RAW: Fringe
RAW: Axis of Awesome- Infinity Rock Explosion
Mar 5th
So the lead singer of Axis of Awesome looks like Jack Black. You know it and he knows it. Yeah, it’s funny but it’s not the only funny thing the band has to offer. These guys are witty and talented to boot! The keyboard player, who looks like Chicken Little, has a music degree under his belt.
Covering the Kings of Leon’s Sex on Fire but changing the lyrics to form a ‘surprise’ song was a highlight as was a song about a superhero titled ‘Skeleton Man’. Not ones to shy away from a shameless plug, the guys promoted and preformed songs from their fictional CDs.
Upon entry to the venue you will be given 3D glasses. To ensure you don’t look like a dork, hold off on wearing the glasses until you are prompted and you will see an exclusive song in 3D. It’s just like Avatar! However, the real climax of the show came towards the end when the band performed their wonderful ‘Four Chords’ song. These guys are very funny. Jack Black, eat your heart out.
Kryztoff Rating: 3.5K
>> Check out more interviews, videos, feature articles and polished previews in our latest Fringe Guide, http://www.kryztoff.com/fringe
RAW: Shirley @ Arcade Lane
Mar 4th
At first I found the show rather offensive. Then I realised it was MEANT to be offensive. Then I spent most of the performance pondering how I was meant to feel. There’s a powerful message in this performance about sex in popular culture and how some disgusting sexualised material goes unnoticed or unchallenged. Despite agreeing with the messages of the performance and understanding why these messages are important the delivery just seems needlessly over-the-top. Yes – I know it’s meant to be extreme, challenging and confronting, but it seemed to be confrontational and challenging at the expense of the choreography.
Kryztoff Rating: 1.5 K
>> Check out more interviews, videos, feature articles and polished previews in our latest Fringe Guide, http://www.kryztoff.com/fringe
Raw – True West – Adelaide Centre For The Arts
Mar 4th
Flying Penguin’s True West is high calibre theatre superbly acted and produced by this emerging Adelaide theatre company. Sam Shepard’s play is about two brothers, two very different brothers, confronting each other’s strengths and weaknesses and exposing their sibling rivalries and jealousies. Other than for a few interventions, it is just two characters battling it out on stage to prove themselves to each other and themselves. Renato Musolino as Austin and Nick Garsden as Lee command the set as much as they attempt to do the other. Garsden in particular pulls off a very difficult character brilliantly belying a significant period away from the stage before this part.
Of particular interest were the trashing of the stage and props (some poor body’s lot to restore each night) and the way the scene changes allowed the audience to almost participate in the shifts easing us all into the next part without having to unpack so many clues. That effectively just 2 actors could make nearly two hours so gripping is testament to both story and cast.
Theatre worthy of the Festival. Go see.
Kryztoff Rating: 4.5K
>> Check out more interviews, videos, feature articles and polished previews in our latest Fringe Guide, http://www.kryztoff.com/fringe
RAW: Jamie Kilstein @ Cinema Nova
Mar 4th
This show is full on. The comedy is fired at you at rapid pace. Therefore, word of warning: do not come to this show and expect to relax and stop thinking. You really need to concentrate for the entire duration of the show, if you trail off into your own thoughts for even a millisecond, chances are you’ve lost the story when you come back to earth.
However this is brilliant fast paced comedy. Jamie packs it in and covers a lot within the hour. His favourite topics are religion and the Bible (Christians, might be a good idea to give this show a miss), Obama and the War on Terror, and his rebellious yet awkward teenage years which led him to believe his family hated him.
There are some great true life accounts including unintentional shoplifting and the time his mother gave him cigarettes for Christmas addressed from ‘Santa’.
This American comedian really hits home with a lot of his stories and if you have a good attention span, and welcome some fairly confronting topics this is the show for you!
Click Tease – An Intimate Experience in the Digital Age
Mar 4th
For anyone contemplating a “pimp my profile” service, Click Tease – Log On, Get Off could be the Fringe show for you.
Following insomniac Abbie (played wholeheartedly by Nikki Britton), who after an attack of cyber-insecurity brought on by spotting a former foe’s wedding photos posted online (girls – you know you have been there!) creates an alter ego ‘Debbie89’ (brought to life with verve by Kate Skinner) and lets her loose online.
Making the most of an intimate space upstairs at the Electric Light Hotel (around 20 seats), Abbie’s nervous exchanges with the audience during her quest to find her new ‘voice’ endear her to us. You can’t help rooting for her as she makes her way through the internet dating scene.
While the topic of the social impact on the online revolution sounds like something balding professors would be arguing about at some national convention somewhere, by dramatising it with such entertaining portrayals from the young cast, former Adelaidian Rebeeca Meston has made this discussion accessible to the ‘instant gratification’ generation.
Running from the 3rd to the 13th of March, Click Tease is highly recommended for those wanting to dip their toe into some discussion of the ramifications of the digital age without sacrificing the chance for a giggle and a good night out. Go on – try something other than a comedian for the Fringe!!!
RAW: Gordon Southern – Borders @ Rhino Room
Mar 2nd
Englishman Gordon Southern delights with his new show ‘Borders’. Playing thickly on his local connections (he is married to an Adelaide girl), Gordon takes you on a tour of the world counterpointed by rites of passage, dogs and cats and food. Flat spots are carried by an array of jingles and background music sets scenes that get lifted yet further by his totally enthusiastic approach and athletic gyrations of face and body. With improv as well as set pieces, Gordon provides an hour full of fun that lifts the spirits. His tales of the dog and the blind chicken are terrific. At the risk of being mocked by him for providing a rating that may be compared (unfavourably) with that of a porn movie, Kryztoff gave it 4Ks.
Kryztoff Rating: 4K
>> Check out more interviews, videos, feature articles and polished previews in our latest Fringe Guide, http://www.kryztoff.com/fringe
RAW: Kelly Gertig’s Pop Art Exhibition
Mar 1st
Kelly Gertig’s artworks literally pop out of the bland walls at The Caledonian in North Adelaide.
Sure the style is simple, but Kelly has created great examples of Pop Art. Using bold and bright colours as well as the the recurring motifs of her character ‘Redhead’ and nude silhouettes, this exhibition is where pop art meets art deco.
When talking about the ‘Redhead’, Kelly explains (at her opening) that she was inspired by images of women in the 1950s.
“I love all things vintage. I really wanted to portray that 1950s look with the ‘Redhead’.”
Scattered about the renovated Caledonian Hotel, it’s definitely worth seeing over a bevvy or two.
Kryztoff Rating: 4K
>> Check out more interviews, videos, feature articles and polished previews in our latest Fringe Guide, http://www.kryztoff.com/fringe
RAW: Helpmann Academy Graduate Exhibition @ Drill Room, Parade Grounds
Feb 28th
This annual exhibition of the best works from Adelaide’s major tertiary arts schools is a rich mix of paintings, photographs, ceramics, video and more. Highlights include:
- Astra Parker’s Cell Formation Sculpture – a large egg-shaped steel mosaic beautifully created and wonderfully lit playing to Parker’s interest in perceptions of what is whole and what is separate.
- Michelle Jones’ Consumed paintings – facial photographs scrunched up in five panels playing to issues of the environment and painting’s relationship with photography
- Jamie Z’s Space Junk – 10 photographic panels depicting everyday disgarded items as space junk – defamiliarising the ordinary most effectively
- Sophia Bersee’s MAN – playing since BC – nine plaster man like figures that at first blush remind you of Chinese terracotta warriors but which in reality are much more child like in form.
The Helpmann Academy is an important part of the Adelaide arts scene and this exhibition highlights the quality of output from our arts schools and the importance of encouragement. A visit during Writers Week is recommended.
Kryztoff Rating 4.5K
>> Check out more interviews, videos, feature articles and polished previews in our latest Fringe Guide, http://www.kryztoff.com/fringe