Fest Adelaide 2020 Preview Issue by Fest Magazine

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Festival Preview

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2020 2019 Previews | City Guide | Venue Map

Director George Sully Editor-in-Chief Rosamund West Co-editors Laura Desmond & Ben Venables Artworker Phoebe Willison Cover art direction Rachael Hood Cover illustration Viktoria Mladenovski Digital manager Alexander Smail Sales and events executives Ollie Marshall & Sarah Norris

Writing Team Lauren Butterworth, Alexis Buxton-Collins, Joe Hay, Letti K-Ewing, Justin McArthur, Kylie Maslen, Molly the Kelpie, Esther Rivers Radge Media Commercial director Sandy Park General manager Laurie Presswood

Contact fest-mag.com hello@fest-mag.com @festmag

Published by Radge Media Limited., c/o BDO Advisory SA Pty, Level 7, 420 King William St, Adelaide SA 5000, ABN 82609560817. Registered in UK 1.9 Techcube, Summerhall, 1 Summerhall, Edinburgh, Scotland EH9 1PL. Every effort has been made to check the accuracy of the information in this magazine, but we cannot accept liability for information which is inaccurate. Show times and prices are subject to changes – always check with the venue. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in whole or in part without the explicit permission of the publisher. The views and opinions expressed within this publication do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of the printer or the publisher. Printed by Finsbury Green Pty Ltd, 1-1A South Rd, Thebarton SA 5031. Distributed by poster-distribution.com.au

Contents

Cabaret 35 Witching Hour

How to Change Your Mind

Doing the right thing; at the festivals and in life

Wundes on the wonders of black magic

Comedy 40 How About Now? Straight out of the Book of Morman we chat to AJ Holmes

Circus

All the World's a Stage

48 The New Circus Girls YUCK Circus and BOSS SQUAD are smashing circus stereotypes

In its 60th year as the festival city, Adelaide hosts other Fringes from across the globe ROB

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Top Picks

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52 Gender, Power and Control

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Theatre

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R1 In cabaret, comedy, theatre, music, circus, kids shows and more, we have recommendations for you

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T Find12your feet withTRour EE E Sguide L venues map Nand D R1 RU 104 to the best places to eat and drink

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RUNDLE STREET

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Map & City Guide

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1 EAST TERRACE

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Maverick musician and Fringe Ambassador Amanda Palmer on turning suffering into art

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Zoë Coombs Marr

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As domestic violence rates continue to soar, theatremakers are telling their stories and experiences

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A trip to the lighthouse for the whole family

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Credit: George Sully

Uncover something new this season Fest editor Laura Desmond is looking forward to this anniversary year of Adelaide festivals

his year marks some important milestones for the Festival State, and we at Fest Magazine are excited and proud to take on the task of dutifully covering them. Both the Adelaide Festival and Adelaide Fringe are celebrating 60 years of hosting some of the world’s biggest and best talent in our great city. Coinciding with these celebrations is the 2020 World Fringe Congress which will see performers, producers and VIPs from various countries check out our festival to see what it is that makes it so magical. It will be a time to learn, build connections and celebrate Fringe art in all its weird and wonderful forms.

Molly and Laura Desmond

Inside these pages of our Preview issue, discover highlights from the Festival, Fringe and WOMADelaide programs, and read up on Adelaide’s ongoing support of Indigenous culture in the form of the Tandanya National Cultural Institute. In our lead feature, you can learn how to make good choices to help our festivals continue sustainably into the future. Every small decision is important! We’ve also been able to chat to some great local artists in addition to fresh talent coming in from over the seas. Across circus, dance, theatre, comedy, cabaret (and shows that don’t fit into any genre), the 60th year of Adelaide Festival and Fringe is sure to be an absolute knockout. Uncover something new this season. Take a risk, support unknown artists and have an absolute blast. This city deserves it.

Acknowledgement of Country Fest Magazine acknowledges that we are working on the traditional Country of the Kaurna people of the Adelaide Plains and we pay our respects to ancestors and Elders past, present and emerging. We also acknowledge that the traditional Kaurna cultural and heritage beliefs are still important to the living Kaurna people today. Fest is committed to honouring Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples of this nation by respecting their unique cultural and spiritual relationships to the land, waters and sky, and recognising their rich contribution to society.

Cover Artist

iktoria Mladenovski is an illustrator, designer and printmaker based in Melbourne. A self-taught artist, she started working as a freelance illustrator a year ago in Scotland. Besides having worked as an illustrator and designer for a monthly Clothes Swap, which she helped organise in Dundee (Scotland), she made a zine for the print collective Riso Soup in Dundee and creates editorial illustrations for the The Skinny magazine in Edinburgh. She continues to work on freelance projects with various print presses, magazines, and other businesses. Find her on Instagram at @viki.art.studio

Our Who’s Who of social media during Adelaide’s festivals Social media accounts are some of the easiest ways to stay up-to-date with the plethora of acts and venues this season. Keep an eye on your favourite performers and venues for information about shows, public appearances and special events.

Adelaide Festival Celebrating its 60th year, the Festival is a showcase of the worlds leading artists in theatre, music, the visual arts and more (28 Feb–15 Mar) @adelaidefestival @adelaidefest

Writers’ Week Bibliophiles’ favourite literary event runs from 29 Feb–5 Mar with over one hundred special guests exploring this year’s theme: Being Human @adelaidewritersweek @adelwritersweek #adelaidewritersweek

Adelaide Fringe The largests arts festival in the southern hemisphere bursts with life across all genres (14 Feb–15 Mar) @ADLfringe @adlfringe

The Garden of Unearthly Delights An eden for fringe comedy, music, theatre, cabaret and circus @Gardenofunearthlydelights @TheGardenofUD @thegardenofud

Gluttony Indulge in the outdoor hub set in the surrounds of Rymill Park @gluttonyfringe @gluttony_fringe

RCC Music, shows, art and food at the University of Adelaide @thercccult

Holden Street Theatres A class act of innovative theatre @holdenstreettheatres @HoldenStreet

WOMADelaide

Rhino Room

Four days of music bliss in Botanic Park with artists from over 30 countries (6-9 Mar) @WOMADelaide @womadelaide

A centre of gigs and standup for two decades @rhinoroomsa @festmag fest-mag.com

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The Social Network

Features

How to Change Your Mind While festivals are feel-good, can they help us to do good? Leading artists bringing socially conscious shows and events to Adelaide tell us what changes in behaviour they hope to inspire

Abattoir Noir “The Abattoir remains a place of moral danger, a ‘noplace’, segregated, isolated, a place where slaughter happens, a place of disassembly, where endless chains of quivering impaled organs and body parts glide by on meat hooks, and where literally rivers of blood are flowing. Modernity is predominantly carnivorous, more than 90% of us eat animals. Abattoir Noir attempts to entertain you with a glimpse into the industrialized business of mass slaughter and the transformation of living animals into the meat we eat, a glimpse into the Abattoir. What behavioral changes would Abattoir Noir like to promote? For people to become better informed and make ethical choices when buying the meat we eat; to have empathy, to think for one extraordinary moment about beings as sentient as ourselves, and the unimaginable suffering that goes into every delicious bite. Even to just stop eating supermarket meat, not be involved in the massively profitable corporatised monopolised monstrous business of creating, confining and growing animal beings as nothing more than flesh machines.” ✏ Kenneth MacLeod “Reducing or eliminating meat products from our consumption habits is a great thing to do for our planet on all fronts, for our ecosystems, our communities and our whole selves. Eliminating those that are produced through the industrial system is a no-brainer. Although direct action is a great thing for those brave people willing to undertake it, we cannot underestimate the power of our consumer dollar. Our political systems may be corrupted and degraded, but money talks loud and clear. It is the voice of our values. We should use it.” ✏ Kate Stones Kenneth MacLeod and Kate Stones established The Red Room Theatre in 2011. Their latest work, Abattoir Noir, is a cabaret theatre show based on real-life testimonials from workers in the meat industry. The Breakout at the Mill, 25–1 Mar, times vary

“As the World Tipped was made ten years ago. We look back at ten years of hardly credible inaction. Writing this, as our house is surrounded by fire and we hear of 500 million Australian indigenous animals burnt to death, it is hard not to fear that Tipping Point has arrived. Our continuing inaction risks committing our children to a terrible future, the endangering of human society and the extinction of millions of species. How could we allow this? How could a nation as rich and educated as Australia, inhabiting the world’s hottest and driest continent, not be at the forefront of pressure for global change. Now. The time has come for a behavioural change that puts the cutting of carbon emissions at the centre of our lives. We have to look at each of our actions and take concerted action to elect politicians who are seriously committed to acting on our behalf and bring in laws that lead to drastic cuts in our emissions. It is not a time to be polite. We must create a vociferous and mass movement, one that celebrates our power to change, the excitement of that change and it’s absolute necessity. It is time for us to shine, as we show the world how quickly a dynamic people can embrace change and realise the excitement and potential of that change, reconnecting with country and the land that supports us. But we need to act NOW or face consequences for tens of thousands of years to come.” ✏ Nigel Jamieson Nigel Jamieson is writer and director of As the World Tipped, the spectacular outdoor aerial show confronting ecological disaster. WOMADelaide, 6-9 Mar, times vary

Because We Cannot Not “The short answer is that I hope my work will provoke thoughtfulness about conscious adaptation in this time of climate crisis. Is that a behaviour? I think it is really – at least it is the precursor to behaviour. The world is changing, and so we must change our daily expectations, habits and understanding about how we inhabit the earth. Examples include talking about climate crisis (so as to raise awareness); making better daily decisions about gritty stuff like waste (with earth sustainability in mind), and when the time comes, to vote for political candidates with high environmental intelligence, intention and integrity. This is all a tough call – but once you accept that humankind can no longer dominate the earth, the corollary is to urge government toward sustainable laws balancing biocentric and human rights principles. We all have agency to act, be that in small or greater ways. Business as usual is simply not an option. Human behaviour must now change. Because we cannot not.” ✏ Tricia Ross Tricia Ross is a contemporary visual artist and graduate of the Adelaide Central School of Art. Using different media, her work focuses on both the beauty and frailty of the Australian landscape. Studio Bowden, 14–15 Feb & 21–22 Feb, 11am

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As the World Tipped

“ We all have agency to act, be that in small or greater ways. Business as usual is simply not an option”– Tricia Ross

Features

Dimanche “We love this quote of Calvin in Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Waterston. ‘It’s not denial. I’m just very selective about the reality I accept.’ If Dimanche can bring people to see a little better the contradictions and denial in which we are living, it is more a political change that has to happen and where decisions must be taken. We hope Dimanche brings people to want to engage themselves poetically and militate for real and concrete measures to be taken concerning the climatic urgency we are in. Of course, we also hope Dimanche brings poetry and shows the beauty of human relations, inspires mutual aid and kindness.” ✏ Sandrine Heyraud Sandrine Heyraud is part of Belgium based Compagnie Chaliwaté. Using old-fashioned physical comedy and innovative technology, their new production, in cooperation with Focus Company, is set partly on the North Pole and assesses people’s capacity to be smart and stupid. Space Theatre [Adelaide Festival], 28 Feb–7 Mar, times vary

COLD WAR “Violent and Glorious Revolution! Then again our boy Chomsky debunks the whole radical behaviourism deal that was booming post-WW2 (in short: it’s like me pointing at the sun, saying 'what’s that?', and you describing my finger). Even if my audience were pigeons I doubt the show could change their behaviour. But if anyone is keen they should head to Bunnings; push over the sausage stall, steal the necessary elements for a guillotine; and start chopping. Then, yeah: Go Vegan. Join your Union. Eat the Rich. Blow up the Pokies. Kill a Cop. Sneak into our show. Be Queer. Commit Crimes.” ✏ Tobias Manderson-Galvin Tobias Manderson-Galvin is artistic director of MKA and leads with Doppelgangster’s Tom Payne to tell the story of COLD WAR – a jazz-punk theatre experience set in a motel room and exploring the climate crisis.

“ How could a nation as rich and educated as Australia, inhabiting the world’s hottest and driest continent, not be at the forefront of pressure for global change”– Nigel Jamieson 10

RCC, 14 Feb–15 Mar (not Mondays), 9pm

All the Worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a Stage As Adelaideâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s festivals enjoy their 60th year itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s fitting that the city hosts the World Fringe Congress for the first time. Hundreds of Fringe festivals from around the globe are dispatching envoys to meet and share ideas. Here is a small selection of festivals championing the international Fringe spirit World Fringe Congress runs from 14-18 Feb

W W

Edmonton

While Adelaide and Edinburgh are known as festival cities, the country that has most embraced the Fringe ethos is surely Canada. And in a relatively shorter time. It started with the Edmonton Internatonal Fringe Festival in 1982 and key to its success was embedding the Fringe values of open access into guiding principles. Principles that see participants go through an equal chance lottery system, ticket sales going to the artist and shows made affordable for audiences. Edmonton is the founder member of the Canadian Association of Fringe Festivals which now includes over 30 Fringes across Canada and the United States.

W Makhada

The National Arts Festival is situated in the small university city of Makhada in South Africa and is the biggest arts celebration on the continent. This festival proves that taking place in a small city is no restriction to the size of the celebration. Building on a long tradition of festivals and carnivals, this Fringe has now been going for 45 years. It is an open-access, non-censored Fringe, and it is possible to see how far these Fringe values are not simply idealistic: during the apartheid era the Fringe was open to political protest and resistance through art.

Edinburgh

Features

It all started in one of the most beautiful cities in northern Europe, when an international festival was dreamt up to unite a divided continent after the Second World War. Yet the organisers behind the 1947 Edinburgh Festival wanted to keep it invitation-only. Eight theatre groups took this as a snub and descended on the city anyway. From this eight the first Edinburgh Festival Fringe was born – the name coming from locals and journalists describing the flowering, innovative and growing number of shows on the edge, or fringe, of the International Festival. Now, this young upstart Fringe is close to its 73rd birthday and is the largest arts festival in the world – hosting over 3,800 shows last August. It enjoys a much closer relationship with the International Festival today, though it’s a certain rival spirit many account for Edinburgh’s success as the original festival city.

Prague

Now turning 18, the Prague Fringe runs in May as the European spring turns to summer. As in Edinburgh, it turns its historic sights and cobbled streets into part of the Fringe atmosphere. The old Malá Strana neighbourhood sits in the shadow of Prague’s castle, which must be one of world’s most charming of festival backgrounds.

Once a small fishing village, Shenzhen is now a huge metropolis with a young population and is home to the first Fringe in China. The Shenzhen Fringe Festival celebrated its 10th birthday last June. It takes the idea that everyone is an artist and the stage is everywhere, and through art people connect with society.

Adelaide

W W Perth

Since 2011, Perth’s FringeWorld has grown from a road-test first year with just six venues to 169 venues in 2019. It’s the fastest-growing arts festival and already the third largest in the world. The movement does have a longer history with Perth, with a Fringe held annually from the early to late 80s which evolved into a wider arts celebration. Just over a decade ago it evolved again, this time focusing on re-creating an independent and open-access Fringe.

Celebrating its diamond anniversary as a festival hub, our own Fringe has much in common with Edinburgh’s story. After the Adelaide Festival of the Arts was set up in 1960, independent and local artists felt the curated and international initiative was not for them and created their own open-access platform. After only four years it was hosting over 50 events around the city. The similarities to Edinburgh are also seen in both cities’ compact size, keeping many affordable shows in walking distance. Adelaide Fringe retained its ethos to champion local and Australian artists, reflected in its first legally recognised name which it took in 1974: Focus. By the late 80s doors opened to international acts, bringing likeminded cabaret, comedy and circus talents into the city. By 2019, the Fringe attracted over 3 million people to the city.

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Shenzhen

Features

Fest editor Laura Desmond chats to Kaurna Senior Custodian Karl ‘Winda’ Telfer about this year’s Yabarra project – Dreaming in Light

n immersive experience within the walls of Tandanya, Dreaming in Light tells the story of Tjirbruki. Also acknowledged is the spelling Tjilbruke, but Tjirbruki is the first recorded spelling of the word from the old traditions. A tale of family, loss and grief, this story was chosen in part to acknowledge Telfer’s mother – Kaurna Senior Woman Aunty Georgina Williams. “[Williams] worked tirelessly to bring the Tjirbruki story to life by marking the locations back in the 80s,” says Telfer. “It’s been 40 years of hard yakka and it took an Aboriginal woman to do that.” Formed in partnership with Yellaka, Monkeystack and Adelaide Fringe, this experience embodies Yellaka’s mantra of ‘old wisdom, new ways’. Telfer has always been interested in blending new technologies with storytelling. “I’ve got these ideas for stories,” he says, “but how can we tell them? How do we bring them to life with the people and the culture?” Using projections, lighting and dry ice, Dreaming in Light explores vast areas of Kaurna country, following the same trail as Tjirbruki. “Dreaming in Light tells the story of Tjirbruki, but there are so many other elements – the stories of the stars and the ancestors are so important,” Telfer says. It is an encompassing story – with meaning far beyond the events which occur, with a pertinent environmental message. “It’s about looking after and caring for our environment and protecting these few open space places we have left,” says Telfer. “Outside

of the Fringe, after it’s over – the rocks are still there, the country is still there, so come and walk with us over country. We’re happy to guide people through that story.” Telfer has been leading the way in new forms of storytelling for a number of years, including a decade with Adelaide Fringe. “These new ways are the future of our culture and our storytelling and I’m just happy to be at the forefront,” he says. “Especially here on country at Tandanya. “I’m passing on stories to my daughters and the ancestors are with us,” Telfer acknowledges. “You can’t tell a story without recognising the senior people who have been carrying and fighting for the story for a long time.” Storytelling is such a large part of Indigenous culture, and the tradition is still hugely important today. “Sharing is for the betterment of humanity, not for gain or self gratification or self importance,” says Telfer. “It’s for everybody to gain the understanding of the story so we can work together and be together. “There’s a lot of trouble coming up. We’ve got to be strong together.”

TIME:

Yabarra: Dreaming in Light OPENING Tandanya - Yabarra 9pm, 14 Feb

TICKETS:

FREE

SHOW:

TIME:

Yabarra - Dreaming in Light Tandanya - Yabarra times vary, 15 Feb – 15 Mar

TICKETS:

FREE

SHOW: VENUE:

VENUE:

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Immersive Dreaming

Credit: Tony Virgo

Celebration of Culture Australia’s National Aboriginal Cultural Institute is highlighting First Nations talent this Fringe

senting their work.” The Tandanya Cafe will provide the opportunity for these gatherings in a relaxed atmosphere where people can share their experiences. Adelaide Fringe Ambassador Fez Faanana is hosting Black List Cabaret – the only cabaret show andanya National Aboriginal Cultural Instiwith an entire cast of people of colour. Meltute is the only Indigenous culture and arts bourne-based The Merindas are taking over Nguninstitute in Australia. Meaning 'place of the red yawayiti (Tandanya Theatre) for one night only with kangaroo', Tandanya has created the first ever First their infectious, upbeat electronic sound. Yellaka Nations Hub this Adelaide Fringe, featuring a lineup are also presenting Spirit. Weaving dance, story and of solely Indigenous artists. language, Yellaka breathe new life into ancient story In late 2019, Senior Kaurna Custodian Karl in a tale of respect and truth telling. ‘Winda’ Telfer accepted an appointment to the Tandanya is truly building something special as board. “We are tracking a new way forward, built the only First Nations Hub and creating a welcoming on the foundations of the founding members from space for all to experience Australia’s oldest culture. our community,” says Telfer. “I honor those original “We haven’t created something new,” Telfer states. board members, the old people who fought hard and “We have strengthened our cultural circle and invitlong for the creation of Tandanya.” ed all communities to share in our circle and become Tandanya is celebrating its 30th year, and Dennis connected through experiencing what our cultures Stokes, Tandanya CEO, is excited about this cultural have to offer.” ✏ Laura Desmond renewal. “As the National Aboriginal Cultural Institute, it is important that we are supporting and pro- SHOW: SPIRIT moting Indigenous artists from around the country,” VENUE: Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute TIME: times vary, various dates between Stokes says. “We are really excited to relaunch the 21 Feb and 1 Mar space for Fringe 2020 and for how this will grow in the future. We are also excited to establish Tandanya TICKETS: $20 as a national cultural and artistic leader.” SHOW: Yabarra - Dreaming in Light “Once we’ve sparked this cultural and spiritual renewal then we can invite the wider community in VENUE: Tandanya - Yabarra TIME: times vary, 15 Feb – 15 Mar to learn more,” says Telfer. “Tandanya is our place TICKETS: FREE and we can’t lose it. It’s what the old people fought so hard for. That’s why we want people to come walk SHOW: The Merindas with us.” The lineup is excitingly diverse, including theatre, VENUE: Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute TIME: 8:30pm, 12 Mar comedy, cabaret, dance, workshops and the Yabarra TICKETS: $25 immersive project Dreaming in Light. Sasha Zahra, creative producer, has curated an inclusive sharing SHOW: Black List Cabaret hub. “We want to create a space where First Nations artists from our local, national and global community VENUE: Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute TIME: 9:30pm, 22 Feb, 29 Feb, 7 Mar, 14 Mar feel welcome,” Zahra says. “It is a space for artists TICKETS: $20 to gather, be together, to share story as well as pre-

Features

L-R: SPIRIT; The Merindas

★★★★★ The Scotsman

★★★★★

The Stage

EdFest Magazine

THEATRE / BELGIUM

Cold Blood

Kiss & Cry Collective Written by Thomas Gunzig 5 – 8 Mar

★★★★★ The Times

★★★★★ Broadway World

★★★★★ The Stage

THEATRE / SCOTLAND

Mouthpiece Traverse Theatre Company 6 – 10 Mar

17 DAYS | 74 SHOWS | 19 AUSTRALIAN EXCLUSIVES adelaidefestival.com.au

Cabaret Top Picks Credit: Sanjeev Singh

All the glitters and gold from Adelaide’s shimmering cabaret scene

Leather Lungs: Yas Queen! Gluttony, 3–14 Mar, not 4, 9, 11, 10pm

Jason Chasland returns to follow up his hit show Son of a Preacher. Now the Kiwi known as Leather Lungs matches his extraordinary vocal talents and range to classic tracks by the likes of Queen and Prince. And while he’s hitting the high notes, he’ll also be readying for interludes of delicious low-brow humour. A bohemian night.

Blunderland Gluttony, 14 Feb–15 Mar, not 17, 24 Feb, 2, 9 Mar, 9:40pm

Cabernet Refined The Big Slapple at the Adelaide Convention Centre, 14–15 & 21 Feb,

Cabaret

7:30pm & 9pm

A cabaret as classsy as a fine wine brought to us by nine South Australian performers. Cabernet Refined joins classically trained vocalists and dancers together on stage with acrobatics and improv. This is a bold, sultry speakeasy-style evening best enjoyed with a group of pals.

The night out equivalent of queering Alice in Wonderland, Blunderland is a psychedelic trip straight from a tea party with lashings of circus, cabaret and burlesque. A regular and hugely popular night at Brooklyn’s The House of Yes nightclub, Blunderland now arrives in Adelaide to take us down a warren of kaleidoscopic rabbit holes.

The Catchelorette The Adina Treasury Tunnels, 18 Feb–14 Mar, not Sun/Mon, 8:30pm

Carla Mattiazzo is no stranger to bringing a vulnerable honesty to cabaret. Her 2018 show That’s Life centred on the disappearance of her mother. In her latest performance she is telling us a love story, lots of love stories, and asking: does there always have to be a catch?

Top Picks

Snap Crackle Pop RCC, 16 Feb, 23 Feb, 1 Mar, 8 Mar, 15 Mar, 9:30pm

Gluttony, various dates between 14 Feb–14 Mar, 10:40pm

Bring your wild side for a late-night, high-risk drinking session with Tash York and a line-up of her most reckless friends. The debauched and after-hours atmosphere is balanced by the talented accompaniment of a swing jazz six-piece live band.

Gluttony, 13 Feb–15 Mar, not 17, 24 Feb, 2, 9 Mar, times vary

It’s five years since the original Velvet premiered at Adelaide Fringe and now you can join Marcia Hines and a ten-strong cast of performers as the journey continues. A groovy night of high-wire circus, acrobatics and glitter balls with the ultimate disco soundtrack.

Singin’ in the Pain: A Disability and Chronic Illness Cabaret Nexus Arts, 6–7 Mar, 8pm

Singin’ in the Pain brings together performers with disabilities and those with chronic pain. Hosted and produced by Adelaide’s own burlesque star Diana Divine, the night makes for an indiscriminate celebration of the body.

Credit: Jose Rios

After Hours Cabaret Club – LOCK IN

Velvet Rewired

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A heady blend of anthems and live performances, Poof Doof’s favourite gay rave Snap Crackle Pop brings all your favourite hits out to play. It’s like a remix of your best house party – and where everyone can sing along.

Comedy Top Picks The very best of Fringe comedy from across the 2020 program

Credit: Nicole Reed

Anne Edmonds: What’s Wrong with You? The Garden of Unearthly Delights, 11–15 Mar, 9pm

Steph Tisdell “Baby Beryl” The Garden of Unearthly Delights, 14 Feb–1 Mar, not 17 Feb, 7pm

The Garden of Unearthly Delights,

Comedy

2–15 Mar, 9:30pm

Modern movie studios dread a rotten rating: if only there was a guaranteed way to keep a film fresh. Dreamgun are an Irish comedy troupe who, with special comedic guests, put a spring in the step of every Hero’s Journey. With live script readings stuffed with a lot more jokes and wry delivery than you remember, you’ll find yourself appreciating your favourite blockbuster in a whole new way.

What’s in a name? Only an identity that pegs you to a certain time and place in the whole of history. In a standup chatshow exploring different naming cultures from all over the world,Tisdell tries to find why baby Beryls are so hard to find these days, when there once a time you couldn’t help but trip over buggies carrying them.

Credit: Monica Pronk

Dreamgun: Film Reads

Credit: Dylan Woodley

With humanity seeming to circle the drain rather than draining the swamp, Anne Edmonds’ latest show centres on a road rage clash she endured with a ruddy faced misogynist. Nominated four times for awards at Melbourne Internarional Comedy Festival, Edmonds’ righteous anger is just right.

AJ Holmes: Yeah, But Not Right Now Gluttony, 14 Feb–15 Mar, not Mondays, times vary

As a star playing Elder Cunningham in The Book of Mormon, on both Broadway and the West End, AJ Holmes is now flying solo. His debut comedy show is a one-man musical which arrives in Adelaide after a successful run in Edinburgh.

Credit: Todd Richter

Bec Hill: Out of Order Rhino Room, 7–8 Feb, 7:30pm

Adelaide-born Bec Hill has carved out a stellar reputation over several years in the UK. Going viral has given Hill quite a follwing, but it’s best to see her live – with her arsenal of down-toearth props and punloving routines.

Rhino Room, 14–29 Feb, not 16, 17, 23, 24, 5:45pm

2–8 Mar, 8:15pm

Larry Dean – Fudnut The Garden of Unearthly Delights, 2–15 Mar, not 11 , 9:30pm

Scottish comedian Larry Dean follows Glasgow’s tradition of storycraft. Just like Billy Connolly, he goes from purity to profanity with a clever phrase – elevating this into an artform. His skill in describing the perils of modern relationships have twice seen Dean nominated for the two most prestigious comedy awards at the Edinburgh Fringe.

After scooping an award during their first run in Adelaide last year, the talented improv troupe return to the Fringe to play a different musical each night. Which musical? That’s up to you – they’ll make the sound of music with whatever customised title the audience suggest.

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The Garden of Unearthly Delights,

Zoë Coombs Marr is a comedian of formidable range and physicality. There’s her alter-ego Dave – an unreconstructed standup who, over the years, she has gradually deconstructed. Then there was her role in the theatre show Wild Bore, where she critiqued the critics. Her latest show is said to centre on a memory from her teens, a memory of a car journey to flute practice. That might not sound like she’s offered the most exciting description – but it’s a little like if Salvador Dali described himself as a man who sometimes paints clocks.

Men with Coconuts

Credit: Steve Ullathorne

Zoë Coombs Marr – AGONY! MISERY!

Top Picks

Circus Top Picks The best circus shows coming to town

The Black Blues Brothers Gluttony, 14 Feb–15 Mar, not 17, 24 Feb, 2 Mar, times vary

An homage to the cult musical comedy film The Blues Brothers, the five Kenyan performers who make up Circo e dintorni pay their tribute to Dan Ackroyd and John Belushi through spectacular acrobatics and an 80s soundtrack.

CIRCOLOMBIA ‘ACELERE’ Gluttony, 14 Feb–15 Mar, not 17, 24 Feb, 2 Mar, 9 Mar, times vary

WERK IT The Garden of Unearthly Delights, 14 Feb–15 Mar, not 17, 24 Feb, 2, 9 Mar,

Circus

10:15pm

Audacious physical theatre by a dream team of Australian acrobats: Vincent van Berkel & Malia Walsh, Cassia Jamieson, Richard Sullivan and Lisa Lottie. This all-star party promise a thrusting latenight comedy romp.

Circolombia is a company with a rotating cast of fearless graduates of Circo Para Todos, a major circus school founded to offer opportunities to disadvantaged youngsters in Colombia. This show is a joyous high-energy dance party and circus-concert with a mix of Latino hiphop and drum ‘n’ bass.

Barbaroi Gluttony, 14 Feb–15 Mar, not 17, 24 Feb, 2, 9 Mar, 8:40pm

Follow After Dark Theatre away from the bright lights as they take circus into the shadows for an evening set in the underworld. By turns sultry and electric, Barbaroi is a distinctive, stripped-back spectacle.

Top Picks

PHAT CAB CLUB Gluttony, dates vary between 14 Feb–8 Mar, 10pm

AC Arts [Adelaide Festival], 5–8 Mar, times vary

‘Man versus stationery’ is the premise of Branch Nebula’s production, which is now roller-balling its way to the Adelaide Festival. Lee Wilson walks a tightrope made of sticky tape and scales mountains of cardboard boxes. We’d highlight the show in the program, but Wilson is probably putting the highlighter to some nefarious use.

Gluttony, 14–23 Feb, not 17, 7:20pm

A fearless display of feminism with teeterboards and gross sideshow acts returns to the Fringe after a successful debut in 2019. The five badass women who make up the BOSS SQUAD are calling out cat callers and smashing the patriarchy with style.

YUCK Circus Gluttony, 25 Feb– 8 Mar, not 2 Mar, 7:20pm

Winners of awards in Perth and Adelaide, YUCK is a seven-piece female crew unafraid of taking on uncomfortable truths. It isn’t only their acrobatics which make for a dazzling balancing act, but their ability to fold serious themes into a night of flying circus comedy.

Credit: Darcy Grant

High Performance Packing Tape

BOSS SQUAD

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A hip-hop circus cabaret featuring some of Australia’s best emerging young physical theatre artists. Produced and directed by siblings Anna and Joe Fisher under the moniker The MotherFishers, the pair have already established solo reputations and now combine forces for a project of pure passion.

Theatre Top Picks Take a peek behind the curtain and see some of the best theatre shows across the festival season

Top Picks

The Doctor Dunstan Playhouse [Adelaide Festival], 27 Feb – 8 Mar, not 2 Mar, times vary

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With a 14-year-old on her hospital deathbed, a priest becomes intent on saving her soul. It falls to Dr Wolff to decide if he should be allowed into the hospital. Based on an obscure Arthur Schnitzler drama from the early 20th century, this retelling gender-swaps the protagonist and probes both medical and ethical dilemmas.

Gobby Gluttony, 3–15 Mar, times vary

Post-Mortem Holden Street Theatres, 11–23 Feb, not 17, times vary

Do you remember your first time? The heaven and hell of teenage love and obsession is often safely repressed, but in Post-Mortem deep longings come to the surface as two former sweethearts endure a reunion, meeting again at a best friend’s wedding.

The loudmouthed Bri was aptly nicknamed ‘Gobby’ by her friends. But what story is this chatterbox not telling? A drama told through five separate parties, each which had a profound influence on her current situation. A one-woman play written and performed by Jodie Irvine, Gobby comes to Adelaide after a run at the Edinburgh Fringe.

Passengers RCC, 14 Feb – 15 Mar, not 17, 24 Feb, 2, 9 Mar, 7pm

After garnering critical acclaim in Edinburgh, writer Kit Redstone brings to Adelaide a semi-autobiographical and bleakly comedic story of how a fragmented and dissociated mind protects itself.

Mouthpiece Odeon Theatre [Adelaide Festival], 6–14 Mar, not 11, times vary

A failed middle-class playwright moves back to her parents home in humiliation, but a chance meeting revives her spark for writing through a friendship with an artistically gifted and troubled working class teenager. But is her newfound success hers or his?

I Don’t Wanna Play House Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute, 13–14 Mar,

S-27 by Sarah Grochala

Theatre

The Mill, 14–16 Feb, times vary

A play inspired by Cambodia’s S-21 prison, and drawing extensively on real documents and interviews, a photographer, May, charts a rebellion among the inmates. The script picked up an Amnesty International award when it was first performed a little over a decade ago. It is revived in Adelaide by Perth’s Feet First Collective.

Credit: Lara Cappelli

Credit: Susie Blatchford

times vary

Frankenstein: How to Make a Monster RCC, 15 Feb – 15 Mar, not 17, 24 Feb, 2, 9 Mar, 6:30pm

A gig theatre retelling of Mary Shelley’s classic novel from the Battersea Arts Centre’s Beatbox Academy; a London based collective of emerging artists from all backgrounds between the ages of 19-27. A runaway success from last year’s Edinburgh Fringe.

Tammy Anderson relives the heartbreaking story of her early life in Tasmania. Since she premiered I Don’t Wanna Play House in 2001 the play has toured the world over many years, doing much to raise awareness of domestic and child abuse.

29 Top Picks

Music Top Picks From punk to opera, no musical taste need go unsatisfied this festival season

Amanda Palmer: There Will Be No Intermission RCC, 14–15 Feb, 7:30pm

Weyes Blood Adelaide Festival Centre [Adelaide Festival], 5 Mar, 9pm

Adelaide Festival Centre [Adelaide Festival], 29 Feb–1 Mar, 10:30pm

The classic dystopian action-thriller starring a young Mel Gibson gets a live brassy soundtrack from Adelaide’s own The Shaolin Afronauts. A movie and a concert in one.

Credit: Kathryn Vetter Miller

Mad Max meets The Shaolin Afronauts

Her 2019 album Titanic Rising rides a wave of acclaim and now Natalie Mering, aka Weyes Blood, soars into Adelaide for the first time. While a strict Christian upbringing and a philosophical dive into the eponymous doomed ocean liner make her a compelling voice, it’s the once-in-a-generation vocals and comparisons to Karen Carpenter which warrant the hype.

WOMADelaide Botanic Park, 6–9 Mar

The international music festival brings everyone together in Botanic Park. This year’s line-up includes contemporary folk star Laura Marling performing a stripped-back acoustic set, Odette’s interplay of music and poetry, and Eurovision songwriter Luisa Sobral.

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Credit: Jack Fenby

Credit: Allan Amato

Accompanied only by her piano and ukulele, the former Dresden Dolls maverick Amanda Palmer peels back both the darker and lighter moments of her life for a Herculean gig that’s both therapeutic and uplifting.

Breaking the Waves Festival Theatre [Adelaide Festival], 13 & 15 Mar, times vary

UTOPIA RCC, various dates between 14 Feb–14 Mar, 9pm

Nothing beats an an outdoor venue in the evening air during festival season. UTOPIA (renamed from Dusk till Dawn) brings electronic and synth favourites to the open-air with an eclectic lineup. The season opens with Baker Boy and Tkay Maidza.

Adelaide Festival’s 60th Birthday Concert Elder Park [Adelaide Festival], 29 Feb,

RCC, 28–29 Feb, 9:30pm

8pm

Put on your leathers and head to UniBar’s old band room aka LVL5 to spend a raucous head-clearing weekend with Guitar Wolf and The Jet Boys – two icons of Tokyo’s homegrown punk scene.

There was always going to be something special to celebrate the Festival’s diamond anniversary. As a gift to the city, the Festival are staging a free concert in Elder Park with the incomparable composer-comedian Tim Minchin.

Credit: Damian Bennett

Music

Tokyo Jet Daze: A Japanese Punk Weekender

Credit: James Glossop

Credit: Charlyn Cameron

An innocent newly-wed attempts to heal her injured husband in an act of faith which sees her playing out his sexual fantasies with other men. Scottish Opera’s adaptation of Lars von Trier’s 1996 film makes for a more emphatic retelling with Sydney Mancasola excelling in the role of the tragic Bess McNeill.

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MONDAY 24 FEBRUARY ROYALTY THEATRE JONATHANPIE.COM

WEDNESDAY 11 MARCH THEBARTON THEATRE RUSSELLBRAND.COM

BOOK NOW AT ABPRESENTS.COM.AU

‘BRILLIANT, BRAVE, RAW AND ANALYTICAL WITHOUT FORGETTING TO BE FUNNY’ RICKY GERVAIS

Kids Top Picks Family and children’s shows from both the Festival and Fringe programs

Attenborough and his Animals The Garden of Unearthly Delights, 2–15 Mar, not 9, 6:45pm

From oceans to deserts, Clownfish Theatre act out scenes from the natural world. And where would our own sense of the natural world be without the documentaries of legendary broadcaster David Attenborough? Jess Clough-MacRae and Jonathan Tilley pay a loving tribute to the many different series’ most memorable moments with great physicality.

Prehysterical Gluttony, various dates between

Credit: Matt Byrne

22 Feb–15 Mar, 5pm

The Lighthouse

It’s all about survival as three Neanderthals brave the elements, escape predators and learn to work together. A paleolithic tale told through circus and slapstick comedy.

Brass Monkeys The Garden of Unearthly Delights,

Kids

various dates between 14 Feb–15

Queen’s Theatre Playhouse [Adelaide

Mar, times vary

Festival], 25 Feb–7 Mar, times vary

Monkeying around has never been such fun in this all-new show from the creators of Children Are Stinky. Primarily aimed at kids aged 3–10, Circus Trick Tease’s stunning acrobatics and song will entertain everyone in your own monkey troop.

Patch Theatre lead us out of the darkness in an innovative production led by artistic director Roger Cobham. It’s part installation and part hands-on science, with multiple sessions running throughout the day.

33 Top Picks

Interactive Top Picks Festival season doesn’t need to be a spectator sport

Credit: Aurélien Mole

SEVEN SIBLINGS FROM THE FUTURE MOD. at UniSA, 14 Feb–15 Mar, not 17, 24 Feb, 2, 9 Mar, 10am, FREE

A Doll’s House Gawler Place Canopy, Rundle Mall [Adelaide Festival], 28 Feb–15 Mar, open exhibition

Credit: Mihaela Bodlovic

A life-size three storey doll’s house in the middle of Rundle Mull that you can stroll right into. A gift to the city from Adelaide Festival, with the design courtesy of Japanese artist Tatzu Nishi.

COMA

Eight

The Garden of Unearthly Delights,

State Library of South Australia

14 Feb–15 Mar, not 17, 24 Feb, 2 Mar,

[Adelaide Festival], 27 Feb–15

times vary

Mar, times vary

A mixed-media immersive experience which invites you into a half-hour of sensory deprivation. Lay back and think of... what? COMA is something of an experiment which puts your perceptions at its centre.

Step into an one of your most vivid dreams immersed in the most advanced virtual world. Eight promises to be a seamless blend of your reality with VR, where your tactile experiences shape the story.

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It’s 2050 and you’re needed to shape the future you’ve just walked into. An interactive exhibition, laden with humour, where wrangles over a plot of climate changed land will cause you to ponder your own values.

35 Features

Witching Hour Wundes has been a favourite at Mary’s Poppin for a few years now, but for their first ‘one-woman’ show, Season of the Witch, they’re bringing audiences something a little more conceptual

ures like Bowie, Bush and Garland. “I think all their music has a sense of vulnerability about it, and they each use it in a different way. Especially Kate Bush, in certain circumstances, and Judy Garland, who is seen as a tragic figure but also an icon. So it’s looking at why they’re tragic, why they’re icons, where does the power come from and how do they take it back?”

" Even David Bowie has a bit of that black magic type" In drag, perhaps more than any other art, there’s true magic in this kind of transformation – in becoming the stars you want to inhabit – and the effect is empowering. “It changes my personality, I think,” says Wundes. “I become freer. I could be standing there singing, like I did years ago, and people would just walk past. But, as soon as you put the wig on and the dress and the makeup, people look at you very differently. They treat you differently, and I think that’s where that transformative power, or that bit of witchcraft lies. I guess it’s the same thing as Snow White and the old lady with the apple. It’s a fantasy and people indulge you in your own fantasy and they lose themselves in that fantasy too, and I think that’s quite powerful.” continues >

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“I

get to have more of a storyline, even if it’s a bit of a David Lynch type storyline,” says Wundes. Featuring some of the most popular – and obscure – music of transformative and metamorphosing performers like Kate Bush, Judy Garland, David Bowie, Stevie Nicks and Lana Del Ray, Wundes’ story is one of vulnerability and power. “I want to have this deal with god, to quote Kate Bush, to swap places with these people and walk in their shoes,” they say. “These are the people who, when I first saw, I really related to and saw myself reflected in instantly. They were telling me something through the music or imagery that made sense to me naturally.” For Wundes, the journey to the stage truly has been one of transformation and vulnerability. “I always dressed up in the privacy of my own home,” they say. “I started doing a lot of the Feast Festival stuff, especially when I was underage and they would hold those Genderf*ck events.” But things were pretty stagnant. “I went through a hard time and stopped doing anything. I needed something to do creatively and challenged myself to start to do makeup to impersonate other people and take photos of that.” When Wundes joined Instagram, they were discovered by Mary’s Poppin’s owner, Steven Craddock, and the rest is history. “When I started I didn’t have anything,” Wundes explains. “I didn’t have costumes or anything like that, so I was going to Savers like, ‘Okay I need 80s clothes for Cyndi Lauper.’ Then I started taking it a lot more seriously, not just as an impersonator, but with people’s movement, trying to emulate that.” For Wundes’ first solo show, it felt natural to become fig-

Cabaret

Garland, Bush, Bowie, and Nicks are icons of the marginalised – their fans are cultish and queer, weird and otherworldly. There’s good reason why their music and styles have stood the test of time. Like many outsiders, at one point or another they’ve all called themselves a witch. “Judy Garland called herself a black Irish witch in a lost tape in the documentary, Sid and Judy, which I hadn’t heard her say before, but that makes sense,” says Wundes. “Kate Bush has been called a witch – or witchy – and Stevie Nicks as well. Even David Bowie has a bit of that black magic type, with his mime work and the magician vibe. “I was always obsessed with witches, ever since I was five years old,” says Wundes. “All I ever wanted to do was be a witch on the stage, so when I got the opportunity to start doing my own show, it just seemed natural to do that. It’s interesting the icons that I like all identified in that way, so the show is thinking about what that means.”

As drag continues to explode into the mainstream thanks to the juggernaut that is RuPaul’s Drag Race, it’s exciting to see local talent step so highly up to the plate. For Wundes, who is inspired by the likes of Brisbane’s Vollie Lavont and RuPaul alumni Sharon Needles and Jinxx Monsoon, the show will be like seeing David Bowie as Glinda the Good Witch. “If you’ve ever felt alone or wanted to trade places with anyone, this is the show that talks about that,” they say. “It’s a show about overcoming the shadows and demons you need to let go of to shine and be yourself – with a bit of magic thrown in.” / Lauren Butterworth

VENUE: TIME: TICKETS:

Mary’s Poppin 8pm, 28 Feb, 7 Mar $20

Something Wicked This Way Comes Mimosa glasses clink as the previous producer of House of Yes in New York, Will Spartalis, chats about his hectic schedule in the city that never sleeps

Eric Schmalenberger – Blunderland’s creator, compere and resident 6’5 gay rodeo clown – started the show as a dare and began pulling his wierdest orn in the House of Yes, Blunderland comes and most wonderful friends from across the world from a place where 12 hour shifts, double or and funneling them into the House of Yes space. triple performances and all night go-go dances What started as a once every few months gig are not out of the ordinary. This ‘no-sleep-till-Brook- quickly became two or three shows a month, with lyn’ energy is charging into Fringe in this haven for a highly revolving cast of the boundary-pushing “lost souls, or of a particular ilk, who are magical in artists coming up in the New York and global scenes. their own weird fucked up way.” “Blunderland balances between classic, sexy, The physical space of House of Yes hasn’t come skilled and dumb. That’s basically the setup of the easily. “The first one was an illegal warehouse rave show,” Spartalis says. “Weird burlesque, world class party which was shut down by the cops,” Spartalis aerial performers and dumb weirdo punk gay clowns tells. “The second one was an illegal warehouse rave who will terrorise everyone. So we try to find a party with some aerial training involved, and some balance there. shows, and that one burnt down.” Finally getting a “Having come from my background in working solid grounding in its third iteration, House of Yes in Fringe and having performer friends, I’ve always has become somewhere which can “accommodate known where the weird edge is. Sure, there are young, weird, queer performers,” he says. “It’s all of people who do aerial, who do lyra [aerial hoop], who these young, interesting, messy, crazy persons who do pole dancing and stuff like that, but the cool thing gravitate toward it because they’re too weird for any- about this crew is that they are doing it in a fucked where else, but too good to not be performing.” up way.” continues >

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Features

These aren’t your usual cabaret performers with the commonly performed tricks. “They’re taking it and doing something very very new with it, or tearing it back to some form of basic which is far more moving,” says Spartalis. By subverting these classics and turning them, quite literally, on their heads, the cast create more emotion and raw energy than most lineup gigs.

Cabaret

" I've always known where the weird edge is"

Adelaide is being treated to an all-star cast from Schmalenberger’s near ten year history with the show, including aerialist Lola Carter. Carter has spent the last 12 months working in Times Square with Ian Traeger, the creator of the iconic Studio 54, and his new project hotel, The Times Square EDITION. Of Carter, Spartalis says “she is one of, if not the best lyra performer on the planet. She is now the centrepiece of this incredibly cool show over there.” Then, there are the clowns. Existing in cells all over the world, Fou Fou Ha are a special type of couture clown specialising in confronting interactive crowd work. Blunderland is bringing three jesters from their local Fou York cell. “Fou York are like if you took rodeo clowns, an epic sex party, and like the most extreme 90s punks you could possibly get, smash them all together and give them an early morning cartoon show,” describes Spartalis. “Yeah, they’re

clowns, but you definitely wanna fuck all of them. And they’re terrifying. Not in the classic terrifying clown way, but you think that these ones might clean out your bank account when you’re not looking.” The real issue with bringing the show to the Fringe is the sheer scale. “We’re used to having a show that runs for three hours, has two intervals, a whole heap of fuck ups and it’s fine,” says Spartalis. “Here, we need to make a show, stick to the allotted time and run to a script. And Schmalenberger is not good at that.” Although used to playing by their own rules in their own space, the crew are up for the challenge of downsizing, particularly with Spartalis’ extensive background in the Adelaide festival scene. This tour is the first international trip for many of the performers, even though they work hard all year. “Because it’s New York, you have to perform constantly to make rent and you’re not making any money,” Spartalis explains. This work ethic also comes into play for the shorter show gracing our shores. “Most of our performers are pulling double shifts, doing different acts in each show, and our three Fou clowns are also performers and choreographers for the rest of the show,” says Spartalis. As the saying goes, there ain’t no rest for the wicked, and the cast of Blunderland know it more than anyone. / Laura Desmond

VENUE:: TIME: TICKETS:

Gluttony - Rymill Park 9:40pm, 14 Feb – 15 Mar, not 17, 24 Feb, 2, 9 Mar $5 – $30

Credit: Dylan Woodley

How About Now?

Comedy

AJ Holmes is best known for his performance as the bumbling Arnold Cunningham in The Book of Mormon. Now, he’s heading back to his roots as a writer with his Adelaide Fringe debut

There are some huge differences between Broadway and fringe touring. What do you love and hate about each? Getting to play Arnold Cunningham in The Book of Mormon was the greatest role of my life and was incredibly creatively fulfilling. That being said, I am just over the moon to be performing my own stuff again! Deep down I’ve always known I was a writer, and Fringe touring has been an incredible opportunity to get back to performing my own material. It’s been hugely fulfilling and satisfying to keep changing my show, even from night to night. I love that freedom, and wouldn’t trade it for anything. Which is good, because it really doesn’t pay well.

Where do you draw inspiration from? I get my best inspiration from good conversations with my best friends. People are endlessly inspiring. Relationships are fascinating. Even if it’s just my relationship with myself, I find that I’m most creative when I’m engaging in a dialogue. Whether that means I’m imagining a relationship with another person, an audience, or just another part of my own psyche, the push and pull of relationship seems to yield the best creative fruit. I’m still learning to recognise when those great ideas pop up, and working on becoming diligent about writing. Them. Down! Why is satire and comedy important to you? Beyond just sheer enjoyment throughout my life so far, comedy and satire have given me a way to organise my thoughts, speak up for what I believe to be true, and connect with people. George Bernard Shaw said, “If you want to tell people the truth, make them

“ Comedy is like this incredible cultural scythe” How have recent economic and political shifts impacted your work? I don’t get too political in my show, but the political world seems to me to be in a great deal of trouble, and the physical world even more so. One only has to try to take a deep breath in Australia to know that the climate desperately needs our attention. I’m absolutely guilty of crisis fatigue – so much seems inconsolably wrong that it’s hard not to get overwhelmed. Perhaps the worse things get in the world, the sillier my show gets. I think it’s important for people to have a space to laugh and escape the constant pressure to save ourselves before we, you know, destroy everything. Truly, I think rest is essential. I believe laughter and music have the greatest unifying power of anything, and even when we’re talking about complete escapist fluff, comedy

and music can be like a fresh coat of snow over the seemingly endless mental cacophony of our cultural conflict. In short, I’m trying to bring people together, whatever their beliefs, for just one hour – if for nothing else than to remind me that that is still possible. What has been your most memorable onstage moment? It may sound silly, but whenever I get this question, I flash back to my 8th grade production of Oklahoma at Lindero Canyon Middle School. I played Curly. Before singing ‘Poor Jud is Dead,’ Jud and Curly have what amounts to a pissing contest over who’s a better marksman. As written, Curly takes out his gun, points it squarely ahead of him, and shoots, proclaiming, “See that? Bullet straight through the knot-hole.” However, in the actual performance, I lifted my gun above my head before shooting, thinking I would take a moment to prepare. The man running sound effects must not have been on my wavelength. With my gun pointing squarely at the ceiling, the gunshot sound-effect rang throughout the theatre. Clearly, something had gone wrong, and the whole audience knew it. Not to be deterred, I pointed a finger upwards, pretending I had meant to shoot there all along, and shouted, “Bullet straight through the knot-hole!” I got the biggest laugh of my life. Something clicked. That moment sparked a love for live performance, improvisation and the endless unpredictability of the present moment – all three of which are at the core of how I work today. ✏︎ Laura Desmond VENUE: TIME:

Gluttony - Rymill Park Times vary, 14 Feb – 15 Mar, not 17, 24 Feb, 2, 9 Mar,

TICKETS:

$22 – $30

fest-mag.com

Credit: Dylan Woodley

laugh, otherwise they’ll kill you.” Comedy is like this incredible cultural scythe, cutting to the core of what’s true without getting lost in the brambles of people’s prejudice. It’s also so helpful in being gentle with myself. If I can laugh at my feeble attempts at life, then maybe, just maybe, I don’t need to get lost in a depressive spiral. Who are some of your comedic influences? Speaking of truth in comedy, I think two of my biggest influences growing up during the George W. Bush presidency were Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. Aggressively funny, they cut through the BS and gave my little mind a window into what original comedic and authentic thought sounded like. I grew up memorizing their routines without even trying, so complete was their influence over me. Mike Birbiglia has also been hugely influential as someone who is a master of narrative storytelling in comedy. Even without music, he’s probably the closest model I have to what I’m trying to do in my solo show. These days I’m ridiculously inspired by the talent in the Fringe world – Demi Lardner, Tom Walker, Courntey Parouso, Caitlin Cook, Trygve Wakenshaw, Viggo Venn and so many more. It’s probably most inspiring that I get to become friends with these incredible performers. That drives me harder than anything else – knowing my friends are doing shows next door and kicking my ass.

Features

43 Features

Focus on:

Gillian English It’s all about belief for Gillian English as she talks about her new show You’re a Good Man, Dr Pirate

Credit: Dahlia Katz

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or her 30th birthday, Gillian English was gifted a session with an astrologer and a prophecy was revealed: on 30th October 2016, English would meet the man she’d spend the rest of her life with – a medicine man with a bung left eye. “My best friend started referring to this mystery magic man as Dr Pirate,” says English. “For like a year and a half until he was supposed to show up, pretty much every time we got drunk, it would be like, so who is Dr Pirate going to be? How would I meet him? And how would he feel knowing that we have a name for him and had talked about him ad nauseum for years?” In You’re a Good Man, Dr Pirate, English – an actor and comedian with an impressive seven Fringe shows under her belt – explores the notion of belief; where we put our faith and why. “I was a very religious child of my own volition – nobody made me – I decided to be really into Jesus on my own,” she laughs. “Honestly, I was a little kid living in the woods in Nova Scotia, and I was trying to make sense of the world and religion was the only thing that presented itself as an explanation to organise the chaos of life. And then I grew up and found something else.” Belief, as English acknowledges, is complicated. “I believed [the prophecy] so hard! I wanted it! But it’s ridiculous to acknowledge you believe something like that.” So why do some beliefs hold more water than others? What is the difference between destiny and fate, and how much control do we really have? These are questions English hopes to explore in her new show. After a run of festival success and awards for her previous two shows, one thing the prophecy didn’t foretell was that the Canadian expat would end up as the director of Fringe at the Edge of the World, an independent Fringe in suburban Hobart. “That is not

something I ever tried to manifest!” she says. “But I’m incredibly happy with where I am. I can always hear my mother in my head saying everything happens for a reason, which I don’t know if I necessarily believe, but maybe I do?” English is, at heart, a storyteller. “It’s the cornerstone of my work, that’s where I started,” she says. “I’ve never been the kind of person who sits down and writes a joke.” Ultimately, she wants to take the audience on a journey. But she is funny, and with another new show premiering at Melbourne International Comedy Festival, when asked what she’s most looking for in the stars next: “I am looking forward to stable adventure. Does that make sense?” she laughs. ✏︎ Lauren Butterworth VENUE: TIME: TICKETS:

Rhino Room 8:45pm, 18–22 Feb $22 – $30

Credit: Cole Bennetts

Focus on:

Matt Okine The prolific performer returns to Adelaide with a pram in tow

Comedy

t’s difficult to imagine Matt Okine gets much sleep. A multi-award-winning comedian, actor, broadcaster, writer and author, yet his ascendancy in recent years has been far from a meteoric rise. “I did Raw [Comedy] back in 2004. That was my first ever standup gig, 15 years ago,” Okine says. “I’m not someone who did just one or two gigs a year up until a few years [back] and then decided to take it seriously. I [have been] working hard ever since that first gig.” Okine was often doing standup shows on weekends while filming his Stan. series The Other Guy. He says this was both in order to keep working on new material, but also because “standup has and always will be the funnest part of my job.” As both a writer and performer, Okine’s ability to explore big ideas and humanity in accessible and relatable ways is a feature of his success. In his new show – Solo Diner – Okine brings a new experience to the stage: that of becoming a father for the first time. “It’s about becoming a parent and what that does to someone who’s used to being alone so much,” he says. “The responsibilities and the excitement, the

love you feel and the pride that you have in this little person. How it makes you realise all the things your parents have done for you just so you can turn around when you’re 13 and call them dickheads.” However, Okine is self-aware enough to know the limits of material he should explore. After recently asking himself whether he should be on TikTok, he concluded: “Stay in your lane, old man. “That’s literally what I thought. I’ve got a family and a beautiful daughter. I’ve written a book and I’ve got a TV show that people can watch. What more do I want? Do I really need to be making fucking ten-second videos to music on TikTok? Let it go, Matt.” His advice then to people thinking about becoming parents or who are pregnant this Adelaide Fringe? “Have dinner in a restaurant that is tiny, make sure it cannot fit a pram. Sit next to your partner and take hours to eat. Then come see my show, enjoy the whole night. Then go to bed and sleep for eight hours straight.” ✏︎ Kylie Maslen VENUE: TIME: TICKETS:

Arts Theatre 7pm, 14–15 Feb $35

Features

Focus on:

Rosie Waterland From houso-kid to comedy queen, chameleon Rosie Waterland tells us about how she’s transformed herself through humour

and mental health, and now she’s turning her hand to fiction and television. “Well I’m a whore for laughs, and as a performer you learn pretty quickly what is and isn’t working and adapt accordingly,” she says. “I definitely picked up that skill as a six-yearold dealing with my crazy parents. But the most important thing really, at the end of the day, is trusting your gut. I’ve always told my stories the way I want to tell them, even when there’s been people telling me it wouldn’t work. “As a kid in and out of the foster system with abusive parents, I had no control over anything. Telling my own stories is how I got that control back. And I’m managing to pay my rent by making people laugh, so that’s a positive! Although I live in Sydney, so only just managing.” As for how she’ll keep shapeshifting into the future? Waterland sees herself accepting both an Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy series, “and Timothée Chalamet’s hand in marriage.” ✏︎ Lauren Butterworth VENUE: TIME: TICKETS:

Rhino Room 9:30pm, 25–29 Feb $39.90

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ou might know her best as the author of two hilarious memoirs, the genius behind Mamamia’s viral Bachie recaps, an award-winning podcast host and a comedian with two successful shows under her belt, but for Rosie Waterland, comedy is a means of survival. “To be honest, if I didn’t make the misery that was my childhood funny in some way, it would be a bit insufferable to read about, wouldn’t it?” Waterland says of writing the difficult subject of trauma in her memoirs. In her new show, Kid Chameleon, she brings these tales to the stage, revealing the shapeshifting tricks you pick up when your mother’s a sex worker, your father’s an alcoholic, and you’re bounced between foster homes. “Seriously though, humour is how I survive,” she says. “If you don’t laugh, you’ll cry. And a little bit of tragedy always makes comedy better, doesn’t it? So I guess I’m lucky I have a lot of tragedy to laugh at!” While humour might be necessary, for Waterland, it isn’t necessarily cathartic. “People always ask me that, like I’m just word vomiting my diary onto the page or something,” she says. “But accessing the darkest parts of your history and life is gut-wrenchingly difficult, particularly when your childhood was filled with abuse. And to then have to craft those experiences into work that will engage an audience is even harder. But I’ve been acting and writing since I was a little kid, so if I wasn’t telling stories I don’t know what I’d do. I might take up cake decorating actually. That looks soothing.” Waterland is certainly an adept shapeshifter. She’s a writer, actress, commentator and comedian who’s tackled pop culture, feminism, body image

Credit: Bobbin Productions

How to be a Good Person

Comedy

Bianca and Ruth from Anna Nicholson’s character show Get Happy give us their top tips for being a good person

Bianca: Being a good person is the same as being a beautiful person. Now, there are some people that are beautiful on the outside and others are beautiful on the inside. But they’re normally really ugly on the outside. Very few people are beautiful on the outside and the inside, and I am one of those rare people. But with great beauty comes great responsibility. That is why I have decided to set up a charity for those less fortunate than myself. Did you know that only one in five women have access to hair straighteners? Do you know that only one in 10 know the difference between moisturiser and primer? And did you know that some women don’t wear any makeup at all? But with your help we can change things. I urgently need you to adopt a wannabe babe with my charity Save the Babes, helping ugly girls get one step closer to becoming real babes. By donating just £6 a month, we will bring an end to this epidemic and as a special thank you you will receive this free gift. It’s a doll of me. Monthly donations begin after a one off contribution of just £500. Terms and conditions apply. Thank you.

Ruth: Well, I am flattered you’re asking me. There is a certain pressure that comes from being ‘holy’ but I can handle it. Sure others couldn’t. But as the saying goes, if you can’t stand the heat, get out of the pulpit. As a vicar, I have to model the Christian way, be a sort of ‘Jesus 2’ if you like. Everyone loves a sequel! Apart from Grease 2, that was simply hours of my life I will never get back. But yes, I am God’s representative, so it’s important to ‘be merciful,’ Luke 6:36, (there, you see – legit Bible!) even when my assistant minister John keeps cocking up the notice board. At Christmas, Jesus was the Prince of Peas in our parish, not Peace. Unbelievable. You’d have thought he’d learnt his lesson after the Holy Goat debacle. But apparently not. It’s also important to be ‘kind and compassionate,’ Ephesians 4:32, (oh, there it is again, just dropping scripture like it’s hot) even when Joan mistakes my dry cleaning for the clothes to be taken to the charity shop, and so the only shirt I have to wear for the Bishop’s visit is a tartan pajama top. And lastly of course, goodness is being ‘quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry,’ James 1:19 (I am on fire!). Even when the youth worker Mikey decides to use seven actual sheep in his Sunday sermon to deliver a more ‘relevant demonstration of Jesus’ parables,’ and decides to store these sheep in my office where they eat all the church records and accounts dating back to 2001 that Mary had neglected to computerise! ✏︎ Anna Nicholson

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Hotel Richmond times vary, 22 Feb – 5 Mar, not 28 Feb $18 – $22

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The New Circus Girls

Circus

lick Lannan, company director of Wildhouse Circus and squad member of BOSS SQUAD, found the beginnings of her femme crew at a circus training camp. Lannan and four other girls lined up to learn teeterboard – a predominantly male discipline. “We’d all come up through youth circus, we’d all been told what we could and couldn’t do, and teeterboard was one of those things,” says Lannan. “Teeterboard started it all because there were no girls doing it.” Even though the girls were keen to get into it, it didn’t come easy. “I had to fight really hard to get it and once I got to perform it, it was fine, but it was too much of a struggle for no reason.” YUCK Circus, created by Georgia Deguara, began as a series of gross stories from Deguara’s own experiences and those of the people around her. “It was just going to be kinda gross stories but bringing it back in like, ‘Well, that’s life, and sorry you had to hear that’,” says Deguara. “One time I absolutely exploded a bathroom stall with my period by accident, and had to deal with it really quickly.” Attempting to bridge the gender divide by relishing in our ability to embarrass ourselves in the most disgusting of ways, YUCK Circus keep their tongues firmly in cheek while exploring social issues including binge-drinking, sexting and menstruation. “A lot of people assume we just talk about periods,” says Deguara, “but we talk about binge drinking and prejudice within contemporary and community circus and there’s a whole aspect there.” YUCK Circus’ genesis wasn’t gender specific, but with an all female crew, Deguara saw the opportunity to create political statements within the gender discourse. “When it became a full seven-person cast and it turned out that everyone was a lady, it ended up being a very gender politics lens,” she says. “I thought it was going to be a bit of a cop out, but by

Credit: Charles Gervais

Being a strong, gross, funny, unashamed female is noticeably rare within the circus community. This year, there are two all-female shows smashing these stereotypes

YUCK Circus

the time the show was written, and we were in the space making it, it was just easy to talk about and so it is what it is.”

“ What surprises me is how much of a difference we make in people’s lives” - Georgia Deguara Both BOSS SQUAD and YUCK Circus use personal storytelling in a circus genre-bending way. Lannan has a large speaking role within BOSS SQUAD which allows her to break away from gendered assumptions. In one story, she discusses her choice and desire to never have children. “I would rarely tell those stories at a party, but I’ll tell this group of strangers this random story and maybe they’ll have the courage to give a rebuttal the next time someone says to them ‘when are you having a kid?’” There is a strong aim in both shows to use storytelling to shift audience perceptions, while having a good time. “What surprises me is how much of a

BOSS SQUAD

difference we make in people’s lives,” says Deguara. “We’ve had people leave our show bawling because it’s just so true to them and relevant and they’ve never seen it out loud before.” There have also been strong male responses, from those who thought they were doing a good job of being feminists. “We’ve had fellas come up and be like, ‘I can see there’s room for improvement between me and my mates,’” tells Deguara. “It sucks that it hits so hard. I think it’s quite tragic that what we’re saying is relevant.” Lannan, however, has her sights set on the teenage girls who are looking to be represented and validated for their choices. “We made this show as a love letter to ourselves,” she says. “If any other 15-year-old girl who is trying to do something comes to see the show, they see ‘I can have big arms’, or ‘I don’t have to worry about my wobbly thighs because it will let me do this amazing thing’ and that’s the goal. We want to get the 15-year-olds in and make them feel better. Make it easier for them.” Breaking the delicate femme mould is a consistent theme in both works. Although delicate females are worthy of celebration, their over-exposure in society makes for harming expectations. “We were brought together by circus and generally you get told what to do based on your body,” says Lannan. “We had lots of body issues during our teenage years and still do, although not to the same extent. But we still

have self-consciousness about going to the gym, or being as big as we are, or as strong as we are.” Deguara faced similar body issues in her circus training. “I wanted to explain the pressures of trying to be a female circus performer,” she says. “To be a certain body shape and type and to do certain specialties, or look a certain way, or act a certain way. It was hard to be funny, and it was hard to get your comedy taken seriously, or your style taken seriously, if you weren’t matching it with high skills or glitter.” Representation and diversity of representation is incredibly important, in any context. By highlighting circus disciplines which often spotlight males, and celebrating strong, quick-witted women, both BOSS SQUAD and YUCK Circus are allowing young females to see a world where they are no longer pigeonholed by others. / Laura Desmond SHOW: VENUE: TIME: TICKETS:

SHOW: VENUE: TIME: TICKETS:

YUCK Circus Gluttony - Rymill Park 7:20pm, 25 Feb-8 Mar, not 2 Mar $25 – $30 BOSS SQUAD Gluttony - Rymill Park 7:20pm, 14 -23 Feb, not 17 $18 – $25

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Circus Trick Tease performer and co-founder Malia Walsh chats about delighting children and adults

Circus

s Circus Trick Tease enter their 12th season at the Adelaide Fringe, performer and co-founder Malia Walsh is feeling excited. Alongside returning Fringe favourite Children are Stinky, they are bringing a new kids’ show, Brass Monkeys, and a new adults’ show, WERK IT. WERK IT comes from the joy of collaboration, with a cast that clearly love working together. “We started doing extra shows in our time off,” says Walsh. “We all just had the best time making Neon [in 2019] and we just wanted to hang out, to make more art together. “With the calibre of performers in WERK IT, we’re all very excited to do a cheeky adult show, and we’re very excited to put onstage all that tongue-incheek that happens when you’re rehearsing. There’s a lot of half-naked bodies flying around in spandex in rehearsal – it translates very quickly into an adult show.” Walsh has a long history of creating circus art for adults with plenty of jokes and costumes unsuited for kids. “It’s funny, I always made adult shows,” she says. “And then, when I had a child, I made one children’s show, and that was Children are Stinky, and that went really well.” Although the jump between children’s circus and adult circus seems like a flying leap, Walsh made it look easy by understanding circus’ basic elements and how they come together form a great show. “I don’t think there’s much of a difference between adult shows and kids shows,” Walsh says. “I think it’s just the language, and how revealing the costumes are! “We play to everybody – with Children are Stinky, we play to the parents as well. It’s a show for everybody to enjoy. I think every parent can sympathise: when the kids go to bed, you do cheeky things! You run around and you dance and you unhide the chocolate, and you’re fun and cheeky.”

Credit: Charles Gervais

Circus Trick Tease

In its fifth Fringe season and back with its original lineup, Children are Stinky promises to be as fresh as ever. “Every season we put in a new trick,” says Walsh. “There are bits of the show that are still ad libs; we make stuff up, we set challenges.” There’s no grand secret to the show’s sellout seasons in Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth and Edinburgh, says Walsh. “Every time we do it, we just laugh and have the best time, and it translates to the kids. We pull them in with a cheeky name, and then when they see the show they see how much fun we have.” In her brand new childrens’ show Brass Monkeys, Walsh directs ex-Circus Oz performers Kyle Raftery and April Dawson, who play brass instruments while performing acrobatic tricks on each other. “Kyle and April are just so incredibly talented,” says Walsh. “My jaw is on the floor every time. They’re both very musically minded, and they both love circus, so the show comes from a place of real love for the arts. And at the rehearsals, the energy’s just been palpable.” ✏ Justin McArthur SHOW: VENUE: TIME TICKETS:

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TICKETS:

Children are Stinky The Garden of Unearthly Delights 4pm, various dates between 28 Feb – 1 Mar $20 – $24 WERK IT The Garden of Unearthly Delights 10:15pm, 14 Feb – 15 Mar, not 17, 24 Feb, 2, 9 Mar $28 – $36 Brass Monkeys The Garden of Unearthly Delights times vary, various dates between 14 Feb and 15 Mar $20 – $24

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Gender, Power and Control

Theatre

As domestic violence rates continue to soar, artists look to voice their stories and experience through performance – as four theatremakers tell us

Gobby – Jodie Irvine A huge thing for me when creating Gobby was and continues to be the representation of the aftermath of being in an emotionally abusive relationship. I was never particularly interested in depicting abuse on stage, but rather focussing in on how such a relationship can affect a person long-term. When I experienced an emotionally abusive and manipulative relationship myself (something I didn’t realise I was in until after I was out of it), I knew quite soon after that I wanted to tell people about it. It blew my mind that someone as confident, loud and self-assured as me could fall into one without realising, and I became obsessed with the notion that once you were out of the toxic relationship you were “free.” I didn’t feel free. In fact for a long time, I think I felt worse being out of it than I did being in it. Whilst I was in it there was this numbness, and the ability to let things wash over me that didn’t exist once I’d figured out what was going on. I think in this current social and political climate, and particularly in Fringe theatre, now we are (finally!) starting to hear more women’s stories represented on stage, it is even more important to me to create a show that offered a unique perspective. I never wanted the show to become a how-to on what gaslighting is, nor did I want it to become a piece in which its central character is a victim throughout. I wanted to write something that was wholly about this character, Bri, and her experience as told from her perspective, exploring what it means to have your own self-awareness questioned, even when you think you’re sure of who you are. For me this show has always been a love letter to the friends I had around me at a dark time, so I

Gobby

hope that it can offer audiences a chance to reflect on their own relationships as well as themselves. It’s never just been about toxic romantic relationships, but platonic ones too, and I hope Gobby can help facilitate conversations about blame and respect. True friendship is a very powerful thing, and I definitely couldn’t have even shared my story, let alone adapted and expanded it into a play without the support of the brilliant women in my life. The Daly River Girl – Tessa Rose My personal experiences shaped my entire play. From the numerous foster families I lived with, to some stories about my theatre life, friendships and school life and my first relationship suffering domestic violence from the age of 15 to 18 years old. This occurring again in a second relationship in my late 30s. By this stage I was a sole parent to my fouryear-old son who is now 18. When I look back at photos I can see the pain and anguish in his precious little eyes. I was so numb. I had no ability to make decisions. I was surviving from day to day, minutes, hours. Constantly a nervous, debilitated wreck. The past, current and undoubtedly the future political climate was a major instigator for writing my play. Domestic violence is at epidemic proportions

The Daly River Girl

The Boy My Father Raised

among all socio-economic and cultural backgrounds. Within our remote and urban communities in the Northern Territory it is rampant. What is being done? I feel I can speak about our aboriginal women our teenage women as that is my heritage. My community, my family, my fellow country women. Writing The Daly River Girl was an experience all its own. The many hours sitting at a computer and writing are very lonely. Starting with a blank page is daunting. Choosing the subject matter and deciding to write about it. Some stories came easier than others. Storytelling is a powerful tool. I didn’t want a happy ending. I wanted the dark, stark reality of domestic violence to be seared in the minds of the audience. You never know what an audience’s reaction will be. I hope it will share some laughter, sorrow, acceptance and empowerment. Upon saying that, anything we do is open to criticism. Which is a good thing as it makes us start a conversation, an open dialogue. A debate. Conversations and debates bring forth feelings and emotions that may have been purposefully left dormant for the fear of retribution. To me it doesn’t feel like a personal story, as it is about many people’s personal story. Black, white, brindle, young, old or in between. My story is not unique. But it is my own personal story.

The Boy My Father Raised – Rachel Stone In early 2019 a domestic abuse survivor shared his story with my year 11 class at my school. He spoke of the violence he experienced at home, of his mother’s murder and, most significantly, he spoke of his relationship with his father. Although his father had committed terrible violence, both mentally and physically, against him, his mother and his siblings, he spoke of him with a sense of torn confliction. He could never forgive his father for murdering his mother or abusing him for all those years, however, he still felt a sort of irrefutable love for him. Having not had such an intimate understanding of the complexity of domestic violence before, Jacob Roneberg and I were both deeply moved by his story. Domestic violence is a widely known issue across Australia; however, the harrowing depths and mental scarring of the people involved is lost in social media statistics. The Boy My Father Raised, rather than focusing on the violence itself, as many domestic violence pieces do, focuses on the link between father and son and the chain that causes the violent tendencies to be learnt from parent to child. It focuses on finding a solution to a global problem, putting an end to an endlessly violent cycle. continues >

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Features

I Don’t Wanna Play House

The production is Taylor’s story. Taylor is a 17 year old boy who has grown up his whole life both witnessing his father’s abuse to his mother and being abused himself. His story is told through his relationships; from his capricious outbursts towards girlfriend Cassie, to his emotional reliance upon best mate Cal. We really want this production to provide a lot more perspective into the psychological depths of domestic violence. Although every victim’s story is different, they all have a lot in common. Perhaps controversially so, we want to take the blame out of domestic violence. In the case of The Boy My Father Raised, the blame is first put onto the father, Chris. Yes, Chris is a huge problem and he’s guilty of doing terrible things to his family, but through his violence he masks a deep self-loathing and crippling fear of being out of control. He does love his wife and child, in the same way that Taylor loves Cassie. He loves her but he doesn’t understand what love is or how to show it. The piece is about more than domestic violence. It’s about the deep complexities of human relationships and what our primal needs as humans are. We want to be loved, and we want to give love. The difference is how you define it.

With an opening like that I thought, ‘That’s a great beginning to tell a life story.’ So I wrote pages and pages and pages of secrets, secrets, secrets. My legacy in an ongoing movement that has taken me to many communities, not only my Indigenous, but non-Indigenous communities around our country and the world. I have found it astonishing that my story could resonate with so many people on a global scale. My art is my life. I deeply care about my work. My vulnerability is my greatest gift of all. ✏︎ Laura Desmond

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Gobby various venues times vary, 27 Feb – 15 Mar, not 28, 29 Feb,

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$22 – $28

SHOW:

I Don’t Wanna Play House Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute times vary, 13–14 Mar $20

SHOW: VENUE:

1, 2 Mar

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SHOW:

Theatre

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I Don’t Wanna Play House - Tammy Anderson I believe in the power of art, the power of storytelling and in the telling is in the knowing. In the first 15 years of my life I lived in 16 houses, three caravans and went to 12 schools, and I can still remember the very first house I lived in with my mum and dad.

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The Daly River Girl Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute times vary, 29 Feb – 1 Mar $20 The Boy My Father Raised Star Theatres 7:30pm, 14–16 Feb $25

55 First Nations Hub Feb14 - March15 253 Grenfell St

Theatre ∙ Dance ∙ Cabaret ∙ Music ∙ Film ∙ Comedy Featuring First Nations artists including: Yellaka ∙ Tammy Anderson ∙ Kevin Kropinyeri Nathan May ∙ Fez Faanana ∙ Tessa Rose Of Desert & Sea ∙ Aborigi-LOL ∙ Karul Projects Deadly Funny ∙ The Merindas & many more… Tandanya Café open 7 days a week

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Oliver Mol Author Oliver Mol tells us how to get back on track after suffering one long chronic migraine

Theatre

“I

took two painkillers and I logged onto the internet,” says Oliver Mol. “I searched ‘no experience, full-time, Sydney’ and a job for Sydney Trains came up.” After publishing his first book, Lion Attack!, Mol found himself debilitated by a 10-month migraine. “I couldn’t look at a phone, I couldn’t look at a computer and I couldn’t look at a screen – I couldn’t – that was narrative,” he says. “I can’t, I can’t, I couldn’t, I couldn’t. And I literally couldn’t because I was in fucking pain.” What started as a huge setback turned into a blessing in his new role with Sydney Trains. “I needed to go around and around and around in circles – I needed two years doing nothing to figure out if I could love myself again and figure out what my problems were.” The banal routine of the trains allowed Mol to overcome his chronic pain and understand his internal narrative relates to others. “Everyone has pain that you can’t see, so I try to make you feel less alone, to let you know that we’re all in it together,” he says. “[The show] tries to make sense of something that doesn’t have a lot of sense in it and I think a lot of people can relate to that.” The Sydney Trains routine also provides the skeletal shape for Mol’s work. “You’re constantly moving in a circle,” he says, “and by the end of the performance, like the end of my time on the trains, I felt like I was finally ready to get off.” Mol is redefining the theatre genre by creating a multimodal work, based on smaller scale private readings of his past. “I’ve always done little readings in my bedroom or in my living room to friends. I would put on music and just sort of read over the top of it and they always felt quite intimate.” It is this intimacy that he hopes to recapture in Train Lord. “You almost return to a childhood version of yourself in some capacity because there’s something quite childlike and innocent about it.” By

pairing music and projection art with spoken word, Mol has “created this dream-like atmosphere” which encapsulates the audience and creates a flow state. Train Lord is a cathartic work. Alongside its darkest moments are glimpses of pure exhilaration. And the joyous, transformative side of the work was almost an afterthought. “I wanted to take all this pain and hurt that I felt and I wanted to put it between two pages and I wanted to seal it off,” Mol says. “I thought that if I could put it there and seal it off and send it out to the world I would be fine.” After his mother berated him for ‘writing from a place of darkness and not from a place of beauty,’ Mol changed his tune, shifting the angle of the work. “This writing that writers tend to do it is a form of magic, a form of alchemy. “You get to take one thing and transform it into another and if there’s no transformation and it’s just darkness and bullshit, then there’s no point even doing it in the first place.” ✏︎ Laura Desmond SHOW:: VENUE: TIME: TICKETS:

Train Lord Bakehouse Theatre times vary, 17–29 Feb, not 23 $15 – $20

Credit: Roberto Gonzalez

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Josephine go and do this and have this wonderful career and life – why can’t I? It wasn’t until we started developing the show that I realised that I was the first black amed for her iconic banana dance, her brilliant woman in a lot of things. I think Josephine helped comedic timing and her daring sensuality, guide me that way.” Josephine Baker was a superstar of the jazz age. Living in a time of increased racism, tribalism Moving from St Louis to Paris, she soon took the and nationalism, Baker’s story is perhaps more world by storm. important than ever. “You hear Josephine quoting “Of course, she had to go to Europe to do it,” says about bringing the world together and that your race Mike Marinaccio, the co-creator, dramaturge and and gender or colour – what you’re born into – is a designer of Josephine, the cabaret, burlesque, dream roll of the dice, and we still haven’t fucking got it,” play bringing her story to life. “Being a spy for the Marinaccio says, sighing. “That’s why it’s relevant French Resistance, adopting 12 children, being the and that’s why it resonates.” only woman to speak at the march on Washington in But it’s not all politics. With ten songs, two dance 1963 – she just had the most incredible life.” numbers, and more costume changes than you can “She’s the whole reason I’m able to do this,” says count, the show invites you into Baker’s boudoir to Tymisha Harris, the acclaimed singer, dancer, actor discover her life, her magnanimous energy, and her and burlesque star who co-created the show and fabulous style. stars as Baker in the show. “If she hadn’t broken bar“It feels like you’re at a big concert and then it riers back in the day by being herself with her darker brings back and you’re in this intimate boudoir,” skin and starring beside white men in France and says Marinaccio. “Like a dream,” Harris continues. touring the world, I wouldn’t be able to do this.” “Josephine created this whole dream world for her Baker was not just a superstar of her time. She audience, and that’s one of the things I wanted to was confident, driven and unafraid to make dedo. Take it for that hour and send someone on a new mands, especially when it came to the kind of work trek for life, send them on a new way to think about she wanted to do and how she wanted to do it – a things for life.” ✏︎ Lauren Butterworth privilege barred to most black women of her time. “Because Josephine didn’t need America, she was VENUE: Black Box Theatre able to kick down that wall,” says Marinaccio. 7.25pm, 14 Feb – 1 Mar, not 17, 24, 27 Feb “I think her fearlessness was such an inspiration TIME: TICKETS: $23 – $30 for me,” Harris continues. “It was like – oh, she can

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Tymisha Harris and Mike Marinaccio talk about turning the life of one of the jazz age’s most iconic performers into a burlesque dream play

59 Features

Amanda Palmer: Intermissionary We speak to the maverick artist about listening to her fans and turning suffering into art

“ When the world is fracturing, artists who help create some kind of narrative glue are really necessary” “I think I became sort of anaemic on a touring schedule that literally means you get in a vessel, you see a dressing room, you see a stage, you get back in another vessel, you see a bed, you don’t really know where you are, you have no idea who these people

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Credit: Kahn and Selesnick

t’s been a tough start to the year for Australia. And for a musician touring the country like Amanda Palmer, things have certainly felt “more raw and magnified. “But the weird thing is that it’s always been like this,” she clarifies. “You tour for 20 years and you realise that half your life you’re touring into catastrophe, natural disaster, political upheaval, and you start realising that your job is to deliver this show to the people who are going through the experience, and never to set yourself on autopilot. If I have learned anything – not just about writing music and playing music, but touring music and going from place to place – it is I think I’ve learned a kind of sensitivity about trying to listen as much as I’m broadcasting. Nowadays I have been enjoying really trying to learn how to be in each place that I’m in, if I can, because I think different crowds of people need different things on different days.” This was perhaps best exemplified the night before we speak, where her performance at Mona Foma festival, Tasmania, was the culmination of a durational ‘confessional’ project. For two days, the public were invited to share intimate thoughts in a one-on-one conversation with Palmer, which she distilled into a brand new song performed at the event.

are or what they went through yesterday. I was only in Launceston for a week but I learned a LOT about the Earth, about the Tasmanian Aboriginals, about the genocide, about the literacy rate, about the small businesses downtown, about the police–” she laughs, “and it was impossible not to feed all of that into the work. “I think, especially when the world is fracturing, artists who can help create some kind of narrative glue are really necessary,” she says. Palmer has often done things differently. From controversially ditching her record label Roadrunner (a rock-focused division of the Warner Music Group) in 2010, to making Kickstarter history in 2012 by crowdfunding her second solo album, Theatre Is Evil, to the tune of $1.2 million (the most a musical project had, at the time, ever grossed), the former frontwoman of The Dresden Dolls has sought to challenge the paradigm. A staunch proponent of connecting directly with her audience and asking for support (as explored in her viral TED talk and, later, her bestselling 2014 book The Art of Asking), Palmer now resides on Patreon. continues >

Credit: Allan Amato

Music

For the uninitiated, it’s a bit like Kickstarter, but with a membership model where fans can subscribe to particular artists to unlock regular and special content. As well as releasing a cover of Midnight Oil’s ‘Beds Are Burning’ for charity, she will be setting up a Patreon exclusively for bushfire relief, capitalising on this direct link with her fans to effect positive change. Leaving Roadrunner was a defiant move against the more commercial and impersonal mechanisms of music creation and distribution. In her crowdfunded model, she focuses on sharing regular songs, videos, photos and other fragments of personal content directly with her fans, and was “overjoyed when I started to crank up my Patreon and thought I would never have to release another album again.” But in the seven years since Theatre Is Evil, she’d been through a lot. There was no grand plan to write ‘the next album’, but stories and songs emerged organically from a turbulent period of her life. (To coldly summarise: two abortions, one miscarriage, the birth of her first child, the deaths of two very close friends and the suicide of an ex.) “The material just took the driver’s seat, and I got into the passenger’s seat and tried to navigate it where

it wanted to go,” she says. As she wryly sums up in the album’s beautiful companion book: “All of the pain and loss and tragedy of the last seven years would finally have a purpose. How fun and convenient!” There Will Be No Intermission is Palmer’s third solo album, and the origin of its name is also explained in the book. During a gig in Gateshead, UK, an audience member needed to go to the toilet – so Palmer issued an unplanned intermission (much to the venue’s surprise). While not quite as on-the-nose as ‘The Saddest Record in the World’, its working title, There Will Be No Intermission hits on a few themes: the un-pause-ability of real life, the impassive timing of tragedy, but also Palmer’s own defiance against assumed conventions (there is, of course, an intermission on the album and the live show – and in the book). And it’s an engrossing piano record, cinematic in its pacing, understated in its production as well as vulnerable in its writing. As explained in depth in the book (“I just fucking love context”), there’s a poignant and often heartbreaking background to each track. The death of Anthony Martignetti, Palmer’s closest friend and mentor (who lives on in her son’s name

Ash, “short-for-Anthony”), features prominently. As do the child she had and the ones she didn’t; it’s very much a ‘birth, life and death’ record. Recent seismic sociopolitical shifts – not least of all #MeToo – have informed the album, too. ‘Voicemail for Jill’ is inspired by the tidal result of Ireland’s Repeal the 8th movement in 2018. The vote effectively legalised abortion, but also pulled into sharp relief the increasingly ossified and retrograde views on female reproductive autonomy in her home country. Palmer’s own philosophy of unabashed honesty seems suddenly vital in today’s volatile era of reckoning. As she writes in the book, “There is real political power in telling your personal truth.” And it’s through the honesty of thousands of women that the movement of #MeToo became an avalanche. “From climate change to Trump, to the most intimate moments of my reproductive drama, it really feels like this is a moment right now on Earth where – if you are not hearing the call to stand up and simply tell the truth, and break through this massive barrier of bullshit which we have all been suffering – you’re not awake right now,” she says.

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Credit: Allan Amato

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We play devil’s advocate and ask about the role of suffering in art, and if truly great suffering is needed to create ‘good’ art. She cites noted psychiatrist (and Holocaust survivor) Viktor Frankl, who in Man’s Search For Meaning (1946) writes, “a man’s suffering is similar to the behaviour of a gas. If a certain quantity of gas is pumped into an empty chamber, it will fill the chamber completely and evenly, no matter how big the chamber. Thus suffering completely fills the human soul and conscious mind, no matter whether the suffering is great or little.” “I don’t think you need to ‘suffer’ to be an artist,” Palmer concludes. “If you’re a human being you’re fucking suffering anyway. And then if you want to examine and reflect on that suffering for your fellow tribespeople, then congratulations, you’re an artist.” /

George Sully

SHOW:: VENUE: TIME: TICKETS:

Amanda Palmer: There Will Be No Intermission RCC 7:30pm, 14–15 Feb $53

Credit: Julian Broad

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Kate Tempest

Music

The prodigious cross-platform artist discusses music in a time of crisis

The use of the first person narrator makes your latest album The Book of Traps and Lessons feel incredibly intimate. Was that a conscious decision? I was encouraged by [producer] Rick Rubin to pursue the poems and the songs that were written in the first person. These are the ones that he was most moved by, most excited by. Then when I had the bones of the album and I began to understand what story I was trying to tell. It just felt right to have this character speaking from the first person, like a kind of old school poetic journey of account and witness. Every single thing that I’ve written – whether the albums, the plays, the novel – it’s been about me trying to get to grips with something that’s been happening in my own life. That’s just my experience of fiction, it begins in truth, and usually the most powerful and profound stories are the ones that come from real experience. Your musical style is so unique. Often the backing feels ephemeral and dreamy, but the lyrics are so affecting. How do you write this way? Dan Carey, the guy that I’ve been working with since Everybody Down (2014), writes the music and I write the lyrics. We work together in the room and the

things that he does affect the direction of my writing. If he’s writing something that I’m into he knows that I’m into it because he’ll hear my pen move faster across the paper. The single ‘People’s Faces’ is such a beautiful capsule of this moment in history. How important is storytelling in times like this? For me the role of the musician, the poet, the artist is really important. There is a necessity for numbness in the times that we live in. You have to be numb otherwise you’ll go mad. That numbness is pervasive and leads to complicity in all kinds of things that you’re uncomfortable with. The thing that music can do is connect you again to the present, ground you in the present. I think that’s so powerful. The first step towards making decisions about being more empathetic, more accountable, more active, whatever it is that you want to be doing. It all starts with connection. ✏︎ Kylie Maslen

VENUE: TIME: TICKETS:

LION ARTS FACTORY 8:30pm – 9:55pm, 27 Feb $47

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Anarchy in the Croquet Tear apart tradition and come on a journey through Tokyo’s 80s punk scene with a weekend matsuri

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merging from the depths of 70s recession and disco, Japanese punk spawned a following the likes of which Japan had never seen. Merging art and fashion, music and film, old and new, anarchism and determination, punk put the mic firmly in the hands of the nation’s youth. Tapping into a wellspring of energy and optimism, punk offered a way to step out of the shadows of deeply held tradition and prescribed trends, inspiring the youth to ‘Do-ItThemselves’ and write their own futures. The Japanese have never been short of finding reasons to party. Traditional matsuri (festivals) can celebrate anything from the changing seasons, coming of age, harvests, blossom, fish or fishermen, as well as paying thanks to the plethora of local deities that inhabit every corner of the island nation. Anyone familiar with the movies of Studio Ghibli will know this to be an unending list of party opportunities. Matsuri are usually based around a key ritual symbolic of the festival’s nature and purpose – like swimming a stretch of dangerous open water, riding giant logs down a hill or running naked through the streets of your hometown. RCC is set to transcend the mortal realm this year as Japan’s high priests of punk rock descend on Adelaide to subvert convention by mashing together the traditional Japanese matsuri with Tokyo’s early 80s punk scene and pay homage to the powerful gods of Japanese punk rock. Performing together for the first time outside of Japan are Tokyo’s very own leather clad rockers Guitar Wolf and the enthusiastically naked Jet Boys. The third point in this pyramid of punk rock transcendence is the very high priestesses of Japanese cool themselves, The 5.6.7.8’s. Headlining both nights, The 5.6.7.8’s are the undisputed queens of Japanese punk – and iconic Jane Mansfield lookalikes. The 5.6.7.8’s were already indie music icons well before their performance on

Guitar Wolf

Tarantino’s Kill Bill Vol 1 introduced their infectious mix of 50s surfer rock, rockabilly and US punk to the world. With their beehives, guitars and go-go, they have continued to confront the myths surrounding Japanese femininity and identity through touring the world and growing in popularity and influence. Recently signed to Jack White’s Third Man record label, something bands a quarter of their age would die for, Guitar Wolf seems unstoppable. After 30 years, 13 albums and a non-stop world touring schedule, the band are continuing to punch out their high-octane performances with a sound that tips a hardcore hat to the Ramones, drifts close to experimental and often gets up front and personal. People offended by nudity, vegetable cruelty and super intense live performances might want to avoid LVL 5 as the Jet Boys and their wraith-like lead singer Onoching take to the stage. Nudity, nunchucks, soy milk and the aforementioned vegetable cruelty continues >

Credit: Charlyn Cameron

Music

The Jet Boys

will do little to distract people from the intensity of their hardcore punk rock performance that is sure to leave everyone sweaty, exhausted and with bleeding eyes. But this matsuri isn’t just about the music. Tokyo Jet Daze’s ritual to the god of punk has manifested itself in a ceremonial Seven Samurai vs Akira inspired cardboard clad battle choreographed by Australia’s very own cardboard warriors, Boxwars. Zombie fans will be sure to swoon in the presence of Guitar Wolf’s Wild Zero zombie fighting skills and should be on the lookout for kendo master Seiji during the ensuring fray. Adelaide’s Motorcycle Society will also be on show and are organising activities befitting the leather-clad Japanese rockers and their love affair of all things motorcycle and the road. In keeping with the punk ethic, an exhibition of poster art drawn will adorn the battle lawns and stages throughout the weekend’s festivities. Rat Fink and 70s zine culture inspired, Jet Boys’ frontman

Onoching’s weird and wild artwork is the band’s often lurid fourth band member and provides an enlightening glimpse into the mind of true punk rock artist and the history of Japanese punk rock. Throughout the weekend, Onoching will be on site to help print and convert any piece of clothing into merch, or you can select a unique piece of art to take home, to be tattooed onto your body or painted onto your ride. While most people will come to the Tokyo Jet Daze weekender for the music, art and ceremonial cardboard battles, those who are seeking more culinary delights will not be disappointed with the raft of traditional Japanese festival food, BBQ and beverages that will surround the battle lawns. ✏︎ Joe Hay SHOW: VENUE TIME: TICKETS:

Tokyo Jet Daze: A Japanese Punk Weekender RCC 9:30pm, 28–29 Feb $35

Know the Score

Tropical Fuck Storm and The Shaolin Afronauts rewrite film soundtracks to cult classics. Gareth Liddiard and Dylan Marshall chat about their different processes

Music

hree Academy Award-winning filmmakers will have their works revived by original scores from Australian bands Tropical Fuck Storm and The Shaolin Afronauts. Performing live accompaniments to high-impact films No Country for Old Men and Mad Max, the bands’ alternate approaches add a fresh fervour to these iconic films. “My idea was to base the score on French film Elevator to the Gallows where Miles Davis did the soundtrack,” says Gareth Liddiard of Tropical Fuck Storm. “He and his band just played live to a screening of the film during recording. Then what they did was take that recording and back it up five seconds because that was the average reaction time for the musicians to play to whatever was happening on screen. “I’d say 50 per cent of our score is written and 50 per cent is improvised.” Playing on the fly isn’t an ability many musicians can attest to having, but Liddiard says the musical idiosyncrasies between himself and the members of Tropical Fuck Storm make for a “perfect collaboration”.

No Country For Old Men + Tropical F*ck Storm

“Usually I’ll come up with really general pointers, like the Miles Davis thing. Then there will be practical shit like key, and then I’ll come up with maybe a little melody that we can sort of scratch out. And then I just like to hand it over to the girls. They just figure it out, they’re really good and I really trust what they do.” The experimental rock band were approached by audio-visual events crew Hear My Eyes to score The Coen Brothers’ slow burning crime thriller, No Country for Old Men, in 2018. Founding members Gareth Liddiard and Fiona Kitschin, who are known for their seminal underground punk band The Drones, had only formed Tropical Fuck Storm a year prior.

“ I’d say 50 per cent of our score is written and 50 per cent is improvised” – Gareth Liddiard “Doing this actually helped us write the second record that we made last year. I’d say three or four chunks of music [from the score] wound up recycled and rejigged on our last record. “With The Drones we had 20 years of playing together and we learned how to play structured shit and we learned to play mad free-jazz too. But we

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hadn’t done that with TFS because we’d only been together for a year, so it was a good chance to go head first into this,” Liddiard says. The Melbourne four-piece is poised to play over two consecutive nights for RCC but they’re not the only ones scoring a feature-length film over the festival season. Adelaide’s own instrumental powerhouse The Shaolin Afronauts are putting their spin on George Miller’s cult classic Mad Max for Adelaide Festival. The jazz collective are fronted by guitarist Dylan Marshall, who has mapped live scores for all three of Miller’s Mad Max instalments. The Shaolin Afronauts were originally commissioned to perform at Melbourne’s Stonnington Jazz Festival by artistic director, Chelsea Wilson. Fans will be quick to recognise signatures from the band’s usual repertoire, which Marshall adapted to fit the film’s tone and aesthetics. “We’ve taken a lot from our first two albums and a couple from our third one, so a lot of it is actually our own material,” Marshall says. “I took our recordings and mapped them out to the movie… and then we could tailor the way we performed it or the arrangements of it to match the shape of the movie. So for people who know our music, they’ll be hearing a lot of the music they already know.” But he’s also stayed true to Miller’s vision. Having heard in an interview that Miller’s intention was to partially replicate the air of a silent film, decisions

were made to honour the audio-visual aspects of silent cinema. “There are a few bits where we made the decision to play our music and let the movie play like a silent movie,” Marshall says. “So you’ve got the music supporting the action but you haven’t got any of the incidental dialogue. There are certain parts where you’ll have dialogue with music, as normal, but then there are other things that are almost like a silent film. “It was an interesting process to go through,” says Marshall. “In a lot of ways it gives us the chance to do the other side of the Afronauts. We have our dance stuff that we play a lot of but there are also the more textural qualities in our music that we’re able to explore by playing along with the movie. It’s enjoyable for us to do from the point of view that we can delve into the depth of emotion we can bring out with our instrumentation.” ✏︎ Letti K-Ewing

TICKETS:

No Country For Old Men + Tropical F*ck Storm RCC 8pm, 28–29 Feb $45

SHOW:

Mad Max and The Shaolin Afronauts

SHOW: VENUE: TIME:

[Adelaide Festival] VENUE: TIME: TICKETS:

The Workshop, Adelaide Festival Centre 10:30pm – 12:05am, 29 Feb–1 Mar $39

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Mad Max and The Shaolin Afronauts

Credit: Matt Byrne

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Patch Theatre

From a company inspired by children’s logic comes a dazzling interactive show of light and colour. Geoff Cobham talks about The Lighthouse

Kids

or the past 40 years, Patch Theatre’s artistic director Geoff Cobham has been working with light. As a designer in theatrical environments, where light has been his design tool, Cobham has contributed to hundreds of productions. From rock concerts to Shakespeare, fashion shows to freeways, festival clubs to forests, Cobham has seemingly done it all. This year though, comes something extraordinary. Patch Theatre presents The Lighthouse – five rooms filled with unique observations of the science and art of lighting. The Lighthouse is a vivid and soaring exploration of light and colour. Led by a Lighthouse Keeper, audiences of all ages travel in groups of 30 through each room to explore an ever-changing landscape that varies in scale and point of view. “The Lighthouse isn’t performed in a traditional theatre setting,” says Cobham. “It’s performed in more of an immersive installation space, like you’d see at a gallery. We’ve built a playground of wonder for the audience who are very much at the heart of this work.”

Though The Lighthouse is open to anyone, it consciously adheres to children’s learning. Cobham states that Patch Theatre explores big ideas and aims to spark children’s curiosity. “Our process for creating theatre involves intensive development periods where all the artists involved in making the show play together,” says Cobham. “We also enlist the help of children as we create the work, so we run sessions where they play in our spaces and in turn it teaches us what the work means to them. It’s all about treating children as capable audience members and giving them a secure platform to make decisions, find solutions and recognise the value of their ideas.” It is perhaps no surprise then that Cobham’s interest in the theme of light began as an early obsession. “We are literally creatures of light,” he says. “Every day I marvel at the beauty and wonder of this thing that we all take for granted but which is at the heart of human existence. Light feeds my wonder at the universe and The Lighthouse is my ‘love letter’ to light.” The audience, in turn, can now be privy to this ode to light, and can explore Cobham’s love letter with equal fascination. “The audience explore by interacting with the installation and discovering the science behind the theatre magic,” Cobham says. “As for the rave part, you’ll have to see the show to discover that!” ✏︎ Esther Rivers SHOW: VENUE TIME: TICKETS:

The Lighthouse Queen’s Theatre times vary, 25 Feb–7 Mar $15 - $29

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Don’t Mess With the Dummies!

If you were stranded in the jungle with only one thing to eat, what would it be? This is a silly question. It must be delicious and nutritious so the obvious answer is custard. What are your top three tips for heading into the jungle? 1. Don’t pee into the wind. Before the Dummies set up camp 2. Don’t leave your snacks out at night or the parents might get them. at Adelaide Fringe, get some top 3. Don’t get your bum too close to the fire when you tips for survival in the jungle are warming it unless you are a liar so you can catch your pants on fire. If you could go camping with one person, who would What are your three favourite animals? it be and why? 1. Seals Bear Grylls, because he would be able to save me 2. Drop bears from my own mistakes. Or Batman as he would have 3. Griffins ✏ Laura Desmond all the gadgets that would make the camping really comfortable and sweet. What are the items you never leave home without? VENUE: The Garden of Unearthly Delights Board games, a yoyo and snacks. But snacks are TIME: times vary, various dates between 14 Feb and 15 Mar the most important. Snacks make board games and yoyos better! TICKETS: $17.50 – $25

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Erth’s Dinosaur Zoo

After five years of touring across Japan, the US, China and the UK, Erth’s Dinosaur Zoo is returning with updated science and some new locals

Kids

ake Steve Irwin’s charm, add some talented puppeteers with a dose of paleontology and you’ve got a reckless petting zoo filled with animals from our distant past. “The show is a wildlife presentation with dinosaurs – we just present dinosaurs as live animals,” says artistic director Steve Wright. Based around paleontology and true science, Erth’s Dinosaur Zoo is anything but a bore. “The thing I love is that it’s quite reckless,” Wright says. “When you’re taking some of the most dangerous creatures that have ever existed on the planet and letting kids get close and personal with them, it’s like letting a child stick their head in the mouth of a lion.” After years of touring and learning new information through progressions in paleontology, the crew has expanded. “We’ve got two new dinosaurs, the Minmi paravertebra and the Fukuiraptor,” he says. The Minmi is most likely of the Ankylosaurus family – “it looks like a little ankylosaur, but it doesn’t have a club on its tail,” says Wright. “The Fukuiraptor comes from Japan, but is closely related to the Australovenator.” Wright strives to teach audiences about the creatures that existed in our own backyards. “People don’t realise that dinosaurs are specific to different land masses,” he says. “We were able to create a T-Rex and Triceratops for the US, and we get to highlight Australian dinosaurs now we’re back.” Engaging with kids on a scientific level isn’t always easy, but remembering where you have come from is a key part of Wright’s success. “I used to be a young person so I think I can speak with authority. We don’t soften the edges. A lot of the material is science based, but it’s really important that we

don’t dumb anything down and we treat children as equals,” he says. “It’s difficult with paleontology because it’s a malleable science and is based on creatures which lived more than 65 million years ago – every day theories and hypotheses change based on new information.” Wright also had the opportunity to discuss conflicting hypotheses with a budding young scientist. After noticing a particular child had attended multiple performances at Melbourne Zoo, Wright invited the boy backstage to chat all things prehistoric. “He wanted to tell me that he had his own theories which were religious based,” Wright says. “We had this conversation around theories and even though he doesn’t agree with my theories and I don’t necessarily agree with his, we could both agree that we can have our own.” ✏︎ Laura Desmond SHOW: VENUE: TIME:

TICKETS:

Erth’s Dinosaur Zoo RCC times vary, various dates between 22 Feb and 15 Mar $20

Time Machines

works for international festivals. And this Fringe, he’s bringing a new event to Adelaide. Electric Dreams is a five day “celebration of immersive Before cabaret and burlesque, storytelling” that includes a conference and a range before theatre, music and even of virtual reality experiences. visual design, there was just a The conference runs for three days and looks single art: storytelling. Tom Millen at “how storytelling and entertainment can benefit from using immersive technology in interesting thinks he can improve it ways.” As one of the biggest forums for storytelling and entertainment in the world, Millen sees the Adhe narratives that we construct help to define elaide Fringe as a natural venue for the conference. who we are as humans. They’re at the heart Alongside this, there’s a public program of VR works of how we perceive ourselves and communiso that audiences can see some of the ways that cate with each other, and some of the tools we use artists are using the medium. have been around for tens of thousands of years. As an example of ways that technology is Yet they’re still evolving, and Tom Millen believes changing storytelling, Millen cites The Imaginarium, that virtual reality (VR) has the potential make our a production company started by Andy Serkis that histories even more powerful. specialises in motion capture technology. In the past, “Developments in technology have given us new The Imaginarium has created a live digital character ways to tell stories,” he says, “but also to share them.” for the stage, but CEO Matthew Brown will speak at As the director of Crossover Labs, Millen produces the conference about what the future holds. Mixed immersive experiences and films as well as curating reality (MR) is a hybrid of the real world and virtual

Interactive

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“ The presence of VR in the arts has been growing massively in recent years” Electric Dreams includes six VR events, and Millen describes Gloomy Eyes and Fire Escape as “two of the world’s best immersive experiences.” The former is “a beautifully crafted VR animation in the vein of films like Nightmare Before Christmas and The Box Trolls” in which the viewer is allowed to observe a lonely zombie from afar or from the middle of the action. Fire Escape, meanwhile, places the audience on a fire escape for an interactive murder mystery inspired by the classic Hitchcock thriller Rear Window. But rather than seeing the action play out through the eyes of the protagonist, the viewer has to decide where to focus their attention as several stories play out simultaneously. Traditional media allows the viewer to be passive if they so wish, but these new modes force the audience to make decisions about what they are experiencing. This engagement lies at the heart of immersive storytelling, which Millen defines as works that “transport you to the world of the story.” As well as these signature experiences, Electric Dreams’ VR cinema will also have a rolling program of four themed sessions, each containing multiple works. The Art of Sport includes an Adelaide production, The Summation of Force, that Millen calls “one of my favourite VR films ever.” The work is based on a collection of photographs that made up a standalone exhibition and Millen points out that “the presence of VR in the arts has been growing massively in recent years.” Gaming is another area taking advantage of the medium, but interestingly Millen sees theatremakers as some of those making best use of the VR’s potential because “they are used to thinking in terms of spatial storytelling.” He also sees real world applications as a training tool for healthcare professionals and a visualis-

ation aid for engineers and architects. Immersive technology allows us to see reality in new ways, and to create things and places that can’t exist in our world. Several other festival season shows utilise both capabilities. VR Comedy transports audiences to the Bendigo Comedy Festival without the need for comics to travel, and the Adelaide Festival show Eight uses mixed reality, opera and pop to create an imaginary world where a woman’s life story is told in reverse. Ironically, though the performances are only for a single person, they have to be experienced in a public space. The producers of each show are responsible for the headsets and associated hardware, which are still too expensive for casual home use. This intersection of personal and public echoes the video arcades of the 1980s, and that’s just the way Millen wants it. “I think that a curated and well run experience is much more appealing to audience,” he says. “For the time being at least.” ✏ Alexis Buxton-Collins SHOW:

VENUE: TIME: TICKETS:

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SHOW: VENUE: TIME: TICKETS:

VR Comedy: The Best of the Bendigo Comedy Festival various venues times vary, 14 Feb – 1 Mar $27.50 Electric Dreams: Conference Lot Fourteen 9:00am, 19–21 Feb $380 Electric Dreams: VR Cinema - Cosmic Lot Fourteen times vary, 19–23 Feb $15 Electric Dreams: VR Cinema Welcome To My World Lot Fourteen times vary, 19–23 Feb $15 Electric Dreams: VR Cinema - Art of Sport Lot Fourteen times vary, 19–23 Feb $15 Electric Dreams: VR Cinema - Earth Lot Fourteen times vary, 19–23 Feb $15

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reality (augmented reality is one form), and he is looking at porting theatre performances into MR so they can be staged anywhere, at any scale. Early adopters of film technology simply used it to transfer stage performances onto a screen, but within a matter of years an entirely new syntax of storytelling has evolved. Mixed reality may not be there yet, but virtual reality is on the cusp of making that leap.

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Get Ready to RUMPUS In a former Clipsal site in Bowden a new venue is reinvigorating Adelaide’s theatre scene, as the venue’s co-founder Nescha Jelk tells us

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ourteen years ago,” says Nescha Jelk, “when I was a first-year student, I remember going to some amazing DIY pop up venues during the Fringe – venues that were presenting bold experimental work that blew my first-year-drama-student mind.” Jelk is co-founder and facilitator of RUMPUS. Founded in 2018, RUMPUS is a new collective-driven performance and work space dedicated to supporting local artists. “Work by companies like Border Project or Black Lung from Melbourne, pieces of new writing and devised theatre that felt so far away from what I would normally see in Adelaide outside of festival season. “After the Fringe, the hole that these spaces left behind felt all too obvious. And through my studies, I would hear teachers talk about the days of Red Shed, one of the last artist-run companies that had

been in Adelaide.” As Jelk continued her career as a professional artist, she became connected with local artists. “I saw the need for a space like this for further reason: to support and strengthen Adelaide’s independent theatre community,” she says. “For a long time, independent artists have been facing the same struggles alone. It made sense to me that, as other artists have done in history, by banding together and sharing resource and labour we would be stronger and make better work.” So, with co-facilitators Rebecca Mayo and Yasmin Gurreeboo and a whole community of independent artists on board, RUMPUS was born. Kitted out with vintage furniture from sports clubs, deceased estates and old pubs found on Gumtree and Facebook marketplace, and with the help of grandma’s ute and community working bees, the space was transformed. Local artist Meg Wilson worked with the team to design the signature kitschy-cool vibe and make it a place where artists can work, rehearse and perform. “We were inspired by the photography of Warren Kirk, who captures the Australian suburbia that is being faded out by gentrification – corner store delis, community halls and people’s pattern-carpeted continues >

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lounge rooms,” says Jelk. “We wanted the space to feel like your grandad’s RSL hall had a child with your grandma’s rumpus room. We wanted it to be a community space that felt homely and didn’t take itself too seriously. And we wanted it to feel DIY – which was quite easy because it was all very DIY, given most of our budget went towards buying our lighting and sound equipment.” And for Jelk, Adelaide is perfect for such a space. With a supportive and co-operative theatre community making amazing work, and audiences with an appetite for independent work, it made sense. “The Fringe is a festival of work by largely independent artists, and it is far more successful in Adelaide than it is in Sydney or Melbourne,” she says. “It makes sense to me that there is currently an untapped audience hidden in Adelaide for this work throughout the year.” For their first Fringe season, RUMPUS has a lot on offer. “[It] is going to be a lot of fun. There is Only Human by Sophia Simmons, presented by SAYarts and directed by Ruby Award-winner Claire Glenn. It’s a work that imagines a future where the

line between humans and AI have become blurred. Queer House Rules! by young director/playwright Guy Henderson and presented by Nicholas Howson tells the story of a share house with queer millennials facing eviction. Fracture is a new work by an exciting emerging artist Alice Marsh, who has been recently selected for Frantic Assembly’s Summer School in London. Dead Gorgeous: A True Crime Clown Show is presented by Madness of Two, which is Ellen Graham and Jamie Hornsby. They presented a showing of the work last year at RUMPUS as a part of our Baby Plays program. As true crime fan myself, I can say that I found it hilarious.” RUMPUS solely features the work of young Adelaide artists and they’re one of the few venues that don’t take a cut of box-office sales. Instead, artists rent the space and keep 100% of profits, a rare thing in a Fringe as large and international as Adelaide. Such shows and venues run on the smell of an oily rag and so if you’re a keen Fringe goer, it’s important to buy tickets to the small players and keep the local scene vibrant. “Having the Adelaide Festival of Arts and Fringe Festival transform Adelaide every year is an incredible thing for any artist in Adelaide,” Jelk says. “RUMPUS, as a young organisation, would never have gotten as far as it has without the support of our community, general public and from companies like Vitalstatistix, Patch, State Theatre Company of South Australia, Windmill and Brink. And, dare I say it, but I think RUMPUS is a really special thing in Adelaide for young independent theatre makers right now.” / Lauren Butterworth SHOW: VENUE: TIME: TICKETS:

SHOW: VENUE: TIME: TICKETS:

Only Human RUMPUS times vary, 26 Feb – 1 Mar $20 – $30 THE ITCH RUMPUS 8:00pm, 1 Mar, 8 Mar, 15 Mar $10 Queer House Rules! RUMPUS times vary, 26 Feb – 1 Mar $25 Dead Gorgeous: A True Crime Clown Show RUMPUS times vary, 4–15 Mar, not 9, 10 $17 – $25

The Heart of Africa Now in its third year, Sanaa Ink is bringing their largest program yet

he arts transcends boundaries of privilege and language. Victoria Lewis, founder of Sanaa Ink, first noticed the positive impact arts had in the communities of east African countries while filming the short 2015 documentary Slum Ballet. Lewis threw herself into the arts scene in each city she visited: “I had arranged to meet a number of artists before travelling over… I met with five street and visual artists, including some I met randomly at arts hubs and centres.” These serendipitous meetings allowed Lewis to travel through Tanzania and Kenya, where outside of Nairobi she stopped in Kibera, one of the largest urban slums in Africa. Throughout the trip, one point was clear to Lewis: in the face of extreme poverty, lack of resources and insufficient housing, artists continued to create art and use it as a tool for progressing their society forward. “In African countries the artists are often the community leaders so they’re using art as a form to impact the next generation,” she says. “It’s very different to how art is used here.” The social impact was intrinsic to artists’ work with the younger generation. “Whether the artists

Sanaa collaborative mural

are teaching dance, or street art or music, they’re working with young people to positively impact their lives,” she says. “It happens everywhere.” Working with those younger than them garners a lot of respect within their circles, even early in their careers. “Some are the best artists, but some are emerging and going up, but are still really respected for the work that they do,” Lewis states. “I still think art has a long way to go over there but if you look at the things they’re doing in their communities, it deserves a lot of respect.”

“ In African countries the artists are often the community leaders so they’re using art as a form to impact the next generation” – Victoria Lewis Lewis started Sanaa Ink to bring African artists to Adelaide Fringe and enrich our understanding of how art is perceived. “It was on the back of [the 2015] trip that I thought I want to bring some of these artists to Australia,” Lewis says. “Each year I go back [to Africa] to build my networks and sponsors and grow the program.” This year sees the program venturing

Features

out of Adelaide for the first time. There are school workshops, exhibitions and public art collaborations in Port Augusta and Whyalla. Bringing artists to Australia gives them opportunities and skills they can take back to their own communities to expand their recognition. “I give them an opportunity to public speak, or run a workshop so when they go back they can capitalise on those opportunities,” says Lewis. “It helps with their career projection, and opens their eyes to what they can do back in their own countries.” Beau Graff is a visual artist from Senegal who will be travelling to Australia for the first time with Sanaa Ink. “It was a dream to participate in international festivals, and today Sanaa gave me that opportunity,” Graff writes. “It will be my first trip abroad and its an important opportunity for me because it’s an opening, it will be a moment of sharing and gaining experience.” Graff is highly respected in his own community, and recognises the impact his art has on his local community. “Graffiti is more social and spiritual,” he states. “People are starting to listen to this art from and I am being asked by many young people about the work I do.” The visual artists Lewis is bringing over will have the chance to leave their mark on Adelaide with several collaborative public art pieces. Local artists Jasmine Crisp, Jake Holmes and Jimmy Smith will work with Sanaa artists to create three murals in the CBD. These murals will be part of Adelaide Fringe’s Street Art Explosion for years to come.

The full Sanaa Ink program also includes school workshops, an artist talk, a visual art exhibition, a storytelling evening incorporating poetry, performance and dance, and a small street party in Mill Street. Graff is particularly excited for how his experience will impact those in Senegal upon his return. “This trip will serve as an example of these young people to believe in their work and encourage them to continue to pursue their art talents.” ✏

Laura Desmond

SHOW: VENUE: TIME:

Sanaa Exhibition The Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial Centre 9am, various dates between 15 Feb and 13 Mar

TICKETS:

FREE

SHOW:

Sanaa Regional Showcase Institute Theatre - Port Augusta 7:30pm, 21 Feb $15

VENUE: TIME: TICKETS:

TIME:

Sanaa Story Telling The Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial Centre 6pm, 12 Feb

TICKETS:

FREE

SHOW:

TIME:

Sanaa Artist Talk - The Art of Social Change The Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial Centre 4:30pm, 13 Feb

TICKETS:

FREE

SHOW: VENUE:

VENUE:

fest-mag.com

Sanaa Artist Talk

Ayers House

Bakehouse Theatre

Belgian Beer Cafe ‘Oostende’

Cafe Outside the Square

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28 Carclew

Grace Emily Hotel

Nexus Arts

Rhino Room

Strathmore Hotel / Mercure Grosvenor

28 AR

96 Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute

99 Noel Lothian Hall – Black Box Theatre, The Bus Stop, Open Air Theatre

111

The Jade

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Gluttony – Masonic Lodge North Terrace

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Anne & Gordon Samstag Museum of Art

Art Gallery of South Australia

Botanic Park

Elder Park

Lion Arts Factory – also used in Fringe

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Pioneer Women's Memorial Garden

Queen's Theatre

Ridley Centre Adelaide Showground

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A10

Murder, Mystery and Madness Get away from the sunshine and to discover some of Adelaide’s darkest secrets

n the summer sunshine with hectic festival life playing out on the streets, it’s easy to forget that there’s a dark side to Adelaide. What better way to learn all the details than to step away from the bright festival lights and follow a guide into the darkness?

since been home to all kinds of mysteries, murders and strange disturbances. Legend has it that one can still hear the groans of a Chinese man found brutally murdered in the river – his head wrapped in a hessian sack with three nails skewed in his skull. Then there’s the story of the Russian sailor who was kicked to death in Todd Street. His ghost still haunts a basement, ever searching for his shipmates. But it’s not all spirits at the Port. It’s also full of some of Adelaide’s most important history, where the buildings sink into the street and the layers of the past seep up from the earth.

Adelaide Gaol

On the outskirts of the city, the Old Adelaide Gaol looms over the train tracks. West Terrace Cemetery At night it’s an eerie site, and inside the old Home to over 143,000 souls over 27 brick walls, you can feel the history – and its sprawling hectares, West Terrace Cemetery darkness. With 45 hangings and its own buris a must-see for anyone keen to discover ial site, it’s perhaps not surprising that it’s some of Adelaide’s creepiest and most one of Adelaide’s most haunted sites, with 12 intriguing history. From its earliest days, the spirits who are said to wander the 147-yearcemetery was dogged by controversy. Alold building. though Colonel William Light wisely chose Some say you can still hear the footsteps the site due to its proximity to the fast-grow- of William Baker Ashton, the first Governor ing colonial town of Adelaide, not everyone of Adelaide, whose apparent wrongdoings was keen on having a cemetery so close to (including drunkenness, misusing governhome. It didn’t help that the cemetery’s first ment property and trafficking with prisoners) Sexton, John Luke Monck, was something of caused quite the scandal. When he died in his an unorthodox operator and attracted his fair office, the undertakers couldn’t carry his body share of criticism. down the steep and narrow stairs, so he had If you’re brave enough to wander the to be lowered out the window. It seems death headstones, you might just run into West hasn’t stopped the once judicial manager, Terrace local Ada Hassett in her nightgown and the sounds of filing cabinets and doors cradling an axe – the same axe she took to slamming still echo from the office today. her new husband as he slept in their room at West Terrace Cemetery The Golden Rule Hotel on Pirie Street. Was it a murder spurred by jealousy? Or a woman with poor mental health left untreated at the beginning of the 20th century?

City Guide

Port Adelaide

Just half an hour out of the city centre sits one of Adelaide’s oldest and most notorious locations – Port Adelaide. The old mangrove swamps and muddy flats may be mostly paved over and historic colonial buildings line the avenue, but Port Adelaide was once a stinking, mosquito-infested swamp. It was sometimes known as ‘Port Misery’ just three years after it was founded in 1837, and has

West Terrace Cemetery

Kapunda

Adelaide can get hectic during Fringe and sometimes a city break is key. Luckily, located just outside of the stunning Barossa Valley sits the town of Kapunda. Established in 1842 as a copper mining town, Kapunda has since become an agricultural centre with cereal crops abound, and – of course – wine! But it’s not all pastoral peace and rolling green hills. The town’s unassuming colonial pub is, according to locals, experts and television documentaries alike, ‘the most haunted town in Australia’. Opened in 1849, The North Kapunda Hotel gained a reputation after the Riot Act was read aloud for the first time to 500 unruly locals from the balcony. As one of 22 pubs running during the mining boom, it attracted some unsavoury types and is home to a few suspicious deaths, such as the man who shot himself repeatedly in the throat. If you’re brave enough to encounter the ghosts of Adelaide’s most haunted location, head on out to the Barossa Valley for a wine, a nice dinner and a spot of ghost hunting. /

Lauren Butterworth

SHOW:

Port Adelaide Ghost Crime Tour

VENUE:

Port Adelaide Meeting Point

TIME:

7:15pm, various dates between 15 Feb and 14 Mar

TICKETS:

$35

SHOW:

‘Mavericks, Madness and Murder Most Foul!’

VENUE:

West Terrace Cemetery

TIME:

9pm, various dates between 15 Feb and 14 Mar

TICKETS:

$28

SHOW:

Kapunda Ghost Crime Tour

VENUE:

North Kapunda Hotel

TIME:

7:15pm, various dates between 15 Feb and 14 Mar

TICKETS:

$35

SHOW:

Adelaide Gaol Ghost Tour & Investigation

VENUE:

Adelaide Gaol, 7:30pm

TIME:

16 Feb, 28 Feb, 15 Mar

TICKETS:

$39

fest-mag.com

City Guide

Credits: Mark Fitzpatrick

Touring the Limestone Coast Halfway between Adelaide and Melbourne, Mount Gambier makes the perfect stopover between the Adelaide festivals and the Melbourne International Comedy Festival

City Guide

riving through the farmland of South Australia’s southeast can be monotonous, even for the most ardent “I Spy” enthusiasts. So it’s a welcome relief to turn off the Dukes Highway at Keith, some two-and-ahalf hours into the journey, and swap golden fields of canola and wheat for the lush green vines of Padthaway. But that’s just a taster for what lies slightly further down the road in Coonawarra. South Australia is not short on wine regions, so one has to be quite special to merit a four hour drive. Fortunately, Coonawarra fits that bill. Australia’s ‘other red centre’ is famous for the bright red Terra Rossa soil that sits above a limestone base, and produces some of Australia’s most sought-after wines. Though just 20 kilometres long and two kilometres wide, Coonawarra is home to 25 cellar doors. And because of the region’s

Blue Lake

linear nature, there’s no need to detour from the highway for a tasting. Despite the unwieldy name, the wines at Brand’s Laira are eminently approachable and the cellar door-only riesling is crisp and refreshing with hints of green apple. But Coonawarra is famous for its reds and soon I’m being poured a glass of deep crimson cabernet sauvignon. “This is the most popular style around here,” the cellar door attendant tells me. As a perfume of blackberries and spice fills my nostrils, I can see why. Brand’s Laira has plenty of history, including an 1893 planting of shiraz vines that represents the oldest block in the region. The ‘Brand’s’ part of the name comes from Eric Brand, who set up the current winery in 1966. The cellar door is built around the old stone shed in which he used to host fellow winemakers and guests like James Halliday, asking each of them to bring something for his collection. Today the walls are still lined with fruit crates full of dusty bottles from all over the world, but I’m happy with my glass of 1968 Vines cab sav as I tuck into a ploughman’s lunch on the wooden bench. As for Laira, it refers to the favourite ship of the vineyard’s original owner. It’s a timely reminder that even though Coonawarra is 60

Terra Rossa Soil

four young Aboriginal Australians’ visions of tomorrow in Future Dreaming. Next door, the dress circle of the old theatre has been converted into a cinema where a spectacular film tells the story of the surrounding landscape through geology and dreaming stories. Even more striking evidence of the area’s volcanic history sits on the edge of town in the form of the Blue Lake, a wide crater lake that turns a brilliant cobalt blue over the warmer months. There’s no swimming allowed because the town’s water supply is drawn from the lake, but fortunately there are plenty of other options nearby. The paddock that houses Kilsby Sinkhole looks like any other until I’m standing on the edge of a giant hole in the ground, staring 15 metres down at the water. Because the water is a constant 15 degrees, I need to put a wetsuit on before walking down a channel cut through the rock where I can still see small marine organisms embedded in the wall. “It’s a bit murky at the moment,” my guide Jen says as I hop in. “We don’t know why but it gets this way for about a month a year.” As a result, I get two surprises. The first is a pocket of cold water that immediately forms on my back. The second is seeing my shadow on the sinkhole floor 20 metres below me. It’s surrounded by rippling beams of light that cut through the turquoise water, and a hanging garden has formed nearby on the wall that gets the most sunlight. If this is murky, I can only imagine what it looks like when it’s clear. The Limestone Coast is riddled with cave systems, and this one continues well below the surface. The entry was formed by a collapsed roof, and I can see slabs of limestone on the floor as I swim past sincarids (tiny shrimp)

Credits: Coonawarra Bush Holiday Park

Credit: South Australian Tourism Commission/Milton Wordley

Coonawarra Bubble Tents

continues >

fest-mag.com

kilometres from the sea, it’s part of the Limestone Coast region and there’s still a strong maritime influence. The sea breezes bring cool nights that lengthen the ripening season and result in thick-skinned fruit with plenty of flavour. So I’m grateful when I pull up at Coonawarra Bush Holiday Park, a collection of tents and cabins set between rows of healthy vines and dense bushland. The park is also home to several bubble tents, which I discover are essentially inflatable glasshouses with hexagonal panels. Lying in bed, I enjoy the day’s latent warmth as I watch the colour slowly drain from the sky. The minimal furnishings include a makeshift curtain for privacy, a kettle and, most importantly, a wine fridge for the day’s purchases. And while clouds obscure the night sky and prevent me doing any bedbound stargazing, I’m happy to start the next day by watching a golden glow suffuse the large gum tree just outside the tent. It’s less than an hour’s drive to Mount Gambier, which has one of Australia’s best regional art galleries right in the centre of town. There’s a new show being installed in Riddoch Art Gallery’s exhibition spaces (housed in a former theatre), so I head upstairs to the Media & Virtual Reality Studio. There, I don an Oculus headset and explore

City Guide

Credit: South Australian Tourism Commission/Adam Bruzzone

City Guide

The Old Mount Gambier Gaol

and one very happy looking turtle. At the far end of the sinkhole, the floor disappears into a deep blue gloom. This is the only sinkhole in Australia open to recreational scuba divers, and it goes 67 metres down. But I’m more than happy to stay where I am and watch the light playing on the water. Limestone defines this region of the world, and when I reach my accommodation for the evening I discover that it’s built from giant limestone blocks. There was a time when entering the Old Mount Gambier Gaol was no cause for celebration, but for the last ten years it’s been run as comfortable accommodation. The small cells used as dorms give some idea of what it used to be like, but these days there are also cosy common rooms, bright chalk drawings and even a meditation garden. The heavy iron door and bars on the window

in my room serve as reminders of its former purpose, but I’m pretty sure the bath with a giant jar of epsom salts is a new addition. It’s a good one, too. From 20-29 March, the Mount Gambier Fringe provides the perfect excuse to stop over for a few days on the way to the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. Artistic program manager Louise Adams gave her first ever public performance at the Adelaide Fringe, and she brings a little of that magic to the Mount. Now in its fourth year, the Mount Gambier Fringe takes over town with 49 shows at 20 venues over 10 days. Opening night is the Lift Off Street Party, which closes off the town centre for the Pied Piper Parade before the streets are given over to roving performers, street food stalls and pop-up bars. ✏ Alexis Buxton-Collins

fest-mag.com

Fresh Culinary Delights There's lots of new foodie havens popped up across the CBD and beyond. Here are our new favourites

Madre

Allegra Dining Room

Love, Stephy

57 Gilbert St, Adelaide @madre.adl

L1/125 Gilles St, Adelaide

Shop 3, 62-68 Hindley St, Adelaide

@allegradiningroom

@love_stephy_dessert_cafe

This intimate 28 seat dining room boasts an entirely plant based menu, with a full 10 courses. In accordance with the seasons, the menu highlights local seasonal produce. The space itself features artwork by Gabriel Cole and crockery from Adelaide ceramicist Sam Faehrmann.

One for the sweet-toothed crowd, Love, Stephyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s pink marshmallow interior makes for the perfect unwinding dessert. Japanese influences come through in the delicately stacked dacquoise with matcha and pistachio, and the yuzu citrus tart.

City Guide

From the masterminds behind McLaren Valeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Pizzateca comes Madre. Traditional Naples-style pizza in the CBD, made using a technique predating World War I. Madre is so authentic they import seawater from the Mediterranean for their dough. You will not find pizza like this anywhere else in Adelaide.

Mia Margarita

89 City Guide

GAJA by Sashi 4/86 Pirie St, Adelaide @gajabysashiadl

After winning Masterchef in 2018, Sashi Cheliah has returned to Adelaide and created GAJA meaning elephant in sanskrit. In keeping with his Indian heritage and his Singaporean upbringing, GAJA spans across Indian, Malaysian and Singaporean classics, all the while bringing reinvention to the table.

Sparkke at the Whitmore 317 Morphett St, Adelaide

Head chef Emma McCaskillâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s seasonal menu pays homage to her own Indian background, and the pub background of the Whitmore space. Locally grown produce is paired with South Australian seafood and livestock to create a warm, homely dining experience, with plenty of vegan and vegetarian offerings.

Joybird 1/164 King William Rd, Hyde Park @_joybird

If you have fond memories of your local chicken shop from your childhood, you will not be disappointed at Joybird. Find classic fried and roasted chicken dishes alongside strong Asian influences including bao, karaage and dumplings.

Jack and Jill's Bar and Restaurant

Mia Margarita 330 Seaview Rd, Henley Beach

Jack & Jill's Bar and Restaurant

@mia.marga.rita

121 Pirie St, Adelaide @jackandjillsadl

Just opposite the bustling Henley Square is Mia Margarita. Start with some share plates before delving into authentic tacos including soft shell crab and pork shoulder. Finish it off with dessert trash can nachos made with chocolate and ice cream. Don't forget to try a namesake margarita!

Named after co-ownerTom Mclean's parents, this modern Australian restaurant blends flavours from across the world to bring a unique tasting experience. Italian inspired burrata, Sri Lankan barramundi and Middle Eastern spiced lamb shoulder are just some of the delights on offer.

Villetta Porcini Mylor, Adelaide Hills @vporcini

For an adventure, head to Mylor to eat at the foot of Andre Ursiniâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s extensive backyard featuring a European-style stone hut. Be greeted with drinks on arrival and indulge in foraging for mushrooms on the wander to the 20 seat dining table.

Villetta Porcini

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@sparkkeatthewhitmore

Taste the World

Mexican Two words: tacos and tequila. If you’re in for some spicy vs salty action, check out some of Adelaide’s freshest Mexican and pair it with a refreshingly intense beverage.

Mexican Society 140 Gouger St, Adelaide @mexicansocietyadl

Lucky Lupita’s 163 O’Connell St, North Adelaide @luckylupitasadl

Credit: South Australian Tourism Commission

From quick bites to languid lunches, taste the world across Adelaide and its surrounds

Mexican Society

Indian

Italian

From the mild to the fierce, Indian cuisine comes in a delightful array of colours and textures. Discover new favourites and revisit old classics.

Appreciate the patience required to create the perfect handmade pasta. Pair smooth spaghetti with a rich ragù or try outré orecchiette with a piquant pesto.

Ragi’s Spicery

Chianti

Sazon

210 Hutt St, Adelaide @ragispicery

19 Grenfell St, Adelaide @sazongrenfell

Drunkn Monkey

Taco Quetzalcoatl

41 O’Connell St, North Adelaide

Osteria Oggi

@drunknmonkeyadl

76 Pirie St, Adelaide @osteriaoggiadelaide

Raj on Taj

Nido

Shop 12, 13-23 Unley Rd, Parkside

Shop 2, 160 King William Rd, Hyde Park

@raj_on_tak

@nidobarpasta

153 Unley Rd, Unley @tacoquetzalcoatl

Japanese Delicate and balanced, Japanese cuisine is known to be one of the healthiest in the world.

Nido

Yakitori Takumi 55 Melbourne St, North Adelaide @yakitori_takumi

Shōbōsho

Mimasu 411 King William St, Adelaide @mimasu_adelaide

Credit: Josh Greelen

City Guide

17 Leigh St, Adelaide @shobosho

160 Hutt St, Adelaide @chiantiadelaide

91 City Guide

Modern Australian Being an ever-changing cultural melting pot, Australian cuisine becomes a culminating celebration of past and present.

Coal Cellar and Grill 233 Victoria Sq, Adelaide @coalcellargrill

Herringbone

@lotonehundred

Greek Bold flavours of garlic and olive are balanced with zesty citrus and fresh herbs on skewered meats, seafood and saganaki cheese. Share small plates with a glass of ouzo on ice.

Meze Mazi 86B Prospect Rd, Prospect @mezemazi

Estia 255 Seaview Rd, Henley Beach @estiahenleybeach

Staazi & Co 224 Grenfell St, Adelaide @staazi_and_co

American Known for its hedonism and hubris (can you really eat that much cheese?) classic American style burgers, meats and fries can be the perfect treat yoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; self meal.

Chuck Wagon 175 175 Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Connell St, North Adelaide @cw175

Nordburger Multiple locations @nordburger

Lot 100

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68 Chambers Rd, Hay Valley

Credit: South Australian Tourism Commission

Lot 100

Credit: Daniel Trimboli

72-74 Halifax St, Adelaide @herringbone.adl

Vietnamese Laundry

Low & Slow American BBQ

crunchy wontons pair nicely with crackling roast pork.

17 Commercial Rd, Port Adelaide

Noi Vietnamese Eatery

@lowslow_bbq

305 Glen Osmond Rd, Fullarton

Bread & Bone

@noivietnamese.eatery

15 Peel St, Adelaide @breadandbone

NNQ 65 Woodville Rd, Woodville @nnqwoodville

Vietnamese Chilli is balanced against sour and sweet elements in a rich pho, and

Vietnamese Laundry 152 Sturt St, Adelaide @vietnameselaundry

Although you can’t go wrong with most of the South Australian coastline, here are the top beach getaways from Adelaide

Henley Beach At the end of Henley Beach Road you will find not a wizard but, unsurprisingly, Henley Beach. Sit on the sand, play beach volleyball on the courts or head up onto the square for fish and chips on the grass. Wander along the recently renovated jetty with an ice cream to top it off.

Jump on the tram in Adelaide’s CBD and head down to Glenelg, arguably the state’s most famous beach. The tramline makes it easily accessible too! Shop along Jetty Road for everything from ice cream, to shoes, to swimwear. With plenty of bars and restaurants, you’ll be spoiled for choice for lunch. If you’ve got young ones with you, head to The Beachouse for mini golf, dodgem cars and bumper boats.

Henley Beach

Maslin Beach If you’ve got the time, a drive to Maslin Beach will put you on a secluded strip of some of the most well preserved coast in the state. If you’re feeling adventurous, you can head to the southern end of the beach which is Australia’s first legal nudist beach.

Credit: Tourism Austraia

Top 5: Beaches

Credit: South Australian Tourism Commission

Glenelg

Glenelg - Moseley Square

Port Willunga This beach is enclosed with brilliant golden cliffs dotted with little cave hideouts which were originally carved to house boats and fishing nets. Nowadays they’re perfect for escaping the sun. Close to the boardwalk at the water’s edge you’ll find the remnants of a jetty built in 1868 which makes for a striking photo op!

Credit: Andy Steven

City Guide

Port Noarlunga

Port Willunga Beach

If you’re an adventurous type, the offshore reef at Port Noarlunga is a diverse aquatic display of coral and fish with over 200 species of marine plant life. Follow the self guided Reef Underwater Trail over an afternoon, wander along the jetty, or bask on the sand under the red sandstone cliffs.

93 City Guide

Top 5: Day Trips

Just over an hour south of the city is the coastal town of Victor Harbour. Travel on the horse-drawn cart to Granite Island to admire the wind eroded rock figures and catch a glimpse of a little penguin colony making their way back to shore after dusk, or visit the Whale Centre where you can dig for fossils and step into the mouth of a Great White Shark.

Hahndorf Head east of the city into the hills to find Hahndorf – a little German town with a big history. A wander along the main street lends itself to great gifts, including handmade fudge, traditional German nutcrackers and Australian leather goods. Finish the day at one of the classic pubs with a mixed platter featuring pork, kransky and pretzels.

Clare Valley

Clare Valley Known as the heart of Australian riesling, the Clare Valley is a two hour drive north of Adelaide. Once you’ve arrived, grab a bike and take yourself on a wine tour through the 50 cellar doors between the townships of Clare and Auburn. See historic architecture from the grand Martindale Hall in Mintaro to the dinky miners' dugouts in Burra.

Barossa Valley About an hour north-east of the city brings a colder climate – ideal for growing bold red wine varieties including award-winning shiraz. Kellermeister Wines in Lyndoch took out the top prize for both shiraz and Australian wine at the 2019 London Wine Competition with their 2015 Wild Witch shiraz. Stop in at any cellar door to view the sweeping vineyards, or have a faux-French experience at ChâteauTanunda.

Credit: Ben Goode

Normanville

Victoria Harbour

For a real seachange, head to the sleepy beachside town of Normanville, just over an hour away on the southern coast. Drive along stunning cliff scenery, or relax on the sprawling beach. If you’re in need of refreshment, the local Surf Lifesaving Club has breathtaking views over the beach and surrounding cliffs. For a hike, head inland to discover a rainforest complete with waterfall.

fest-mag.com

Victor Harbour

Credit: South Australian Tourism Commission /Adam Bruzzone

Got a free day and a car? Check out some of the offerings just a few hours drive of the CBD

Credit: Andre Castellucci

Tasting Traditions Fest editor Laura Desmond visits Henschke Wines, one of South Australiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s oldest wineries

City Guide

n 1842, Johann Christian Henschke took his wife and children and fled their home of Silesia, modern-day Poland, to avoid religious persecution. Being of the Lutheran faith, Johann Christian decided to move to South Australia on a near 100 day journey, which took the lives of his wife and two of his children. Once settled, he began working in his trades of stonemasonry and wheelwrighting. The buildings which house the current fifth generation family, the concrete fermentation tanks and the tasting room, still showcase Johann Christianâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s stonework, and previous wagon wheels can be found adorning the corridor in the tasting room. In the early 1860s, Johann Christian planted the first Henschke vineyard in the Eden Valley to make wine for family and friends. Of each of the folllowing generations, at least one child has taken great interest in the winemaking on the Keyneton estate. Cyril Al-

fred, the fourth generation and at the helm in the 1950s through to the 1970s, is arguably the most iconic Henschke. With a quiet yet passionate personality, Cyril Alfred is known for the Mount Edelstone cabernet sauvignon and the Hill of Grace shiraz â&#x20AC;&#x201C; both single vineyard varieties using vines over 100 years old. His son Stephen took over the winery in his late 20s with his wife Prue. Together, they still head up the business, with their three adult children becoming the sixth generation of Henschke to be actively involved in the growing and making of wine. The Hill of Grace, however, is our main focus today. Kylie, our warm and inviting host, drives us to the 4 hectares plot. On the way, we pass the 120 hectares plot which has been purchased by the Henschke family for conservation. Prue Henschke, Kylie tells us, is scientific and systematic with her sustainability practices within all the Henschke owned sites. The conservation site is tended to and natives are planted, but large areas are simply

left to be. We meet the Gnadenberg Lutheran Church which oversees the vineyard and is still used for weekly services for the community. The outer fence line of the plot, as Kylie explains, is planted with native species to attract wasps which prey on the Light Brown Apple Moth – a pest in the grape growing area. As we walk among the 152 year old vines, there is a comfortable stillness in the air as the church looks on. Prue’s mantra of living within the land and not on the land extends to the vineyard itself – with excessive mulching and native grasses to assist in moisture retention of the soil and decrease wind erosion over time. These practices allow for incredibly fertile and healthy soil conditions, leading to exquisite fruit and high quality end product: the Hill of Grace shiraz. We return to the tasting room and are led into the cellar, which now houses barrels of Henschke fortified wine only available at Communion at the Gnadenberg Church. Kylie

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then takes us to a private tasting toom to meet the wines, and we are greeted by personalised Henschke booklets with each wine presented along the table in front of us. We start with the Julius riesling, which is named after Stephen’s great uncle who was a master sculptor and is best known for the National War Memorial sculpture on North Terrace. The Alan Reserve pinot noir is the first wine we come across with the Henschke Vinolok closure. As Kylie explains to us, the glass stopper was trialled by the Henschke family after Prue discovered it in 2004 at a European trade fair as a replacement for regular wine corks, which can be unreliable, and screw cap fittings, which can be misunderstood as a cheaper and inferior alternative. The Vinolok closure is a glass fitting which preserves the wine’s colour, aroma and structure over a longer period of time, and can be recycled. Ultimately it was selected by Prue as a more sustainable alternative. At the halfway point in our tasting experience, we move in the Henschke Centenarian wines. The Mount Edelstone single vineyard is where we begin. The vineyard was originally planted by Ronald Angus, a descendant of George Fife Angus who played a significant

Credit: Nat Rogers

Credit: Dragan Radocaj

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role in founding South Australia. The 103 year old vines produce a rich, complex shiraz with body, but is light and joyful in the mouth. We are invited to try the 2014 Hill of Grace – a vintage "graced by beauty". To describe the taste and the textural feel of this wine would be doing it a grand disservice. To have stepped off of the vineyard itself, after learning about the generational love of winemaking in the building, crafted by Johann Christian himself over 150 years ago, is an incredibly important factor in the encompassing experience of the tasting of the wine. That’s not to say that the wine isn’t the finest shiraz we’ve ever tasted, but that it carries so much more with it than tasting notes and mouthfeel. This wine, and

the family who makes it, is a testament to perseverance, community and sustainability. Each bottle of Henschke wine carries with it a unique history and story. These wines were originally made over 150 years ago to bring people together and to enjoy each other’s company. This belief has remained strong through the Henschke bloodline for six generations. To taste a Henschke wine is to revel in the successes of some of South Australia’s earliest free settlers. ✏ Laura Desmond Thank you to Kylie Rosenzweig, Justine Hentschke, Emalee Guerra, and the staff at Henschke Wines.

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Escape the madness and find sanctuary at Proof, Adelaide’s first and favourite laneway bar. Providing all the essentials – wine, cocktails, beer on tap – as well as food by neighbouring institution Press* Food & Wine. Open every day from 3pm until late.

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JoyBird

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Adelaide’s retro vinyl specialists with its home in the Renaissance Arcade. Always buying and selling collectible and rare vinyl records across a range of obscure and sought-after genres, everything from Agostino Agazzari to ZZTop. Open daily from 10am.

Sometimes all you need is a quality burger, with a decent beer. Bread & Bone delivers (actually they do, literally – you can find them on UberEats).They do really good meat in bread, and other fire-licked morsels from their wood-grill. Full table service, big wine list, vego options and small share plates available too. Open every day from 11.30am until late. fest-mag.com

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We’ve pulled together a selection of local Adelaide businesses for you to explore this festival season

Staazi & Co

As naughty or as nice as you want it. JoyBird is a diner and bar in Hyde Park (a 5 minute Uber from CBD). Rotisserie charcoal chicken, fried chicken, meat in bread, vegan, vego, natural wine…They’ve got all bases covered. Visit their shop, or their pop-up at Gluttony. Open every day from midday until late.

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Student prices mean the eight taps of craft beer are $5 a pint from 4pm6pm every weeknight and a rotating tap stays at that price all the time. Hand-stretched 12-inch Neapolitan pizza from Vera Pizza Oztalia are $10 on Wednesdays. Alfresco drinks? Just ask the bartenders for a picnic rug and take your drinks out to the grassy area beside the nearby cloisters.

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Dog Day Afternoon Molly, is a Kelpie cross who loves the beach and playing with her favourite ball. She’s nine (going on two) years old and is a perfect bar buddy for a sunny afternoon. She is Laura Desmond's second cousin.

City Guide

Fest’s editor Laura Desmond and director George Sully steal a Kelpie to test out two dog-friendly pubs on Melbourne Street

The Lion Hotel

The Kentish Hotel

We grab a table outside and are serenaded by acoustic duo Zyke and Damo. On the menu are the classic pub favourites, including chicken parmis, burgers and salt and pepper squid, with some Asian inspired pork belly and chicken dumplings. The traffic noticeable on this side of Melbourne Street, and Molly doesn't find many new friends. This season, the Lion will be home to a visual arts exhibit and an intimate music performance by The Holden Brothers.

Nestled off of the bustling Melbourne Street is the Kentish Hotel. Constructed in 1881, the Kentish is a hidden gem with plenty of locals and a relaxed vibe. Dogs are welcome out the front of the hotel at the many highly coveted tables. There are plenty of water bowls about and our dog-for-the-day Molly makes some new friends with the other canine companions drinking with their owners. Over the Fringe season, catch live music from Scottish singalongs to the Rolling Stones.

Enough chairs to go round but this busy corner comes with a lot of traffic noise – 4/5 paws.

Plenty of seating, plenty of water and a good dose of sunshine – 4.5/5 paws.

SHOW:

I get it, you moved to Melbourne

SHOW:

Satisfaction play the Hits of The Rolling Stones

VENUE:

The Lion

VENUE:

The Kentish Hotel

TIME:

12:30pm, 4–7 Mar

TIME:

2pm, 1 Mar

TICKETS:

FREE

TICKETS:

$30

SHOW:

Martini Hour

SHOW:

Singalong to the Songs of Scotland and Ireland

VENUE:

The Lion

VENUE:

The Kentish Hotel

TIME:

7:30pm, 27–28 Feb

TIME:

times vary, 14–15 Feb

TICKETS:

$42

TICKETS:

$29