The Fringe Festival of Cabaret in Adelaide continues the reputation of Fringe festivals which have provided many of the sleepers, surprises and outright hits of the Adelaide Festival season.
Since the Festival itself is having a bye this year the Fringe has been at centre stage in the Living Arts Centre which has turns at being the empty hulk of Fowler’s “Lion” factory and the venue for some of the liveliest cabaret comedy and music ever seen in Adelaide.
The program has offered nearly 30 acts from all around the country and for two weeks has attracted enthusiastic houses and some impressive sponsorship as well as forging productive links with the Adelaide Festival Centre.
Chris Willems’ Son of Romeo is a droll time-lapse mime show unfolding the edited highlights of the tragedy of R and J. The comedy really broadens with its depiction of Paris as an upper class twit and the appearance of a barking dog during Romeo’s secret tryst in the garden.
In contrast, Willems allows himself some eloquent hand mime and while Romeo dies by poison, hara-kiri, gunshot wounds and finally hanging, the death of Juliet is a fragile and balletic performance.
The music by Willems and Stuart Day deserved special mention.
Vitalstatistix provided a Fabulous Apron fashion parade. As compere, Effie le Petit Mange from the House of Hoxton, Margaret Fischer nicely lampoons the tyrannies of the catwalk and kitchen while models, Roxxy Bridges and Ollie Black parade a succession of preposterous garments in an uneven but amiably zany show.
Tick Where Applicable, a hit from last year’s Fringe, were back like a very manic Two Stooges as they choke on tennis balls, mutilate their ears with rubberbands and deliver a hectic routine of good and very bad jokes. These Tics are more like convulsions but they provide a good night’s brain damage.
Evelyn Krape was back in town with her particular patent on hilarity as she whizzes from her demure mode into frantic slapstick.
And frantic is certainly the word for Sydney’s Funny Stories. These five comics blend every tasteless and excessive kind of satire, slapstick and vaudeville into an hilarious set which includes those unrivalled spivs, The Portnoy Brothers and Tombstone, a chainsmoker nonchalantly drooling blood.
The humour is often downright sinister but the pace and the interplay with the audience ensures that Funny Stories guide us through their nightmares to at least a measure of safety at the end.
The Fringe Festival of Cabaret has also featured established acts like The Phones, Los Trios Ringbarkus, who have extended their season in the Playhouse, and The Flying Pickets, from the UK, who brilliantly reminded us that political theatre does not have to be like Sunday School.
Fringe co-ordinator, Rosemary Miller, is seeking assurance that the Living Arts Centre will continue to be available for next year’s Festival. With a program of this calibre and popularity she has a compelling case to offer.
The National Times, June 21, 1985, p.32.