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February 18, 2016

Four of the Best of the Adelaide Fringe …So Far

Filed under: 2016,Archive,Cabaret,Fringe

The Adelaide Fringe gets ever bigger and more successful. This year an estimated sixty-six thousand citizens turned out for last week’s opening parade marking the beginning of the month long Fringe season. On the same day a record 10,000 tickets were sold. With more than 1100 events and 5000 artists, it is the second largest (and second oldest) Fringe after the legendary Edinburgh fixture.

The venues spread around the Adelaide CBD have all been packed. At Rundle Park, Rymill Park …

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February 17, 2016

Excellent new theatre works worth seeking out in carnival of culture

Adelaide Fringe

Echoes
by Henry Naylor
The Arch, Holden Street Theatre Company
In association with Gilded Balloon, Edinburgh
February 10. Until March 13.

The Last Time I Saw Richard
by Cat Commander
five.point.one
The Bakehouse.
February 16. Until Feb 23.

Red Ink
by Duncan Graham
Tuxedo Cat, Perske Pavillion
February 16. Until Feb 23.

It is not yet “mad March” in Adelaide and already the Fringe, the gargantuan, carnivalesque doppelganger to the Festival has roared into action. For artists and …

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February 08, 2016

Sublime the Revelator

Filed under: 2016,Archive,Music

An Evening with Gillian Welch
Her Majesty’s
February 3.

Some things really are worth the wait. And Adelaide has waited a very long time for a first visit from the incomparable Gillian Welch and her brilliant musical partner David Rawlings. It has been eleven years since they last toured Australia and then it was Eastern States only. This time they drove to South Australia from Perth – 28 hours by car, they proudly report, but- with some regret – not …

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January 11, 2016

Haunting melodies

Ghost : The Musical
Book and lyrics by Bruce Joel Rubin
Music and lyrics by Dave Stewart and Glen Ballard
Based on the Paramount Pictures film written by Bruce Joel Rubin
Ambassador Theatre Group Asia Pacific, GWB Entertainment and Adelaide Festival Centre in association with Colin Ingram, Hello Entertainment and Paramount Pictures.

Festival Theatre, Adelaide Festival Centre.
January 9. Tickets: $ 64.90 – $ 129.90
Bookings : BASS 131246 or bass.net.au
Until January 31.
Duration: 2 hours 45 minutes including …

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December 19, 2015

Introduction to the Currency edition of Maggie Stone by Caleb Lewis

The Rising Debt of Gratitude: Actions and Transactions in Maggie Stone

It was Polonius, in Hamlet who said : “Neither a borrower or a lender be/ For loan oft loses both itself and friend.” He is right, of course, but like much of the old man’s advice to the young prince, it is a platitude; something easier said than done. It is not how we live in the world, because the world won’t let us.

In his insightful, engaging, sometimes …

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The Best of 2015

Filed under: 2015,2016,Archive

“When you hear music,“ jazz saxophonist Eric Dolphy once remarked, “After it’s over, it’s gone, in the air, you can never capture it again.”

In varying degrees that is true of all live performances. They have their moment, their season and then are gone. Sometimes they remain vivid, but eventually, even excellent productions and outstanding performances drift into imperfect recollection and generalised hearsay.

I hope this website, for all its sometimes unwelcome opinions, is a useful record of some of …

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December 01, 2015

Submission to the Senate Inquiry into the Impact of the 2014 and 2015 Commonwealth Budget decisions on the Arts.

Filed under: 2015,Archive,Commentary

Dear Senators

I have been a theatre reviewer for national publications, including The National Times, The Australian Financial Review and currently The Australian, since 1985.

My comments refer particularly to theatre funding in Australia but inferences can be made across all of the performing arts.

I am profoundly concerned by the recent changes to arts funding announced in the 2015 Budget by Senator Brandis : both in the reduction of allocation to the Australia Council and the siphoning of as …

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November 10, 2015

Giggles and japes in a Dream of a show

The Popular Mechanicals
by Keith Robinson, William Shakespeare and Tony Taylor.
From the original direction by Geoffrey Rush.
State Theatre Company of South Australia
Space Theatre, Adelaide Festival Centre.
November 10. Tickets: $ 27 – $ 69.
Bookings : BASS 131246 or www.bass.net.au
Until November 28.
Duration: 90 minutes.

Puck called them “hempen homespuns”, Shakespeare called them Rude Mechanicals : these are the six artisans who perform a daffy royal command performance for the wedding of Theseus and Hippolyta in …

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October 20, 2015

Confronting examination of death and drugs

Mortido
by Angela Betzien
State Theatre Company of South Australia
and Belvoir, Sydney.
Dunstan Playhouse, Adelaide Festival Centre.
October 20. Tickets: $ 27 – $ 69.
Bookings : BASS 131246 or www.bass.net.au
Until October 31 .
Duration: 2 hours 20 minutes.
The Belvoir season opens in Sydney November 11.

“Freud reckoned love and hate, sex and death are twin impulses”, explains the philosophic Detective Grubbe, in Angela Betzien’s brand-new crime psychodrama. “Existence is an endless circle of life and death, …

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October 14, 2015

A Lighter White

The Aspirations of Daise Morrow,
Based on a short story by Patrick White.
Brink Productions with the Zephyr Quartet
Space Theatre, Adelaide Festival Centre.
October 13. Tickets: $ 25 – $ 48.
Bookings : BASS 131246 or www.bass.net.au
Until October 24.
Duration: 80 minutes

Patrick White called his short story Down at the Dump but in their visually captivating , splendidly lucid stage adaptation, Brink Productions have re-named it The Aspirations of Daise Morrow. Aspirations, we know, are things we …

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