Archive for March 4, 2010
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!!!