Theatre: Songs for Nobodies

By Joanna Murray-Smith

Bernadette Robinson

Directed by Simon Philips

The Adelaide Cabaret Festival

Her Majesty’s Theatre, Adelaide

June 10

Kate Ceberano says Bernadette Robinson’s one-woman show, Songs for Nobodies, best characterises the personality of her inaugural Adelaide Cabaret Festival.

It’s a big claim to make for one show at arguably the world’s most prestigious effusion of cabaret artists, but it’s easy to see why she makes it. Ceberano’s festival celebrates storytellers and divas – and there are plenty of both among the 50-odd acts that cavort across its 16 days.

Robinson’s show, devised by Joanna Murray-Smith and directed by long-time Melbourne Theatre Company supremo Simon Phillips, has five storytellers matched with five divas, and, in Judy Garland, Patsy Cline, Edith Piaf, Billie Holiday and the diva assoluta Maria Callas, it can’t be accused of setting the bar too low. Add to that the tidal wave of acclaim and house-full signs that swept this show into Adelaide (and this week into Perth) and you can see why one reviewer gushed “Songs for Nobodies is for everybody”.

Link here to the complete review in The West Australian