Adelaide Fringe<\/p>\n
Outstanding crop of creativity<\/p>\n
Build a Rocket
\nby Christopher York
\nStephen Joseph Theatre and Tara Finney Productions
\nFebruary 13
\nHolden Street Theatres until March 17<\/p>\n
Games
\nby Henry Naylor
\nGilded Balloon and Redbeard Theatre
\nFebruary 13.
\nHolden Street Theatres until March 16.<\/p>\n
Extinguished Things
\nby Molly Taylor
\nFebruary 13.
\nHolden Street Theatres until March 3.
\nBookings : adelaidefringe.com.au or phone 1300 621 255.
\nDuration: each show 60 minutes.<\/p>\n
With Friday night\u2019s Street Party and Yabarra : the Gathering of Light spectacular along the River Torrens, the Adelaide Fringe is officially switched on. Bigger than ever – 517 venues, 1326 events featuring 7000 artists, including 340 comedy acts and 156 theatre listings.<\/p>\n
For ten years now, Martha Lott, director and producer from Adelaide\u2019s Holden Street Theatres, has been selecting and sponsoring some of the best Fringe theatre to be found. Gathered annually from the Edinburgh Festival and added to her excellent local program, this year\u2019s crop is not only fresh, it is outstanding.<\/p>\n
Build a Rocket<\/em>, the debut play from UK playwright Christopher York, is set in the northern coastal town of Scarborough. Yasmin is a sixteen year old schoolgirl running off the rails. Neglected by her alcoholic mother and smitten with local DJ Danny, she finds herself pregnant, alone and unsupported. When Yasmin decides to keep the baby, a frazzled counsellor\u2019s unlikely challenge to \u201craise someone amazing\u201d triggers her determination.<\/p>\n Directed by Paul Robinson, Serena Manteghi gives a solo, rocket-fuelled performance as Yasmin. Defiant, exhilarated, furious, and proudly devoted to Jack, her growing child, Manteghi presents a young woman dealing with real impediments.<\/p>\n Her fitness as a parent is questioned and things often come unstuck, but York\u2019s text is optimistically buoyant. Yasmin is building a rocket and Manteghi\u2019s unrelenting energy and good humour makes it fly against the odds.<\/p>\n Games<\/em>, by the prolific Henry Naylor, continues his themes of exceptional women in moments of history. Drawing on the actual events leading up to the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, it portrays Helene Mayer, a champion fencer determined to stand outside the politics of Nazi anti-Semitism, and Gretel Bergmann, a Jewish athlete wanting to win to discredit Aryan notions of a master race .<\/p>\n With crisp direction from Louise Skaaning, Sophie Shad and Tessie Orange-Turner are excellent as Mayer and Bergmann, and Naylor shows once again how well he navigates dialectical narrative with clarity and dramatic appeal. Games<\/em> is a winner and a timely lesson in history.<\/p>\n Also returning to Holden Street is Molly Taylor. Last years\u2019s Love<\/em> Letter to the Public Transport System<\/em> was a delight, but her latest Extinguished Things<\/em> is even more accomplished. Returning to her neighbours\u2019 empty house in her hometown in Liverpool, she recalls the life and times of Evie and Alton, a childless couple who befriended her as a teenager.<\/p>\n It is a subtly complex piece, encompassing social change, race, culture, and the extraordinary in the everyday. As both writer and performer, Taylor pitches it splendidly. The modest, but uniquely precious, traces of two extinguished lives are honoured in this tender elegy. It is a Fringe highlight.<\/p>\n Murray Bramwell<\/p>\n Published as \u201cOutstanding crop of creativity\u201d, The Australian<\/em>, February 20, 2019, p.16.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Adelaide Fringe Outstanding crop of creativity Build a Rocket by Christopher York Stephen Joseph Theatre and Tara Finney Productions February 13 Holden Street Theatres until March 17 Games by Henry Naylor Gilded Balloon and Redbeard Theatre February 13. Holden Street Theatres until March 16. Extinguished Things by Molly Taylor February 13. Holden Street Theatres until March 3. Bookings : adelaidefringe.com.au or phone 1300 621 255. Duration: each show 60 minutes. With Friday night\u2019s Street Party and Yabarra : the Gathering […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,5,10,19,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-39","category-archive","category-fringe","category-international","category-theatre"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2992","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=2992"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2992\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2993,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2992\/revisions\/2993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}