Adelaide Fringe keeps them shows coming

Not Todays YesterdayLast weekend, Australian Arts Review headed across to the South Australian Capital to check out some of the delights on offer at the 2018 Adelaide Fringe. While we were there, we took the opportunity to meet with some of the 6000 artists appearing in this year’s program. As the 2018 Adelaide Fringe enters its final week, we take a look at twelve shows that took our fancy:

The Abersham Flat
The Nook at The Producers: continues to 18 March
In 2015 a conman named Andy moved into Aidan ‘Taco’ Jones’ flat in London and started systematically defrauding the other flatmates out of hundreds of pounds. Aidan wrote a blog about it every week and released it in secret, but eventually Andy disappeared with everyone’s money. Also that year his parents split up after 23 years together, he spoke to my biological father for the first time in his life, had his heart broken, and his laptop was confiscated by police during a fraud investigation. The last one was Andy’s fault actually, and he never paid me back – this is the story.

After Hours Cabaret Club
La Petite Grande at Gluttony: continues to 18 March

With enough sass, charm and decadence to power a moonshine distillery, the After Hours Cabaret Club is where the hottest burlesque, cabaret, sideshow & circus stars go to let loose after working their glamorous show all over the Fringe. With a cast of award-winning performers including cabaret darling Tash York, Australian Burlesque Icon Kelly Ann Doll, vaudeville extraordinaire David Splatt, plus a five-piece band and a bevy of world class guest artists – witness the creme-de-la-creme of the carnie world do things you’ve never seen before, and may never see again. It’s dangerously debauched, scandalously sophisticated and outrageously unpredictable.

Bush Gothic
Plaza Parlour at Royal Croquet Club: 10 & 11 March
Counter-culturalists who have internalised the creed of bushrangers, Bush Gothic assert their rebellious intentions by lovingly re-arranging traditional Australian Folk Music until the unfashionable is transformed into daring beauty. Colonial folk queen and band leader, Jenny M Thomas is joined by double-bassist Dan Witton and drummer Chris Lewis, forming the most daring of Australian bush bands, performing songs of criminal women and desperate men from an era of transportation, adventure and gold

Deep Space
Back Gallery at FELTspace: continues to 24 March
Steph Fuller is a South Australian Visual Artist working with photography and the moving-image. In her debut immersive moving-image work, Deep Space, Fuller recreates the vastness of space with the small and insignificant. Watch stars shoot across the Milky Way. Watch an aurora dance along the Earth’s horizon. See the Earth spinning below the International Space Station.

Grace
Tuxedo Cat: continues to 18 March
Repressed femininity explodes onto the stage as comedian Alfie steps out for the first time as Zora. It’s time for her to compere a comedy gig on her own. Starring Katie Reddin-Clancy, Grace is about power, love, letting go, winning the internal war and becoming who your soul intended you to be. Witty, passionate and captivating storytelling that stretches what you dare to believe is true.

Kind of Something Unusual
Raj House: continues to 18 March
James Smith is an Adelaide based artist who loves to immerse himself in the arts and the work he creates – an opportunity to escape everyday realities and express his wild imagination. An artist who isn’t afraid to explore and change up familiar territory, Kind of Something Unusual features works erupting with colour and creativity, bringing forward a diverse style of quirky imagery inspired by Basquiat, Keith Haring and Noel Fielding. Expect to see something new!

No Frills Cabaret
Empyrean at Gluttony: continues to 18 March
After an award winning, sell-out Melbourne season, this ground-breaking show strips away the glitz, glamour and over-the-top lighting to leave you with what you need! 80kg of circus, a truckload of acrobatics, a healthy dose of comedy and a tonne of danger. No Frills is bringing highly skilled performers showcasing raw, unique and true performances that will either make you awe in astonishment of what the human body can do or make you realise how unfit you truly are. Featuring regular show stopping performances by Chris Carlos, Malia Walsh, Matt Casey, Anna Fisher & Amanda Lee plus a rotating cast of local and interstate circus superstars – this is one show not to be missed!

Not Today’s Yesterday
Holden St. Theatre: continues to 15 March
Once upon a time… in a faraway land… it happened… did not happen… could have happened. History is passed on like stories from generation to generation. But what if the stories are not what they seem? An International collaboration between UK award-winning Bharatanatyam artist Seeta Patel and Australian choreographer Lina Limosani, Not Today’s Yesterday blends techniques from Bharatanatyam, contemporary dance & theatre to create a poetic narrative that has the beauty & disquiet of a Grimm’s fairy-tale. It is a one-woman show which subversively co-opts whitewashing against itself.

Puberty Blues
Stirling Community Theatre: 13, 15 & 17 March
Puberty Blues is an iconic Australian coming of age story following the lives of two teenage girls, Debbie and Sue, in the 1970’s surfing scene. Their lives revolve around male surfers, panel vans, straight-leg Levi’s, skipping school, getting wasted and fitting in. When the girls finally are accepted into the Greenhills Surfer gang their lives are turned upside down as they are forced to grow up much sooner than they should. This original work, written specifically for Deadset Theatre Company with the blessing of the book’s creators, Kathy Lette and Gabrielle Carey, Puberty Blues is a raw, disturbing and honest portrayal of adolescence in the 1970s.

Jason Williams – Straight from the Top
Band Room at Crown & Anchor Hotel: continues to 17 March
In his first solo show, Darwin comedian, Jason Williams brings his honest observations and luckless stories to South Australia. A National RAW Comedy finalist (2017), Jason plans to provoke thoughts and dance along the line of your sensibilities in his unique, straight-shooting style.

Ugly Duckling
Raj House: continues to 18 March
Duckie is well… an ugly duck, she’s also adopted, a Z grade socialite and suffers dysmorphic delusions of grandeur. Growing up with her faith in the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale, she’s very discombobulated to find that only signets NOT ducks transform into beautiful swans. However Duckie won’t allow mere genetics to stand in her way as she utilises surgery, celebrity, Botox and fillers to fulfill her self-appointed birthright. Ugly Duckling is a cabaret told through song and spoken word, performed by Karla Hillam, written and directed by the multi-award winning international cabaret artiste Spanky, and musical direction by Andrew Kroenert.

Undercover Refugee
The Niche at The Producers: continues to 18 March
Based on Karen Houge’s real journey as a documentary maker, she and David Tann bring you a funny and heartfelt story about following Syrian refugees from Greece and into Europe. Blending comedy, shadow puppetry and documentary, Undercover Refugee reveals refreshing stories from the refugee trail of police, volunteers and the refugees far from the image often presented by mainstream media.

The 2018 Adelaide Fringe continues to Sunday 18 March. For more information, visit: www.adelaidefringe.com.au for details.

Image: Not Today’s Yesterday (supplied)

Note: Australian Arts Review’s Rohan Shearn was a guest of Adelaide Fringe.