FRINGE WORLD 2016

THE TURNSTILES FRINGE WORLD 2016 MARATHON!  

www.fringeworld.com.au

Here's a Fringe-ful of Turnstile memories…

The Ballad of Frank Allen ★★★½ 
Crowther and Adamczak channel Martin and Lewis (and another Allen) in a story about a tiny man in a beard.
Read all about it!
The War on Food ★★½ 
A little to much, a little too soon, for the bright young things on the Cutting Room Floor.
Read all about it!
Blue Cow ★★★½ 
Alice Mary Cooper made waves last Fringe - she's done it again.
Read all about it!
My Life in Boxes ★★★★ 
Teddy and Elise's love story defies death and gravity.
Read all about it!
7 Needs ★★½  
Some good things, but the glass is only half full at best.
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Asian Ghost-ery Store ★★★½  
Shan and Yaya are Asian - and they ain't gonna take it anymore!
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Staggeringly Epic: Ludwig ★★★★ 
"Delightful Fringe sleeper" aren't words that you often see together. Well, here they are.
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We Didn't Come to Hell for the Croissants ★★★★ 
Jemma Kahn returns with more Kamishibai - "paper drama" - and she ignites the Fringe again.
Read all about it!
Piece for Person and Ghetto Blaster ★★★ 
There's no doubt Nicola Gunn has what it takes - it's whether it all fits in the same place at the same time I question.
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Get Around Me ★★★

Get Around Me is a strange little show, and an uncomfortable one.

On the surface, this is the true story of the unlikely Aussie Rules career of Gillian English, a girl from Nova Scotia; but footy isn’t what it’s about. Throughout her football story she found herself having to cope with sexual harassment. It drove her from a game she should be entitled to enjoy without menace. The overwhelming emotion I took from Get Around Me was deep disappointment that the game I love was the vehicle for behaviour as reprehensible as this.

(The complete review appeared in The West Australian 15.2.16)       

The Great Ridolphi ★★★★
Chris Isaacs chronicles one man's great hunt for a lost father – and a missing Goya – and his actor Steve Turner, director Adam Mitchell and designer Trent Suidgeest deliver.  

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Stuart Bowden: Wilting in Reverse ★★½  
I get what people see in Stuart Bowden's theatre - I just don't get it myself. The story of Wilting in Reverse is yet another run at apocalypto-environmental sci-fi, the theatrical technique, metatheatre or whatever, more often than not dithering. Bowden's got a lot going for him, and this show is far from a dismal failure. I just wish he'd get on with it.

My Best Dead Friend ★★★★
An extraordinary story of ordinary lives, told in Kiwi and scrawled in chalk by my new best friend Anya Tate-Manning.
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Dr Felicity Rickshaw's Celebrity Sex Party ★★★★ 
Bunches of orgasms, and even more fun, in the latest Woods and Jones mini-musical
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Inside We Hide ★★½ 
Ann-Marie Biagioni's first play might not quite cut it - but watch that space.
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Islamofarcist ★★★★ 
Sami Shah is always funny; now I think he is also important.
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Alice is Drowning ★★★

This impressive little debut from the Your Mouth Collective is, in many ways, a companion piece to the much-awarded Under This Sun, which is also running now at the Fringe. Alice (the compelling Phoebe Sullivan) dreams of the sea, and her lost father, in dusty Leonora. Her best friend Brian (Lukas Radovich) has losses of is own, but fears losing Alice more. The script leaves the pair a little before it ought, but achieves some good things while we are with them.

17 Border Crossings ★★★★½
Thaddeus Phillips put his stamp on this year's Fringe.
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Sleeping Beauty ★★★
To sleep, perchance to dream.
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Labels ★★★★
The label on Joe Sellman-Leava's show said "see it".
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Perhaps There is Hope Yet ★★★½
In circus as in life, small can be beautiful
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Yeti's Demon Dive Bar ★★★½

Jennifer and Victoria came out to play with their fans
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The Man and the Moon ★★★½
Fly to the Moon and play among the stars with the disarming St John Cowcher and Brett Smith's hot, jazzy trio.
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  Under This Sun ★★★★½
 The Turnstile Award winner from The Emergence Co. returned for a Fringe run.
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2 Ruby Knockers, 1 Jaded Dick ★★★
Detective Dirk Darrow dug deep in this smart noir one-hander.

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The Road That Wasn't There ★★★★
Ralph McCuppin Howell entranced the Fringe last year with The Bookbinder, and his Trick of the Light Theatre returned with two more performers, Elle Wootton and Oliver de Rohan. An enchantment spinning New Zealand's own quirky history with the qualities we universally love from fairy tales and myths into a story that sits just beyond or below our waking lives.
Puddles Pity Party ★★★

My problem with Puddles is not his comedy, which is arch and intelligent, or his audience work, which is a brutal joy to watch. It's the songs. Good on him from avoiding the usual worn-away cabaret repertoire (though he did a laborious version of Hallelujah which, surely, should be put to bed before it does Leonard Cohen more disservice), but sometimes – a rock stolid shot at Sia's Chandelier for example – you realise you'd never listen to him if he wasn't a big guy in a clown's whiteface.

Sense and Spontaneity ★★★

There's not much you can say about improv that won't be contradicted by what you see when you go to it, but the set-up of this affectionate piss-take of Jane Austin (with Esther Longhurst and Jssica Messenger in empire line dresses, an audience member pickpocketed for storyline suggestions) will work just fine on any night. Special guest Glen Hall was suitably florid, and we all laughed more than we cringed.     

A Four-Eyed Guide to the Galaxy ★★★½

Rowena Hutson's Space Oddity reminded us that storytelling is still what it's all about.

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Chrysanthemum Gate  ★★★

Sex, race and gender collide in Singapore.

 Read all about it!

EastEnd Cabaret: Perverts ★★★★

The EastEnd girls were in Perth on a mission, the world premiere of their first non-Vickty Victoria and Bernadette Byrne show, Yeti's Demon Dive Bar. In the meantime, it was fun to  saddle up the manbeasts for a trip down the memory lane of just about the best and most original cabaret act there is.
The King and Me ★★★

The King was back in the building, and the show about his unexpected return made steady progress in its return Fringe season. The legendary Dave Warner, who wrote, is still much more comfortable behind the mike than on the stage, but Caitlin Beresford-Ord more than compensates with an increasingly confident take on you know who. 
Halina ★★★

The Open Lid Ensemble, a posse of Curtin Performance Studies grads from the past decade or so, devised a striking and effective piece of physical theatre that dealt with our clay and stone, rigidity and fluidity, in a most original fashion. Delivered with gusto and palpable commitment by its six performers (including Anne-Marie Biagioni and Amanda Watson, such hits in last year's Fuck Decaf), and beautifully accompanied by Biagioni's brother Michael, it only faltered for a short while when Halina tries to explain too much in a language we know too well.
Talk Dirty to Me ★★★

Texting, sexting, identity and mistaken identity put through the wringer by a sharp ensemble for The Cutting Room Floor.

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We May Have to Choose ★★★½

Emma Hall – a Laurie Anderson without music – has lots of questions and lots of answers, but in the end, it's us that have to choose.

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Girl in the Wood ★★★½

An auspicious debut by Rorschach Beast; a girl's search for her brother turns into a Quest in the best fairy-tale tradition.  

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Reasons to Stay Inside ★★★★½

The pick of my early Fringe, an impeccable story for kids about anxiety and indomitable spirit, with terrific performances all round. 

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The Crossing ★★★½

The Hunters delivered a tidy tale of corporate malfeasance that showed the influence of director Kathryn Osborne's foray into opera.

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MKA: Being Dead (Don Quixote) ★★½

Talk around the water cooler ranged from "Wow!" to "WTF!" after a typically divisive number from MKA.

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Resort Apocalypse ★★½

Like Total Eclipse of the Heart in cabaret, no matter how well it's done, dystopian apocalypse has been done to death.

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Purgatorio ★★★★

Beautifully staged and faultlessly performed, it's not typical fringe, but worth seeing any time, anywhere. 
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Loaded ★★★★ 
A talent-laden double bill from Gita Bezard and Will O'Mahony gets the Fringe and Black Swan's 2016 off to a positive start.
 Read all about it!
 

TAKE A FRINGE STAYCATION

You can use Fringe as a round-the-world ticket to the best alternative comedy, theatre, cabaret and circus on the planet.
And why wouldn’t you? With 700 acts from 23 countries to choose from, It’s a dizzying selection, and you won’t have to go far for tips on the hottest dishes in the food hall.
But here’s another idea. Why not consider taking a Fringe Staycation, even for one week during the festival, and concentrate on the 290-odd acts from WA appearing there? (Happily there's a link called “Homegrown Heroes!” on the Fringe website to make it easier to find and book locally-produced shows.)
It also helps that many of the WA shows on offer have been “vetted” – by previous success at Fringe or around the local traps. It’s a decent rule of thumb that a show that’s re-appearing at Fringe, or has come to it after a successful regular season run, will have something going for it.

Theatre: In a Bony Embrace (★★★½)

By Gita Bezard
Curtin University Stage One Production
directed by Adam Mitchell
designed by Sally Phipps
performed by Daisy Coyle, Alexander Gerrans, Chelsea Gibson, Sean Guastavino, Anna Lindstedt, Tristan McInnes, Jessica Nyanda Moyle, Kane Parker, Beth Tremlett and Nathan Whitbrook
Blue Room Theatre
December 8 - 12, 2015

The theatre course at Curtin University, in various forms and under various titles, has been producing good work and many very good theatre-makers for decades. Its light may have been obscured by the enormous bushel that WAAPA has become, but that hasn’t stopped the fourth of its Stage One productions, Gita Bezard’s In a Bony Embrace, lighting up the Blue Room in a short season this week.
Bezard, who is one-seventh of indie darlings The Last Great Hunt, and the notable director, Adam Mitchell, have steered this natty ensemble piece and the student actors in its cast to a funny and surprisingly touching destination.
In a Bony Embrace is a work in progress, as are these young actors, and there is, naturally, something of an exercise for students about both its writing and staging.
But that doesn’t detract from what is a genuinely rewarding and entertaining piece of theatre in its own right. 

Read the complete review in The West Australian      

Theatre: The Lion King (★★★★½)

Disney Theatrical Group
Music and lyrics by Elton John and Tim Rice,
Lego M, Mark Mancina, Jay Rifkin, Julie Taymor and Hans Zimmer
Book by Roger Allers and Irene Mecchi
Directed by Julie Taymor
Scenic design by Richard Hudson
Music direction by Richard Montgomery
Choreography by Garth Fagan
Crown Theatre
On sale until February 28

Buyi Zama as Rafiki in the long-awaited Perth season of The Lion King

 Now that we finally get to see the Lion King in the flesh, it may not hold too many surprises. But that doesn’t mean it has lost its power to thrill and captivate us.
From its first moment, the colour, movement and sheer theatrical imagination of Taymor’s sub-creation are mesmerising.
The director Julie Taymor’s guiding principle, the “double event” as she calls it, is to see the puppeteers and their performance as well as the creatures they both manipulate and portray. It’s an inspired theatrical decision – and it’s worth remembering just how influential this show is. 
The inventiveness continues in the sets; in one virtuoso scene, a spread of blue parachute silk disappears beneath the stage to announce the coming of drought and dearth that are the inevitable result of the murderous Scar’s fratricide and misrule.
All of which emphasise the underlying message of The Lion King, which is, in a sense, ecological. Goodness, truth and love lead to bounty, fecundity and joy. Falsehood, evil and hatred lead to ruin, sterility and misery. It says as much about our planet and us as it does about the lions and their Pridelands.
Nothing is perfect, and this production does suffer from some vocal deficiencies that aren’t as well supported by the sound balance and punch as they could have been.
It’s no deal-breaker though, and may no longer be an issue by the time you join the stampede of visitors to this, the proudest kingdom of them all.

Read the complete review in The West Australian

Theatre: Multiverse Theory in D (★★★½)

Ellandar Productions
Written and directed by Jessica Messenger
Musical arranger Suzanne Kosowitz
Designed by Tessa Darcey
Performed by Erin Hutchinson, Esther Longhurst, Nick Maclaine and Josh Walker
Blue Room until December 5

Ellandar Productions is about to celebrate its fifth anniversary.
Since then their work has been ambitious, well resourced, glossy, cinematic – and curiously awkward and unconvincing.
Happily they are now gathering some momentum. Last year’s Concussion was a solid production, and now with Multiverse Theory in D, they may have a hit on their hands.
Written and directed by Jessica Messenger, it’s an elusive, deftly-tailored story of a woman, Naomi (Erin Hutchinson), her ex-husband Robbie (Nick Maclaine), current boyfriend Jonathan (Josh Walker) and BFF Tegan (Esther Longhurst).
Hutchinson sure can work a tune, and that’s the icing on the cake here. Whether it’s an audacious blending of Savage Garden’s To the Moon and Back and the standard Fly Me to the Moon, the Goo Goo Dolls’ Iris, Jewel’s You Were Meant for Me or No Doubt’s Just a Girl, Hutchison, Longhurst and the boys beat and belt them out, often to a thrilling effect that’s more than worth the price of admission.


Read the complete review in The West Australian

Theatre: Next to Normal (★★★)

Brendan Hansen and Rachael Beck

by Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey
Black Swan State Theatre Company
Directed by Adam Mitchell
Musical Director David Young

Designed by Bruce McKinven
With Shannen Alyce, Rachael Beck, James Bell, Michael Cormick, Brendan Hanson and Joel Horwood
Heath Ledger Theatre
Until Nov 22

I’m sure we’ve all been waiting for a rock musical about bipolar depressive disorder with delusional episodes, and now we have it – Next to Normal (at the Heath Ledger Theatre, directed by Adam Mitchell).
Certainly the Americans, who are miles ahead of the game in such matters, were. When the Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey-penned show hit Broadway in 2009 it was showered with awards (including a rare Pulitzer Prize for a musical) and rewarded with record-breaking box office takings. It’s since travelled the world; this is its fifth Australian staging.
It’s a strange beast. One thing that it’s not, despite the tag and the publicity, is a rock musical; if these songs, most of which sound like scrunched up and binned attempts to write another Defying Gravity, are rock, then Angus Young wrote Jesus Christ Superstar.
I’m not even sure that it’s a musical in the accepted sense. Oh, there’s music, lots of it; there are 42 songs in the show’s 130-odd minutes, surely a record, but that leaves precious little time for anything else. The music serves no purpose other than to carry the text. Dance is discarded entirely, spoken dialogue all but. So is humour (there was originally some, I read, but it was excised in the pursuit of cohesion and a “responsible” approach to its depiction of its hard, dangerous subject).
It as if we are at two shows at once: one, a dark drama on the devastation caused by mental illness, I’ll gladly see again; the other, the one with all the watery music, I’ll happily pass on.     

Read the complete review in The West Australian

Theatre: Proximity Festival (★★★½)

Curated by Kelli Mccluskey and Sarah Rowbottam
Art Gallery of Western Australia
until November 8

The annual Proximity Festival moves to the pointy end of the plane this year, taking up residence in the elegant surrounds of the Art Gallery of WA after stints in the Blue Room, PICA and the Fremantle Arts Centre.
The dozen one-on-one performances and encounters that comprise the event are also an exploration of the gallery, from its grand exhibition halls to its deep-delved foundations. There’s sometimes a second layer of audience for the performances; gallery visitors watching the artist – and you – doing your things.
Proximity is an impressive achievement, as much of stage management (Anna Kosky was the wrangler-in-chief for the curators Kelli Mccluskey and Sarah Rowbottam) as anything else.
It’s often instantly stimulating and it can be frustratingly elusive, but Proximity is never even remotely an everyday occurrence.

Read the complete review in The West Australian