Posts tagged Adelaide Festival

image004

RAW: Le Grand Macabre @ Adelaide Festival Centre

György Ligeti’s Le Grand Macabre is a very dark look at a modern, perverse, lost society in terminal decay about to be wiped out by Nekrotzar. It grotesquely, sarcastically takes a mocking, ironic look at mortality and death.  Set on, inside and around a giant female body, complete with tongue movement, which adds to this bizarre opera, sure is a grand opening to this years Adelaide Festival.

The music score just adds to this insane artwork, opening to jarring car horns, yet so fitting, brought with enormous energy and force, conducted exemplary by Robert Houssart. The only critique on the music would be the pit not allowing the true sound of all instruments to carry to the audience.

The set piece, the crouching body, brilliantly built with arms, legs, buttocks which reveal  inner organs and a moving head, is also used as a projection screen for video footage and lighting effects giving 3D a new or should we say true meaning.

The performers pull this 4 scene,  anti-anti-opera, off in a way that makes it all seem real and a perfectly told drama, yet obviously enjoying themselves.

Kryztoff Rating: 4K

>> Check out more interviews, videos, feature articles and polished previews in our latest Fringe Guidehttp://www.kryztoff.com/fringe

RAW: Jamie Kilstein @ Cinema Nova

This show is full on. The comedy is fired at you at rapid pace. Therefore, word of warning: do not come to this show and expect to relax and stop thinking. You really need to concentrate for the entire duration of the show, if you trail off into your own thoughts for even a millisecond, chances are you’ve lost the story when you come back to earth.

However this is brilliant fast paced comedy. Jamie packs it in and covers a lot within the hour. His favourite topics are religion and the Bible (Christians, might be a good idea to give this show a miss), Obama and the War on Terror, and his rebellious yet awkward teenage years which led him to believe his family hated him.

There are some great true life accounts including unintentional shoplifting and the time his mother gave him cigarettes for Christmas addressed from ‘Santa’.

This American comedian really hits home with a lot of his stories and if you have a good attention span, and welcome some fairly confronting topics this is the show for you!

RAW: The Sapphires

The Sapphires is Australia’s theatrical answer to the American film Dreamgirls.

Set in the late 60s, four indigineous sisters, Gail, Kay, Cynthia and Julie, with powerful, soulful voices embark on a tour in Vietnam, entertaining the troops. Predictably, there are a number of love interests, references to drugs, racism and the War.

Sure the plot is thin at times, and the nods to complex issues, like racial tension, the Vietnam War, lack real substance, but that’s not what The Sapphires is all about. It’s all about fun. It’s a great crowd-pleaser.

Christine Anu, Casey Donovan, Kylie Farmer and Hollie Andrew sparkle as The Sapphires – their soulful vocals fill the Scott Theatre. Hear those fantastic vocalists sing motown classics, including Aretha’s R-E-S-P-E-C-T and I Heard It Through The Grapevine and much, much more.

As part of the Adelaide Festival of Arts, shimmy on down to the Scott Theatre.

Kryztoff Rating: 4K

>> Check out more interviews, videos, feature articles and polished previews in our latest Fringe Guidehttp://www.kryztoff.com/fringe

RAW: Circus Oz – Barely Contained

Circus Oz was all the delight it promised to be. Fast paced acrobatics, innovative routines, multi-talented performers that together were both awe inspiring and immensely entertaining for all ages. In the air-conditioned big top on the Parade Grounds, local girl, Eli Green, as Vanessa, hosted the show and led the dominant female contingent. The by-play between circus strong woman, Mel Fyfe and diminutive Emma Hawkins was great fun that continued all show. If anything the first half is more compelling than the second but opinions may well be divided on this.

A show such as this naturally draws comparison with Circus Soleil. This is a much simpler show that loses nothing for not having the glitz of the other troupe. It is perhaps its more egalitarian approach to performing that not only stamps it generally but also as a truly Australian production. Simple everyday objects for props (glass bottles, wooden chairs, a toaster) and a consistent and effective intermingling of audience and performers makes the show very welcoming.

Great entertainment and it is also great to have Circus Oz back in town for this year’s Festival.

Kryztoff Rating 4.5K

>> Check out more interviews, videos, feature articles and polished previews in our latest Fringe Guidehttp://www.kryztoff.com/fringe