Bound Sonata

Uniflex Physical Theatre

8:30pm, Wed 8 Mar 2000

Score: 2

Short Review: Self-indulgent

Wow, this was bad. Quoth the Fringe Guide: “Bound Sonata is the obsessive and compulsive in all of us”. Well, the obsession seemed to be entirely on the performer’s side of the fence, whereas the compulsion for me was to leave early.

Two performers, one very lean (“black”), the other heavier-set (“blue”). Black was average on both the movement front and the piano. Blue seemed competent on the movement side of things. The movement prescribed by the piece, presumably meant to symbolise the aforementioned obsessive/compulsive behaviour, was exactly that – that same, inelegant, gestures over and over again, interspersed with much pacing of the floor and whispering to themselves. Visual spectacle? Afraid not – shit boring is a far more apt term.

Interestingly enough, my SO was far more scathing of this piece than I – comments like “no talent, wrote the piece for Year 11 dance class and got a B” were passed around. In a more curious occurance, this has apparently had good reviews – why? What am I missing? And do I really care?

Un Re(a)d

Ngapartji Multimedia Centre

7:00pm, Wed 8 Mar 2000

Score: 5

Short Review: TryHard

The Post Hoc Performing Word Company come down from the Gold Coast to inject a bit of poetry, video, and live action into the fringe. Sometimes their multimedia effort pays off; most times it doesn’t.

Being led into the Multimedia Centre by two rejects from Mad Max III (you know, the bit where Mel finds all the kids?) planted seeds of doubt into my head. The first 5 minutes of the pre-recorded video footage did not assuage these fears. Fine imagery was torn apart by lacklustre visual effects, with try-hard evocative-wannabe text skidding across the screen like a nightmarish PowerPoint presentation.

The closing 5 minutes of the piece (hereafter known as “the realist bit”) was also a contrived bit of work. In between these two pieces, though, was a reasonable section (“the city bit”) which, whilst being similarly contrived, made better use of the visual palette. And, on the plus side, the original music throughout was quite good.

On the minus side – the live performances accompanying the video had a Wank Factor of about 13 (out of 10). Overall, the writing was pretty poor too – whilst the Company seemed to have plenty to say about the garish ills of their home town (and, one would guesstimate, society in general), it all seemed to be written in a manner which seems to be desperately trying to create a powerful, evocative commentary… and failing. Still, the music and video elements of this piece seem to indicate that there is some talent in the group… somewhere.

John Astin – Edgar Allen Poe

Arts Theatre

1:00pm, Wed 8 Mar 2000

Score: 7

Short Review: Disappointing

John Astin, bearing more than an uncanny resemblance to the real Edgar Allen Poe, presents one of the longer shows at this year’s fringe. Clocking in at 1:45 – an impressive effort, given that it’s a monologue – it runs out of stem about 20 minutes before its conclusion.

This is a bit of a shame, really – the first act (about 50 minutes worth ) is really quite good. Astin opens the show by letting Poe read his own obituary – a most amusing moment, with Astin wonderfully comic. The play then lays Poe’s demons out before the audience, closing the first act on a particularly down note.

The second act was… flat. Astin noticeably stumbled on several lines, and his reading of “The Raven” left much to be desired… where was the inherent, brooding terror? However, most other excerpts from Poe’s writings were cleverly moulded into the script (which was, on the whole, quite good).

After all the hype surrounding this play, I was expecting quite a bit from it – but it wasn’t quite there. With the exception of the aforementioned faults, Astin was quite good; it’s just that the script needed a tiny bit of trimming. Worth seeing for Astin’s alter ego; just not quite the blockbuster we’ve been led to believe it would be.

No Spleen

Club Fringe

10:45pm, Tue 7 Mar 2000

Score: 8

Short Review: Witty

This performance bears an bit in common with another at Club Fringe, The Entire Contents of the Refrigerator. Both are one woman shows, both are staged sparsely, both are powerful performances (and both scored 8). But that’s about the end of the similarities.

Carolyn Cohagan is a class act. Whilst it could be said that her performance did not require the physical or mental flexibility of Stewart-Lindley’s Refrigerator monologues, she more than makes up for it with pure comedic style. Her sense of timing is exquisite, the speed of delivery varying from standing still (a wonderfully amusing and tense moment shared with the audience) to lightning fast (the opening monologue, travelling home in New York City). Through all this she recounts her own real-life experiences as she is knocked down by illness, resulting in the removal of her spleen.

Cohagan’s characterisations are great, and she is a wonderful comedienne. There are a few flat spots in the story, but a lot of great spots too. This is one show well worth checking out.

Greg Fleet & Adam Brough – Interrogation

Nova (Cinema 1)

8:10pm, Tue 7 Mar 2000

Score: 6

Short Review: Despair

I like Fleety, I really do. I think his manner on stage is great, his delivery impeccable. But I am constantly driven to the depths of despair because he never gets 60 minutes of quality material together!

His latest show uses Adam Brough as a straight man/sidekick/prop, and there are some genuinely funny moments to be had. The opening of the show is amusing, and the “car chase” scene that the two of them do is quite cool. But beyond that, the laughs are pretty sparse… they’re there, just few and far between.

Having said that, though, this is the best show I’ve ever seen Fleety do. And I can’t stop going to see his shows because one day he’ll have an hour of killer material that will do him justice. But this is not such a show.

Rich Hall (aka Otis Lee Crenshaw)

Nova (Cinema 1)

10:30pm, Sun 5 Mar 2000

Score: 9

Short Review: song-tastic

Rich Hall’s alter ego, the six-time married, incarcerated (for involuntary bigamy) Otis Lee Crenshaw, was joined onstage by two likeminded Texans for an hour of song and hilarity. And there were buckets of both.

Hall’s standard songs are hilarious – the opener “I Was Drunk” springs to mind – but it’s when he gets into ad-lib mode that the laughs run thickest. His “couple song” (this night’s victims were Bill and Jenny) was an absolute classic (“spreadsheets” – “bed sheets”… brilliant!), and the not-quite-ad-libbed-but-close-enough “Adelaide song” is a classic also.

Words alone cannot express how wonderfully funny this show is – I guess I’ll just give it a good score and let you find out for yourselves.

Wil Anderson – Terra Wilius: A History of Australia

Nova (Cinema 2)

8:20pm, Sun 5 Mar 2000

Score: 8

Short Review: Gut-laughs

Wil Anderson returns to Adelaide with a show that traces through the finer points of Australian history. Along the way, he has a dig at the government, the ocker Aussie male, and ponders a few more serious issues.

Wil has a great delivery style; he’s basically your classic Australian comedian. Not afraid of poking fun at himself, he also manages to surreptitiously introduce material into his act that allows the most subtle of segueways into his next bit. The manner in which he does this is, in itself, a great laugh.

He lets himself down a little, though, by introducing more serious topics into the proceedings; racism and homophobia aren’t great topics for laughs (where’s Chelsea Lewis when you need her?), and he doesn’t go chasing them either. However, you’ll find that you’ve been gut-laughing though the rest of the show, so the few flat spots are easy to look over.

North Darling in North Alone

Nova (Cinema 2)

7:10pm, Sun 5 Mar 2000

Score: 4

Short Review: PG

Whoa, this was not great at all. North Darling, the “good looking” one of the Three Canadians, brought forth a flimsy show which struggled to get any laughs at all.

The premise of the show was that North gets stranded on a desert island; this part of the story is told at the start of the show using some clever (and amusing) puppetry, but as soon as North appears on stage the play went downhill fast.

The puppetry used throughout the show was clever enough, but got more-ish after a while, and the manner in which North (and his accomplice AJ) constantly derided their own crappy production values got more than a little irritating. On the plus side, however, the “Ode to a Dead Dolphin” was great, even if you had to sit through 2 minutes of “fighting” with an inflatable dolphin to get there.

In short, this would be a great show for kids (be warned, however, that there is a little profanity uttered during the show). This type of humour is a little beneath anyone over the age of 12.

BTW: is it me, or does anyone else think North looks like Ade Edmondson?

The Enormous Club

Uniflex Physical Theatre

2:00pm, Sun 5 Mar 2000

Score: 8

Short Review: Candlelight

Born In A Taxi, a Victorian-based company, presented “The Enormous Club”, a quality bit of physical theatre. Very qualititious it was, too.

The four performers smoothly traversing the stage, interacting well with each other and providing a great deal of subtlety and humour in their movements. The true beauty in the production, however, is in the innovative use of light (large amounts of the piece was lit only by the candles which the performers held) and the clever use of the (minimalist) props.

There is a rather lengthy discussion about the premise of the show, but it isn’t needed; The Enormous Club is a great bit of physical theatre without having to place any subtext to it.