Opening at the Festival Theatre to a near full house it’s not difficult to see why Riverdance quickly developed into a full stage show which has now been seen by some  22 million people worldwide throughout 32 countries over 16 years, after it originated as a 7 minute performance during an interval of the 1994 Eurovision Song Contest.

In essence it is the story of the Irish culture and of the Irish immigration to America and originally choreographed by Michael Flatley consisting mainly of traditional Irish stepdancing.

This performance is a mesmerizing masterpiece combining the Irish stepdancing and the beautiful score composed by Bill Whelan, which is wonderfully played by the band directed by Guy Rickarby, and sung by very  talented singers including an amazing angelic solo passage.

In contrast to the Irish stepdancing which is known for its rapid leg movements while body and arms are kept very rigid, there are several amazing Flamenco performances by Rocio Montoya and the very entertaining Tappers, Kelly Isaac and Michael E. Wood who also performs a baritone solo.

Definitely a must see for the whole family, Riverdance is full of energy and Irish happiness. Beware some new young dancers may be discovered during the interval of this 2 hour performance.

Book tickets here: http://www.adelaidefestivalcentre.com.au/?cat=3355&id=183643

http://www.riverdance.com/

Kryztoff Rating   5K

By Peter Maddern

A bare black stage is all patrons get as the house lights go down. A topless male dancer arrives, flops to the floor on his shoulder, stands and flops again and then again – Circa is away. Former Adelaide based member of Cirkidz, Jarred Dewey, then delivers a spellbinding solo exhibition of flexibility, virtuosity and grace. Blink twice and you may capture a still in your mind of extreme poise, balance and physical magic beautifully lit for effect. (If Crows supporters think Taylor Walker has some moves, then after you see Mr Dewey you will only be able to compare him to the most able of your aging local EFM participants.)

Circa brags about bringing circus to dance, but is it all only a marketing spin to another contemporary dance show? No, there is everything you would expect at a circus; a graceful and awesome trapeze performance, a hoop dance that makes you question if it is not a result of magic and a red stiletto dancer prancing her way over the bare torso of one of the males in a new twist on the strong man act.

But whereas circus acts can just seem to go on and on at times, drawing applause with diminishing enthusiasm, artistic director Yaron Lifschitz has structured his show so that each segment has a character of its own, musical accompaniment of great variety and relevance, all there with humour and a seeming devil may care attitude by the dancers to their own well being, all of which draws oohs and ahhs and spontaneous recognition from an audience like the best big top can generate.

The aforementioned Dewey is a physical marvel matched only by the entire cast’s ability to execute their routines without, it seems, either perspiring or sucking in the big ones. So why only 75 minutes, can’t you keep this up for another hour?

May seems to be dance month in Adelaide this year and unless Leigh Warren and his troupe have some real surprises in store tonight, Circa comfortably tops the ratings. What a show, what strength, what grace, what characters.

By Douglas Abbott

By Peter Maddern

Allied to Namatjira, the show (just concluded), is Namatjira, the exhibition, on now at the Artspace until 27^th May.

The Hermannsburg School that promoted the use of water colours of outback scenes by indigenous painters, of which Albert Namatjira is the most famous exponent but with which the Namatjira name remains actively synonymous is really the focus and then particularly its current exponents. To be sure, a retrospective of either Albert’s work or the best of those who have come before over the past 50 years this is not.

Still, within the basic parameters of the style – white gums in the foreground, purple / blue distant ranges and accentuated red rocks in the landscape between them – there is much individual nuance and vision to be appreciated in this adaptation of the white man’s way to depict the land but as seen through indigenous eyes.

By Robert Hannaford of Trevor Jamieson - winning entry in the Salon des Refuses Exhibition - 2011

Douglas Kwarlple Abbott has five works of which his three of the Finke River are the most stunning with brilliant reds used for the soil offset by grey green saltbush or scrubby mulga growing throughout the dry creek bed. Mervyn Rubuntja’s two works also standout along with Peter Tjutatja Taylor’s Mt Sonder.

What works of Albert there are (and it is a pity that a decent retrospective of his works could not have been mustered for the occasion) are in the ‘Museum’ section and include a lovely water colour of the Hermannsburg mission itself and seven wooden pieces. But to be honest, these alone hardly warrant the effort to attend.

Also, scattered throughout the walls are portraits done by the resident artists on stage with the show. Local doyen portraitist, Robert Hannaford has three, as does Michael Peck and Evert Ploeg four, all bar one of all of these is of Trevor Jamieson, the lead actor in Namatjira, the show.

While understanding that their presence is a means to drive sales and thus returns for the show and exhibition promoter Big hART’s work near Alice Springs, they do tend to make for a bit of hodge podge of an exhibition, these styles being so different to the Namatjira style that it is meant to be promoting.

Kryztoff Rating  3K

There is a man (Rory Walker), a woman (Jacqy Phillips), a girl (Danielle Catanzariti) and a boy (Thomas Conroy); while their characters shift from scene to scene and their names change slightly, they always remain essentially the same. How they relate to each other is not always clear; at times even they do not know – are they siblings, parents, friends, acquaintances, lovers, all of the above? In some way, many ways, they are connected, coming together in fractured glimpses, as the worlds link through the ether. The performances of the four actors are intense, captivating and moving. They are an accomplished ensemble who respond well to one another and bring to life the poetic beauty inherent in Bloom’s text.

As each scene morphs into the next, the set (Wendy Todd) and lighting (Geoff Cobham) cleverly adapt to create a different space and feeling. Tying the scenes together, and combining the segmented snippets into a whole experience, is the music. From the opening haunted notes, the songs roll around you like an enveloping blanket. Whether it is the instrumental soundtrack created live on stage by Music Director Hilary Kleinig, or the verses performed by the actors in each scene, it is appropriate, enchanting and exquisite.

The whole performance could be likened to a song. While you might not understand every line of the lyrics, the melody is entrancing and it’s the overall feeling that is important, that touches your soul. Of course, not all people have the same taste in music and, likewise, not everyone will enjoy this show. However, those who can appreciate theatre as an experience rather than just an exercise in storytelling will reap the rewards on offer from this production.

Kryztoff Rating: 4K

By Miriam Keane

Frank is an aging university lecturer, barely managing to keep his fondness for a drink or six from ending his teaching career and forced to take on extra students through the Open University to fund his liquid love. Enter Rita, a bubbly young woman from one of the local estates who wants to learn everything she can about art, literature, culture and the world. Her outlook on life is a refreshing and invigorating challenge for Frank, who had become more than a little disillusioned with teaching, and together they fight the battle to provide Rita with the knowledge necessary to sit her final exam.

The Bakehouse stage, which is ordinarily a claustrophobic black box, has been transformed with an all-encompassing and well-designed set (from Peter Green and Pamela Munt), representing Frank’s university office, which takes up the whole area and makes it seem positively spacious. Piles of books, an old leather armchair, a filing cabinet and other various knick-knacks, fill the space and create a detailed and pleasing environment in which the two characters interact.

This is a play of many scenes, all taking place in the same setting but needing to be separated to illustrate the progression of time from one to another. The blackouts in between were filled with snippets of music which, while good to tie the show together, came from a rather incongruous blend of eras and thus felt a little anachronistic in a play quite clearly of a specific time period, as illustrated by costumes and character attitudes.

Roger Newcombe gives an enjoyable performance as Frank, showing the character’s intelligence and affability but also revealing his jaded view of the world. His portrayal of the character when drunk was particularly well done, finding just the right level of loss of control to appear realistic. Ruth Fallon as Rita is a fitting match for him, presenting a friendly, unpretentious and naïve persona. Her accent is good and generally consistent, and she manages to portray Rita’s latent intellect despite her rough exterior and unprivileged upbringing. The interaction of the characters is natural and the actors respond to one another well.

However, there is one area in which the performances do fall down and this is with regards to the variation in energy throughout the play. Director Peter Green does not seem to have managed to get either character to quite hit the emotional highs and lows apparent in the script, with them rather progressing along at a consistent level, resulting in a lack of the passion expected. In particular, Rita never quite encompasses the enthusiasm and vivaciousness suggested during the early scenes and, consequently, her transformation throughout the play is not as dramatic or impactful as it had the potential to be.

This is a solid and pleasant performance of an interesting play, though it does not quite reach its potential.

Kryztoff Rating: 3K

The story mixes US navy personnel stationed amongst local French and Polynesians on a Solomon island and centres around two budding but problematic loves; Ensign Nellie Forbush’s (Emma Gordon-Smith) with local Frenchman Emile De Becque (John Greene) and Lt Joseph Cable’s (Angus Birdseye) with local girl Liat (Celeste Barone). To pull on heart strings of the immediate post war era, the story has it all – the boys who didn’t come home, the rampaging of US servicemen when not fighting, bravery in the face of fire, victory and, of course, ‘true’ love.

Emma Gordon-Smith does a powerfully good job as the innocent girl from Little Rock and John Greene nicely straddles playing the lonely man who remains suave and sophisticated in the face of a fairly primitive local population. Birdseye could have done with more beef on him but he possesses a fine voice and on that score, Carolyn Mesecke as Bloody Mary, the local matron and wheeler dealer of the island stood out.

Angus Smith as Luther Billis, the knockout SeaBee looking for angles to get amongst the local female inhabitants, is also another strong performer and nicely cast as Bloody Mary’s foil.

The fourteen- strong orchestra was up the task as well under Musical Director Trish Spence, and while the stage design was predictable, Lisa Ciossi’s lighting continued to keep it all fresh.

You are not going to get a better amateur theatre company rendition of this or any similar musical than the Met’s South Pacific. Those attending who were almost universally there to trip out on that memory lane lapped it all up, even if the somewhat ridiculous start time for a three hour show meant the finale rolled round at an hour well past most of their usual lights out time. Well done to all.

The Albert Namatjira story has it all and Scott Rankin’s Namatjira (created with the Namatjira family) skilfully lays it all out without obvious bias – the piss being taken out of white and black fellas in equal part, the shortcomings of each glaringly obvious.

For the production, Rankin greets patrons with lead actor, Trevor Jamieson, sitting in evocative light being painted by Robert Hannaford. Behind is a distinctly Namatjira / Hermannsburg school mural of a mighty outback range in purple and white on which surviving close members of Albert’s family are working with their oils.

From there the show is Jamieson’s playing a great variety of roles from narrator to Albert himself, assisted by young Derik Lynch and Rhia Parker on a variety of wind instruments, as the life story of Albert Namatjira is told.

Jamieson is quite a talent. Without a misstep he brings to life his various characters adding a variety of skills to his straight acting such as dancing and even some cracking of the stock whip. Lynch provides a delightful foil, excelling in a number of female roles, though monarchists may blush at his portrayal of the young Queen Elizabeth. Parker toils away in the right hand corner, leading an excellent but not excessive musical, sound and lighting accompaniment. Can’t say I am all that sure why Hannaford was paid to sit in the corner and sketch, so hopefully someone can enlighten me.

There is nothing in the razzle, dazzle line about Namatjira but the story is an interesting, moving and (sadly still) a contemporary one. Jamieson deserves far more attention than he gets and as truly Australian sagas, there are few better.

Epitaph/Anti Founder Brett Gurewitz Receives Independent Spirit Award

Bad Religion Founding Member/ Guitarist Honoured At Los Angeles Ceremony
Brett Gurewitz, founder of independent powerhouse labels Epitaph and Anti- and guitarist/songwriter for the venerated Southern California band Bad Religion, will be awarded the prestigious National Association of Recording Merchandiser’s (NARM) Independent Spirit Award today at a ceremony in Los Angeles.

“I’m flattered and honoured to receive NARM’s Independent Spirit Award and to be recognized for my work in the independent music business community that means so much to me,” Gurewitz said of this honour.

Established in 1958, NARM is a non-profit trade association for the business of music, spearheading the implementation of initiatives to promote music commerce, and advocating for common interests. Past recipients of the Independent Spirit Award include Rachelle and Joe Friedman, founders of J&R Music & Computer World in New York; Don Van Cleave, formerly the President of the Coalition of Independent Music Stores (CIMS); and Tom Silverman, Founder and CEO of Tommy Boy Entertainment.

Gurewitz co-founded seminal punk band Bad Religion in 1979, playing guitar and writing some of the band’s best-known songs, including “Infected” and “21st Century (Digital Boy).” The band’s acclaimed albums How Could Hell Be Any Worse? and Suffer are widely considered among the best punk albums of all time, and their Atlantic Records release Stranger Than Fiction has been certified Gold. Bad Religion continues to record and release albums, their latest The Dissent of Man, reaching #35 on the Billboard 200 chart.

In 1987, Gurewitz established Epitaph Records, envisioning it as an artist-friendly label in which bands would maintain complete control over their music. The label was soon selling more than 1 million records a year, but really took off in 1994 with the release of The Offspring’s Smash, which has sold more than 11 million copies, followed by Rancid’s Out Come The Wolves which was certified platinum as well as gold records by Pennywise and NOFX. These successes established Epitaph as one of the most prominent independent rock labels in the U.S. In 1998, the label signed the iconic artist Tom Waits. Inspired by the move, Gurewitz formed Anti-Records, an imprint of Epitaph dedicated to serving a more eclectic and less classically punk roster. Anti has since released Grammy-winning albums from influential musicians such as Booker T. Jones, Mavis Staples, Solomon Burke and Tom Waits, who has also achieved Gold status with the 2006 release of Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers and Bastards and the 1999 release of Mule Variations.

For more information:
www.epitaph.com

The Brian Jonestown Massacre  with The Raveonettes

2012 Australian Tour

Principal Entertainment are proud to present legendary psychedelic rockers The Brian Jonestown Massacre along with Danish indie rock duo The Raveonettes in Australia together for the first time this May!

Australian audiences would need no introduction to The Brian Jonestown Massacre or indeed to their enigmatic musical director Anton Newcombe. The psychedelic collective have been embraced by Australian fans who have rewarded the band with numerous sold out shows in the past with punters eager to see what the next genre defying salvo delivered by Newcombe and his cohorts will be.

The next quiver from Newcombe’s musical bow is the forthcoming album Aufheben which will be released in Australia on April 30^th 2012. Aufheben or Aufhebung is a German word with several seemingly contradictory meanings, including “to lift up”, “to abolish”, or “to sublate”. The term has also been defined as “abolish,” “preserve,” and “transcend.” In philosophy, aufheben is used by Hegel to explain what happens when a thesis and antithesis interact.

Aufheben was recorded in Berlin in Anton Newcombe’s studio & the infamous East German Radio Station “Studio East” Featuring Matt Hollywood an original member of the band plays on this album. It also features Will Carruthers (Spacemen 3, Spritualized), Constatine Karlis (Dimmer),  & Thibault Pesenti (Rockcandys). Plus vocal performances by Eliza Karmasalo (in Finnish)

As an even bigger treat for Australian fans The Brian Jonestown Massacre will be joined in Australia by the fabulous Raveonettes. When you’ve had a cult fan base for as long as The Raveonettes have, it’s only a matter of time before some of your most loyal of acolytes begin branching out and make their own kinds of beautiful noise.

In recent times, the musical DNA of Sune Rose Wagner and Sharin Foo has been cropping up with such regularity that it prompted the British music press staple NME.com to declare the Danish duo to be responsible for sparking “America’s pop renaissance.” It was a long overdue tip of the hat which drew comparisons between the Raveonettes’ melodic magic and such modern tunesmiths as The Drums, Best Coast, Vivian Girls, Dum Dum Girls and even British bands like The Vaccines and Glasvegas.

After the best part of a decade honing their instantly recognizable sound and seeing it co-opted by so many other bands aspiring for a similar level of greatness, Sharin and Sune are blazing a newer, darker trail with their brilliant fifth album ‘Raven In The Grave’. “I think we have finally hit on something quite important and different for this album,” explains Sune. “This is the first Raveonettes album we’ve done which doesn’t feature the signature Raveonettes surf drumbeat. None of the tunes have any real sunshine to them. It’s all very un-Rave.” “It has a mood of ethereal defiance,” Sharin adds. “It’s dark but not bleak, like the single minded determination caused by crisis that is not quite hope but just as powerful.

WHEN / WHERE  Sunday-20TH MAY- Adelaide- THE GOV

TICKETS FROM www.moshtix.com.au

Kryztoff has a double pass to giveawy to The Brian Jonestown Massacre on Sunday 20th May. To win let us know the name of the BJM musical director at win@kryztoff.com by 5pm tomorrow (Thursday evening) to go into the draw.

The projects include feature film Tracks adapted from the best selling book by Robyn Davidson; a three part TV series, Hannah Gadsby’s Oz; a half hour TV documentary, Disassembly Line; and Time Tremors, a Canadian/Australian transmedia co-production.

SAFC Chair Cheryl Bart said, “We are thrilled to be supporting such a diverse and exciting slate of South Australian projects. The local industry has been kicking serious goals lately, both commercially as well as creatively, and the fact that so many of our local production companies are getting their films and television projects financed is the best signal of the momentum that we have right now.”

Tracks is produced by Emile Sherman, Iain Canning of See-Saw Films and Julie Ryan of South Australia’s Cyan Films (producer of Red Dog) and directed by John Curran. It is based on the true story of Robyn Davidson’s journey through the Australian desert.

The three part ABC Artscape series, Hannah Gadsby’s Oz follows comedian Hannah Gadsby, a self-described closet art scholar armed with a rapier wit and a desire to discover Australia’s cultural identity. The series is directed by Matthew Bate, and produced by Rebecca Summerton of Closer Productions.

Disassembly Line is a half hour documentary co-commissioned by ABC TV and Screen Australia, written and directed by Madeleine Parry. The film follows Parry as she enlists at her local abattoir to reveal the hidden experience of the men who kill what we eat.  The film is produced by Daniel Joyce of Projector Films.

The People’s Republic of Animation has teamed up with Canada’s Xenophile Media to create Time Tremors. This transmedia children’s fantasy is a Canadian and Australian Broadcasting Corporation co-production. It is produced by Patrick Crowe (Xenophile Media) and Sam White (People’s Republic of Animation).

The Babadook, produced by Kristina Ceyton (Causeway Films) and Kristian Moliere (Smoking Gun Productions) which is written and will be directed by Jennifer Kent, was also approved to receive a $780,000 cashflow loan from the SAFC’s Revolving Film Fund in addition to $250,000 in SAFC investment funding approved in March.