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Festival/Fringe Roundup.
Now that it's over and we've all calmed down (a bit), three
of our reviewers look at the Fringe and Festival of 2004 - the
highs and lows.
Some things appalling, most things appealing. And now that the
fat lady has sung, Aboriginal Artistic Director Stephen Page
has left the whole shebang in the black. Bravo! Special bravo
as tickets to all events were more than reasonably priced.
2004 was a terrific comeback from the choked event we had last
time round - the best Festival in Australia and the second largest
Fringe in the world have again served up the high variety and
quality to which we are normally accustomed.
The fun delightfully started a week before the Fringe's opening
parade - two weeks before the Festival - under the twin big
tops, the little top and everything in-between surrounding The
Garden of Unearthly Delights. Even if you weren't attending
a show here, The Garden was a terrific place to start up or
finish a busy night of theatre. Food was on the high-side of
reasonably priced but delicious. The assemblage of tents amongst
the trees lent an old-time small town carnival atmosphere.
By contrast, the HUB area didn't fare as well even though it was at the epicentre of Fringe venues. Was it because only one beer - an expensive one - was available? Imagine coming halfway around the world to visit Adelaide for the Fringe, and instead of being served up with a tasty local beer, your only possibility is some locally brewed foreign facsimile.
While the better comedians had sell-out seasons, I enjoyed the Fringe for the excellent productions of classic plays - such as Brink's 'The Caretaker' and The Actors' Ensemble's 'Waiting for Godot.' Bakehouse cooked up a couple of related comedies by American George F Walker collectively called 'Suburban Motel.' There was terrific acting in Aquarius Productions' 'Can't Stand Up For Falling Down' and by William Zappa in his 'Winter's Discontent.' What didn't work for me was Fresh Track Productions' 'Morph' by Brendan Cowell and 'Parrot Fever,' which was presented by one the Fringe's perennial overseas contributors, Theatre Simple of Seattle.
The Festival catalogue was not a big one, but it was comprehensive.
The top shows that I saw were Canstage's 'The Overcoat,' 'Gulpilil,'
'12 Angry Men' and La Carnicera Teatro's 'I Bought A Spade At
Ikea To Dig My Own Grave.' Canada is officially a bilingual
country but only a small proportion care to converse in both
languages - that explains why Canstage were expert in wordless
entertainment.
'12 Angry Men' has the perfect dramatic premise: bring a large
group of emotionally charged men, with all their baggage, into
a room, and in real time, force them to come to a life and death
resolution. David Gulpilil enthralled me with his spirit - an
honesty that transcended all the devices normally employed to
protect one's pain. He is not a perfect individual - he showed
envy, regret, and ego - but it was all out there. '...Ikea...'
turned off many by the messy medium but a valid complaint against
modern life was presented. State's 'Night Letters' was a long
but lavishly designed production - the characters were colourful,
like in a Peter Greenaway film - worth almost three hours of
sweat trickling down the back, but not the requisite nearly
four. I finished the month in a ringside seat to the magically
entertaining Circus Oz.
The few sessions of Writers' Week that I attended were convivial - the atmosphere in the warm shade was one of sharing and imbibing. I took the weekend off to go to WOMAD, and while the program wasn't as strong as in past years, it was still great and the ambience was gentle and warm. The Forum Series made a welcome return this year - here was an opportunity to grapple with the objectives and methods of some of the key festival show creators and performers.
I'm still getting acquainted with the visual arts program as some of the exhibitions go on for several more weeks - the 2004 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art doesn't close until 30 May. The hit was the Experimenta House of Tomorrow while the Art Spiegelman exhibition had lots of explanatory doodling by the iconic cartoonist. Universal Playground was a fun place to see a show and hang out but it would have benefited from late evening entertainment from other than DJs.
The next Festival director, Brett Sheehy, said that Adelaide is the perfect festival city because of its size and the ease of getting around to clustered venues and meeting places. Next time, I think I'll just be a tourist in my town and take the whole two weeks off.
David Grybowski
Whilst this year's Festival Of Arts may have seemed reduced when compared to previous ones, there is little doubt that the music component presented approachable performances and repertoire in excellent performances.
Although we did witness superb performances by the famed Welsh baritone Bryn Terfel and the Russian violinist and pianists, Dmitri Sitkovetsky and Boris Berman, the undoubted heroes were the members of Adelaide's own symphony orchestra. In the three weeks or so that made up the Festival programme, they were heard to excellent effect with the Australian Ballet, in the world premiere of Sculthorpe's reconciliatory Requiem, the strings in transcription of Bach and Shostakovich and in the 'cool jazz' inspired world of Mark Anthony Turnage's Blood On The Floor. And in them all, the orchestra gave compelling, sympathetic and highly professional performances.
If I can pick highlights, these undoubtedly lay in the more expansive and contemporary works led by conductors Kristjan Jarvi and Richard Mills who again displayed his unique authority on the podium in contemporary Australian works. (In this case it was Sculthorpe and Conyngham.)
The only question that I have lay in the choice of programming for the annual Symphony Under The Stars. As always with Jarvi, his choice of material was eclectic but at times demanding on the listener. Is the Schoenberg orchestration of the Brahms G minor piano quartet (or for that matter, the bass concerto by New Yorker Gene Pritsker) really suitable material for a family based free concert in Elder Park? It was understandable that Bernstein's 'Symphonic Dances from West Side Story' and the ubiquitous 1812 Overture received a much more positive response from an audience of 30,000.
However whilst Jarvi may have misfired here, elsewhere he excelled - in his two hour exploration of the music of Frank Zappa and in the viscerally affecting jazz based suite Blood On The Floor. Sitkovetsky's call and response stereo effects in his Bach transcription made for an entertaining re-examination of counterpoint at its finest but won't turn me away from my favourite keyboard versions of the Goldberg Variations.
Brett Allen-Bayes
Where does one begin when one has to sum up one's personal faves and highlights of the 2004 Adelaide Fringe Festival? As a reviewer this has been the fifth Fringe that I've worked at, and without taking anything away from any of my past experiences, the overall quality and variety of shows on offer this year seems to have exceeded previous events. Okay, I'm sure I say that every time, but certainly other than the return of old favourites such as 'The Happy Sideshow' and comedians Ross Noble and Fiona O'Loughlin et al, it was some of the many smaller shows and newer acts to the circuit that left me reeling - and rabbiting on for days and days.
Stand up comedy: Daniel Kitson is one name that I'll definitely be looking out for in 2006, as with ex-Adelaidian and natural born comic Dave Williams. UK's James Campbell and his 'Comedy 4 Kids' show was also high on my list. Still in the comedy section (not necessarily stand up), spoken word/ Powerpoint presentation acts such as Bryan Lynagh's 'Culturally Unfit', Kenny Kramer's 'Kramer On Seinfeld', Anthony Yucha's 'What Makes A Man Bare All', Pete Monaghan's 'Stupid But Lucky', Lawrence Lueng's 'Skeptic' and Andrew McClelland's 'Somewhat Accurate History Of Pirates (1550 - 2017)' are among the many new technology- comedians that have begun to appear.
Extreme theatre sports acts also made their way onto my 'best of' list, too. Perth's 'Trip Down The Gutter' goes straight to the head of the class here, but coming in at a close second would be 'Uber Alice - The Elaborate Adventures Of A New Zealand Manicurist'. A strange title yes, but an appropriate one - definitely! Speaking of strange, a special mention must be made here of Jolly Goodfellow's 'Higgedly Piggedly' court jester show. Hmmm, loved it!
Musica and dance: Vika and Linda Bull clearly impressed me more than ever and Spencer P Jones delivered a blistering set despite an extremely disappointing crowd, and we should now all be eagerly awaiting Melbourne jazz combo Frock's return. We didn't get to see The Bird, but percussionist Ben Walsh's solo show 'First Sound' was one show I did go back for. Germany's 'Pandora 88' defied expectations of theatre and dance, and Melbourne based 'B.P.M. (beatsperminute)' did likewise with their high energy, street smart interpretation of jazz, rock, soul, rap and tap dancing. Then there was the 'Tiny Top Tent', 'The Man Who Breathed Through His Eyes' and not forgetting Rocket and Roxy's 'Cirkus Inferno'. And this is just part of my list - whew!
With all the rushing and running around I did, it afelt oddly like I was on some sort of super condensed European holiday and my mission was to see every major tourist attraction within a short time. Amid all the wondrous shows seen and colourful characters met, each day's 'sightseeing' finished up with me wearily writing up my reviews as if I was filling in my travel journal before getting back out there. Now, with the event well and truly behind us, I'm left with a strange feeling that's restless and empty; you could almost say I'm jetlagged.
Steve Jones
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