Today was one of those days where everything just seemed to go right. All three shows were stellar, audiences were fantastic, and all the spur-of-the-moment fragments in-between just worked.
Some days are just diamonds.
I entered this day with a bit of an attack of the glums; by the time I got home, the glums had been soundly dismissed.
Three great events today, some great food, and lots of great people. And the return of Vampillia! Totally wonderful they were, and the reappearance of the bizarre woman who was on the fence next to me at their last Adelaide concert was a somewhat expected delight.
As is becoming increasingly typical this year, today was a very quiet day. We had tickets for Day Two of Tectonics but, after reading the lineup for the day, decided to have a leisurely dinner at Parlamento instead.
Monumental was frustrating: I was ready to sing its praises after the first hour. But it then had a ten-minute chunk that just killed it for me: it’s still a great work, sure, but the loss of one particular segment would have had a much more positive lasting impact on me.
Gawd. A little bit tipsy after a day of little sleep and muchos boozage.
Tectonics was a bit of an eye opener… not really what I was expecting at all. Some moments of genius, and some moments of eyebrow-raising incredulity…
A cluster of shows – all entertaining in their own right – with a bunch of doom-and-gloom (with a ray of sunshine) chats about the future of the Fringe.
The last of the planning for this year was done today, too. I reckon I’ll wind up seeing less than half as many shows as last year.
You know what I love doing? Sharing a simply stupendous experience with a loved one.
A Simple Space is still one of the best shows ever: immaculately presented, almost impossibly exciting, and brilliantly paced, it brought tears in my eyes (again!) to see such an amazing bunch of people present the show to a full house… and for that full house to be whooping and hollering with joy. I can’t think of a more deserving group of people :)
Another great collection of shows for the day – some bizarre clowning antics, the return of “good” ADT, and Marcel Lucont doing what he does best in front of a chockers audience.
Quiet day? Nah.
Well, that was a great day – though all analysis would suggest otherwise. One show was great material with lacklustre presentation, another was great music with maudlin lyrical leanings, and the third was an absolute belter.
Fifty shows for the year! Slowest fifty in years.
I have to admit, today was a stressor for me. I was paranoid about not being able to stay awake through the eleven hours of theatre that The James Plays presented. Those fears were completely unwarranted: the ‘Plays were utterly compelling viewing.
But the sad fact is that, as I think back to The James Plays now, they became less appealing with each successive episode. That’s not to say that they weren’t worth seeing: James III was still an entertaining piece of theatre. But James I was such a strong start that the other episodes were almost always going to pale in comparison.
Oops. Didn’t post a day-note about this last night, due to being a little… erm… inebriated.
I had, it must be said, a fabulous day today. BARBU was exactly as beardy and sweaty as I was expecting; one of the Festival’s flagship productions, À Fleur de Peau, was such an incredible spectacle that it completely overcame my usual disinterest in fireworks. Add onto that a gorgeous collection of chats, some wonderful bubbles, and an impromptu bike cab home, and I flumped into bed a thoroughly happy man.
One show. Six hours of pounding beats of varying appeal; five-and-a-bit was all we could stand.
Ears are ringing.
Awww yeah. Now I’m a happy camper! The opening show of my Festival was a befuddled cracker, and some free boozage (and celebrity chats) in the Artist’s Bar was a tidy bonus.
That was a strong start to the Festival… a strong start. Really looking forward to the rest of it :)
A solid collection of shows today – perhaps only spoiled by the fact that, after the non-stop spectacle of Scotch & Soda, the final show of my evening felt positively pedestrian.
I had bumped into some of Company2 (the crew behind Scotch & Soda) last week, and they’d talked about some of the changes they’d made from last year’s rendition. And they were true to their word: the 2016 version is leaner and absolutely unrelenting in its spectacle.
I managed to work myself into a bit of a weird headspace today; busy preparing for my Significant Other’s arrival, I got distracted from Fringery and, as a result, felt really quite detached when I arrived at The Bakehouse this evening.
One show today. Pity it wasn’t worth leaving the house for.
Another quiet day – just a pair of shows, a twelve-exhibition ArtWalk, and a bunch of PerformerChats: Nicole Henriksen, Paul Currie, and the Gravity Boots boys, amongst others.
Tomorrow: one show. One.