Sometimes, everything aligns to create that perfect moment. International Women’s Day marking the opening night of Lady Sings the Blues was one of those moments. As the full-house crowd filled the Melba Spiegeltent in Gluttony, it was clear that something special was about to happen. The feeling of the wooden floors, the mirrored walls, the…
Opening Night at Belvoir in Sydney is the story of an actor, Myrtle (Leeanna Walsman), who finds herself at a point in her life where her age begins to make her feel invisible. She starts to question her relevance and her ability as a performer as she undergoes rehearsals for a new play. Everyone around…
Port Adelaide has long been a street art hub, with the Wonderwalls Festival being a celebrated event. Both local and international artists have produced large scale murals, making the Port an artistic destination. For the 2022 Adelaide Fringe, Adelaide artists Vans the Omega and Dave Court have combined forces to create virtual reality interpretations of…
It’s not a particularly good start when the venue doors open late, and the show starts before everyone enters. Then again, it’s probably a reflection of the popularity of Kira Yang filling the Nexus Cabaret room. Kira, front and centre, is the subject of Not Your Average Asian Girl, following her transformation from being quiet…
Introducing Brendan Clare: actor, husband, father, IT nerd. Diagnosed with autism in his 40s, he faces his fears to tell his story with humour and heart. Brendan will look back on moments that were bewildering and disturbing, but now seem profound and illuminating. The AU Review sat down with him before his first Adelaide Fringe…
The Producer’s Hotel has had a chequered life but is currently undergoing renovation and is starting to regain some of her former glory. The main room has larger events but upstairs is where the comedy lives. It is in one of the upstairs former bedrooms that Liars and Clowns, A Late Night Comedy Show is…
The Strut and Fret Production Company have had a very successful relationship with the Adelaide Fringe over the years. Popular shows such as Limbo and Blanc de Blanc have had sell-out seasons. Their latest offering, The Purple Rabbit is easily set to follow this trend. The show is set at the Roundhouse, in the Garden…
What is the difference between Soggy and Moist? For this Scratch Arts team, it’s the level of camp, clothing, and age relevancy. Both shows use the same actors. They both have the same storyline. Both feature bubbles and fun props. But they are aimed at very different markets. Loosely the story is that our hero…
As the lights go down in the Octagon tent in Gluttony, three dancers emerge on stage in billowing sheets. It sets a sexy sultry mood. Arcadia is described as a “Journey to a desert utopia celebrating idealistic social values of the wild and free.” The mood suddenly changes as Stevie Wonder’s “Higher Ground” sounds out….
The Rhino Room is considered Adelaide’s premier venue for comedy. The 2022 Fringe program is huge and this year they’re hosting over 50 performers with 16 shows per night, five nights a week. With this incredible choice, it can be difficult for some performers to break through the noise and find an audience. It was…
Strut & Fret’s Blanc de Blanc have been a popular part of the Adelaide Fringe in recent years, and this year the team returns for an Encore. With all the glam, glitz, cabaret, burlesque, camp and tasteful nudity we’ve come to expect, there is something for almost all of the family. Acrobats twirl overhead and…
The Electric Dreams collective are presenting several immersive arts programs for the 2022 Adelaide Fringe. These include the alternate realities of Bedtime Stories, Volo: Dreams of Flight interactive VR swings, First Nations centerpiece performance Sky Song, and more. This reviewer found themselves in the confines of the Pacific Islander room at the Adelaide Museum, where…
Matt Hale is a self-confessed comedy hypnotist, with self-help motivational and corporate entertainment packages a major part of his life. It makes sense then that a show called Absolute Chaos would be on the Fringe list. Hale’s introduction to the show is measured, thorough and complete. He explains the process and jokingly warns that even…
Sarah Gaul is a 31-year-old woman who’s been to more weddings in the last six months than she cares to admit. Always the bridesmaid but never the bride? Sarah takes the audience on a journey into her world, her take on relationships and what makes her tick. First things first, Sarah is an eco-warrior. She…
The Massaoke Oz open air sing-along dance spectacular is back at Moa in Gluttony for more Fringe fun. The five-piece band decked out in glitter and glam certainly warmed up the crowd with all the party tune favorites from the 70s, 80s and 90s. A relaxation in COVID rules meant that you could dance, albeit…
Jennifer Trijo, OzAsia and Fringe Festival performer, has created Someday – A Mindful Cabaret performance at artist collective space The Mill. Together with performers Amber Fibrosi and Jakub Gaudasinski, the trio perform soulful and uplifting songs as well as challenging ourselves to be the best that we can be. Early in the performance there is…
WA playwright Kate Mulvany’s adaptation of the classic Friedrich Schiller play Mary Stuart has come to Perth Festival and it’s ready to live up to the reputation of its predecessor. The two hour production focuses on the last days of Mary, Queen of Scots and explores her complex relationship with cousin Queen Elizabeth I of…
We were invited to a special media preview in The Garden of Unearthly Delights, celebrating 20 years as being part of the Adelaide Fringe. Director Scott Maidment introduced a few selected acts in the gorgeous Spiegeltent. First up was Mirko, direct from Berlin and part of the Blanc de Blanc Encore, with his newly developed…
Sydney Fringe kicks off in Sydney tonight with Bernie Dieter’s Club Kabarett. Coming direct from London’s West End, it promises to be a night of debauchery, laughs, and just the tonic we all need from the repressed times we have been living in. With Club Kabarett, you can expect breathtaking circus, gender-bending aerial trickery and…
An 80s-lover’s neon-filled fantasy, come to life! After selling out performances across Broadway and the UK, and lighting up the Athenaeum Theatre in Melbourne in 2021, The Wedding Singer brings its neon lights, flashy perms and dazzling choreography to The Arts Centre’s State Theatre – updating the already brilliant performance with spectacular new sets and…
A drag-filled cabaret circus themed around the theological Roman Catholic seven deadly sins? Sounds like a recipe for something raucous but distinctly left of centre, filled with innuendo and debauchery! ‘Sinsuality: Make It Reign’ brings all that and more, led by larger-than-life drag MC BarbieQ, driving the show forward all while offering insights into her…
Michael Shafar is a Jewish lawyer turned comedian who relates his cancer recovery in his stand up shows. We chatted ahead of his upcoming season at the Adelaide Fringe. How did your show go back at the Fringe – was it two years ago or last year? I mean it feels like it’s a decade…
Two men meet in a park; a seemingly innocuous Grindr hookup. Except, there’s a wide age gap, and an immediate tension between the two men. The younger Edden (Joseph Althouse) finds the original suggestion to meet pre-hookup amusing and wants to head to a nearby sauna, while Warren (Steve LeMarquand) awkwardly attempts to discreetly take…
Fringe World Festival is back in Perth despite the hardest of hard borders in WA but the local talent is shining, with Lisa Woodbrook‘s It’s Not Me, It’s Definitely You: Songs of Amy Winehouse & Lily Allen a fine example. As a supremely talented vocalist, Woodbrook’s show – as the title suggests – contains plenty of…
Described by Bangarra Director Stephen Page as “narrative dance theatre and contemporary ceremony”, Wudjang: Not the Past follows the journey of a young woman Nananhg (Jess Hitchcock) as she struggles to understand her cultural heritage while existing in a white system. When ancestral bones are discovered during excavation for a dam, one of the men,…
For Perth’s annual Fringe World festival, the delightfully ridiculous Shakespearean drinking game Booze & the Bard has returned for 2022 with two shows: their tried and true Macbeth, the Scotch Play and the brand new Twelfth Pint (or What You Spill). We caught the Saturday night showing of Macbeth on the 15th of January and happily…
Forming part of the 2022 Sydney Festival, A Chorus Line at Riverside Theatres in Parramatta delivers a behind-the-scenes look at the life of a dancer trying to forge a career on Broadway. Set on the stage of a theatre during auditions for a chorus line, the musical centres on the lives of seventeen hopefuls and…
Released in 1995, Jagged Little Pill was a cultural moment, packaging themes of angst, sexism, loneliness and self-discovery from the perspective of a young woman to over 30 million albums sold. 25 years later, the Broadway production takes us back to the anguish of the original text, albeit with an updated rap sheet. Designed as…
Celebrities and VIPs walked the black carpet for the opening night of Jagged Little Pill, the Grammy and Tony award winning Broadway musical, inspired by Alanis Morissette‘s ground-breaking album of the same name. Jagged Little Pill is playing at the Theatre Royal from December 2nd to 19th. Grab your tickets HERE
Put on your finest dress, button up your best tux and step into an extravagant world of glitz, glamour and romance at the Moulin Rouge! Based on Baz Luhrmann’s iconic 2001 film, it tells the story of an aspiring composer, Christian (Des Flanagan), who falls in love with Satine (Alinta Chidzey), a prominent cabaret actress and…
