2007<\/p>\n
March 29
\nAdelaide<\/p>\n
Adelaide Fringe 07
\nMutzenball
\nby Little Black Box
\nFringe Factory
\nUntil March 31`
\nTickets: $ 20. Bookings at Fringetix. Ph.8418 8666<\/p>\n
B File
\nby Deborah Levy
\nStone\/Castro Company
\nHolden Street Theatre
\n March 26<\/p>\n
Ross Noble \u2013 Fizzy Logic
\nRoyalty Theatre until March 31
\nTickets: $ 40. Bookings at Fringetix. Ph.8418 8666
\nMelbourne International Comedy Festival
\nApril 5 \u2013 21. Ticketmaster 1300 660 013<\/p>\n
Mark Watson
\nNova Cinema 2 until March 31
\nTickets: $29. Bookings at Fringetix. Ph.8418 8666
\nMelbourne International Comedy Festival
\nApril 5 \u2013 29. Ticketmaster 1300 660 013<\/p>\n
Ardal O\u2019Hanlon
\nNova Cinema 2 until March 31.
\nTickets: $ 29.
\nBookings at Fringetix. Ph.8418 8666
\nMelbourne International Comedy Festival
\nApril 5 \u2013 29. Ticketmaster 1300 660 013<\/p>\n
Fiona O\u2019Loughlin
\nNova Cinema 2 until March 31.
\nTickets: $29.90. Bookings at Fringetix. Ph.8418 8666
\nMelbourne International Comedy Festival
\nApril 5 \u2013 29. Ticketmaster 1300 660 013<\/p>\n
The Adelaide Fringe is rolling into its final weekend and newly appointed Artistic Director, Christie Anthoney, can now enjoy the ride. The shift to annual rotation has had its pressures but even by the midway point the Fringe was registering target sales of a hundred thousand tickets. Its claim to being the biggest such event outside Edinburgh still conspicuously stands, with the flow of registrations proving almost as strong as last year. But without the Adelaide Festival to provide that solid presence against which the Fringe can play the noisy younger sibling, the sprawling, amorphous nature of the event is more evident than usual.<\/p>\n
Characterising the Fringe is reminiscent of the three blind men each claiming to describe an elephant. With so many aspects to the program \u2013 comedy, cabaret, theatre, music, literature, visual arts, kids\u2019 programs and other specialties \u2013 it is hard to know which part of the pachyderm one is talking about. It might be a large ear, a leg, or, as is sometimes the case, something perilously close to the tail. <\/p>\n
Uncurated and – unlike the Festival – unable to provide direct support to participants, the Fringe is hostage to the goodwill, optimism and resourcefulness of its participants. As in Edinburgh, the comedy cohort, many of them very familiar suspects from radio and TV, can count on celebrity to sell tickets for shows getting match fit for the Melbourne Comedy Festival. For theatre companies, it is a tougher deal and, in past years, some have crashed and burned for want of audiences. This year, the Holden Street Theatres proved a successful venue, and the Black Lung Theatre reached near cult status with its season in temporary digs in a gamy part of Hindley Street. But the theatre offerings, with notable exceptions, have been strong on determination and enthusiasm and short on polish, worldliness and flair. <\/p>\n
Usually there are headliners from Edinburgh to set some pace. This time, the excellent Guy Masterson has obliged with his Dylan Thomas shows and Irish actor, Aidan Dooley, with his memorable account of unsung Antarctic hero, Tom Crean. But such actorly shows have been fewer \u2013 and in 2009 let\u2019s hope they will be more plentiful. Instead, local and interstate companies, such as Black Lung, Ignite, My Darling Patricia and Little Black Box have opted for more experimental, intuitive and, sometimes, roughly formed offerings. <\/p>\n
Mutzenball, a lively late night cabaret, directed by Daisy Brown and propelled by musician Mario Spate features revelations, meditations and accusations on the sex lives of four performers who pout, squirm and simulate but also reflect on doubts, anxieties and inhibitions in ways that suggest Gen Y, also, has as many questions as it has answers. <\/p>\n
.Stone\/Castro bring menace and humour in a disturbing mix to B File, a series of skits where two border guards question three women \u2013 all called Beatrice \u2013 in passport checks which turn into interrogations in multiple languages, misleadingly translated and spiraling each of the bewildered travelers into Kafkaesque anxiety. Crisply directed by Paulo Castro and featuring Jo Stone, Paolo Dos Sandos and Karen Lawrence, B File is a timely venture into the political absurd. <\/p>\n
The comedy in the Fringe (or at least my part of the elephant – there were about a hundred listings) is determinedly personal and anecdotal rather than global and political. Although, the centrifugal energy of Ross Noble\u2019s fizzy logic seems to leap buildings in a single bound. With a snazzy decor of huge silver inflatable spheres \u2013 atoms ? He refers to them as bollocks \u2013 Noble could be fronting a TV science show. He is a nimble, witty talent and his two hour odyssey is an audience delight . <\/p>\n
Diffidence is a frequent, but risky, comic strategy and, first time touring here, Welshman Mark Watson is testing it with Australian audiences. He finds rapport, when describing muggers who call him mate and beggars who ask for more than a pound. But he can\u2019t find anyone with a watch who can tell the correct time and wonders aloud why his gryphon joke doesn\u2019t work. He is bookish, mild and his comedy has a likeable slow fuse. <\/p>\n
Father Dougal McGuire, known to viewers of Father Ted as the most gormless priest in Christendom, is the alter ego of Ardal O\u2019Hanlon who, while using the occasional Dougal blank look, is an altogether more querulous character with plenty to say on wives, mothers and the Pope, as well as canine jokes for Inky the guide dog in the audience. Personable in his crankiness, O\u2019Hanlon is instructively funny on bubble wrap, Irish folktales and the lifecycle of pyjamas. <\/p>\n
Also outstanding on domestic detail is Alice Springs mother of five \u2013 \u201cdon\u2019t expect me to name them off the top of my head\u201d \u2013 Fiona O\u2019Loughlin, whose cheerful confessions of maternal negligence and cigarette and vodka delinquency are like a get-out-of-jail card to audiences, especially women, who find this deliciously poised comedy exhilarating in its irreverence.<\/p>\n
Murray Bramwell<\/p>\n
\u201cThriving outside Festival\u2019s shadow\u201d The Australian, March 30, 2007, p.16. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
2007 March 29 Adelaide Adelaide Fringe 07 Mutzenball by Little Black Box Fringe Factory Until March 31` Tickets: $ 20. Bookings at Fringetix. Ph.8418 8666 B File by Deborah Levy Stone\/Castro Company Holden Street Theatre March 26 Ross Noble \u2013 Fizzy Logic Royalty Theatre until March 31 Tickets: $ 40. Bookings at Fringetix. Ph.8418 8666 Melbourne International Comedy Festival April 5 \u2013 21. Ticketmaster 1300 660 013 Mark Watson Nova Cinema 2 until March 31 Tickets: $29. Bookings at Fringetix. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-359","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive","category-fringe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359","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=359"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":809,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359\/revisions\/809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}