March 19<\/p>\n
Adelaide Fringe 2013
\nFebruary 15 \u2013 March 17<\/p>\n
Second only to its Edinburgh counterpart, the annual Adelaide Fringe, now running over four weeks, has an uncurated program of over 900 events – gathering exponents of cabaret, circus, dance, music, and theatre, as well as hosting more than 360 comedy acts, many limbering up for the next leg to Melbourne.<\/p>\n
Household names and talented newcomers alike, Fringe artists generate an energy, skill and enthusiasm which captivates audiences and galvanises the city.\u00a0 This year attendances were up again by 10.9 percent with more than 400,000 tickets sold.\u00a0 Director Greg Clarke cites a longer season, affordability and audience appeal for the increase.<\/p>\n
With pop-up venues all over town, as well as the established Garden of Unearthly Delights in Rundle Park, the Fringe turned every nook and cranny into a show space. \u00a0In the Garden, at the Big Top, the hyper-acrobatic, hip-hop troupe Circolombia blended physical spectacle with a reminder of the chronic poverty that is Colombian street reality. Elsewhere at the Vagabond, German illusionist Leo, aka Tobias Wegner, climbed walls, moved objects and triumphantly defied \u00a0gravity,\u00a0 using a real time video feed which, in a 90 degree swivel, transformed his strange\u00a0 horizontal contortions into vertical amazement.<\/p>\n
Each year, Holden Street Theatres sponsor recent hit shows from Edinburgh. This time it was UK company Second Shot Productions\u2019\u00a0 Glory Dazed<\/i>, a gritty drama about the impact of \u00a021st century warfare on returning veterans. Devised by writer Cat Jones, in consultation with ex-soldiers from an offenders unit in England, and featuring \u00a0Samuel Edward Coulson in the lead role, it was confronting theatre.<\/p>\n
At The Tuxedo Cat, Melbourne collective ONFG\u2019s \u00a0One for the Ugly Girls<\/i>, by Tahli Corin and featuring Syd Brisbane, Lori Bell and Hannah Norris, provided\u00a0 a shrewd take on the stereotypes of beauty and romantic love. This excellent\u00a0 production has a season at Melbourne\u2019s\u00a0 Malthouse\u00a0 in May.\u00a0 At the Bakehouse, in the monologue I am My Own Wife<\/i>, directed by Craig Behenna, Charles Mayer, deftly presented\u00a0 the extraordinary, true story of Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, a transvestite who survived both the Nazi and Stasi regimes in Berlin.<\/p>\n
In other solo shows, Venezuelan born, Adelaide based, actor Alirio Zavarce\u00a0 presented his energetic and absorbing\u00a0 Book of Loco<\/i>, a freewheeling exploration of life in two hemispheres, the ubiquity of\u00a0 \u201crational madness\u201d and the grief of family loss. And, in another \u00a0Fringe surprise, Emma Beech\u2019s droll and quietly observed Homage to Uncertainty<\/i> proved a sure thing.<\/p>\n
Murray Bramwell<\/p>\n
Published in slightly edited form as \u201cFringe serves up a mixed bag of delights\u201d The Australian, March 19, 2013, p.17.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
March 19 Adelaide Fringe 2013 February 15 \u2013 March 17 Second only to its Edinburgh counterpart, the annual Adelaide Fringe, now running over four weeks, has an uncurated program of over 900 events – gathering exponents of cabaret, circus, dance, music, and theatre, as well as hosting more than 360 comedy acts, many limbering up for the next leg to Melbourne. Household names and talented newcomers alike, Fringe artists generate an energy, skill and enthusiasm which captivates audiences and galvanises […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,5,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-24","category-archive","category-fringe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1931"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1931\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1932,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1931\/revisions\/1932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}