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Adelaide Cabaret Festival
A sneak preview.
"I challenge you, Alex Wheaton, to see every show!"
Now that's a challenge, and it's coming from Julia Holt, who as the Artistic Director of the Adelaide Cabaret Festival, knows exactly what she's asking of me.
Perhaps unfairly, I'd asked her to nominate one 'must see' show for the entire three weeks of this year's Cabaret Festival. Given that there's over seventy performances scheduled, I rather suspect I may not live up to the challenge, but I'm prepared to give it my best shot. So too, clearly, is she...
"Like it? Oh yeah! I can't wait to see every thing again," she answers the question emphatically.
"It is diverse isn't it?" she says with a laugh, as we discuss the flow of the whole three week Festival, the programming of which is her principal domain. "I must have a very diverse head, I suppose."
And she'd need it: since the curtain came down on last year's
event Holt has been busily scouring the globe looking for new
artists to attract to Adelaide, making contacts and talking
up our own home-grown event. She's keen to explain that in its
short history, our cabaret festival has become known as one
of excellence, which is why it continues to attract top class
performers, and continues to grow in size. Size, stature, appeal,
a curated event - these are all inter-related aspects.
 She's
found some very exciting new acts, too. Tony Award winning lyricist
and Broadway director Richard Maltby Jnr and David Shire will
perform 'Take Flight', their latest musical. Adelaide hosts
its world premiere in what will be Maltby and Shire's first
Australian visit. As Broadway names, these are two stars of
New York cabaret. Given that a theme of last year's festival
was the New York cabaret scene, do I detect a similar intonation
this year?
"There is a series of themes that run through the whole event," confirms Holt. "We do continue from the last Cabaret Festival - with the themes of classic cabaret - which are essentially fantastic songs which we don't always get to hear.
"Last year we had the New York series and we're going to add to that, and we've also got the 'enchante' series," Holt bubbles, her mobile phone adequately conveying her excitement (she'd telephoned me from Melbourne airport, having flown down from a previous days Sydney media briefing, so part of our conversation was conducted as she waited by the baggage carousel).
Going through the list of such performers as we are going to see here in June is always a fraught exercise for for me. Some I know of (very well)...
Marcia Hines and Denis Olsen, and Robyn Archer makes a return to the cabaret stage. If you think that's good, how about The Bar At Buena Vista, featuring original members of the Buena Vista Social Club? Should be sensational!
... others are names I've never heard before. In a way, it's that sense of discovery which makes events such as the Cabaret Festival so enjoyable to me. From the UK comes BBC radio favourites Kit & The Widow, whose performance is likely to be recorded before a live radio audience; and Micheline Van Hautem who performs in two shows, one of them being the songs of Jacques Brel (well, it wouldn't be a cabaret festival without someone doing the songs of Brel, now would it?).
In the field of contemporary cabaret there is included a strong indigenous component, with 'Ruby's Story', performed by Paul Grabowski & the Australian Art Orchestra with Ruby Hunter and Archie Roach.
There's a sit down satire series... which is purely cabaret in terms of the way it's presented and performed, featuring the likes of previously mentioned Kit & The Widow, Sandman & Flacco, and the star of ABC TV's 'Afterburner', Peter Berner. Apparently, every audience member gets to play bingo with Flacco & Sandman and their band, The Non Seekers.
"You want politically contentious - we've got Peter Berner coming," confirms Holt as we duscuss the differing thrust of cabaret styles through the ages. We'd discussed the Parisienne cabaret scene dating from the late nineteenth century, and its appeal in being political and reflective of social mores. Up to that point, intelligentsia was largely measured in the salons and coffee houses.
"The interesting thing was there was no dB Magazine to get ideas across," she says, sucking up ever-so-slightly. "... the country was largely illiterate. And the best way to get ideas across was to put a tune to them."
Everyone loves a good song. New York cabaret may have that emotional communication, but it may not have been so overtly political, I'd opined.
"Cabaret does have a quite unique way of explaining things. For example, in the Australian cabaret sector we have Peter Fenton and Abbie Dodson (formerly of Crow and now a well known TV drama actor, and formerly of Leonardo's Bride, respectively); their band is called The Bruised Ecstatic Collective - I honestly have no idea where they got the name."
So, back to the idea of 'best shows'. As previously announced in this magazine, the delightful Paris Combo are certainly on the bill, and Robyn Archer's performance in 'Whispering', wherein late at night Archer will perform by request in a one-on-one setting. These are approximately ten minute sessions and the audient chooses from a menu of songs... how neat is that? 'Oh look, she's singing my song!'.
Alex Wheaton
Pix From Top: The Buena Vista Social Club; Maltby and Shire
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dB Magazine is a media partner of
The Adelaide Cabaret Festival, which is held from 11 to
26 June 2004. Tickets are now on sale.
Check out the Adelaide Cabaret Festival website at
www.adelaidecabaret.com |
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