Hall) Tues thru Sat until the 8th March with a final show at the Birdwood Exhibition Centre on Sun 9th March. And for those interested the talented Mr. Melvin Brown is running tap classes for any age and any level of experience. His mantra is – if you can walk you can do it. Running at the Lion Arts Centre. Sounds awesome! See the show – learn the dance! Cool.

Feb 22

FESTIVAL CENTRE – Creating the Character

Costume designers visually recreate the internal side of the character we see on stage. Creating the Character embraces the behind-the-scenes conception of characters and shows how a designer works with the director, the actors, and the text to lift two-dimensional characters from the page to the stage. 

This exhibition, curated by the Performing Arts Collection, showcases the work of Australian stage designers, such as Sue Russell, Tess Schofield, Dean Hills, Paul Morisset, Bronwyn Jones, Tony Graham and Luciana Arrighi who won an Oscar for her designs for Howard’s End.

On display in the Festival Theatre Foyer from 22 February until May, the exhibition will feature costumes, costume designs, masks, props and photographs from memorable State Theatre Company productions such as Revenger’s Tragedy, The Comedy of Errors, Scapin, Night on Bald Mountain, Ham Funeral, and the Jimmy Zoole Presents production of Amadeus.

Performing Arts Collection Exhibition Coordinator Jo Peoples says:

“Stage designers fill a number of roles. They are historians, story tellers, and social commentators. Their work is crucial in the audience’s understanding of who the character is, and why they are there. It’s story telling in another way. The work on display covers Shakespearean comedy (after Magritte), Jacobean Tragedy, Molière, Australian drama, opera, and a mixed bag with Amadeus! Come and celebrate their work!”

Enjoy this marvellous, imaginative exhibition from some of Australia’s best theatre designers right here at Adelaide Festival Centre.

 

What

CREATING THE CHARACTER

When

22 February 2014 until May 2014

Venue

Festival Theatre Foyer, Adelaide Festival Centre

Hours

Mon-Fri 9am-6pm and during performance times

Cost

Free

Suitable

All ages

More info

For further information visit adelaidefestivalcentre.com.au

Get social with us on Twitter @AdelaideFesCent or Facebook facebook.com/FestivalCentre 

Feb 22

OZ ASIA – Fund and Red Sorghum – Announcements

ozasia-moon-lantern1-3Adelaide Festival Centre today announced the launch of the OzAsia Festival Fund along with the Australian premiere and exclusive performance of Red Sorghum by Qingdao Song and Dance Theatre Company, an exquisite dance drama from Shandong for the opening weekend of the 2014 OzAsia Festival.

 

The OzAsia Festival is a two week event presented and produced by Adelaide Festival Centre each year. It is the premier Australian event contributing to, and engaging with, the cultural landscape of the Asian region.

 

The OzAsia Festival Fund has been established to seek support for this unique and highly acclaimed Festival, to ensure it continues to attract internationally renowned artists and performers, and to further build on the important Australia-Asia links that we are currently developing and expanding through the arts.

 

The Fund is seeking support from corporates who do business with China, people and/or organisations as well as seeking donations from private philanthropists who are interested in building stronger ties with the Asian community.

 

Adelaide Festival Centre CEO and Artistic Director Douglas Gautier said the fund for OzAsia Festival is vital in ensuring that South Australia maintains its history as the Festival State and as an Australian leader in arts and culture.

 

“The flagship of our cultural engagement program is the OzAsia Festival, which has grown each year since the first event in 2007. To further enhance the Festival’s standing within the community both here and overseas, the establishment of the OzAsia Festival Fund will be instrumental in growing the Festival and increasing its innovation and positioning of Australia positively in the Asian century.”

 

“The funds raised will contribute directly to enhancing the Festival which is a great vehicle for building social cohesion and cultural harmony, as well as bolstering business, cultural, educational and diplomatic links between Asia and Australia.”


Special Guest at the OzAsia Festival Fund launch announcement being held this evening is Mr Shu Xiao, Minister Counsellor (Culture) at the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China who said “we are extremely appreciative of the efforts that Adelaide Festival Centre is making to assist people of China and Australia to know more about each other and to forge a deep rooted friendship and cooperative ties between the sister states/provinces of South Australia and Shandong. I believe people of different backgrounds engagement is much stronger through cultural contacts and artistic exchange, and feel we learn to appreciate each other more through sharing one another’s arts and values. The establishment of the OzAsia Festival Fund is another step toward creating stronger cultural ties.”

 

The launch of the OzAsia Festival Fund further expands on Adelaide Festival Centre’s commitment to maintaining strong ties with our Asian counterparts. As a national leader in the Asia-Pacific region, this is another initiative which supports the outstanding work the Centre is already doing, including the recent appointment of Douglas Gautier to the Chair of the Association of Asia Pacific Performing Arts Centres, and the Asia Pacific Centre for Arts & Cultural Leadership program established last year with the University of South Australia.

 

The focus of this year’s Festival, which runs from 5 – 21 September will be on Adelaide’s sister state, Shandong. Shandong is a coastal province of the People’s Republic of China and one of the most populated and affluent provinces of China. It is best known for being the birthplace of Confucius.

 

The announcement of Qingdao Song and Dance Theatre’s premiere and exclusive performance of Red Sorghum is a terrific artistic coup for the Festival; the company is renowned for their breathtaking work.Adapted from the novel by Shandong’s Nobel Prize winning author Mo Yan, and winner of this year’s Wenhua Prize, China’s Ministry of Culture’s highest award for professional arts, the work presents themes of love, affection and patriotism.

 

Combining dance and unique music composition by Cheng Yuan, this passionate and moving drama tells the story of a group of characteristic villagers, their courage and bravery fighting against the Japanese occupation, and their individual struggle for love, life and destiny.

 

Red Sorghum reflects Shandong’s unique customs and the strong character of its people.  It delves into the meaning of life and tells us if you live, live brave and passionate like sorghum; if you die, die strong like strong sorghum.

 

OzAsia Festival Director Jacinta Thompson was deeply moved by the performance when she saw the work in Shandong last year. “I’m thrilled to be working closely with the Shandong Provincial Department of Culture as we present our Shandong focus for this year’s OzAsia Festival. Red Sorghum is an extraordinary dance drama production that is exquisite in design and compelling in its storytelling”.

 

Tickets for Red Sorghum will be on sale in June 2014.

 

In 2013 an agreement was signed between the Adelaide Festival Centre Trust and the Shandong Government’s Department of Culture. The agreement confirmed a commitment to continue supporting the cultural exchange between South Australia and Shandong. It established a long-term, cooperative and mutually beneficial relationship between the Shandong Government and OzAsia Festival.

 

For further information on the OzAsia Festival Fund and how you can become a donor please contact Development Manager Robyn Brown on (08) 8216 8826 or robyn.brown@adelaidefestivalcentre.com.au

Feb 22

FRINGE – The Best of Adelaide Fringe – Late Show – Al Amir – 3.5K

By Olivia Henry

 

best-of-fringe-late-showThe Best of Adelaide Fringe – Late Show is a collection of some of the best comedians in the late night timeslot. The show is hosted by Christian Elderfield, the English comedian who loves to draw material from members of the small audience.

The endearing Neil Sinclair delivers some very punny one-liners. The audience participation continues with Sinclair as he plays “Talent or Rubbish” accompanied by his ukulele.

Biracial comedian Bruce Fummey provides an insight into the life of a Ghanaian-Scottish man travelling the world and fighting his way through Australian customs.

The laid-back Nik Coppin handles hecklers very well as he tells stories of love of ‘bogans’ and ‘chavs.’

Gary Sansome begins by initiating a singalong and ends dragging a heckler onto the stage to dance and sing with him. Because of this, Sansome is unable to finish his material… Although it is amusing and satisfying to put the heckler on the spot after a night of rude, unnecessary outbursts.

Jacques Barrett is the headline act who turns the show from ‘good’ to ‘great.’ Barrett is a typical country Australian who packs a variety of jokes into a small timeframe, scattering a number of accents in between. During his short set, Barrett covers travel, family and even the story surrounding his unusual name. His loud voice commands attention and his delivery silences hecklers who are otherwise unable to keep their mouths shut.

This show would be most enjoyable for those aged 20-40. It is apparent that the late night timeslot and casual atmosphere is a breeding ground for hecklers. The comedians are able to bounce back from the distraction a majority of the time. However throughout the night there are a few salvageable punchlines. Overall the variety of comedic style provides a little something for most tastes. The Best of Adelaide Fringe – Late Show is a great show to go and see for those who are unable settle on which Fringe show to choose, or simply those who love variety.

 

Kryztoff rating: 3.5K

 

Best of Adelaide Fringe – Late Show

Al Amir, 217 Rundle Street, Adelaide

February 14-15, 21-22, 28, March 1, 7-8, 14-15

11pm – 00.30am (followed by late bar to 3am)

All Tickets: $18, Concessions: $13

 

Feb 22

FRINGE- Miss Fortune Presents the Beautiful and the Damned 2K

Miss Fortune, the eponymous and mysterious purveyor of burlesque show The Beautiful and the Damned, has several things to answer for.

As a novice to the burlesque scene, I came with open eyes ready for a performance that nodded to the decadent roots of the cabaret scene. I expected a feast of sparkles, feathers, garters- and a lot of skin. Whilst there were sparkles, feathers, and even more skin than I had bargained for, I left feeling slightly let down by the performance. I had expected to be transported, to be seduced by stories and the power of the female body- and instead all I saw was a fairly amateur production that lacked the magnetism and raw energy a burlesque show should possess.

It may have been due to the venue (upstairs in what is by day a restaurant) that didn’t help to add a sense of authenticity. It might have been the sparse audience who were reluctant to participate in the ladies advances. But I think it was that the performances seemed cliched and farcical, with stories that could have been aptly cheeky in different hands, but that fell short of the descriptions of ‘the Beautiful and the Damned’ trope that attempted to be weaved throughout the show.

Two of the performers, one from the UK, and local lady Leopard Lass, were hidden gems in the rough presentation of the performance, alone offering the originality that complemented their sensual acts. Leopard Lass is an independent burlesque dancer with her own sideshow in Glenelg, something I would happily recommend.

The Beautiful and the Damned was more the latter than the former, a performance with moments of  raw power and seduction, but too few and far between to make it worth seeing.

Kryztoff Rating 2K

Feb 21

FRINGE – Virtual Solitaire – RiAus – 5K

To watch a man transition between five characters – all very distinct, with their own mannerisms and voices (including accents) – in a conversation with each other, is both awe inspiring and more than a little disconcerting. There is no confusion about who is saying what, there is no pause between each character’s interjections, no pieces of one mistakenly showing through another. Each is distinct and real. What’s most astounding is that these aren’t even the major characters of the story; this is just the tip of the iceberg of the experience that is Virtual Solitaire, written and performed by Dawson Nichols.

Virtual reality (VR) games have become widely popular and people like Nathan are employed to help map the emotional responses of characters with which future players will be interacting. Given his less than stable mind-set, affected by years of immersion in VR, he is chosen as a good option to do some mapping of a handful of minor characters for a game set in an asylum. Things start to take an interesting turn when aspects of Nathan’s own personality and memories start creating tangential characters. As the stories of these characters play out, two men, Clarence and Stanley, try to get the process back on track, hoping to avoid a negative outcome and the wrath of both their investors and the mysterious ARPCA.

Staged in the less than theatre-like space of the auditorium at RiAus, the only special effects are some well-chosen lighting changes, a pair of unsettling-as-all-hell contact lenses and the force of Nichols’ talent. Nothing else is needed and, really, anything additional would have detracted from the beguiling strangeness of the piece and the sinewy flexibility, both physically and characteristically, of Nichols’ performance. The script is complex and jumps from story to story, layer to layer. While this means that a lot of concentration is required, there are explanations woven throughout as to how the layers work, so that the audience is unobtrusively forewarned about where the journey is going next.

The only disappointing thing about this show is that the run is so incredibly short – just three performances, closing on Saturday. This is a piece that deserves to build up a lot of hype and play to packed houses for weeks.

Kryztoff Rating: 5K

Feb 21

FRINGE – Illuminate – Croquet Club – 4K

154822_231894040268155_343299132_nBy Peter Maddern

This Melbourne based crew’s tweak of the circus staples is to play with light, how the strong man, the juggling, the high wire and gymnastics get lit. And they do it very well.

What Illuminate also does is use a lot of contemporary dance to link up their work as well as introduce a playfulness between its players that seems very in place for this young cast, with mixes of post-adolescent aggression, emotion and general rabble rousing. It seems the cast has had a very real involvement in the creation of the routines; meeting a desire to please themselves and attract an audience that sits between the more usual family friendly circus crowd of oldies and kids, that is guys around their age.

That is not to dismiss the skill on show. There are in it two wonderful pas de deux, the first where Patrick Denison and Felicia Lannan are wound up tightly with fairy lights and the latter with Jon Bonventura and Phoebe Carlson where the performers are lit by torches in the tights around their calf muscles and forearms as they ride up and down the rope. These are delightful and surreal exhibitions of skills, poise and strength.

Byron Hutton also delights in his juggling routines, lit with ultra violet lights, (and is perhaps the best seen so far this Fringe in that department) and Carlson also gives an alternate form of the high wire walk stepping ever so gingerly on lit wine bottles.

Throw in a wheelchair and some hoops and this is nothing other than a rollicking fine show to enjoy.

Croquet club attendees should take note – you won’t be really soaking up the atmosphere in Victoria Square unless you are also seeing the light with Illuminate. Go tonight or over the weekend.

Kryztoff Rating   4K

Feb 21

FRINGE- Beyonce Diva Dance Workshop – 5K

It seems like the world cannot reach its fill of the incomparable Beyonce Knowles and her fierce dance moves. Hot off the back of an Australian tour, this workshop could not have come at a more fitting time for the ladies of Adelaide who were desperate to get their hands on (and minds wrapped around) the secret to Beyonce’s particular brand of sass.

This dance workshop homage to the self-proclaimed Queen Bey could not be more fitting. Versatile, invigorating and inspiring, this two-hour class was bursting with ladies and moves as powerful as they come. Presented with grace and power by the women of the Melbourne-based Bey Ladies Company, the class is suitable for both the experienced and novice dancer alike.

Run with enthusiasm, encouragement, and the flawless style of Queen Bey herself, the Diva Dance Workshops walk (or booty-shake) you through a medley of the best of Beyonce’s classics.

The breaks are generous, the music is loud and the moves are fierce. The wonderfully cheeky and lighthearted choreography is taught with patience and just enough pace to challenge yourself.  And in the end, you leave sweating heavily, smiling widely, and singing ‘Love on Top’ to whoever you meet.

Beyonce would be touched and proud by this amazing workshop, and if she was in town, I daresay would attend it herself.

Kryztoff Rating  5K

 

Feb 21

FRINGE- Foil Arms and Hog – 3.5K

Foil Arms and Hog come well recommended. Like a talked-up partner on a blind date, the trio of Irishmen sauntered onto the stage to high expectations and apprehension. With no time to acclimatize to their particular brand of unpredictable and faced-paced comedy, the audience is thrown right into a world where foul-mouthed schoolboys rap and busty heiresses are exploited.

 

Foil Arms and Hog are quirky, charming and inventive enough to keep their sketches fresh. In their capable and quite dextrous hands, the trio manage to create hilarious and often bizarre scenarios which evoke both cheeky schoolboy humour and the quick wit of seasoned professionals.

 

Foil Arms and Hog do rely heavily on sex jokes, leaving the audience unsure whether to intervene when it involves other audience members, and a few of the sketches rambled before finding their natural ending. Nonetheless, the were always wrapped up with aplomb and the self-reflexivity that comes with a life on stage.

 

This is sketch comedy at its most versatile, and the acts were honed and nuanced without being too polished. With their offbeat sense of humour, and their penchant to reveal personal information about their other troop members, the only thing to complain about is that it isn’t long enough.

3.5K