Adam Hills - Goody Two Shoes
Nova (Cinema 3)
10:50pm, Thu 16 Mar 2000
Score: 6
Short Review: AlmostThere
After Adam Hills' previous show (My Own Little World), I thought I might as well hang around to see his new work. And, whilst not up to the standard shown by the older material, there were still some gems to be found.
For starters, the session of the show I went to was being "signed" for the hearing-impaired. There were many laughs to be had from this alone - Hills deliberately listing of risque cocktail names (and watching the interpreter sign Prince's "Let's Go Crazy" was cool). Again, Hills also had a large amount of musical humour in the show (not sure that would have been good for the hearing-impaired), including his brilliant construction of a boy-band from the audience.
In all, this too was an amusing show, although a little rough around the edges. It'd be nice to see the show after a year on the road, to see how well it polishes up.
Adam Hills - My Own Little World
Nova (Cinema 3)
9:40pm, Thu 16 Mar 2000
Score: 7
Short Review: Flugley(!)
This'll be short and sweet - Adam Hills let loose with a volley of jokes, some toilet humour, a lot of audience participation (getting someone to do a James Brown-style entrance), and even more singing. His songs were, on the whole, pretty amusing - not up to the standard of, say, Tripod - but his multiple renditions of many national anthems were bloody amusing.
Quick review, eh? But what's the One-Word-Review about, then? Well, as a closer, Hills invited the audience to yank words from nowhere as substitutes to known words - hence, "love" became "flugle". In all, a pretty good show - you could certainly do worse.
Shock Headed Peter
Her Majesty's Theatre
7:00pm, Thu 16 Mar 2000
Score: 9
Short Review: TragicallyFunny
Shock Headed Peter dwells on the horror stories parents (used to?) tell their children to keep them from doing naughty things. In bringing the story of Shock Headed Peter (a hideous child to uncaring parents, who hid the child in shame under the floorboards), those involved have created a fantastic and highly amusing story that truly is fun for all ages.
Using the story of Shock Headed Peter as a central theme, the cast (led by the wonderful Julian Bleach) perform the afore-mentioned stories to the music of the brilliant, brilliant, brilliant Tiger Lillies - Martyn Jacques constant castrato and Adrian Huge's deadpan humour are sensational. The stories are acted - watch Harriet burn! - or subject to very clever puppeteering... my favourite story was "The Man Who Went Out With A Gun"... most amusing stuff.
Thoughout the whole show, the audience is barely given a moments' respite from laughter - even mistakes are cleverly handled. If there is any flaw to this show, it was that it probably went a tiny bit too long - maybe only one story though. Otherwise, simply brilliant.
Drumming
Festival Theatre
5:00pm, Thu 16 Mar 2000
Score: 9
Short Review: Organic
The second of the dance pieces from Rosas (the first being Fase), Drumming has to be one of the most tightly choreographed, yet at the same time, most casual looking dance performances I have ever seen. And in no way is this a bad thing.
Drumming is set to a 58-minute piece of music (again by Steve Reich) which, strangely enough, is entirely percussive. Twelve dancers onstage intermittently prowl the outskirts of the stage, then leap into the fray - and I mean leap. Like anxious gazelles, the cast run, leap, twist and turn across the stage at a furious pace.
There's a good reason why my One-Word-Review is "organic"; when involved in the action, the dancers don't all move in mass unison, but instead in small groups or flocks of only two or three. Where my previous gazelle metaphor is pretty close to the mark, on more than one occasion did I think that there were flocks of birds skipping across the stage. The sheer beauty of the work, however, is in the choreography - different groups running (skipping, flying) at full speed intersected with others, whilst more solitary participants bubbled around in the background like some human game of Life.
In short - brilliant! It'll be a long time before I can get the image of all those fast-moving, swarming dancers from my mind. Incredible stuff!!