Category: 2011 – News

ff2011, Day 16

You know what Day 16 is, don’t you? It means we’re over the hump; we’re on the run home.

  1. The Brothers Grimm Spectaculathon
  2. Anna Log – Apocalips
  3. No Blinding Light
  4. Master’s Curious Delirium
  5. If You Want Blood

Also managed to sneak into the last fifteen minutes of So You Think You Can Get F#%ked Up – and almost as soon as we parked our arses, Seb has lined me up for another shoe-in-the-head… in honour of last year’s effort, I guess. Bumped into him post-show, and we argued about who owes who what on account of him lifting a quote for his précis.

And, for shits’n’giggles, let’s start listing the Visual Art exhibits I’ve checked out:

  1. Public Art Station
  2. Shoot the Messenger

Public Art Station was a cracker – a trio of interactive art bits in the railway station. Some of the little pink notes left around the station “For You” were just gorgeous.

ff2011, Day 15

Smoooooth sailing. Except for the hours spent planning a perfectly-weighted weekend, then receiving a phone call from FringeTIX mere hours after booking the tickets informing me of cancellations. And the not-actually-getting-any-show-posts-done thing – that’s pretty depressing too.

  1. Dating, Daddydom, & Delirium (The Best Things In Life Aren’t Free)
  2. Nightminds
  3. Shylock
  4. Phlegm Fatale

Thankfully, this weekend doesn’t feel anywhere near as busy as last weekend. Just as well, really, since bugger all has been written since then… I really need to start catching up…

ff2011, Day 14

A much better day all ’round, I think.

  1. For Whom the Bell Tolls
  2. Simon Pampena in The Probability Drive – The Maths Behind The Lucky Country
  3. Pieces of Mind
  4. CONCRETE:heartbeat

I finally got to see CONCRETE:heartbeat at Arcade Lane. I’d previously bitched about how I’d missed the previous show: after initially being turned away from the door for being too early, there had been no notification that the show was being called… and it was fifteen minutes into the show before I sought to check, thinking that everything would be running late on opening night. A little constructive ranting then had garnered tickets for another session – which I couldn’t make, in the hubbub of last Saturday – but the tickets were honoured with good grace and care (and even a little fun) tonight. So – many thanks to the Arcade Lane crew.

And CONCRETE:heartbeat? Worth the wait. A brilliant bit of Fringe theatre, as is For Whom the Bell Tolls. Two more shows I feel gutted about not being able to write their associated posts in-season.

Quake, Rattle & Roll…

You know, when the Fringe comes to town, the rest of the world stops for me. Normally I make time every day to keep abreast of current events, do that “work” thing, indulge in my other hobbies, and generally try to be a bit more balanced. For four weeks spanning February and March, though, everything else falls by the wayside; I focus only on Fringe.

But one thing that has crossed over from The Real World in the last day or so has been news of the earthquake in Christchurch. I won’t attempt to repeat the details, because I cannot hope to do the devastation justice. But Christchurch is a beautiful city, and I’ve got friends over in that neck of the woods, so my thoughts are with them.

Some of you may know Sam Wills – The Boy With Tape On His Face – hails from that part of the world (here’s hoping his friends and loved ones are safe), and earlier this morning his lovely wife posted a message regarding a benefit show gig put on by the Garden of Unearthly Delights this Sunday evening…

QUAKE, RATTLE & ROLL

A Christchurch Earthquake Fundraiser, Sunday 27 Feb @ 9.45pm
Umbrella Revolution – $25

This morning, Christchurch, the hometown of The Boy With Tape On His Face, was utterly devastated by a major earthquake.

The Boy – Sam Wills, his wife Lili la Scala & The Garden of Unearthly Delights have put their hearts and minds together to present a fabulous star-studded benefit show to help the victims of this disaster.

We urge the people of Adelaide to support their sister city, Christchurch in her hour of need.

QUAKE, RATTLE AND ROLL stars some of the Fringe’s greatest & most generous artists:

MC Peter Helliar
Arj Barker
Le Gateau Chocolat
Tom Gleeson
The Boy With Tape On His Face
Lili la Scala
The Freak and The Showgirl
Mickey D
Sam Simmons
Patrick Monahan (UK)
… and more!

TICKETS WILL BE ON SALE THROUGH FRINGETIX
www.gardenofunearthlydelights.com.au
www.adelaidefringe.com.au

$25 going to a good cause, and a great lineup like that? I hope anyone who reads this – and you must number in at least the double-digits by now – can attend.

Buy tickets here.

ff2011, Day 12

See – this is where things start to go a bit awry. Getting home at 2:15am, with an 11am show pending, followed by the regular Team Lunch and more shows? When’s the writing going to get done?

  1. Womb Division
  2. Rocket Boy
  3. Awesomely Awkward
  4. Ha Ha Comedy Late Show

Blimey – the Ha Ha Comedy Late Show is yet another one of those wish-I-could-be-there-every-day type of shows. Even though I picked up a $10 ticket from FringeTIX, it appears to be a free show… for two hours of comedy. I mean, I got to see Dr Brown slap a latecomer and attempt to sit on his face. Sure, it was potentially borderline assault, but it’s not something you see every day. Must be Fringe time!

ff2011, Day 11

Remember when Mondays during the Fringe used to be Dead Days? Barely any shows anywhere, offering a great opportunity to catch up on writing and/or sleep?

  1. Lists of Invisible Things
  2. Markus Birdman
  3. Skin House
  4. The Hermitude of Angus, Ecstatic

Lists of Invisible Things had me blubbing like a baby; it completely took me by surprise and left tears streaming down my cheeks. It’s only on until Friday, so get in quick and then muse at what a giant emotional soft-cock I’ve become. Oh, and grab some two-for-one mojitos in the bar in the Nexus courtyard… delicious!

ff2011, Day 10

This blog was supposed to be a collection of memories, so I could recall the shows I’d seen before. Pity I don’t utilise the search facility a bit more often, then, lest I’d have remembered I’d seen Low Level Panic a couple of years ago.

  1. Low Level Panic
  2. Adventure Hour!: A 29-and-a-half minute, Time Bending, Old-Fashioned Adventure With Intrepid Explorers Professor Gorski and Miss Ellaneous
  3. Spectroscope
  4. Cloud Girls Smudge
  5. Dead Cat Bounce – Caged Heat
  6. Monique Brumby

A real mixed bag of a day. Only four people in the crowd for Cloud Girls Smudge; they deserve many more.

ff2011, Day 9

You know, thirty-six hours ago I was up-to-date with my blogging. Now? Eleven shows behind. Behold the slippery slope… seven shows in a day!

  1. You’re Not Like Other Girls Chrissy
  2. Ali McGregor – Something Old, Something New
  3. Pitch
  4. Dust
  5. Fin
  6. The Neo
  7. Macbeth

In lieu of actually writing my blog post about it, if you’ve got even the vaguest interest in Shakespeare, you owe it to yourself to catch the last session of Macbeth tomorrow evening… or rather, later today. It contains what may be one of the greatest moments of this Fringe – a completely mesmerising, hold-your-breath performance. Fantastic stuff.

Oh – and the burritos in Gluttony from Chipotle (not the Chipotle) are pretty special, too.

ff2011, Day 7

Rage…

  1. Trapped
  2. This Is What We Do For A Living
  3. An Evening with Style & Panache
  4. Rhino Room Late Show

I was supposed to see Concrete: Heartbeat this evening as well, but – despite the “announcements” that went on – the show commenced without us. A bit of a rant got us tickets for another night, but I’ll have to see whether I can squeeze it in – with the 10pm timeslot looking pretty packed, someone is going to have to miss out.

So yeah – not real chuffed with Arcade Lane right now.

The new TuxCat, on the other hand, was ace tonight. Fantastic buzz, a whole bunch of people leaving shows with grins, and the bar area was home to a fantastic little showcase area.

ff2011, Day 6

Another pretty quiet day, with only three shows…

  1. Bound
  2. Gluttony Showcase
  3. The Worlds Only Saxophone Playing Stand-Up Comedian Who Used To Be A Goat Farmer

Bound was great, a real theatrical treat, and it was lovely to get back to Holden Street again. The Gluttony Showcase was fantastic – eight acts in a little over ninety minutes, most of whom where on the Shortlist… so that’s help crystalise things a little.

Add onto that lovely chats with Martha and Martin at Holden Street, and Lili and Sam at The Garden, and a natter with Tom Binns later on (not enough of Adelaide saw Ivan Brackenbury last year! He really deserves bigger crowds… go buy tickets), not to mention an après-show drink with Gary Bradbury, and it was a fun old day.

And an unwanted new record was set on this blog today – 962 new spam comments in around thirteen hours! I’d be quite impressed by that, if I wasn’t sifting through each and every comment hoping that someone’s legitimate – and validating – missive hadn’t been quarantined erroneously.

ff2011, Day 5

Pretty soft day today with only two shows seen – but one was a Fringe special :)

  1. The Lounge Room Confabulators
  2. Pirate Rhapsody, Mermaid Requiem

Still a great day, though; I was finally able to repay Tess the $5 I owed her (which felt karmically satisfying), had a short chat with Deborah Frances-White, and a much longer yarn (about the Canadian Fringe circuit, mostly) with Martin Dockery (which meant that I missed the Rhino Room Late Show). C’est la vie – the lineup tonight had a lot of opportunities for Shortlist-thinning, too.

The Gluttony venues all seem to be in place now. One of them looks awfully close to East Terrace; I can’t see how noise won’t be a problem.

ff2011, Day 4

With it still being Pre-Week, and The Garden closed this evening, there was a grand total of two – count ’em, two – non-visual-arts events on today. Good thing one was on the Shortlist, wasn’t it?

  1. Skip Miller’s Hit Songs

It was great to be able to finally meet Gemma Sneddon (an extraordinary young writer) and Skip Miller author Sean Riley… and, of course, to see the delightful Lizzy Falkland in action again.

Tomorrow, the action hots up… more venues are opening their doors for Fringe action. Tuesday is the Rhino Room, Wednesday Gluttony, Thursday the Tuxedo Cat… and then it’s a free-for-all. Let the mad running-between-venues commence!

ff2011, Day 3

It’s Day 3, I wake with a storming hangover, and when familiar faces ask me how I’m going, I reply “tired”. I think it’s going to be a long haul; I’m grateful that The Garden is closed tomorrow.

  1. New York Nights… and intimate mornings
  2. Tom Tom Crew
  3. Deborah Frances-White: How To Get Almost Anyone To Want To Sleep With You
  4. Nothing Is Really Difficult: Niets Is Echt Moeilijk
  5. Ali Cook – Pieces of Strange

Memories from today should include collapsing in deck-chairs in the sun; frantically hunting for a non-missing mobile phone; and the constant spurning of spruikers for the Wau Wau Sisters (“Can I pop this flyer in your bag?” “Sure – if you don’t mind losing your arm.”)

Oh – and poffertjes deserve a big mention, too.

I completely forgot to mention one of the Great Things that happened on Friday, before the drunken hordes descended on The Garden: during the BankSA Free Concert part of the evening, there was but a dispersed handful of people gathered around the rotunda. One small child was having a ball of a time, wandering in front of the crowd and dancing away in his own joyful little world, before attempting to climb onstage. Rather than introduce the next act, emcee Asher Treleaven enquired as to the childs name, and narrated A Day in the Life of Oliver. It was ridiculously funny, and astonishingly quick ad-libbing.