Fest Adelaide 2019 Preview Issue by Fest Magazine

Your FREE Festival Guide

Festival Preview

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2019 Previews | City Guide | Venue Map

DANCE / ENGLAND & ISRAEL

THEATRE / SCOTLAND

Hofesh Shechter Company

Ulster American Traverse Theatre Company

15 – 17 Mar | AUSTRALIAN EXCLUSIVE “Magnificent” The Stage (UK)

13 – 17 Mar | AUSTRALIAN EXCLUSIVE “Riotous satire” The Guardian

PHYSICAL THEATRE

MUSIC THEATRE / SOUTH AFTRICA

Gravity And Other Myths

A Man of Good Hope Young Vic and Isango Ensemble

27 Feb – 6 Mar | WORLD PREMIERE “Beyond impressive” The Barefoot Review

5 – 11 Mar | AUSTRALIAN EXCLUSIVE “Breathtaking acting” The Observer

Grand Finale

Out Of Chaos...

PHYSICAL THEATRE

Counting & Cracking Belvoir & Co-Curious

Man With The Iron Neck

2 – 9 Mar | WORLD PREMIERE SEASON “Wonderful” ArtsHub

8 – 11 Mar | ADELAIDE PREMIERE “Powerful” Sydney Morning Herald

THEATRE

Legs On the Wall

17 DAYS | 23 AUSTRALIAN EXCLUSIVES | 70 EVENTS BOOK NOW BASS 131 246 adelaidefestival.com.au

Live Nation presents... “BELLY LAUGHS AND GUFFAWS APLENTY” ★★★★★ - THE MUSIC

SAT 1 JUNE AEC THEATRE

SATURDAY 2 JUNE THEBARTON THEATRE

4 - 10 MAR

8.15PM, THE FACTORY THE GARDEN OF UNEARTHLY DELIGHTS

A S S E E N O N D IA N S OME N E T F L IX ’S “C O R L D’’ OF THE W THE & “O R A N G E ISW N” NE W BRO

TICKETS AT LIVENATION.COM.AU

Director George Sully

Editor-in-Chief Rosamund West

Commissioning Editor Laura Desmond

Deputy Editor Ben Venables

Designer Silvia Razakova

Sales Executive Megan Mitchell

Digital Manager Alexander Smail

Cover Illustration Rachel Tunstall

Writing Team Justin Boden, Alexis Buxton-Collins, Katie Hawthorne, Joe Hay, Emma Heidenreich, Jane Howard, Connor Jervis-Hay, Letti KoutsouliotasEwing, Jess Martin, Kylie Maslen, Emma O’ConnellDoherty, Edwina Sleigh Top Picks writers Circus: Laura Desmond Comedy: Connor Jervis-Hay Theatre: Jess Martin Indigenous: Edwina Sleigh Music: Joe Hay Cabaret: Letti Koutsouliotas-Ewing Kids: Jane Howard Edinburgh: Ben Venables Radge Media Publisher Sophie Kyle Media Sales Manager Sandy Park Bookkeeping & Accounts Aaron Tuveri

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

Circus

Hello, World

Make sure to start festival season in the right spirit at the opening parties

40 Speaking through Circus Two Fringe shows explore culture, identity and Indigenous storytelling

Comedy

The Art of Accessibility

Ange Lavoipierre, Clare Cavanagh and Maddie HW on beginnings, idols and the future

Adelaide’s festivals bring people together – but only if the arts are truly accessible and belong to all

Theatre

15 Top Picks

Circus Top Picks Don’t worry about jumping through hoops to find the best circus shows this season: we’ve done it for you

Top Picks

BOSS SQUAD

50 Pushing Boundaries Festival time is a chance to take chances and there are plenty of innovators in theatre

Live From Tandanya, times vary, 6–17 Mar, not 11, 12 ,

Fest recommendeds some of the best across the circus, comedy, theatre, music, cabaret and kids programs

$20 – $24

Credit: Aaron Walker

LIFE - The Show times vary, 15 Feb – 17 Mar, not 18, 25 Feb, 4, 11 Mar, $35 – $55

Credit: Tanya Ewen

ANGAS STREE T

GOUGER STREET

HALIFAX STREET

STURT STREET GILBERT STREET

H UT

H TERRACE

113

QU E

T EE

ILL

WAKEFIE LD STREET

RA CE

Plus:

Cabaret

City Guide & Venue Map

68 Queering Fringe

fest-mag.com

TR ES

E AC

D UN

BARTELS ROAD

CARRINGTON STREET

PULTENEY STREET

WRIGHT STREET

139

WAKEFIELD STREET

Credit: DebTucker

R OA

KIN G W I LLIAM

PIRIE STREET 78 120 T FLINDERS STREE

112

118

HUT T STREET

109

122

EAST TERRACE

GROTE STREET

RUNDLE STREET

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GRENFE LL STREET

FROM E STREET

H RT

The Fringe Caravan is set to once again visit the three Westfield shopping centres at Marion, Tea Tree Plaza and West Lakes over the season. Immerse yourself in live performance for a shopping break, or check out shows which are often in steamy tents in air conditioned comfort. With a changing lineup for each centre, the whole family are sure to be entertained. Last year’s performances included hypnotist Isaac Lomman, circus winners Head First Acrobats, and crazy clown duo The Kagools.

103

8 49

Fringe at Westfield

FRANKLIN STREET

R I VE

R OA

ME FRO

70 HINDLE Y STREET

K ING WILLIAM STREET

Over the Easter long weekend, the Fringe heads to the place ‘where the outback meets the sea’ in Whyalla. Taking over Ada Ryan Gardens, which stretch right down to the foreshore, Fringe artists perform circus, cabaret, music and comedy in a vibrant outdoor hub. Local food, drink and craft stalls provide refreshment in the lush gardens which makes it the perfect place for a relaxed picnic to enjoy the atmosphere. Last year, over 15,000 people attended the event, including 3,000 for the Colour Run.

NORTH TERRAC E

CURRI E STREET

IA D

uneARTh Festival16

WEST TE R RACE

VEN

VI CTOR

most northern point of , you’ll find Port Augusta. d truly desert country, gusta has been coming with the Fringe for the last s. With an ever changing from year to year, the Port a Cultural Centre has seen spo Collective, Dusty Feet ara Cupcakes and Joshua take to the stage. This seaneup includes Adam Page, MacDowell and Our Corka n addition to various arts formance workshops over kend.

be on display in a series of food and wine popups throughout the street. The Murray Bridge Fringe is set to be a glorious showcase of local offerings.

ST R

Although there are a plethora of fringe events at various venues around Port Adelaide during the festival season, on Saturday 2 March 2019 Commercial Road turns into one big street party. Featuring activation spaces indoors and outdoors, this year’s theme of Dancing in the Street is well and truly covered. Performances, food, markets and live music ensure there is something for everyone. If you can’t find your boogie at this party, it may not exist.

Credit: Trentino Priori

t Fringe, Port sta

ROA

N TE FIORE R OAD

Port Fringe

Y R OA D

Set in the beautiful Adelaide Hills, the Stirling Fringe presents a curated lineup of the best comedy, circus, cabaret and theatre the Adelaide Fringe has to offer. With a free live music stage surrounded by trees and tents, the Stirling Fringe is a brilliant spot to enjoy the atmosphere with some of the finest brews and delicacies of the area. This year’s lineup sees Cal Wilson and Boo Dywer as standup comedy queens, and Garry Star and Demi Lardner representing the ridiculously absurd. For the kids, Mr Snot Bottom will be stinky and silly as usual, and the Balloonatics will provide aerated chaos.

What holds society together? What can you do with the things that are always in the back of your pantry? How could these things possibly be connected? Na Djinang Circus intertwine the personal stories of six performers while using pantry staple items to mirror the building blocks of contemporary society. HACK NE

fringe artists and venues performAfter winning the Adelaide ing a stunning showcase, including local and international talent. Fringe Award for Best Opening with the Lift-off Street Circus in222018, Head Party on Friday March 2019, ETFirst followed by a fringe showcase STRE with yet Acrobats are ARDback on Saturday, the following week W sees a range of performances in another raunchy riot. This comedy, music, and theatre, and a range ofthey interactive workshops for land of time are in the Murray Bridge Fringe all ages. 147 the cowboy. Thinly veiled the first time, the fringe hits sexual innuendo andFor double Murray Bridge for one huge night on Saturday entendres galore take cen-23 February 2019. Sixth Street will be turned into a fairground wonderland with tre stage in a steamy, homoartists and performances from erotic and energeticthedisplay Adelaide Fringe, in addition to some of the most gifted regional of narrative nonsense. talent. Local produce will also 7

$18 – $25

60 Who Are We?

Gluttony, 6pm, 5–17 Mar, not 11 , Fringe Stirling

Gambier. Over the last week in March, the city is taken over by

NTE

D D OA ROA NN

wraps up, the Fringe heads south

18, 25cooler Feb, climate 4 Mar,of11Mount Mar, $30 – $39STREET to the

don’t live in the aide CBD – don’t fear! aide Fringe take some of ggest acts around the on Fringe Road Trips.

Social Staples

R PA

Just after Adelaide’s season Gluttony, 9:30pm, 15 Feb – 17 Mar, not

A CE TERR

L STRE

Fringe Mount Gambier

nge Road Trips

From the creators of ROBE TERR Blanc de Blanc and FUN A10 A E HOUSE comes aCbrand new spectacle celebratR1 ing all things life. Following the too-familiar tale of love and heartbreak, LIFE – The Show explores T hedonism through clown, EE TR acrobatics and full-fronES RN tal nudity. IfByou OU think you L ME think again. know circus,

VRE LE FE

NNEL

Railed

O'CO

City Guide

The Garden of Unearthly Delights,

Music WOMADelaide is the perfect place to discover Australian identity

fest-mag.com

This all-female crew of boss-ass queens is ready to smash the stereotypes of circus. Not afraid to get into some hairy situations, the crew is here to showcase the female form in all its strong, bold beauty. These fierce role models for young girls celebrate women’s achievements and the importance of supporting each other.

Our city guide has all the best places to eat, drink and visit for when you need to refresh T HE PARADE

LGBTQI+ visibility at festival time

fest-mag.com

42 Next Wave Funny

Hello, World

Symphony for Our World

Both Adelaide Festival and Fringe celebrate the natural world to usher in the 2019 festivities

To officially open Adelaide Festival, Elder Park will once again host a free concert, this year created in collaboration with National Geographic. Symphony for Our World is a beautiful display of the wonders and challenges of the natural world. Footage from the vaults of the publication have been crafted into a 90 minute film and synchronised to a five movement orchestral epic of music. Each movement is linked to a natural environment: Seas, Shore, Land, Mountains and Sky. The sweeping melodies and harmonies of the musical work echoes the power, grace and beauty of the images on screen. Composed by Bleeding Fingers Music, co-founded by cinematic music powerhouse Hans Zimmer, it will be performed by the Adelaide Festival Orchestra conducted by Jessica Gethin. The orchestra is accompanied by a cappella group Aurora and the Festival Statesmen Chorus, promising a visual and aural spectacular.

Adelaide Fringe

Adelaide Fringe’s celebrations start in the late afternoon on Friday 15 February with the opening of the night markets and performances at Karrawirra Parri, River Torrens, near the University of Adelaide footbridge. At 8:15pm, Senior Kaurna Custodian of Ceremony Karl Telfer will again lead Tindo Utpurndee, the Sunset Ceremony. Previously held on the SA Museum lawns, 2019 marks the beginning of a new era with the introduction of the new projection installation Yabarra. “In the reflection of the shining, shimmering waters, there are the ripples of many generations which speak to the vibrancy of a time gone, but a time present and a time not forgotten upon these plains,” states Telfer. Native animals and traditional stories are brought to life through light projections on the trees, buildings and on water screens surrounding the bend in Karrawirra Parri. This is in recognition of the First Nations people, their culture and their deep spiritual connection with the natural land. Yabarra will come to life at the conclusion of Tindo Utpurndee, and will continue every night throughout the Fringe season.

Adelaide Festival

TIME:

Tindo Utpurndee, Sunset Ceremony Karrawirra Parri (River Torrens) 8pm, 15 Feb

TICKETS:

FREE

SHOW:

TIME:

National Geographic Symphony for Our World Elder Park [Adelaide Festival] 10:30pm, 2 Mar

TICKETS:

FREE

SHOW: VENUE:

VENUE:

Credit: Claude Raschella

Features

Sharing Kaurna Stories

arlier in the year, Gunditjmara playwright, scriptwriter and musician Richard Franklin spoke about assimilation. At the Garma Festival in north-east Arnhem Land, he asked why Indigenous Australians are expected to assimilate into white culture, when white Australians aren’t expected to assimilate into Indigenous culture. In the future, he hopes to walk down the street and have people greet him in his language, instead of saying ‘hello’, and not because they have to but because they have a shared appreciation for Aboriginal culture – the preservation of which is dependent on every Australian being proud of it. Unfortunately many are unfamiliar with Indigenous culture - it’s not as if it is extensively covered in the syllabus of primary schools in Australia. And, in an attempt to not just preserve but also revive Kaurna

Tindo Utpurndee, Sunset Ceremony

culture, people must first learn about it. So, where’s the best place to get your hands on some Kaurna knowledge? Adelaide during the festival period, of course. Kaurna people have been telling stories and creating art for more than 50,000 years and now is an idyllic moment to shuffle back, settle in, and learn by listening to what the oldest living culture in the world has to say. From workshops to art installations, from Yabarra along the Karrawirra Parri, also known as the River Torrens, to the Dupang Festival on Ngarrindjeri land on the Coorong, there’s a myriad of Indigenous events on offer. It is artistic projects, not politics or statistics, that demonstrate how creative processes in the spirit of reconciliation have the power to unify people. / Edwina Sleigh

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

fest-mag.com

Art is the best way to learn about the world’s oldest living cultures

The Art of Accessibility We look at out how Adelaide’s festivals promote inclusivity – and how that fosters the creative spirit Man with the Iron Neck

“A

rt must be life,” writes Serbian performance artist Maria Abramović, “it must belong to everybody.” If the ownership of art is communal it stands that broader exposure and access to art forms, in both creative and exhibitive stages, embraces a greater cross section of the community and enriches the type of art created within it. It is a responsibility that has been fiercely embraced by Adelaide Fringe and Adelaide Festival. As the enormous shift towards expanding venue accessibility and promoting inclusivity of artists with varied abilities continues, so too does the celebration of the emergence of art forms fostering new and changing perspectives.

“ The devotion to expand accessibility and inclusivity is for the benefit of everyone” This celebration began months ago when Warnambool-based artist Matthew Clarke, who identifies as having an intellectual disability, was chosen as the winning designer of the 2019 Adelaide Fringe’s official poster. Clarke’s eye-catching abstract painting is a self-portrait of him as a performer at Adelaide Fringe. “For me, painting is about wanting to express my happiness to others,” Clarke said. “I’ve got a dis-

ability, so I’m quite proud to show there’s no barriers between that and making artwork.” Wine and Wallabies is Clark’s visual art exhibition for this Fringe season, and his Street Art piece on Union Street is included in the Street Art Explosion.

Access Champions Similarly, both Adelaide Fringe and Adelaide Festival are proving there are no barriers around venue accessibility. Accessibility filters and Access Guides can be found on their respective websites, with extensive access information on language comprehension, sensory or communicative issues and locations of watering stations for service dogs. These filters revolutionise how to find the perfect event. Equally as revolutionary is the Fringe’s new initiative which sees 20 Access Champion volunteers stationed at key events to support patrons with access needs. The volunteers will also liaise with Auslan interpreters and survey patrons on their experience to assist in the review of accessibility in key venues. This is one of the most crucial components of diversifying accessibility – making sure it is successful by consulting the very people affected by those efforts.

Access Award Adelaide Fringe has also partnered with the Can:Do Group to launch the ‘Access Award’ for the most accessible event. The deserved winner will be selected after the festival and awarded a handsome sum of $2,000. With the quantity and calibre of

access events, it is difficult to predict who will be the recipient of such an award. One clear winner already this year is the deaf community. Adelaide Festival has three Auslan interpreted shows in their program: Baba Yaga, Two Jews Walk into a Theatre…, and Man with the Iron Neck. For any book lovers within the community, Writers’ Week is offering Auslan interpretations for all sessions when requested beforehand. Adelaide Fringe will also include Auslan interpretation for Tindo Utpurndee, and for six artist events as selected by the deaf community. The latter is a significant initiative as it gives members the autonomy to hand pick events they would love to experience straight out of the program.

Wine and Wallabies

Artists Leading the Way

This inclusivity of course also extends to artists, with 54 registered performers and creatives on Adelaide Fringe’s program who have access requirements. 2016 SA Slam Poetry Champion Alison Paradoxx examines the paradoxical life of living with a disability in Alison Paradoxx presents Floral Peroxide. Burlesque queens who have lived with chronic illness and disability tell their stories in Singin’ in the Pain: A Disability and Chronic Illness Cabaret. Then registered blind actor and comedian Tom Skelton finally gets the chance to perform his favourite Shakespeare play in Tom Skelton’s Macbeth. No Strings Attached Theatre of Disability are bringing Ignition Point which gives a behind-the-scenes look into the ‘ignition point’ of their collaborative creative process. Pay What You Can Tom GK and Tim Ferguson are presenting comedy There are of course other barriers which affect solo hours about their lives with neurofibromatosis accessibility, including financial disadvantage. Adand multiple sclerosis respectively. elaide Festival’s Pay What You Can initiative allows Adelaide Festival is also bringing Zizanie, a low income earners to buy tickets by donating an dance show for families with an inclusive cast amount based on what they can afford. performed by Restless Dance Theatre, whose goal If you have youth on your side, discounted tick- is to create and present unexpectedly real dance ets are available for most Adelaide Festival shows for theatre that is collaboratively devised, inclusive and Under 30s. There are also $10 rush tickets for under informed by disability. 18s. School bookings are subsidised to encourage The devotion to expand accessibility and incluwhole class participation in the performing arts. sivity is for the benefit of everyone as the creation Last year the Fringe dedicated approximately of space for artists with unfamiliar perspectives to $10,000 of the Artist Fund to buy tickets for comask questions and explore their unique experiences munity groups who assist low socioeconomic and is hugely important. Or as Abramović said, “the disadvantaged groups. This year they are aiming to function of the artist in a disturbed society is to give increase that figure to $24,000 to make the festival awareness of the universe, [and] to ask the right as inclusive as possible. questions.” / Edwina Sleigh

fest-mag.com

Baba Yaga

Credit: Matthew Clarke

Credit: Rob McDougall

Features

Credit: Nathaniel Mason

2020 Fringe World Congress Adelaide Fringe has won an international bid to host the 2020 Fringe World Congress, which will coincide with the 60th Festival season

he Fringe World Congress was formed in 2012 as a platform for festival organisers and directors to discuss ideas in an international format. The Congress meets biennially, and Adelaide will be the first city in the Southern Hemisphere to host the series of discussions, talks and networking events. “The Congress will be a great platform for our festival to increase its international exposure while also raising the profile of South Australia as an arts destination,” says Adelaide Fringe director and CEO Heather Croall. “Adelaide Fringe is the party that defines our city and we want everyone to be able to experience the festival’s vibrancy and transformative power for themselves.” In hosting the Congress, Adelaide will be well and truly put on the map as a festival city in a worldwide context. Being the second largest Fringe festival in the world behind Edinburgh, it is fitting that the first time meeting in the Southern Hemisphere is in our fair city, and on a significant birthday no less. In addition to increasing exposure of the Adelaide Fringe on the world stage, the Congress also provides a potential springboard into international

Adelaide’s East End during the Fringe

touring for local artists. The Adelaide Fringe’s Honey Pot program will have the opportunity to meet with touring heavyweights to start venturing overseas and representing Adelaide at Fringe festivals across the globe. The Congress will ‘provide a dynamic matchmaking service’ for artists and producers alike. Edinburgh Festival Fringe chief executive Shona McCarthy acknowledges the potential for collaboration and growth across the equator. “It’s a wonderful opportunity for creative learning and exchange and for fellow Fringe festivals around the world to join Adelaide in celebrating its special birthday year,” she says. “Edinburgh Festival Fringe can’t wait to join our fellow ‘fringers’ in the Southern Hemisphere.” As Adelaide Fringe continues to grow in artist numbers and ticket sales, it is only fitting that it receives recognition and support from international festivals. The managing director of World Fringe, Holly Lombardo, recognises that “after destinations like Edinburgh and Montreal it is right and fitting that it’s going to the Southern Hemisphere – especially for Adelaide Fringe’s 60th.” / Laura Desmond

TH E O CTAG O N AT G LUTTO NY

15 FEB - 17 MAR 9:30PM

GAMES BY HENRY NAYLOR

BUILD A ROCKET

EXTINGUISHED THINGS 12 Feb – 3 Mar

12 Feb – 16 Mar

GROUNDED

THE ADELAIDE INTERNATIONAL COMEDY GALA

THE ARCHIVE OF EDUCATED HEARTS

12 Feb – 17 Mar

5 Mar – 16 Mar

BIN LADEN: THE ONE MAN SHOW BLACKROCK DAMIAN CALLINAN: THE MERGER EURYDICE HERE, ELSEWHERE ISOLATE & IZOLÁL ORPHEUS PETER GOERS IN ‘LOOK MA, NO HANS!’

23 Feb

12 Feb – 16 Mar

TABLE FOR TWO? THE BOY, GEORGE THE GREAT AUSTRALIAN SNAIL RACE THE PROMISE UNDERTOW WHICH-CRAFT? WORKSHOP: WRITING A DRAMATIC MONOLOGUE WITH MOLLY TAYLOR WRIGGLE AROUND THE WORLD

feb 12 - mar 17 2019 holdenstreettheatres.com adelaidefringe.com.au

Circus Top Picks Don’t worry about jumping through hoops to find the best circus shows this season: we’ve done it for you

Top Picks

BOSS SQUAD Live From Tandanya, times vary, 6–17 Mar, not 11, 12 , $20 – $24

The Garden of Unearthly Delights, times vary, 15 Feb – 17 Mar, not 18, 25 Feb, 4, 11 Mar, $35 – $55

Railed Gluttony, 9:30pm, 15 Feb – 17 Mar, not 18, 25 Feb, 4 Mar, 11 Mar, $30 – $39

After winning the Adelaide Fringe Award for Best Circus in 2018, Head First Acrobats are back with yet another raunchy riot. This time they are in the land of the cowboy. Thinly veiled sexual innuendo and double entendres galore take centre stage in a steamy, homoerotic and energetic display of narrative nonsense.

From the creators of Blanc de Blanc and FUN HOUSE comes a brand new spectacle celebrating all things life. Following the too-familiar tale of love and heartbreak, LIFE – The Show explores hedonism through clown, acrobatics and full-frontal nudity. If you think you know circus, think again.

Credit: Aaron Walker

LIFE - The Show

Social Staples Gluttony, 6pm, 5–17 Mar, not 11 , $18 – $25

fest-mag.com

DNA Live From Tandanya, times vary, 15 Feb – 3 Mar, not 18, 19, 25, 26, $25 – $32

FINALE

Out Of Chaos…

Gluttony, times vary, 15 Feb – 17 Mar,

Scott Theatre [Adelaide Festival],

not 18, 25 Feb, 4, 11 Mar, $25 – $48

times vary, 27 Feb - 6 Mar, not 4 Mar, $59

Born in Berlin’s underground, these newcomers to the Adelaide Fringe are sure to impress. The physical performers are paired and driven by live drums and vocals through a seemingly infinite display of ‘grand finales’. Paying homage to film stunts, the underground and traditional circus, FINALE wows audiences with a mass of fog, confetti and lights.

Adelaide locals Gravity & Other Myths are back with a brand new circus extravaganza. After worldwide success with Backbone and A Simple Space, Out of Chaos… is set to be one of the biggest acrobatic performances of the season. Known for exploiting the 'hyper-proximity' between performers, prepare for what is sure to be an elegant and moving display of the human body.

Casting Off Gluttony, 6pm, 5–17 Mar, not 13, $15 – $25

Think there’s an age cut-off for circus? Let Casting Off prove you wrong. A three-generational troupe smash age and gender stereotypes in a heartwarming show set to the soundscape of modern life. These gutsy women won the Total Theatre Award for Circus: Edinburgh Fringe 2018 with their comically canny personal and political tales.

Credit: Darcy Grant

Circus

Credit: Matt Wood

Award winning company Casus Circus pose the question: Are we bound by our DNA? This beautiful coalescence of traditional and modern circus, paired with heart-stopping moments, explores what makes an individual. Juxtaposing dance and circus to create an art form that is entirely neither, DNA is sure to confront destiny in the most delicate of ways.

Comedy Top Picks By far the largest genre at the Fringe, the comedy pages are daunting without a guide to some of the best shows

Double Denim: A Very Fancy Dinner Party The Garden of Unearthly Delights, 9:30pm, 15 Feb – 3 Mar, not 18, 25 Feb, $20 – $32

Absurdist and high-energy sketch duo Double Denim (Michelle Brasier and Laura Frew) know how to throw a raucous party. But having won the Director’s Choice award at Melbourne Comedy Festival the pair have matured and now invite us to a more sophisticated kind of soiree...

Fern Brady: Power and Chaos The Garden of Unearthly Delights,

Jack Tucker: Comedy Standup Hour The Garden of Unearthly Delights, times vary, 15 Feb – 17 Mar, not 18,

Comedy

27 Feb, $20 – $26

An unreconstructed and provocative comedy show from a self-styled ‘edgelord’, Jack Tucker has little in common with a fashionable and joyous comedian such as Zach Zucker (of ebulliant duo Zach & Viggo). With the joke firmly on the comedian, it makes Tucker’s show as funny as he thinks he is.

9:30pm, 4–17 Mar, not 13, $25 – $34

If you’re always on the lookout for this season’s top standup comedy, look no further. All the way from Scotland, Fern Brady is the brutally honest comic for you. Never fearing to share her experiences in awkward or strange scenarios, Brady’s almost abrasive attitude will win anyone over.

Jon Bennett: How I Learned to Hug Gluttony, 9:40pm, 26 Feb – 3 Mar, $13 – $25

A perfect mix of comedy and storytelling, Jon Bennett has mastered his craft. Drawing you into his world he will completely enchant you while weaving in jokes to keep the room in laughter.

The National Wine Centre, times vary, 14–22 Feb, not 18, $15 – $25

With one of the best stage presences around, comedian and storyteller Lisa-Skye’s gripping new show is about a phone dating line in the early 2000s. If you’re looking to get off the beaten track of comedy you might have just found your show.

various venues, 9:30pm, 2–16 Mar, not 3, 4, 11 , $20 – $28

Thriving in chaos, sketch comedian Demi Lardner encapsulates what makes absurd comedy. A high tempo keeps audiences guessing while catching them out with off-the-wall punchlines. For those who want to experience how strange the Fringe can get, this show is for you.

Josh Glanc: Glance you for having me The Garden of Unearthly Delights, 7pm, 5–17 Mar, $21 – $29

By consistently winning Weekly Awards for best comedy over the last few years, Josh Glanc has proved himself to be one of the best comedians at the Fringe. One-man sketch comedy full of amazing costumes, props and music, this year’s show looks to follow this trend.

Garry Starr Performs Everything The Garden of Unearthly Delights, 8:15pm, 15 Feb - 3 Mar, not 18 Feb, $33

A trip through different comedic and dramatic performance styles, Garry Starr can do all expertly. Containing a mix of physical comedy and acrobatics, this is a virtuosic wonder of a show. After a successful debut in 2018 and a year of development this is definitely worth seeing.

Top Picks

Demi Lardner: Ditch Witch 800

fest-mag.com

1900-Lisa-Skye

Credit: Tom Wilkinson

Magic Top Picks Ben Hart: The Nutshell

RanDom Gluttony, 7:20pm, various dates between 9 Mar and 17 Mar, $22 – $32

The Garden of Unearthly Delights, 7pm, 15 Feb – 17 Mar, not 18 Feb, 4 Mar, $20 – $34

Credit: Kiera Blackwood

In a style which could only be called ‘narrative magic’, Hart pours his blood, sweat and tears, literally, into his show. Be amazed by his disappearing acts and close up magic, but don’t listen to his advice; his life hacks have been known to fool people online!

Matt Tarrant: MORE Unsolved Gluttony, 6:30pm, 19 Feb – 17 Mar,

Magic

not 25 Feb, 4, 11 Mar, $25 – $35

MattTarrant represents the new age in magic. As the most successful solo performer in Adelaide Fringe history, his magic and mentalist work continues to enthral and excite audiences across the globe. Expect close up tricks with no explanations, mentalist powers that can only be described as psychic, and a commanding stage presence.

Dom Chambers, Australia’s own ‘Beer Magician’, is back in the country after performing for, and perplexing, magical royalty Penn and Teller in Las Vegas. Like nothing you’ve ever seen in magic before, RanDom utilises Siri in the most unexpected of ways, while keeping the audience in surprised stitches throughout. Forget rabbits and hats, it’s all about Tinder and beer.

Kevin Kopfstein International Man of Mystery & Mischief Gluttony - Masonic Lodge, 7:10pm, 15 Feb – 3 Mar, not 18, 25 Feb, $18 – $28

Now that his teenage son ‘knows where the food pantry is’, Kevin Kopfstein is back after a 15 year hiatus performing a brand new show with a fresh enthusiasm. A blend of magic and standup, Kopfstein enthralls audiences by showing the magic within everyday objects.

HYPNOSIS (Live) Gluttony, times vary, 15 Feb – 17 Mar, not 18, 25 Feb, 4 Mar, $22 – $35

How powerful is the human mind? Isaac Lomman endeavours to highlight the complexities of imagination in this familyfriendly hypnotic display of suggestion. Volunteers on stage lead the audience on hilarious adventures through Lomman’s guidance, without falling into the clichéd stereotypes of Hollywood hypnosis.

Kids Top Picks Adelaide’s festivals don’t forget about the young or the young at heart. Fest have found the silliest, soapiest and most enchanting shows on offer

Top Picks

Did You Hear What I Saw? The National Wine Centre, 3:20pm, 16, 17, 24 Feb, $25

To children, everything in the world is a new question to be studied, and nowhere can that be more obvious than at the Fringe. Did You Hear What I Saw? is a comedy show from two Melbourne comedians called Tom: one who lost his sight, and one who lost his hearing. This fully inclusive performance will be an important and playful show for children with a disability to see themselves reflected on stage – and for children without a disability to find out about part of the world they may not have been introduced to yet.

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Baba Yaga Queens Theatre [Adelaide Festival], 27 Feb-6 Mar, various times

Gluttony, 1pm, various dates between 16 Feb and 17 Mar, $15 – $25

Home-grown magician Mickster the Trickster combines old-school magic with new-school technology: this isn’t your grandmother’s magic show. If your kids are too hyped-up to sit still during a Fringe show then this is the place for them, as Mickster brings the children along on his adventure of magic to figure out where exactly his missing cheeseburger went.

Vaselina is a receptionist with a quiet life which is knocked sideways when she meets the mysterious Baba Yaga. A funny, inventive and colourfully surreal new version of an old Slavic tale, Baba Yaga is a layered look at breaking the rules.

Credit: Rob McDougall

Mickster’s Magic Gadgets

Bubble Show: Milkshake and the Winter Bubble The Jade, times vary, various dates between 15 Feb and 16 Mar, $18

There will always be a show filled with bubbles at the Adelaide Fringe, and for good reason. It’s silly fun, allowing older children to engage with the science and younger children to engage with the magic, and it allows the Fringe spirit to carry on at home with that elusive mix of sticky but clean fun.

Tessa Waters: HOW TO BE A ROCKSTAR Stirling Fringe, times vary, 23, 24, 27 Feb, $20

What kid doesn’t want to be a rockstar?Tessa Waters invites children to come dressed up for this all-dancing, all-signing, all-air-guitar playing lesson in how exactly to rock out. Waters mixes physical comedy with messages of personal strength and empowerment: exactly what your little ones need to become a star.

The Garden of Unearthly Delights, 11am, various dates between 16

Kids

Feb and 17 Mar, $17

It’s a truism that it becomes harder to hit the clubs when you have a baby: but what if you could bring baby in tow? A firm favourite of The Fringe, Monski Mouse’s baby disco has been getting the under-5s up and dancing on their feet – or at least grooving in their nappies – for years. Take a peek, though, and it’s hard to tell who’s having more fun: the adults or the kids?

The Garden of Unearthly Delights, times vary, various dates between 15 Feb and 17 Mar, $15 – $25

The Dummies will be familiar faces to regular Fringe-goers, taking festivals around the world on with their high-energy Crash Test Dummies. Here, the wheelie bins get swapped out for flippers: it’s the Dummies you love, with added water. What could be more perfect for those days where the temperature is creeping towards 40 than an air-conditioned tent, and the fear you will get splashed!

Captain Cauliflower and Marvin The Mischievous Moose The Garden of Unearthly Delights, 1:15pm, various dates between 2 Mar and 17 Mar, $15 – $20

When you hear Fringe you think… moose? Captain Cauliflower (as we all know, every child’s favourite food) and his sidekick Marvin the Mischievous Moose might just be the oddest duo taking to the stage this festival season but then again, it is Fringe, so we very much could be proven wrong! Fresh-off a sellout season in Edinburgh, this is the first year these British clowns are bringing their work to Australia: but is Australia ready for an onion-themed supervillain?

Credit: Mark Dawson

Monski Mouse’s Baby Disco Dance Hall

Splash Test Dummies

‘OUTRAGEOUS AND UNPREDICTABLE’ GLAMADELAIDE

‘NOTHING FAULTY ABOUT IT’ LIMELIGHT MAGAZINE, SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE

‘SERIOUSLY FUNNY’ THE ADVERTISER

15 FEB - 3 MAR 2019

1 -16 MARCH 2019

FAULTYTOWERSDINING.COM ‘An outstanding comic creation’ The Scotsman

‘The evening is a riot’ BroadwayBaby

‘Absolute mayhem’ Mumble Theatre

PAMELASPALACE.COM

Theatre Top Picks From powerful solo performances to immersive site specific pieces, there are many theatrical gems to see

Blackrock Holden Street Theatres, times vary, 13 Feb-18 Mar, not 19, 26 Feb, 5, 12 Mar, $17-28

Credit: Rob Golding

A small regional community negotiates the impact of a brutal sexual assault and murder in Blackrock. This Australian play was first performed in 1995 but remains relevant, looking at how isolated communities mediate the extremes of young male violence. Glassroom Theatre Company negotiates the most complex of social issues through the lens of a young adult struggling to relate to his peers and his family. And doing so while being thrust into choices that define his identity.

The Second Woman Space Theatre [Adelaide Festival], 4pm, 10-11 Mar, $30 - $59

Area 53 Pickup Point, times vary, 22â&#x20AC;&#x201C;24

Theatre

Feb, $25

Experience the paranormal in an immersive performance by the talented young crew from Dâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;faces of Youth Arts in Whyalla. The group have already taken out a Ruby Award and crowdfunded their way to Adelaide Fringe to prove that the most innovative theatre is coming out of regional SA. Area 53 is an alien oddity not to be missed.

A live cinematic theatre performance, The Second Woman by Nat Randall and Anna Breckon spans 24 hours in a loop of one scene. Different men arrive each loop, filmed live and projected, and patterns and discrepancies are magnified. Come and go as you like, even in the strange early hours of the morning.

Grounded Holden Street Theatres, times vary, various dates between 16 Feb and 16 Mar, $20 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; $28

When a fighter pilot is grounded and reassigned to flying drones, she is forced to reassess her identity and the morality of warfare. This is a sharp-edged, award-winning play that is worth reconsidering as audiences negotiate the disconnection and anonymity of the digital age.

Top Picks

Party Snake Adina Apartment Hotel Adelaide Treasury, times vary, 13–17 Mar, $30

Holden Street Theatres, times vary, 12 Feb – 3 Mar, not 18, 25 Feb, $18 – $28

Molly Taylor is a playwright who delivers dramatic monologue with lightness and sincerity. She follows up last year’s outstanding Love Letters to the Public Transport System with a reflection on how we spend our lives together, and the meaning of the things we leave behind.

Gluttony – Masonic Lodge, 6pm, 5-10 Mar, $9 – $22

This is a personal and political performance by No Offence Theatre’s Bj McNeill. FLAWED____like a b_y explores the fabulous and fearsome fringe of queer adolescence in a homophobic part of Australia. This performance offers a balance of the confronting and joyous aspects of life.

Umbrella Man The National Wine Centre, 10pm, 14 Feb – 1 Mar, not 18 Feb, 23 Feb, $15 – $25

Umbrella Man is an unusual combination of spoken word poetry, storytelling and improvisation that pushes the boundaries to prove that the earth is flat. This promises a heartfelt performance filled with unexpected sincerity that goes handin-hand with the absurd. Umbrella Man offers a spontaneous and unique theatre experience.

Credit: Eva Rodriguez Paredes

Extinguished Things

FLAWED____ like a b_y

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Credit: Phoebe Taylor

Venture into the glamorous, raucous and raw life of a drag queen in this examination of the many sequinned facets of identity. Party Snake offers a tender, transformational and heartwarming evening of confession spanning from philosophy to fake eyelashes.

Indigenous Top Picks Thelma Plum WOMADelaide, Botanic Park, 10 Mar

Since winning Triple J’s NIMA competition in 2012, Plum’s gorgeous folk-pop has skyrocketed her into stardom as one of Australia’s most iconic Indigenous songwriters and storytellers. Any opportunity to hear this beautiful Gamilaraay woman map out her music live should be snatched up immediately.

Matriarch Live from Tandanya, various times, 21 Feb-3 Mar, not 25, 26 Feb, $25

This is a one-woman show. The woman is actor and producer Sandy Greenwood. The show: an award-winning, dynamic exploration of the intricate lives of four generations of Gumbaynggirr women from the 1940s to the present. Greenwood illuminates the strength and resilience of her mother, grandmother and great-grandmother. And considers cultural identities, the stolen generation and intergenerational trauma – and the challenges faced by a fair-skinned Indigenous woman in modern Australia.

Man with the Iron Neck Dunstan Playhouse [Adelaide Festiva], various times, 8-11 Mar,

Djuki Mala The Garden of Unearthly Delights, 7pm, 20 Feb-17 Mar, not 25 Feb, 4, 11

Indigenous

Mar, $35 – $45

Dance sensations Djuki Mala return to Adelaide with their acclaimed smash-hit production for the last time. Prepare for a spectacular high-energy performance as the landmark dance and theatre company weave together traditional dance, pop-culture and storytelling.

$25 - $69

Man with the Iron Neck is a daring story of survival by Australia’s leading physical theatre company, Legs On The Wall. By fusing together text, aerial performance, and ambitious video design they delve into the tragic topic of youth suicide among Indigenous communities.

Aborigi-LOL The National Wine Centre, 7:15pm, 1-17 Mar, not 7, 14, $20 – $25

Cheeky First Nations duo Dane Simpson and Matt Ford are taking on Adelaide Fringe after sold-out shows at the Melbourne Comedy Festival in 2017 and 2018. Get ready for dad jokes and glorious cynicism as the boys prove comedy is found in the most authentic human experiences.

Na Djinan

g Circus Presents

édris stanton

5th-17th MARCH

6PM The Empire Theatre

HHHH BROADWAY BABY

“You’ll never look at pantry items the same way. ★★★★” - The Age

5 -17 MAR GLUTTONY 7.20pm, SUN 4.30pm

WHAM GLAM

CIRCUS MAN

08 December 2018 - 28 April 2019

South Australian Maritime Museum, 126 Lipson Street, Port Adelaide, 5015 Open daily 10am – 5pm (Closed Good Friday & Christmas Day)

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Gluttony

Music Top Picks Need to get your boogie on? Fest have the top music spots for this season

WOMADelaide Botanic Park, times vary, 8-11 Mar, various prices

Credit: Grant Hancock

As impossible as it is to pick a single highlight from what is arguably one of the best festivals in the world, it’s exciting to see the diversity and strength of contemporary Australian artists performing alongside WOMAD’s usual jaw-dropping line-up. Watch out for Tkay Maidza, Julia Jacklin, Mojo Juju, Ollie English, Ukulele Death Squad, Thelma Plum and Timberwolf.

Credit: Alexander Sofeev

Dusk till Dawn

Pussy Riot: Riot Days

Music

RCC Fringe, 8pm, 27 Feb – 3 Mar, $49

In an era of global protest and persecution there is probably no bigger name than Russia’s Pussy Riot. An Australian exclusive, this is a rare opportunity to see the punk rock feminist arts collective tell their story, in their own explosive way, live on stage. See them before they get arrested.

RCC Fringe, 9pm, various dates between 15 Feb-17 Mar, FREE

Never one to disappoint when throwing a late-night party, RCC Fringe’s Dusk till Dawn promises to transform the grounds of Adelaide University into a night club each weekend with a strong local and international line-up that includes Riton and LahLo, Aloe Blacc, Remi, The Presets and Motz.

Ella Hooper The Garden of Unearthly Delights, 7pm, 22 Feb, $40

Mention the multi-award-winning Ella Hooper in any Australian indie music scene and you’ll grab attention, so it isn’t surprising that there is a lot of excitement and interest surrounding the Killing Heidi lead singer’s one-off Fringe solo show. Her punk rock attitude is sure to command the stage as she sings selections from her impressive 23 year career.

Top Picks

Hippo Campus The Palais [Adelaide Festival], 10pm, 8 Mar, $49

A Brief History of Time UKARIA Cultural Centre [Adelaide Festival], times vary, 8 – 11 Mar, $149

An ambitious and exciting collaboration of European and Indigenous Australian music traditions, this concert draws on musicians and vocalists from across Australia and Europe to create a contemporary musical meeting place. A Brief History of Time is just that – a display of the oldest living traditions on the planet from Indigenous performers from Arnhem Land through to the Western music of the Middle Ages and Enlightenment.

Alex Rossi and Friends: The After Party The Garden of Unearthly Delights, 11pm, various dates between 15 Feb-17 Mar, $20 – $25

Alex Rossi’s fusion of high energy blues, hip-hop and rock will be just right to provide the soundtrack for all your late-night party needs. With friends like Jamie MacDowell andTomThum, we’re in for a treat.

The Garden Sessions The Garden of Unearthly Delights, 2:30pm, 16, 23 Feb, 2, 9, 16 Mar, FREE

The Garden of Unearthly Delights continues its long-standing commitment to promoting contemporary artists with The Garden Sessions this year showcasing performances by Jessica Wishart, Dhungala Baarka, Hanna Yates, Nathan May and CoreyTheatre.These free Sunday afternoon sessions are the perfect way to unwind after a week of show-hopping.

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Credit: poonehghana

After making waves with their debut album Landmark in 2017 and again last year with the release of their follow-up Bambi, Minnesota five-piece indie rockers Hippo Campus are finally coming to Australia in what will be a standout performance at The Palais.

Cabaret Top Picks What's life without a little risqué?

Credit: Ben Fon

The Worst Little Warehouse in London The Garden of Unearthly Delights, 7pm, 15 Feb-3 Mar, not 18, 25 Feb, $20 - $30

Lala and Robbie explore the highs and despairing lows of shared living in a musical parody about two Aussies barely keeping it together in London. The comedy stars two young, bright-eyed hopefuls and ‘every housemate you’ve ever lived with.’ Experience a painful wakeup call to megacity living through dry Aussie wit and situational absurdity.

Hans: Like A German Gluttony, 6:30pm, 26 Feb-17 Mar, not 4, 11 Mar, $35 - $48

SwingesqueLegends Woodville Town Hall, 8pm, 15-16

Cabaret

Mar, $35

A show-stopping tribute to the greats presented by the women of Choo La La Burlesque Adelaide. This adults-only performance promises old school showgirl entertainment with a modern twist. Expect daring dance numbers and sultry show tunes in a two-hour extravaganza that is a stunning ode to the heyday of cabaret.

Fringe Festival’s 2019 ambassador is a familiar face. Adelaide’s favourite pseudo-German returns to home soil for another year after wowing the world on America’s Got Talent. Boasting multiple accolades, the self-proclaimed "international superstar, sex symbol, accordionist, home-wrecker, and Madonna fan" will stun in his reprisal of Hans: Like A German.

Another Night at the Musicals The Garden of Unearthly Delights, 8:15pm, 15 Feb-3 Mar, not 18, 25 Feb, $28 - $38

Le Gateau Chocolat and Johnny Woo received the call for an encore loud and clear. Back with a revised version of Night at the Musicals, Chocolat and Woo return with their British wit, pumped-up vocals, and teased out wigs to give Adelaide another taste of their aggrandised musical classics.

FRUKE FESTIVAL THE WORLD’S FIRST UKULELE FRINGE FESTIVAL

Carclew Mansion, North Adelaide. 12pm – 7pm 3rd March Performances | Workshops | Gourmet Food & Wine Free For Kids!

FIFTY SHADES OF UKE

“Loud, Raucous And Infectiously Fun” – The Clothesline Regal Theatre, Kensington Theatre 4:00pm, 7.30pm 16th March

www.ukedeathsquad.com

Credit: Ayesha Hussian

Credit: Theresa Harrison

Shake It

Fringe Wives Club: Glittergrass Gluttony, 11:55pm, various dates

Gluttony, 10pm, various dates between 15 Feb and 16 Mar, $18 - $27

Hosted by Papillon’s deceptively sweet-faced songbird, Minnie Andrews, this variety show showcases the best of burlesque, cabaret and circus that the Fringe has to offer. Shaking it up four times a week, expect to experience all that is strange and sexy, and leave any prudish reservations at the door.

Bernie Dieter’s Little Death Club Gluttony, 9:20pm, 15 Feb-17 Mar, not 18, 25 Feb, 4, 11 Mar, $25 - $42

The dearly debauched Little Death Club are back in town with their dark brand of deviant cabaret. Host Bernie Dieter leads her troupe of miscreants and guests to traverse the stage, telling not-so-subtle stories about all things ‘la petite mort’ through drag, circus, and song.

Michael Griffiths: By Request

Touching down from their sold out London tour, Adelaide’s favourite trio of ‘nasty women’ will grace the Fringe stage with what promises to be yet another winning season. Fringe Wives Club proudly debut Glittergrass, a fiery cabaret complete with a live band and new comedic material. All delivered with the same glamorous gusto their feminist fans know and love.

The Garden of Unearthly Delights, 7pm, 15-24 Feb, not 18, $25 - $35

Helpmann award winner Michael Griffiths showcases his 20 year career, performing the songs that have garnered his continuous success and made him a household name. This intimate night of world-class cabaret includes the best of Griffiths' reportoire. Expect to hear the timeless songs of Cole Porter juxtaposed with tunes by the imitable Annie Lennox. And don’t forget to send in your requests.

Credit: Kurt Snedon

Cabaret

between 15 Feb and 2 Mar, $20 - $28

35 Top Picks

Visual Art Top Picks The best of visual art from Adelaide Festival and Adelaide Fringe

Deck Heads Black Diamond Tattoo Studio, times vary, 11 Feb – 16 Mar, not 17, 24 Feb, 3, 10 Mar, FREE

Credit: Matthew Clarke

Schuldfabrik Mystery CBD Location [Adelaide Festival], times vary, 8-17 Mar, not 5, 6, 11, 12

WOMADelaide, Botanic Park, 8-11 Mar

Come together to assist in building the spectacular installations of Ephemeral City. Made with cardboard and tape, the structures rely on people power to come together, becoming a physical manifestation of the greatness unity can achieve.

Credit: Ben and Martin Ph

Ephemeral City

Define confronting and then combine it with disgusting and you may get close to the emotions Schuldfabrik will conjure up.This installation takes the brave audience on a behind-the-scenes look at live liposuction. Human fat tissue is then used to create bars of soap on location. If seeing the surgery side isn’t your thing, you can purchase a bar of the soap. Proceeds go to the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Wine and Wallabies Fisher Jeffries, times vary, 28 Feb – 15 Mar, weekdays only, FREE

Fringe poster design competition winner Matthew Clarke’s vibrant style is on show in a free exhibition celebrating the creation of art without barriers. Clarke identifies as having a mental disability and his art is a potent display of expression and reflections of daily life, without feeling held back.

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Black Diamond Tattoo studio in Port Adelaide has invited over 70 tattoo artists to paint skateboard decks in their own unique style. The resulting exhibition will be on display and auctioned off online. All proceeds going to Beyondblue to support mental health services in Australia.

Accessible Picks Performer and editor-in-chief of the Safety House Guide, Lisa-Skye Goodes accesses all areas as she shares some of the best shows to see during the festivals

he super good thing about my job as a performer/producer/editor is that I get to use /slashes/ with impunity. Also I get to see a billion shows a year worldwide. My favourite thing is showing cool stuff to cool people, but it’s hard recommending shows. I end up barking like a mirthful seal and hurling a copy of the Safety House Guide at the well-meaning enquirer while they back away. I can never pick just one show. And I have a tendency to bark. And I’m squishy like a fine, expensive seal. For real, HOW GOOD IS FESTIVAL TIME? But much like Tuesday Comedown, every festival has its good and bad. During one Edinburgh Fringe I saw a show called What the Fuck is This, in which a man screamed “WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS” over and over for an hour, at midnight on a Wednesday. But there is also the bad. So buck up, Uncle Skysie’s got you covered! / Lisa-Skye Goodes

Pity Party! A Club Adelaide, 7:40pm, 25 Feb – 3 Mar, $15 – $22.50

For when you want to get in on the ground level and enjoy two bright, rising stars. Weirdo high-energy sketch comedy in a similar vein to the magnificent Aunty Donna boys. These glorious idiots don’t just want to show you their boobs, they want to make you laugh until you can’t breathe. Access notes: No ramp or lift, not accessible and has no accessible or gender neutral loos.

Massaoke Mixtape The Garden of Unearthly Delights, 11pm, various dates between

Accessible

15 Feb and 16 Mar, $21 – $27

For when it’s late at night and you just want a big, bawdy singalong. One of those shows that I’m kicking myself I didn’t see years earlier, I finally caught it at Edinburgh last year. The slickest band, the funnest frontpeople, playing party hits that you the audience vote for in a range of silly ways. Even when I cry-screamed along to ‘Livin’ on a Prayer’, because I’m 37 and basic, the roar of my fellow punters doing the same buoyed me. Access notes: No seats, ramp to the main entrance, no steps, fully accessible venue but no gender neutral loos. Massive lyrics on the screen, fully visible to the crowd.

Top Picks

Two Little Dickheads The National Wine Centre, times vary, 24 Feb – 2 Mar, $15 – $25

16, 17, 23, 24 Feb, $25

For when you want a taster menu of the best of the fest, but no audience participation. Yep, that’s right. I’m hosting a variety show, the only one in the festival that guarantees NO audience participation! So just sit back and enjoy – you won’t be the punchline here. Access notes: Fully accessible venue, no stairs, no gender neutral loos, allocated wheelchair seating, every performance is a Relaxed Performance.

Access notes: Entire venue is accessible, no gender neutral loos.

Jamie Mykaela’s Napoleon Complex The National Wine Centre, times vary, 23 Feb – 6 Mar, not 25, 28 Feb, $20 – $25

For when you want to be uplifted by the power of cabaret – and an angry bejeweled Chihuahuawoman. A beautiful singer and a filthy mouth, Jamie takes you on a rollercoaster adventure through her life to this point. A tour-de-force, and she’s just getting started. Filled with love, laughter, anger and pathos. Access notes: Entire venue is accessible, no gender neutral loos.

Special mentions go to Showko - Absolutely Normal, 10 Things I Hate About Taming of the Shrew, Laurie Black: Space Cadette, Wank Bank Masterclass, Exquisite: An Evening with Mama Alto, and literally every other show in the Safety House Guide, all 96 of ’em. Get amongst the festival and gnaw on it like you’re a Rottweiler puppy and Adelaide Fringe is a dried pig’s ear. Apart from being the editor-in-chief of the Safety House Guide, Lisa-Skye Goodes is performing her own show, 1900-Lisa-Skye, at the National Wine Centre.

fest-mag.com

The National Wine Centre, 3:15pm,

Credit: Nick Doolan

The Safety House Variety Showcase!

For when you’re sad and tired for no reason and you need a pick-me-up. I have seen this show about four times, and every time I leave with a big dumb grin on my face. Their warmth and genuine love for each other and the audience shine through in this story about their last day on earth. Expect bombastic optimism, uncontrollable giggles, silliness and a shitload of cat jokes.

Edinburgh Picks Having already won great reviews from Fest in Edinburgh last year, now it’s Adelaide’s chance to see these top rated shows

Build a Rocket Holden Street Theatres, various dates and times between 12 Feb - 17 Mar, $18 - $28

A fling with a local DJ leads to single motherhood for schoolgirl Yasmin. What we said: “’Dear Dickhead’. So begins Build a Rocket with teen Yasmin composing an email to Daniel, the absent father of the son growing inside her... a one-woman play of triumph over adversity.”

Felicity Ward: Busting a Nut The Garden of Unearthly De-

Edinburgh

lights, 8:30pm, 24 Feb, $38

Shortlisted for the Edinburgh Comedy Award 2018, Felicity Ward’s latest hour is full of pep, whip-smart cyncism and red lipstick. What we said: “Although it belatedly touches upon her depression and alcoholism, Busting a Nut is a relatable summary of her pique with the world.”

RCC Fringe, 9:30pm, 5-16 Mar, not 11 , $55

The longstanding burlesque boys combine Herculean physicality with high artistic and production values. What we said: “Love, dance and scantily clad Australians – what more could you want in a show.”

Games by Henry Naylor Holden Street Theatres, various dates and times between 12 Feb – 16 Mar, $18 - $22

Credit: Kate Pardey

Credit: Philip Gatward

Briefs: Close Encounters

Two athletes hide their Jewish origins during the 1936 Olympics. What we said: “An impressively polished production with slick parallels to the resurrection of fascism today.”

BUT WAIT... THERE'S MORE!

Be sure to check fest-mag.com for more â&#x20AC;&#x201C; including daily reviews once the festivals are in full swing!

We have three more issues to be found all over the city on these dates:

Issue 1 - Thu 21 Feb Issue 2 - Thu 28 Feb Issue 3 - Tue 12 Mar

@FESTMAG

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Speaking through Circus

Circus

ircus and physical theatre has always been one of the most accessible forms of performance. Not bound by language, culture and story are told through movements in the body which are relatable to all. Harley Mann is director of Social Staples, a collaborative modern circus piece which identifies serious social issues in a non-threatening way. “Physical performance provides a way for people to be less confronted,” says Mann. “I think in theatre when things are thrown in your face it can be hard to take them on board. We work to get the audience on board first and then hit them with the message which is quite important to listen to and act on.” Social Staples uses the levity of their physical actions to address personal issues, which were raised in a collaborative process. “We created the show to try to tackle social issues,” says Mann, “things us young people have identified as factors in our society. We try to use circus as medium to inform our audience of these issues.” Mann’s own story which he conveys through the show is one of identity, being a fair skinned, white-passing Indigenous man. “How has that shaped me as a person?” he says. “How is my identity different from the modern day’s idea of men in society, or what men should be?” These constant links to modern society are made in the performance through the use of pantry staples such as tinned tomatoes, which represent the building blocks of society which are so often taken for granted. A diverse troupe is the backbone of the work, particularly when reaching into personal stories of trauma. “Since we tackle strong issues [involving females], it can’t come from a male-dominated place, it is so important for females to lead that discussion,” states Mann. Mann’s female co-performers tackle the issue of violence against women and sexual assault through dance. “Physical dance explores this

Credit: Aaron Walker

Fest speaks to Waka Waka man Harley Mann and Natano Fa’anana about the importance of Indigenous storytelling through circus

Harley Mann in Social Staples

issue and this relationship between women,” Mann says, “they show the connection they have with taking care of each other and comforting each other, and particularly how women support each other through trauma.”

“ We were tackling issues such as culture and identity and asking what does it mean to be a modern Aboriginal” - Natano Fa’anana Samoan-Australian man Natano Fa’anana is the co-founder of Casus and the director of Chasing Smoke, the first entirely Indigenous circus show in Australia. “There aren’t a great number of First Nations physical or dance groups here,” notes Fa’anana, “even though we have First Nation peoples everywhere.” The cast of Chasing Smoke have come through Circus Oz’s BLAKflip program, of which Fa’anana has been a part for two years. “It’s an opportunity for upcoming First Nations circus performers,” says Fa’anana. “They can get a taste or take it to the next level, and find opportunities in companions or

Chasing Smoke

ensembles.” Chasing Smoke is the first touring show from the program, but having a show outcome was an important element as “there are limited possibilities in Australia in terms of a circus platform, and this has created guaranteed work.” Similar to Social Staples, identity is a key theme in Chasing Smoke. “We were tackling issues such as culture and identity and asking what does it mean to be a modern Aboriginal,” says Fa’anana. “It is an ever-moving, shifting entity. You never really get a grip on it as it is a living, shifting moving thing.” Smoke is an apt metaphor for the culture – it exists physically, but constantly changing. It cannot be grasped, but it is still so important to keep a hold of the culture in any way possible. The stories explored are based on personal accounts of the performers themselves, skilfully crafted into a modern circus piece by Fa’anana. “I like to create pieces with real stories with a human touch. I think audiences are yearning for that again,” he says. “I asked the acrobats what their stories are and incorporated them.” Although all the performers have come through the BLAKflip program, they bring a wealth of experiences from other disciplines. “There aren’t many First Nations circus performers so some were theatre trained, some were dance trained and some

were circus trained – but there is a realness there, we need to keep it not quash it,” says Fa’anana. The process, however, was a welcome challenge. “The incorporation of acting, dance, voice projection and circus was exciting and fun. I had to ask myself, ‘How do I grab all these and layer them into a contemporary circus context?’” Through the accessible medium of circus and physical theatre, these performers are telling their stories and projecting their voices for the world to hear. Now comes the time when we listen. As the Chasing Smoke crew put it, “Our history is a scrumptious sponge cake. Our chocolate sweetness is our black fella stories. The coconut sprinkles our white families and if you look closely, I’m pretty sure we bleed the same jam. We are lamingtons.” / Laura Desmond SHOW: VENUE: TIME: TICKETS:

SHOW: VENUE: TIME: TICKETS:

Social Staples Gluttony 6pm, 5–17 Mar, not 11 $18 – $25 Chasing Smoke Gluttony 6pm, 15 Feb – 3 Mar, not 18, 25 Feb $25 – $32

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Credit: Dreamedia

Features

Next Wave Funny Ange Lavoipierre, Clare Cavanagh and Maddie HW chat about how they got started, the comics they look up to, and their comedy hopes and dreams

Comedy

or decades, women have fought for space within the traditionally male-dominated comedy scene. Groundbreaking Australian comedians such as Gina Riley, Jane Turner, Magda Szubanski and Judith Lucy made way for comics who are now household names: Celia Pacquola, Kitty Flanagan, Anne Edmonds and Felicity Ward. More recently a crop of young independent comics have expanded the form outside of standup to include clowning, slapstick, improv and theatre. Zoë Coombs Marr, Tessa Waters and Demi Lardner have cemented their place in the comedy landscape with genre-busting shows. But who are the next wave to look out for? This year’s Adelaide Fringe sees a number of exciting new shows with a diverse range of comedic styles. Clare Cavanagh was studying law until she realised “I only liked it because I thought you got to argue a lot and make big, sweeping, declarative statements. In reality it was just a lot of reading.” After seeing improv shows in New York she was won over by the supportive nature of the art form. “You have to trust the people you’re on stage with or everything falls apart.” Her show Literally is “a comedy soup of solo sketches, overly-confident singing and improvisation.” She adds: “You can expect a school captain hungry for blood, the personification of queer social anxiety, and a few too many Black Eyed Peas references.” Ange Lavoipierre also says comedy “wasn’t an obvious choice”. After years of stage fright she “fell into a bizarre niche as a comedy cellist” before realising “that I wanted to be up the front [of the stage] instead of the back. It took another couple of years to get the guts to try, but apparently it’s super addictive, so here I am.” From there Lavoipierre has built a style she

Ange Lavoipierre

describes as “silly, dark, and verbose” and promises her show Final Form will have many twists: “It’s all about the lengths we all go to in order to be liked, and how honest it’s possible to be with the world.”

“ You can expect a school captain hungry for blood, the personification of queer social anxiety, and a few too many Black Eyed Peas references” - Clare Cavanagh Maddie Houlbrook-Walk, performing as Maddie HW, also segued into comedy from behind the scenes. “I got my start in community theatre doing lighting

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Maddie HW

and sound operation. I was really bad at it because I would fall asleep during shows. After a while I figured I should probably just get on stage already.” Far from nodding off during her own shows, Houlbrook-Walk describes herself as “a very energetic performer. My show is mostly standup, but there’s some curveball, fun parts thrown in. The show is all about being unafraid and getting heard.” Asked which comics they love to watch, both Houlbrook-Walk and Cavanagh cite Zoë Coombs Marr and Alice Snedden, performers who Cavanagh describes as “comedians who are unapologetically and enthusiastically themselves.” Lavoipierre and Cavanagh share a love of Anne

Edmonds, and Lavoipierre says she admires “comics who muck [around] with form” such as John Mulaney and Daniel Kitson. Houlbrook-Walk and Cavanagh both draw influence from character-driven comics, such as “the silliness of sketch comedy icons like Kristen Wiig and Vanessa Bayer” for Houlbrook-Walk, and Cavanagh is “a huge fan of Kate McKinnon: her characters are just so weird and wonderful.” Meanwhile Lavoipierre says her dream is simply “to have a career in comedy at all”. Given the cutthroat nature of the art form, Cavanagh says she wants to “keep making fun, ridiculous stuff which is truthful.” Houlbrook-Walk is most literal in her

Comedy

Clare Cavanagh

response: “My dream is to have an audience member fall madly in love with me and for us to begin a tumultuous relationship.” Both Houlbrook-Walk and Cavanagh see further collaboration in their futures, with Cavanagh hoping that working with more artists might lead to screen projects. While Houlbrook-Walk says “I think it would be awesome to see all the incredible, diverse comedians I’m working with represented on the big stages.” Banding together to help keep lifting each other up on stage and off seems an apt way to show the next generation of comics the ways in which women can continue to make their way onto comedy stages and bring audiences joy for years to come. / Kylie Maslen

SHOW: VENUE: TIME: TICKETS:

SHOW: VENUE: TIME:

TICKETS:

SHOW: VENUE: TIME: TICKETS:

Ange Lavoipierre: Final Form The National Wine Centre 8pm, 14–22 Feb, not 18 $15 – $20 Maddie HW: Let’s Get Loud various venues times vary, various dates between 19 Feb and 10 Mar $15 – $25 Clare Cavanagh: Literally The National Wine Centre 6pm, 14–22 Feb, not 18 $18 – $22

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The Artist and the Ideologues With one of the most recognisable voices in Australia, John Safran goes in search in hearing others – whatever they might be saying...

“I

t’s not my fault,” John Safran responds when asked if he chases controversy or if it finds him. “I wake up and I’m not even trying to get in any trouble but it just happens.” The answer is less than ingenuous; as the gadfly of Australia’s comedy scene, Safran has courted controversy for his entire career.

“ There’s an expectation that I’m going to get chased down the street by these dickheads” That doesn’t mean he wasn’t nervous. But putting himself in uncomfortable situations is part of Safran’s schtick. Even when he tries to confront people with righteousness – as he did his school rabbi on an episode of Music Jamboree – he comes across as the butt of the joke. “I wrote that as an Ali G thing where I say this and – bam, he’s humiliated. But then I just end up looking nervous and uncomfortable and that becomes the joke.” Some far leftists criticised Depends What You Mean By Extremist for finding the comedy and

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So it’s surprising that his latest venture has been mostly drama-free. Depends What You Mean By Extremist is his look at “the worlds of toxic people and their contradictions”. Based on his extended interactions with Islamophobes and jihadists, the book explores their motivations. He humanises the characters he encounters while poking fun at their absurdities. Among the cast are a wannabe terrorist who quotes Monty Python and a Sri Lankan pastor dedicated to protecting Australia from multiculturalism. He’s had feedback from “some of” those he profiled but, “no one really vicious – I think people just generally have bigger fish to fry when push comes to shove... There’s an expectation that I’m going to get chased down the street by these dickheads but they’ve got their shitlist and I’m just not in the top 10.”

humanity in its subjects rather than decrying them. It’s largely this reaction that informs his Fringe show Jew Detective: Sarcasm Is Not A Crime, which is a distant companion piece to the earlier work. “One of the big themes is using my experiences writing the book, and after the book, to look at how people who are coming from an artistic perspective, like I am, are often in conflict with people who are ideologues.” And it’s a fair guess that the artists will come out on top. “Oh yeah, definitely,” Safran laughs. “That’s because I’m right and they’re wrong.” / Alexis Buxton-Collins VENUE: TIME: TICKETS:

The Garden of Unearthly Delights 8:15pm, 25 Feb – 3 Mar $30 – $42

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Long Live the King The cult comedy show The Elvis Dead combines horror with the songs of Elvis Presley and now arrives in Adelaide

hen Rob Kemp was nominated for Best Comedy Newcomer at the 2017 Edinburgh Fringe he missed the announcement and photo call. His day job as a school examinations officer meant he had to leave the festival for a few days to fill envelopes with students’ exam results. This down-to-earth reason for his absence only added to the mystique which had gathered around the standup over that summer. On paper his show sounded like a parody of a Fringe show more than it did the real thing. Kemp would retell the 1987 horror film Evil Dead II as a one-man show using only the songs of Elvis Presley. The result of this odd juxtaposition was unexpectedly both bloody and hip. Without exaggeration it was the hit of the Edinburgh Fringe, selling out its run with Kemp playing to standing ovations. Although the connection between Sam Raimi’s splatter movie and Elvis Presley is not as random as it seems. Evil Dead actor Bruce Campbell played an elderly, nursing home-bound Elvis in Bubba Ho-tep

(2002). When friends joked that Kemp looked a little like Campbell all the elements were in his mind for a eureka moment. Having organised the rock n roll playlist to tell the story beat-for-beat the show could still have fallen by the wayside. The line between novelty and innovation is a thin one. And who would this show appeal to? Would there be enough fans of the niche film to establish a nightly audience? And who wants to see The King’s back catalogue slashed in this way? As it happened The Elvis Dead appealed to everyone. This is down to Kemp. However bizarre the songs become to fit Evil Dead II’s narrative, the man can sing. Every performance also feels like watching someone focus all their energy on just getting through the night, like it’s his last night on earth, like the protagonist of a horror film. / Ben Venables VENUE: TIME: TICKETS:

The National Wine Centre 9:55pm, 2–17 Mar, not 4, 9, 11 $20 – $28

Somewhere over the Rainbow Mark Dornford-May talks about A Man of Good Hope as it arrives at Adelaide Festival

Credit: Keith Pattison

sad Abdullahi was eight years old when he left Somalia. His mother had been killed in front of him and his father was in hiding. Yet, to Mark Dornford-May, co-founder and artistic director of Isango Ensemble, Abdullahi’s story is one of optimism and hope. “It’s remarkable that he emerges from what’s happened to him as a sane human being,” he says, “let alone a human being with such compassion.” Originally released in book form by author Jonny Steinberg, A Man of Good Hope tells the story of Abdullahi’s journey across Africa. Dornford-May has adapted the story for the stage. As Abdullahi is depicted travelling along the east coast of the continent, the action is accompanied by music that reflects each location. Found materials like dustbins, oil drums and swimming pool pipes For Abdullahi, it was the promised land. He are repurposed alongside marimbas, and every one expected to find a place where he could escape the of the 25 cast members joins in. “We don’t have a troubles that had plagued his journey. The reality he band so actors play all the instruments and do all the found was strikingly different. singing, all the dancing, all the acting.” The English-born Dornford-May, who has called the rainbow nation home for twenty years, had no such illusions when he arrived. “It’s a very complicated place but I don’t think I could ever say that it is a land of opportunity,” he says after some reflection. “I tend to agree with Asad in his description that it’s one of the most violent countries in the But this is no picaresque adventure – it’s the story world.” He clearly recognises his adopted country of a man’s resilience in the face of unremitting misfor- in the book, though he doesn’t accept the account tune as he is beset by one disaster after another. completely. “At times in the production we break So much so that Abdullahi has never read the away from the book, and actually there is a debate book. “After the first two or three pages he just said ‘I between the actors onstage saying ‘I don’t think can’t carry on with this’ because it was so traumatic,” that’s right’. So hopefully it will give a fuller picture says Dornford-May. Abdullahi has given his blessing rather than an airbrushed picture of South Africa to the production, though he will never see it. today.” / Alexis Buxton-Collins In the past, Isango Ensemble’s projects have largely celebrated the troupe’s home country. But A VENUE: Royalty Theatre [Adelaide Festival] Man of Good Hope casts a critical eye on modern TIME: times vary, 5-11 Mar South Africa. TICKETS: $25 - $59

Theatre

“ It’s one of the most violent countries in the world”

49 Features

Both Sides Now Two different productions allow a fuller understanding of Anton Chekhov’s genius

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, 1890

Double Bass directly influenced the most successful British sitcom of all time, Fawlty Towers). To watch these one act vaudevilles such as The Bear and The Proposal might seem a world away from the nuance of Uncle Vanya, The Cherry Orchard and Three Sisters. Especially as Black Cat Theatre’s production is titled Chekhov at the Pub. Yet, it’s another case of cleverly staging Chekhov out in the real world. And these sketches aren’t as different to his celebrated work as you might expect. The characters’ lack of self-awareness and our ability to misunderstand each other preoccupy all of Chekhov’s writings whether he was producing comedy or tragedy. In both productions there is a better chance to understand him. /︎ Ben Venables SHOW: VENUE: TIME: TICKETS:

SHOW: VENUE: TIME:

TICKETS:

Chekhov at the Pub Kings Head Hotel 8pm, 5–14 Mar, not 8, 9, 10, 11 $15 – $20 Uncle Vanya The Cedars [Adelaide Festival] 4pm – 7:40pm, various dates between 1 Mar and 15 Mar $90

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etween a contemporary audience and Anton Chekhov is a distance of time and translation. His most celebrated works favour ambiguity over happy endings. And, although he’s writing from pre-revolutionary Russia there’s no grand politics or certainty in many of his stories or plays. If we classed his plays as tragedies, it might be more for his ecological concerns than for his characters. But that’s Chekhov. A man who wrote the greatest short story ever published about a love affair, yet who we know as a ‘dreary’ Russian playwright. A serious Russian playwright who was actually a Ukrainian and primarily a comedy writer. A writer who was actually a doctor. A doctor who became a patient with tuberculosis. A patient with tuberculosis who was meant to rest in pleasant climes, but instead travelled across Siberia to write a detailed sociological study on the conditions suffered by those on the Sakhalin Island penal colony. Two productions arriving at the Adelaide Fringe and Festival respectively could not offer more different theatre experiences. Yet both understand that the way to know Chekhov is not by watching his plays in passive appreciation, but to live the experience. At the Festival, La Mama’s Uncle Vanya (adapted and directed by Bagryana Popov) departs from the stage and goes out into the world. An audience of 40 will witness the play, not in a theatre, but at Hans Heysen’s home The Cedars, close to Hahndorf, and the surrounding area. It’s an immersive event over two days where the actors will stay in character between acts. The blurring of what is and isn’t certain in character and placing the play’s ecological themes, literally, in the landscape is a shrewd interpretation of Chekhov. At the Fringe, there’s a chance to see the other side of Chekhov’s life. Black Cat Theatre focus on his one act farces and monologues. These are from, or have more in common with, a period in Chekhov’s life when he was a small town boy studying medicine in Moscow and living on his earnings from hundreds of comic sketches and skits. (There are single stories from this era that should be as well known as his later oeuvre: the obscure Romance with

Pushing Boundaries

Festival time is a chance experience new ways of creating performance

onsidering most of us watch a little too much television, what can theatre give us that is new, unexpected and transformational? Venturing into an experimental or boundarypushing performance may be uncomfortable. It offers the chance to make the most of the live moment, and to appreciate the challenging intimacy of sharing space with both performers and audience. If you’re up for more than just an hour long sit in the dark, there are lots of challenging new theatre pieces to find at the Fringe and Adelaide Festival. Take a chance on something innovative without ending up watching a man lay an egg or having milk spat on you. For those willing to embrace new experiences, post’s Ich Nibber Dibber promises to be an unusual show. Mish Grigor (The Talk), Natalie Rose and Zoë Coombs Marr (Bossy Bottom, Dave) have the unerring ability to make their audience feel a little more human. Previously, post have made an impact with the irreverent Oedipus Schmoedipus. These are three performers who know each other a little too well, and are ready to call bullshit on what is expected of them.

Theatre

“ Performance art is a powerful medium for inciting social change”

In Ich Nibber Dibber they make a bizarre ceremony out of excavating 10 years of their recorded conversations to look at how we make sense of the world, the strange phases we go through, and the milestones that change us. This is three young women reflecting on their lives in a frank and familiar way that refuses to edit out the weird un-ladylike shit. Ich Nibber Dibber promises something awkward and absurd, with a thread of sincerity. Gavin Roach brings his second instalment of his Anxiety Trilogy this year with The Measure of a Man. Through a series of autobiographical vignettes, Roach endeavours to answer the question ‘How do we measure a man?’. Part drama and part comedy, Roach’s personal insecurities, shortcomings and intimate relations are thrown to the audience in a

#nofilter

heart-wrenchingly beautiful monologue. Expect to come away from the experience with a new-found appreciation of the self-doubt which can plague the male mind. Body image, self-worth, and repressed sexuality are dragged to the fore, with a shimmering undertone of hope, glinting from Roach’s murky experiences. A poignant and ambitious story, Man with the Iron Neck by Legs on the Wall at Adelaide Festival tackles a visceral and confronting topic through a unique combination of aerial performance, video and text. When a young man is lost to suicide in a small Australian town, the community must navigate the trauma and find a way to embrace life. Ash, who has lost his best friend, becomes obsessed with 20th Century stuntman The Great Peters, who jumped from bridges with a rope around his neck. This is deeply affecting physical theatre exploring the issue of suicide among young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, and it bites with the inevitability of gravity and loss. Yet there is also hope to be found as the performance explores how some parts of life feel as inevitable as physical forces. Man with the Iron Neck is thematically challenging, but the unique momentum of the aerial and dance performance promises a deeply moving experience. In a world so strongly edited with filters, to be

Measure of a Man

Matriarch

open and honest is quite an ask. #nofilter presents an interactive mixed media experience – no stage, no assigned seating and no filter. The audience are transported to a voyeuristic view of The Black Dog Circus. Vaudeville performers wander, parade and exclaim as they retell experiences of survival, or plead as they recount tales of loss. The affronted audience is brought into a world of emotion and struggle, paired with live instruments and vocals. #nofilter aims to help in normalising the conversations surrounding mental health and by articulating how effective these conversations can be. For shows on March 14, part of the ticket sales will go towards a suicide prevention charity. Gumbaynggirr woman Sandy Greenwood presents a one-woman show examining four generations of personal history. Matriarch promises to be a groundbreaking performance of intergenerational identity and resilience that brings ancestors' voices to life. This is the kind of story which is difficult to come across, offered in a heartfelt and earnest way. This work is a contemplative, storytelling performance that challenges the established perspectives and voices of history. By questioning what it means to be a fair-skinned Indigenous woman in contemporary Australia, Greenwood reasserts ownership of four generations of experience and trauma.

Audiences may be challenged by this work, but it shouldn’t be overlooked. Most of the time when we experience theatre, we see only one iteration. Of all the script, casting and directing choices we view only one variation. There is one cast, one performance, and it’s judged on how well we understand what the play is about. The Second Woman throws open those limits as Nat Randall performs the same scene with 100 different male performers over 24 hours. Suddenly there is contrast. Each time, the scene is the same but the performance is subtly, or sometimes shockingly, different. The dialogue lands like juicy drama on a weekday talk show. Anna Breckon and Nat Randall have transformed perpetual repetition into gripping unpredictability that will keep the audience hooked for hours. Not only can the audience come and go as they like across the 24 hour performance period, they are encouraged to see what it is like to visit the theatre at 4am. This is a performance that will expand the audience’s understanding of what theatre can do and how people can push and change each other. Nikola and I searches for truth and hope through three distinct parts: Nik, Ola and I. Writer and performer David Geddes uses these three to explore the philosophy and the truth of self. What is self? How is this reflected in the modern world? Not

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Credit: Oliver V. Cowley

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Theatre

Ich Nibber Dibber

without joy, this tender and playful work flits across moods and draws upon the connections of science and spirituality forged by the engineer and physicist Nikola Tesla. Throughout the work, Geddes imposes his own internal debates and findings, through the lens of Nik, Ola and I. How truly separate are these three characters? Are they the building blocks of one true self? Can there be one true self or is there only space for parts, not a whole? This fusion of psychedelia and drama promises to bring new light to identity and self love with love, light and laughs. Performance art is a powerful medium for inciting social change, and through these shows, the creators and performers drag their audience through the womb-temperature of the norm, and throw them into the melting pot of glorious, confusing and stimulating conversations that only performance can awaken. / Jess Martin and Laura Desmond

SHOW: VENUE: TIME: TICKETS:

Nikola and I Dream Well 7pm, 11 Feb–15 Mar, weekdays only $5 – $25 #nofilter Marion Cultural Centre times vary, 14–16Mar $33 – $63 The Measure of a Man Bakehouse Theatre 7:30pm, 26 Feb – 2 Mar $10 – $20 post: ICH NIBBER DIBBER RCC Fringe 7pm, 12–17 Mar $20 – $40

Credit: Heidrun Lohr

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The Second Woman is a cinematic live theatre performance spanning 24 hours. Nat Randall performs the same scene on a loop with 100 different men: strangers, performers, non-actors. She speaks to us about this Herculean performance How did The Second Woman come out of your collaboration with Anna Breckon? My background is in participatory and durational performance. Anna comes from a film background, so the work has manifested into a live performance piece that strongly centres the filmic image. During the performance Anna is really the most critical eye in directing everything from the man-wrangler, to the vision mixers, to the camera operator. In theatre, video can be considered peripheral or aesthetic, but here it functions as a core element in the structure of the work. The audience experiences the live moment, as well as the live video moment. How has the way you perform the scene changed after repeating it hundreds of times? My performance is changing minutely within each iteration, but also across the 24 hours as fatigue hits it also shifts. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m still quite shocked each time a person comes through, Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve never seen them before, and we have to perform this intimate exchange. The pleasure for the audience is seeing this stranger relationship in quite a familiar context and it is really dependent on who comes into the room next.

How do you think repeating the scene affects the audience? I guess it provides an anchor point to examine the difference between each scene and how people navigate their emotions. Because the audience are entering and exiting at any point, people are having very different experiences depending on how many scenes theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve watched. What could look like an error, or a moment of intensity, or a power dynamic gone wrong, you see over time how ingrained in the script those things are. Have any of the male participants done anything that surprised you? Some have surprised me how connected I felt to them or how enjoyable the scene has been. It is always surprising to have those points of connection, or points of fear, points of frustration, depending on how the person might choose to be in the scene. What do you think is the power of presenting theatre in this format? There is much more of an intimate space in which two people can perform and exchange. I think it is really addictive for an audience because nobody knows who is going to walk through that door next or what the dynamic between us might be. / Jess Martin VENUE: TIME: TICKETS:

Space Theatre [Adelaide Festival] 10-11 Mar, 4pm (24 hrs) $25 - $59

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The Comfort of Strangers

Other Worlds Holden Street Theatres is the centre of internationalism at the Fringe, but also offers remarkable support for local artists

Theatre

olden Street Theatres’ historic venues become home to over 20 shows this Fringe. And among the program comes three world premieres which showcase Holden Streets’ commitment to emerging acts who can call the Fringe home. Adelaide’s own CCTheatreCo scooped the Theatres’ Fringe Award in 2018. The company now bring their latest musical comedy, Which-Craft? under the limestone of The Arch. It is a tall story in more ways than one. There’s an incongruous mix with witches living, not in an obscure wood, but in a modern high-rise block. The Wormwood Sisters can do magic, but unfortunately their powers haven’t meant breaking the spell of a run of bad luck. The neighbours are a nightmare and their landlord is on their back. But, perhaps, their gifts are just the kind of talents prized by reality TV... Meanwhile, for those seeking the very latest Fringe show, those who take pride in saying they saw a work of art first, there’s the play The Promise. In a sense, this is more of a premiere before its premiere. The script will be part of Holden Streets’ initiative to hold table readings for brand new writing. Local actors will voice Maude Laire’s script, which focuses on the aftermath of death and the complicated arrangements left, or not, for the family

Which-craft?

by the deceased father. The world premiere of Isolate & Izolál is better described as otherworldly. An astronaut is on a mission to Mars and while floating towards the red planet we might well ask: should humanity even go there at all? Potential Kinetics Theatre provide a double bill, with the theatre part followed by dance and live music by Petra Szabo and Delia Olam. Both sides of the production look at our identity through different prisms, whether we find ourselves alone in deep space or celebrating together through dance. It’s a project that asks: what is it to be human? / Ben Venables

SHOW: TIME: TICKETS:

Isolate & Izolál 7:30pm, 26 Feb – 2 Mar $28 The Promise 11am, 8 Mar $10 Which-craft? times vary, 26 Feb – 10 Mar, not 4 Mar $18 – $27

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Credit: Sean McDonald

Home Advantage

load Festivals in the UK, and Afropunk Festival in Paris – Vandal confesses there is nothing quite like performing on home soil. “Good Things was an amazing way to jump back into the raucous Aussie crowd, and that energy is sort of unmistakeable… they’re just so energetic and I love that. I really fed off that crowd,” says Vandal. The Australian public are not the only demographic making up her fan base. Adelaide hip-hop legends, Hilltop Hoods, have made Vandal a feature artist on their upcoming album The Great Expanse. Set to drop in late February, the record features Vandal on two tracks with the Adelaide trio alongside fellow hip-hop sensation, Illy. But that is just the beginning for what is sure to be another huge year for Vandal. “I will be releasing more music my“I listened to a lot of different styles of music… so self and also a few other collabs that are just in the the music I put out makes sense to me because those pipelines, but there’s definitely much more music are all the sounds that I love and have soaked up this year, which I’m really excited about,” she says. along the way… but I can understand it can be a bit Vandal is set to kick off Royal Croquet Club’s hard to categorise, and I guess that’s the way of the opening weekend playing a back-to-back show with world. The world likes to categorise things neatly.” post-rock band New War, professing her excitement Vandal is jumping into Adelaide festival season as a personal fan of theirs. It’s a match made in after a stellar 2018, in which she most recently heavy metal heaven providing a warmly welcome completed the Brisbane leg of Good Things Festival, twist on the usual club scene RCC is known for. / Letti Koutsouliotas-Ewing off the back of her November UK tour with English grunge band Basement. Although she can proudly admit to having ticked VENUE: RCC Fringe off some “major bucket lists” abroad over the last 12 TIME: 8pm, 16 Feb months – including the Reading, Leeds, and Down- TICKETS: $35 cca Vandal is more than aware she does not fit neatly into a box, and that is just the way she likes it. From her noughties-era punk-inspired debut self-titled album, to powerfully delivered poeticisms with fellow Australian rappers Sampa the Great and Birdz, Vandal has been lauded for her finely tuned, cross-genre fusions. “I guess it’s something that’s been in our blood, growing up in church and playing music all the time,” she says of her natural affinity for music and the notable familial influence on her sound.

“ The world likes to categorise things neatly”

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Ecca Vandal talks about her world tour, new collaborations and her love of Aussie crowds

Credit: Alexander Sofeev

Riot Gaze Powering into Adelaide with their story of protest, Pussy Riot tell us what it means to have international support

Music

ussy Riot are Russia’s most famous activist collective. They are also a punk band, best-selling authors, a touring theatre troupe and a human rights media organisation; but most of all they are tireless, strategic protestors. Specialising in digitally savvy political actions, their pitch invasion at the 2018 World Cup final – in front of Putin himself – sparked a thousand gifs. With concise demands and those iconic neon balaclavas, Pussy Riot can capture the world’s attention whenever they choose. Riot Days is half punk show, half spoken word. An adaptation of Maria ‘Masha’ Alyokhina’s autobiography of the same name, it begins with the group’s now infamous anti-corruption protest in a Moscow cathedral in 2012. Masha, with co-founders Nadzhda Tolokonnikova and Yekaterina Samutsevich, called for a separation of church and state (“Virgin Mary, Mother of God, banish Putin”) but was sentenced on false charges of religious hatred. Riot Days follows Masha’s incarceration in a penal colony, where she campaigned for fair wages and the right to visit a lawyer without intrusive strip searches. It’s testimony to unimaginable bravery, told in surreal vignettes that reveal a piercing sense of humour. “The goal is to show people that even in oppressive, difficult circumstances, they can win,” says producer Sasha Cheparukhin. He once ran Russia’s largest arts festivals until his association with Pussy Riot saw Putin warn local authorities “that they are

stupid to cooperate with people like me”. Together Masha and Sasha recruited a seasoned team of performers, including electro-punk musicians Asian Women on the Telephone, actor Kyril Kanstansinau and esteemed theatre director Yury Muravitsky, and evaded travel bans to take their show on the road. At a time when brands employ feminist slogans to whip up re-tweets, sometimes it seems as if the media coverage of the violent treatment of Pussy Riot activists by Russian law enforcement is more voyeuristic than it is supportive. For Masha, this is irrelevant. “The attention from the West, about Pussy Riot, about any activists in Russia, it’s protection,” she urges. “A lot of people disappear, or have been tortured and killed. This protection is really, really helpful for all of us. All of us who are making protest actions, rallies, demonstrations – this is how patriotism should look.” Pussy Riot’s long-term objectives are these: political freedom, the release of political prisoners, no fabricated criminal punishments, no illegal arrests at rallies. What does small-scale success look like? “I don’t believe in success,” Masha laughs. Then she concedes: “At least we have a sense of humour, especially about ourselves. This is what I hope we will not lose.” / Katie Hawthorne VENUE: TIME: TICKETS:

RCC Fringe 8pm, 27 Feb – 3 Mar $49

“A DEEPLY FELT REFLECTION OF THE MAN. SAVOUR EVERY MINUTE.” - NEW YORK TIMES “LENNON’S SPIRIT SHINES THROUGH.” - NEW YORK POST

WITH THE MUSIC AND LYRICS OF JOHN LENNON | LENNON & MCCARTNEY

JOHN WATERS with STEWART D’ARRIETTA FRI 15 FEB 9 PM // SAT 16 FEB 8 PM // SUN 17 FEB 6.30 PM

90MINS TICKET PRICE

$65/$69

‘I loved it! But what the hell did I just see?’ Why Adelaide Fringe is so important for new music and artistic development

Music

Credit: Jessica Clark

estival season is finally back upon us and people all over the state are gearing up for one of the biggest parties in the world. One of the best things about this time of year is the risk taking - not just for the thousands of artists who come to ply their trade or the operators who transform every dark corner, basement, rooftop and wardrobe in the city into a happening venue, but for the audiences who venture out into these dark corners to be pushed, cajoled, questioned and maybe even entertained. Surely there is nothing in the world quite like seeing a naked aging Japanese rockstar covered in soy milk, shredding a daikon on a guitar, while singing an incomprehensible love song to his penis? Better still that the gig was held in a sweltering venue so packed with bodies and structurally questionable that it’s almost certainly still used as a cautionary tale. If you saw Jet Boys at Tuxedo Cat in 2011 you’ll know what I’m talking about. But this is the Fringe baby, and all the inspectors and nay-sayers in the land have been given the month off (or pointedly ignored) and anything goes. Think about it: outside of festival season how many people buy a ticket to jump into a car with strangers to hear someone’s hour long monologue on their darkest secrets, have their mind blown by an extreme sensory deprivation experience, or witness men in togas stone unsuspecting theatre goers? The benchmark for a Fringe show is ‘I loved it, but what the hell did I just see?’ So powerful is this sense that ‘anything is possible’ during festival season, that it has spread its influence beyond the Mad March confines to inspire a generation of creatives working to make Adelaide an exciting place all year-round. Relaxing laws and actively enabling those with the know-how, energy and drive has

Joe Hay

transformed Adelaide into what has to be one of the most dynamic late-night economies in the country. Music has always been an integral part of the Fringe line-up. Much of which has been produced by local artists – including Max McHenry’s industrial paramilitary Mexican death cult troubadours and Carla Lippis’ mentally unstable bridesmaid with a J.R. Ewing fetish – fit well into the ‘what the hell did I just see’ category.

“ It’s the perfect environment to be inspired, step out of comfort zones and take some huge risks” While these were purely original and out-there shows, the majority of music on offer still leans towards the tribute show rather than original productions. It’s not like local musicians don’t or can’t produce globally competitive festival material, but original music productions aimed at capturing the broader festival market should outnumber cover bands.

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Alex Rossi & Friends: The After Party

The festival season is a global content factory, a creative testing ground and network building maelstrom made up of, and connected to, some of the most creative and energetic people in the world. It’s the perfect environment to be inspired, step out of comfort zones and take some mighty huge risks. These are the defining characteristics of an arts festival after all. For local musicians it’s a world class opportunity to capitalise on all that the festival season and its global networks bring to Adelaide at this time. Randomly bumping into new creative partners or industry mentors makes for a good origin story and Adelaide’s festival season provides unique access to the global arts market and the professional networks of business whose sole purpose is to service these markets. To help artists and production companies take advantage of what has come about organically, the Adelaide Fringe has developed the Honey Pot and Made in Adelaide programs. These two programs are designed to help artists build networks and knowhow and ultimately, some much-needed exposure during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. The Adelaide Fringe is one of the few places

where artists develop, test and shop ideas in time to take to that other festival: Edinburgh. Not only do artists often develop new work in Adelaide so they are hitting their straps by the time they reach Edinburgh, but international buyers attend to pick up the next big thing here. On top of this exposure, audiences and other artists alike also benefit from being exposed to work that no one else in the world may get to see. Ask anyone in the entertainment industry and they’ll tell you that there is no golden rule to success, but the Adelaide festival season has a lot to offer anyone wanting to learn how the system works and get to meet the people who make it happen. Festival season programs are chock full of fantastic original live music productions. OK, so maybe not every show has to be an esoteric musical journey into the bizarre. But during the festival you are among friends, so pushing the boundaries beyond the standard tribute show will not only be welcome, but you’re also likely to find an enthusiastic audience. It’s about going out, taking some risks and supporting the artists who make the festival season so bloody good. / Joe Hay

Who Are We? Is it possible that our Australian identity may be found in our differences? We look to WOMADelaide for answers Amaru Tribe

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golia,” says Bukhu. “Music makes us stop and learn about an artist’s culture [and] in Australia, we have such a wonderful opportunity for this.” Bukhu attended the prestigious Music and Dance At WOMADelaide 2019, artists who call Australia home echo the sentiments of Smith, a former United Conservatory of Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia. He is a virtuoso of the morin khuur, or horsehead fiddle, and the Nations director. ancient tradition of Khuumii throat singing. “Khuumii Celebrating differences can be found in projects is slightly different from Tuvan throat singing,” says by Indigenous Australians and Australia-based Bukhu. “With Khuumii, I can create overtone melodies.” artists from Mongolia, Colombia, Chile, Venezuela, To hear Khuumii in the flesh is enthralling – the Burkina Faso and Papua New Guinea. All are prehigh-pitched overtones produce a sound akin to senting challenging, albeit exhorting, performances whistling which resonates over a profound distance. that take on Anglo-dominance in the Australian The morin khuur can be bittersweet; often smooth, music industry. but other times dynamic, gruff and almost CeltWOMADelaide, the World of Music, Arts and ic-sounding. Bukhu has taken his incredible vocal Dance Festival, always takes us on a journey. But skill and adapted it to Australian folk music as well – this year, that journey points out back to the great a trilling version of ‘Waltzing Matilda’ was the result. sunburned terra we call Australia. Joining Bukhu are improvisational vocalist Lizzie In 2014, Sydney-based Mongolian man, Bukhu, O’Keefe and multi-instrumentalist Linsey Pollak. was awarded the Distinguished Talent Visa for his Since 2015, O’Keefe and Pollak have collaborated contribution and commitment to Australian music under the name Dangerous Song, a project unaand culture. Through his music, Bukhu provides a bashed in its objectives to awaken the Australian glimpse into the world of a humble, gentle, intelligent soul. It is no wonder he has gained such favour psyche to the extinction crisis, and to draw attention with his audience and students. “I love sharing my to other marginalised groups and voices. “This culture, especially in such a young country like project… is getting us to look at the way we live our Australia. I love helping people to understand new lives,” says Pollak. “Here in Australia, we have some cultures… people don’t know that much about Mon- wonderful diversity that can sometimes be hidden s a people, we are now called Australians because a vast and lonely land has touched us with her differences’ – George Ivan Smith, 1953.

Marrugeku

away and marginalised.” Pollak layers samples of endangered animal calls on a digital wind instrument he nicknames ‘The Lyrebird’, atop O’Keefe’s angelic, four-octave range vocal improvisations. Dangerous Song and Bukhu are an enigmatic trio, emboldened by their improvisational practice sessions which have been symbolic to the project’s aspirations to connect hearts and minds with the impact of anthropogenic degradation. After a brief sabbatical on her home turf in Papua New Guinea, 20-year-old Melbourne-based rapper Kaiit returns to bless her audience with her honeyed, soulful vocals reminiscent of big names like Lauryn Hill and Amy Winehouse. But she firmly prides herself on her Papua New Guinean heritage. The release of her album Live from Her Room in September 2018 gave us standout tracks such as ‘Natural Woman’ and ‘OG Love Kush pt.2’, pairing bold, eclectic lyrics with smooth melodies. Kaiit is unique, both in sound and style. She is a welcomed voice to the world of neo-soul and is an altogether distinct addition to an emerging multicultural rap scene in Australia. To add to this colourful array is the Amaru Tribe, who proffer a wholly new genre of music they call Oceanic Cumbia. “It is a kind of courtship of the music of Oceania,” says Amaru Tribe lead singer, rapper

and visual artist, Katherine Gailer. The group have been based in Melbourne for four years – marrying sounds from their home nations of Colombia, Chile, Argentina and Venezuela. “To us, Oceanic Cumbia music means honouring our past, while exploring and recreating our identity here in Oceania,” says Gailer. “Australia is an amazing country, where new identities are constantly flourishing out of the interaction of so many different cultures. It seems that the space for diversity is slowly reaching different industries – including the music industry… We are deeply connected to our South American roots and we are building channels through which these two sides of the world can enrich each other,” she says. Amaru Tribe are upbeat and fun. Filled with intoxicatingly colourful visuals and energy, the smooth basslines will have hips swinging involuntarily. They use a variety of traditional instruments, but not with exhausting complexity. The charango, a tinny, five-string instrument, floats effortlessly above tambora drums and maracones with simple, catchy chord progressions. Vocal harmonies and clever rap lyrics in Spanish and intermittent English showcase the ever-expanding influence of Latino music on Australian culture. ‘La Tribu’ is a tribute to Australian Aboriginal peoples past and present

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Credit: Prudence Upton

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Bukhu

and includes didgeridoo and clapping sticks, to symbolise the group’s musical journey from one side of the Pacific to another. “We have big respect for Aboriginal culture…This is what music and art can offer,” says Gailer. “A space for exchange, empowerment and collaboration.” Finally, and perhaps most importantly, Broomebased theatrical dance company Marrugeku come to WOMADelaide with their latest project Le Dernier Appel. Since 1995, Marrugeku have challenged audiences with provocative choreography and storytelling. Directed by Associate Artist Serge Aimé Coulibaly, Le Dernier Appel marries contemporary dance and traditional Australian, New Caledonian Indigenous and Burkinabe influences. It is a final cry against dominant colonial perspectives on major issues. “In Australia, we have this ingrained preconception of each other that clouds what you’re able to open your mind to, and if you put that to the side and let a performance speak to you, it has the potential to make you see something very differently,” says co-artistic director and co-choreographer Dalisa Pigram. Le Dernier Appel is timely, as it follows Australia’s treaty talks with First Nations’ Elders and the November 2018 New Caledonian referendum for independence. “These were certainly pressure points that sparked our work on the project,” says Pigram, “but we acknowledge it’s not so easy to say which way a country should go.” Co-artistic director and dramaturg Rachael

Swain likewise cautions against viewing the piece solely as a protest. Instead, Swain says, “we wanted to explore how these drawn-out debates manifest in the lives of people in First Nations’ communities who continue to live with the deterioration of their communities and [a] loss of agency.” By comparing Australia’s history with the indigenous people of other Asia-Pacific countries – the Kanak in New Caledonia, for example – Le Dernier Appel spotlights the complexity in such discussions. “There is a way that [non-Indigenous] people avoid looking at particular issues, as if they’re only issues for Indigenous Australia, but we really want to reposition issues that First Nations’ communities are dealing with… [and] create a space that engages the public in their own responsibility for the current situation in Australia,” says Swain. Expect tension, frustration and powerful rhythmic dramaturgy, punctuated with intercultural influences and an indomitable hope for healing. / Emma Heidenreich SHOW: TIME:

SHOW: TIME:

Kaiit 8 Mar Amaru Tribe; Dangerous Song & Bukhu 9 Mar Marrugeku 10-11 Mar

Same Vibe, New Sounds

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Fest chats to Jamie MacDowell about making music with friends

“ We have the same rhythm in our heads and bodies, but a different way of getting it out”

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ne of Australia’s most successful touring musical duos met in a circus troupe where Jamie MacDowell was an acrobat and Tom Thum was a breakdancer and beatboxer. “We toured for five years together in the Tom Tom Crew,” says MacDowell, “it was an organic move to working together.” This extensive touring history allowed the duo to build up some powerful industry connections. “Our first proper tour was in Edinburgh, because we were lucky to have plenty of connections from the Tom Tom Crew.” Seven years after that first tour, their sound has evolved, but their spirit hasn’t. “I started as a boy who only played acoustic and sang songs about girlfriends,” laughs MacDowell. “Now I’ve started to move into using an electric [guitar] sometimes, and Tom has started singing more, and moving away from his bass-heavy beatboxing.” The shift in style and gravitation towards each other of Jason Mraz and John Mayer on guitar, too.” is a testament to the collaborative nature of their craft. This year, MacDowell and Thum are bringing two other friends to the Fringe for As Yet Unheard. From the UK, singer Billy Boothroyd is “an absolute powerhouse; his voice is almost alien,” states MacDowell. Beatboxer Ball-Zee, also from the UK, rounds off this quartet. “The four of us are close mates, and have been for ages,” MacDowell says of the new collaboration, “there are possibilities to build bigger sounds and also much softer music. There’s so much more potential for variation, but “A big part of our shows always has been ad libwith the same attitude, philosophy and energy.” bing on stage. I think this is a huge part of the reason The duo will also be performing regularly at the why we grew closer in our output,” MacDowell says. late night rave Alex Rossi & Friends: The After Party, “We have the same rhythm in our heads and bodies, with a range of other artists across the season. / Laura Desmond but a different way of getting it out.” So what exactly is their style? “It’s not easy to describe, but it’s kind of an organic, hip-hop, funk, acoustic, lyrical mess,” says SHOW: Jamie MacDowell & Tom Thum MacDowell. “It’s an odd yet successful collaboration.” VENUE: The Garden of Unearthly Delights 8:15pm, 15–24 Feb, not 18 Although MacDowell and Thum have always had TIME: TICKETS: $30 – $40 different ways of expressing themselves musically, their influences have a great amount of crossover. SHOW: As Yet Unheard “We both love old soul; Marvin Gaye and Roberta Flack, and neo soul too, stuff like Allen Stone,” Mac- VENUE: The Garden of Unearthly Delights TIME: 10:30pm, 8–10 Mar Dowell says. “We both grew up listening to rap, and Tom’s beatboxing came from there. I listened to a lot TICKETS: $28

One Isn’t the Loneliest Number Looking out and seeing an audience of one is many performers' worst nightmare. But for some acts this year it’s a full house. Fest chats with Kasey Gambling and Vendetta Vain about their singular shows

“I

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As the creator of The Maze, which was performed at the Melbourne Fringe in 2016 and 2017, Gambling has spent a lot of time thinking about the pros and cons of the show’s unique format. The Maze attempts to replicate the experience of a solo woman walking around the city’s streets at night, and as such is designed to make the audience member feel vulnerable and uncomfortable. Almost everybody who attended the two seasons so far (Gambling estimates the number is between 70 and 80) has found the performance moving. And for different reasons. “For women the experience is more about validation of what they go through just by trying to walk home at the end of the night. And for men, it’s more about making them aware of something that they take for granted.” But one thing both groups have in common is they’ve expressed a desire for a version of the show that can be seen by more people. “Even early on, I was talking to actors when I was developing the show and people were trying to say ‘but wouldn’t it be great if a few more people could get in to see it? You’re gonna have so few people through’,” Gambling recalls. Despite the entreaties, she held firm in her belief that much of the show’s power comes from the audience member’s isolation. “I know in theory that would be great but the whole point of the show is that you need to experience this alone to simulate the casual and direct sexism and harassment that women and non-binary people experience in the street. They’re often expe-

Credit: David Kane

t’s really great to put on the grants and things like that,” laughs Kasey Gambling. “But when you’re a single audience member show, it’s not so hard to sell out.”

The Naked Truth

riencing that alone, so it really was relevant that you too have to be alone.” In response, audience members have sought out connections as soon as the performance is over. Connections both with the performers and with friends to talk about their experience. It means that the impact extends beyond those who attend in person, but putting on a show for one audience member at a time does severely limit its reach. Of the 21 sessions this Fringe, a number are already sold out. And while there will be a waiting list in case of no shows, it’s inevitable that many people will miss out. Gambling is acutely aware that a very limited audience will be able to experience the work. As a result she has been looking at ways to make it accessible to more people. One possibility is developing a virtual reality version of the show, and the director is receptive enough to the idea that she’s had preliminary talks with some developers. Another option she’s looking at is reducing the cast, which includes three actors and a stage manager. That would make it easier to tour. But to make

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The Maze

it affordable Gambling knows that The Maze also needs outside financial assistance. She self-funded the first two runs, but is able to perform the work in Adelaide this season because she was a recipient of the Adelaide Fringe Artist Fund. Last year’s Dion, which was performed for an audience of three, received funding from the same source and was one of the highlights of the season – The Maze looks set to follow in its footsteps. Gambling describes a “heightened awareness” among the cast as they react to and interact with a single audience member. It’s true of both audience and performer. The lone audience member has a great capacity to influence the show and that places a responsibility on them to have an active experience rather than just watching passively. For some people that’s an uncomfortable sensation but it can also lead to a far more rewarding experience than simply letting the action unfold onstage. Burlesque and circus performer Vendetta Vain is bringing the confessional Naked Truth to Gluttony this year. Each session runs for 20 minutes, in which

Vain is naked and open, physically and metaphorically, to discuss any topic of the audience member’s choosing. This mirroring of vulnerability between audience and performer creates a space free of judgement, fear or censure.

" You need to experience this alone to simulate the casual and direct sexism and harassment that women and non-binary people experience in the street" - Kasey Gambling “The link between physical nakedness and emotional ‘nakedness’ is one of the key concepts behind Naked Truth,” says Vain. In opening herself up physically, she is inviting the audience member to

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The Maze

be emotionally open. The relationship which is forged in the short timeframe is important. “I hope that by offering up my own nudity right from the start, it is a gesture towards honesty and trust,” says Vain. “In much of contemporary performance, art nudity is used as a stand-in for emotional honesty, vulnerability and the stripping away of social uniforms and status.” Vain’s aim with her work is to attempt to provide a set of circumstances in which “people feel able to be open and honest”, while also providing a clear end time for security. “I’m interested in how desperate we all are to find genuine connections and intimacy with people,” she says, “yet we are all scared of the consequences of what that level of vulnerability might mean for us.” Like many one-on-one experiences, the discussion is led entirely by the audience member – Vain is just along for the ride. “Some people come with definite ideas of what they want to talk about and others come just for the experience,” she says. “Either way I hope audiences leave feeling like they have gained something and had a memorable time.” In such a vulnerable situation, it isn’t unheard of for audience members to delve into personal, and sometimes painful experiences. Vain, however, is well equipped to handle any deep dark secrets her audience members reveal. “I worked for a leading Scottish mental health charity,” she says. “I have a lot of experience in managing the emotions that come from hearing about such intimate and sometimes difficult parts of people’s lives.” In addition to allowing freeing conversation dur-

ing the experience, Vain is making an ardent point about the way society influences self perception and identity, particularly in nudity. “When we are naked in our own lives it’s in a situation which is either ‘adult’ or ‘taboo’ in some way,” she says. Today’s society and increase in mass media has sparked a new era of body confidence which Vain is hoping to breach. “Being constantly surrounded by media images of ‘acceptable’ and ‘unacceptable’ bodies it can become easy to feel conflicted about your own nudity,” she states, “especially in a new situation or with a stranger.” Vain’s confidence in her naked self is what drives the awareness in the participant, and ultimately, allows them to move into a confident space themselves. “Naked Truth is such an individual experience for each participant, so ultimately it is about the experience between myself and the audience member at that time.” / Alexis Buxton-Collins and Laura Desmond

SHOW: VENUE: TIME:

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SHOW: VENUE: TIME: TICKETS:

Naked Truth Gluttony times vary, various dates between 15 Feb and 17 Mar $20 The Maze CBD Location TBA times vary, 8–16 Mar, not 10, 11 $25

15 th February — 3 rd March 7.20pm @ Ukiyo ‘Enthralling…inspired…hilarious’ The Times ‘A master-class’ FringeReview ‘Extraordinary… magical...’ The Stage

‘A total delight…. See it, see it!’ Total Theatre Magazine

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WWW .B A C C A L A -C O MPAGNIA. CO M

ENERGETIC. PERSONAL. WILD. “An unforgettable circus experience with a unique Berlin touch that leaves you with a smile in your face and confetti in your hair.” Berliner Zeitung

8:00 PM (Tues – Sun) | 3:00 PM (Sat) 15 FEB – 17 MAR | GLUTTONY www.analogthecompany.com

Queering Fringe Victoria Falconer and Bj McNeill speak to Fest about queer visibility at the Fringe

estivals represent the pinnacle of the arts in many more ways than attracting big names. Most importantly, festivals provide space that represents the underrepresented. This is well understood by those who are aware of the festival’s namesake, but for those who are not, the longstanding affinity between established and emerging artists might seem something of an enigma. The truth is that Fringe Festival has always been a platform for people who fall outside the box. Victoria Falconer and Bj McNeill, two LGBTQI+ performers at this year’s festival, know the importance of queer representation and safe spaces. Their respective shows seek to break the binary. “The whole point of Fringe is that it was started by the outsiders,” says Falconer. The original Fringe in Edinburgh was created by several groups of performers marginalised from the International Festival which had been set up as an invitation-only and exclusive affair. On the ‘fringe’ of the the Festival, free of its constraints, the Fringe blossomed over the next few years, especially with late night, and sometimes risqué, revues.

Cabaret

" The whole point of Fringe is that it was started by the outsiders" - Victoria Falconer

In recent years, as conversations about LGBTQI+ rights come to the forefront of the mainstream media, visibility and diversified representations are more important than ever. Falconer, who makes up one third of feminist comedy trio Fringe Wives Club, says she did not initially consider her personal story important enough to tell. That changed when she started receiving positive feedback from audience members while performing as part of EastEnd Cabaret.

Flawed____like_a_b_y

“I would have people after [the show], particularly half-Asian women, saying they had never seen anybody do what I was doing on stage… especially talking about raunchy, sexually open and sexually positive things. I felt like I understood that because even just the visibility of having people look like me was very limited when I was growing up,” Falconer says. She devised her 2018 solo show, Oxymoron, after she realised there were a lot of people around her who needed a story told that represented their own, perhaps more than she did. Detailing her experiences as a mixed-race bisexual woman, Falconer manages to address some serious issues through light-hearted musical parody, topped with musical finesse. Her tongue-in-cheek attitude drives the narrative, enhancing the underlying wider issues rather than minimising them. “People are brought on this journey and by the time they realise what’s happening, they’re more affected emotionally [because] they’re not analysing what’s happening all the way through, and I think the feeling of it comes across and it hits them harder,” Falconer says. “And it means we get them to talk about the issues… everybody can start to talk about it in more of an accessible and open, and very inclusive kind of way.” Another artist who is similarly passionate about the importance of instigating conversation through art is Sydney-born, London-based actor, Bj McNeill. Adelaide Fringe Festival is the second destination for their new theatre art piece FLAWED____like a

Credit: Theresa Harrison

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b_y, touring Australia for the first time. The show addresses homophobia and toxic masculinity within Australian society, which McNeill says is “devised around autobiographical text.” Although McNeill admits that working on the show back in Australia does bring up a lot of emotionality – particularly due to the show’s content being specifically based on the discrimination they faced growing up in Sydney – they describe the performance itself as a “cleansing process”. It is this righteous, personal need that presents as McNeill’s drive to be proudly seen and heard. “My identity is really important to me… and it’s something that I feel I need to express in a particular way,” McNeill says. “I think a lot of that comes from being repressed and not being able to explore my identity or expose it because of certain factors in society such as homophobia, misogyny, and overt masculinity.” McNeill addresses the sincere importance to express gender and sexuality in a safe and accepting environment, as it is important for all LGBTQI+ people. It makes a space like Fringe Festival – with its ability to platform LGBTQI+ performers to tell their respective stories to the masses – a critical instrument in representing marginalised communities and elevating LGBTQI+ performers. “I think a lot of heterosexual people don’t realise that we’ve been walking into rooms for as long as we can remember trying to work out whether they’re a safe space or not for us… That’s something that hasn’t gone away as much as we may have pro-

gressed with social politics the LGBT movement. It’s still there – and that’s an issue,” McNeill says. Both inclusivity and acceptance is as important to the people behind the Fringe as it is for the performers within it. The Fringe’s CEO, Heather Croall, commented on maintaining the festival’s original open access policy. “We see diversity as central to the Fringe,” Croall states. “It’s at the core of everything we do, as is inclusivity. Communities who feel like they’re outsiders in the mainstream often find their home and their family here at the Fringe.” The Fringe was created to provide a haven for those ousted by society, elevating them with the means to be visible and proud. It is no wonder that so many LGBTQI+ people find their home here. / Letti K-Ewing SHOW: VENUE: TIME: TICKETS:

SHOW: VENUE: TIME: TICKETS:

FLAWED____like a b_y Gluttony – Masonic Lodge 6pm, 5-10 Mar $20 – $28 Fringe Wives Club: Glittergrass Gluttony 11:55pm, various dates between 15 Feb and 2 Mar $20 – $28 Fringe Wives Club: Glittery Clittery various venues times vary, 15 Feb – 3 Mar, not 18 Feb $22 – $30

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Fringe Wives Club: Glittergrass

PUSSY RIOT: RIOT DAYS → THE ATTIC

27.02—03.03

REVEREND BILLY & THE STOP SHOPPING CHOIR: EARTHALUJAH! → BONYTHON HALL 01.03—10.03

RCC FRINGE 2019

QUALITY NOVELTY → BONYTHON HALL

15.02—03.03

CIRQUE ALFONSE: BARBU → BONYTHON HALL

16.02—03.03

→THE UNIVERSITY OF ADELAIDE NO TENTS ALL INDOOR VENUES ARE AIR CONDITIONED RCCFRINGE.COM.AU

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All Hands on Deck

ombining love of art and culture, over 70 artists have designed and painted a skateboard deck to make up the exhibition in the studio at Port Adelaide. The decks will be auctioned online, with proceeds going to Beyondblue to support the mental health movement. Beyondblue provide information, support and counselling for all Australians for coping with anxiety, depression and stress. This includes targeted information for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, the LGBTQI+ community, expectant parents and young people. “For us in particular in the tattoo industry, there are a lot of mental health problems; anxiety, depression, and a higher rate of suicide, so we’re all in some way connected to that cause,” says Amanda Mckinnon at Black Diamond Tattoo. “The response from the artists from our call out has justified the need for the exhibition.” The creative team at Black Diamond Tattoo wants to challenge the social stereotypes of tattoo artists and people with tattoos. “It isn’t the case anymore that tattoo artists or people with tattoos are hardcore,” says Mckinnon, “tattoos are quite mainstream now and everyone who has a tattoo is just as human as everyone else. We still have emotions and anxiety like everyone else.” The relationship between artist and client is an intimate one. Clients describe personal and often

Kelly and Amanda Mackinnon

painful experiences in a cathartic conversation with their artist to get the tattoo they want. Sometimes spending six to eight hours together, the role of the artist often blurs the lines between friend and therapist. “There’s a lot of emotion behind getting a tattoo sometimes,” Mckinnon states, “people often do it out of emotion. They may have lost someone or they may have found love, but there’s always something behind a piece that someone holds on to. “Giving people a platform to talk about these things and bring awareness to the help that is available is important,” says Mckinnon. “It’s an opportunity to acknowledge that it is prevalent in this industry and that it is important to access the help that is available. Beyondblue do a great job in helping people through some of these mental health issues.” Besides hosting the exhibition throughout the entire Fringe, on February 23 and March 16 the studio will hold tattoo flash day parties with bar facilities and music. There is also an open space for conversations on mental health and support. Deck Heads makes a poignant statement about willingness to change and grow as a culture and as a society. / Laura Desmond

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Black Diamond Tattoo Studio times vary, 11 Feb – 16 Mar, not 17, 24 Feb, 3, 10 Mar

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Deck Heads is an impressive visual art collaboration with Black Diamond Tattoo and tattoo artists from across Australia tackling the stigma of mental health

Truth Be Told With distinguished authors, Twilight Talks and the thematic Zeitgeist Series, Writers’ Week has something for everyone, says Jo Dyer

his year’s Adelaide Writers’ Week is director Jo Dyer’s first at the helm and she speaks of the festival with the passion of a local, having grown up here. “I think there’s something very special about it,” she says. Whereas the literary festivals in Melbourne and Sydney are ticketed, the free nature of Adelaide's makes for a more accessible event. “Being able to meander between different venues and different events really changes the nature of the festival. People make a decision to come to Adelaide Writers’ Week and obviously they’re hoping that there will be authors there that they have heard of, books they may have read, or issues of particular interest to them, but that’s not the first and foremost reason that they come. And I think that allows Adelaide to be a festival of discovery.” The previous director, Laura Kroetsch, was seven years in the post and leaves a legacy both daunting and enticing. Dyer says it is “absolutely vital” for her to keep the spirit of festivals past while incorporating her own ideas and extending the possibilities of Writers’ Week into the future. “There is such a strong and loyal audience base for Adelaide Writers’ Week,” she says. “I’m not someone who thinks that loyalty and ongoing commitment equals a sort of tiredness, in fact the people who come year after year are in

fact some of the biggest risk-takers because they come and they put themselves in the hands of a curator and they say ‘we trust what it is that you’re doing’ and ‘we have trust and faith in this event’, and I think that’s to be applauded.” One extension of previous programming sees the popular weekend events for children and families grow. These weekends now include events for middle readers, tweens, and young adults. “I guess it had been a bit of an omission,” says Dyer, “there hadn’t been anything to cater for that middle reader and young adult readers. A lot of people had said they’d bring their kids to one of the days on the weekend but as soon as they were too old for the story tent, where could they go?” Dyer explains that there are two areas to this new program: one for readers and one for writers. The first will offer events with authors of books for middle readers and young adults: “There’s a huge growth of readership and a very passionate [following], so we’re very keen to reflect that progress.” The flip side is to create events for young creators. Dyer states that there has been a huge surge “in young people and teenagers writing to express themselves through spoken word and performance.” She adds: “The readership of poetry for that audience has a performance outcome, not just a

Kids Day

literary one. So we’ve got some of that reflected in the program, collaborating with Writers SA and also Word Travels, which runs the Australian Poetry Slam, to bring some of the best poetry slammers to Adelaide and also to bring some of our local talent to the stage. We’re running two stages on the Sunday, one of which is your more traditional event with authors, and another which is more performance based which is young people performing their own poetry, really to try and encourage young people to see themselves not just as audience but also as creators.” Another addition for 2019 is the introduction of evening events “particularly for people who are working during the day who can’t rush down on their lunch break but would still love to see something.” The Twilight Talks allow people to “come on their way home when it’s cooler, enjoy some music and a drink, and get a taste of what’s happening across the festival.” Meanwhile, The Zeitgeist Series will explore big themes. This series includes key contemporary writers and thinkers, such as Ndaba Mandela, Birgitta Jónsdóttir, Sohaila Abdulali and Soraya Chemaly. Dyer says the festival as a whole wishes to “include as many voices as possible.” This has not always been easy: “I think that has been one of the challenges and one of the great movements of this part of the 21st century,” Dyer

says. “People speaking from the margins, speaking from different positions and saying ‘well, you can’t speak for me, you can’t know my truth if you haven’t heard it from me. Why not hear it from me rather than someone speaking on my behalf.’ So I’ve tried to ensure that the program generally, and the Zeitgeist Series, does have a multiplicity of voices and does reflect diversity but not in a tokenistic way.”

“ I think it’s often through the world of fiction that you can best delve into the more subconscious, the more profound, the deeply imaginative” The festival will kick off with an Opening Address by Man Booker Prize winning author Ben Okri, speaking on the topic ‘Imagination Redeems’. “I think he is an incredible author, thinker and person,” says Dyer. “He tries to take you through the looking glass, and [in doing so] he goes beyond the

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Features

Long Lunches on The Palais

rational, very present debates around structure to [explore] what it can mean to be deeply human and how we can connect through humanity. I think he will set a tone of the open, human way in which we can engage with all of the ideas that hopefully will bubble up and be discussed throughout Writers’ Week.” The theme for this year’s festival is ‘Telling Truths’, which Dyer sees as an opportunity to “reflect the times in which we live – the tumult, the quandaries that we’re confronting globally. I wanted that to be reflected in the gardens both in the prism of fiction and non-fiction. I don’t think it’s just non-fiction that’s exploring in concrete ways these ideas, I think they’re being reflected through fiction as well.” Dyer speaks of the empathetic nature of good fiction writing. She cites visiting international authors Mohammed Hanif and Ahmed Saadawi as names to look out for. Then there’s the multi-award winning Goorie writer Melissa Lucashenko, whose latest novel Too Much Lip offers a local example of “authors telling us first hand what it’s really like” to live through devastating events in history and the ongoing aftermath, and “what that does to your psyche. “I think it’s often through the world of fiction that you can best delve into the more subconscious, the more profound, the deeply imaginative,” Dyer says. “It’s not attempting to be prescriptive, or analytical, or rigorous in that way. It’s attempting to make an

emotional connection, or a spiritual connection, which the best most immersive fiction writers really do and can open up that world in a way that is more effective than non-fiction, which can often be more informative, educative and forensic rather than emotional, immersive and poetic.” Dyer’s advice for anyone heading to Adelaide Writers’ Week for the first time is to think laterally and take chances. She goes back to the free and open nature of the gardens, where there may be “authors that people might not have heard of but that you think have something really significant to say, [or that] are saying things that perhaps haven’t been heard by our audience before, or that haven’t been teamed with other voices in quite the same way as well. That’s the kind of difference that Adelaide Writers’ Week can offer.” / Kylie Maslen

TIME:

Kids Day Memorial Gardens 9:30pm – 3:30pm, 2 Mar

TICKETS:

FREE

SHOW:

Opening Address Ben Okri: Imagination Redeems The Palais [Adelaide Festival] 6:30pm – 7:10pm, 28 Feb $25

SHOW: VENUE:

VENUE: TIME: TICKETS:

Rymill Park

15 February -

+ Masonic Lodge

17 March 2019

BOWIE CIRCUS GLAM ROCK CABARET

REBEL

6:30pm

15 Feb - 17 Mar

CIRCUS FOR GROWN UPS

ROUGE #GluttonyFringe

8:00pm

15 Feb - 17 Mar

Tickets at adelaidefringe.com.au

Food for Thought A meal and a show can be for the brain and the stomach

Credit: Jacqui Way

little fat, a little sugar, a little protein and a lot of water is one way to describe what makes us human. Even if this seems more like a list of ingredients that make the requisite elements of jelly. Jascha Boyce and Joren Dawson, of Gravity & Other Myths circus company, have exactly jelly in mind to help explain to children who we are. Their show, JELLY OR JAM, promises to explore what goes on inside young heads, and old ones, when we’re feeling emotions from anger to love. Add in some spectacular acrobatics and this all sounds an unusual way of explaining human identity to kids, perhaps. But the show is a tactile and sensory experience as well as a brainy one. In other words, a great excuse to get very messy with jelly. And there are more untraditional ways to enjoy a meal and a show during the festival season. Hannah Rohrlach and Stephanie Daughtry are so good at throwing dinner parties their Post Dining evenings have become a new art form. At the 2017 Fringe the show picked up an Adelaide Fringe weekly winner award. Back then, it was a feast inspired by the themes of the Foresight 2050 project: pairing foods that represented growth, catastrophe, restraint and transformation. This year, they’re working with the Australian String Quartet to host one of the Close Quarters series. ASQ bring chamber music out of its usual settings and into new places. Pitchfork offers a chance to find out which foods provide the perfect side dish to Schubert. Political debate seems more and more entrenched. Food may offer a way into a better discussion. And what better place to do so than at a festival. After all, feasts and festivals share the same root word. Political writer Annabel Crabb is serving a civilised conversation by hosting one of the Adelaide Festival’s returning Long Lunches. It’ll be a finale to a busy festival for Crabb, who also appears at the Fringe and is delivering the International Women’s Day address at WOMADelaide. As the host of ABC’s Kitchen Cabinet, Crabb is ideally placed to talk about the world’s chaotic politics while breaking bread. She’s joined at the lunch by former foreign minister Julie Bishop. / Ben Venables

PitchFork

SHOW: VENUE: TIME: TICKETS:

SHOW:

VENUE: TIME: TICKETS:

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JELLY OR JAM RCC Fringe 2:30pm, various dates between 16 Feb and 10 Mar $20 PitchFork: ASQ + Post Dining Gluttony - Masonic Lodge times vary, 5–7 Mar $60 Stranger than Fiction, in conversation with Annabel Crabb Prince Albert [Adelaide Festival] 6:30pm, 15–16 Feb $56 Long Lunch: Annabel Crabb The Palais [Adelaide Festival] 11:45am – 3pm, 9 Mar $169

AUSTRALIA’S FUNNIEST IN THE GARDEN WINNER PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD, MELBOURNE COMEDY FESTIVAL 2018

“SHARP, BRAVE, INTRICATELY DEVISED AND UNIQUELY HILARIOUS.” SYDNEY MORNING HERALD

15 FEB - 3 MAR, 7

5 - 17 MARCH, 6:45PM

“STAND-UP COMEDY KING.” Herald Sun

Tommy Little Self-Diagnosed

SAM SIMMONS HHHHH THE ADVERTISER HHHHH TIME OUT

Genius

26 THINGS YOU’VE BEEN DOING WRONG WITH

15 FEB - 2 MAR

WED - FRI 8:15PM, SAT 5PM & 8:15PM

SAN SIMMONS 15 FEB - 17 MAR 7:45PM

MARCH 26 FEB -17 MAR 5-168:15PM 9:30PM

WILSON / CHARLIE PICKERING / COREY WHITE / DAMIEN POWER don’T CAL DAVE THORNTON / JOHN SAFRAN / NATH VALVO / NIKKI BRITTON miSS! PETER HELLIAR / SAM TAUNTON / TOM WALKER / THE STAND UP SHOW

adelaidefringe.com.au

This year’s Adelaide Fringe promises to be a vintage program overbrimming with shows that make perfect pairs with certain beverages

Credit: Martin Butterworth

Corker Shows

Queen of the F*cking World

A Piece of Cake

When Sparks Fly

Why not pop your 2019 Fringe cherry by seeing Le Gateau Chocolat and Jonny Woo’s sumptuous tribute to musical theatre, Another Night at the Musicals [The Garden of Unearthly Delights, dates vary, 8:15pm]. We recommend pairing it with the Fox Creek Wines Vixen. This award-winning sparkling Shiraz Cabernet Sauvignon Cabernet Franc is described as a black forest cherry gateau in a glass, which seems only fitting, no?

In Queen of the F*cking World [La Bohème, dates and times vary], Marysia Trembecka takes to the stage armed with a guitar, sky-high heels and a shiny sequinned mini dress to present a masterful one-woman cabaret show. This scintillating stage piece about sexual politics draws on world literature and Trembecka’s extensive interviews with sex workers and members of the LGBTI+ community. We recommend a wine which, like Trembecka’s show, is not only sparkly and a whole lot of fun, but one which has depth too. The Louis Buillot, sold by the bottle, is the logical choice, because why do things by the glass?

Some Like It Hot Step right up to see The Marvelous Mechanical Musical Maiden [La Bohème, 15-24 Feb, times vary], a steampunk spectacular created by seasoned vaudevillian Carmel Clavin. Sit back and enjoy as the titular maiden, an animatronic songwriter, regales you with tales of love, loss and her life-changing run-in with conman Thomas Edison. Grease your gears and pair this show with an equally theatrical cocktail: The Schnapple Pie. One of La Bohème’s signature Absolut cocktails, it is flavoured with vanilla, apple, and get this: flamed cinnamon. That means they actually set the cinnamon on fire in front of you. There’s nothing more satisfying than watching something burn.

Another Night at the Musicals

Credit: Eva Rodriguez Paredes

Features

Umbrella Man

Flat Earth

Playing Politics

Credit: Ann Bevans

Pat McCaffrie returns to the Adelaide Fringe this year with Politics and Polar Bears (There Will Be No Polar Bears) [Rhino Room, dates vary, 7:15pm]. The standup originally hails from Adelaide and is now, among other things, a staff writer for Shaun Micallef’s Mad as Hell. Consider pairing McCaffrie’s whip-smart political comedy with another Adelaide great now big in Melbourne – the peerless Cooper’s Pale Ale.

Politics and Polar Bears (There Will Be No Polar Bears)

Maddie HW

Loud and Clear Last year, Maddie HW was selected as a Sydney Comedy Fest Fresh Pick. Her stand-up show Let’s Get Loud [The Howling Owl/Live from Tandanya, dates and times vary] should be riotously fun, with a high chance of the entire audience belting out hammy 80s ballads. If you are in the mood for a drink as bracing as this new voice in comedy, might we suggest quaffing down one of the Howling Owl’s Sipsmith London Dry gin pitchers?

All That Jazz Hugh Sheridan of Packed to the Rafters fame leads the California Crooners Club [Gluttony, 15-17 Feb, times vary] ensemble through a set peppered with jazz standards and pop hits – think Frank Sinatra and Beyoncé hurled into a musical blender. This sophisticated show calls for a wine displaying similar levels of brio and panache. A good option would be the Fickle Mistress Pinot Noir, so named for the capricious nature of the Pinot Noir grape. This wine, as with all Pinot Noirs, is best consumed after swirling. Take care not to spill any of it on yourselves as you either swirl or bop along to the music though, as this will completely ruin the illusion you will be attempting to cultivate by drinking this wine – the illusion that you are sophisticated. / Emma O’Connell-Doherty

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Umbrella Man [The National Wine Centre, dates vary, 10pm] is the brainchild of poet, musician and comedian Colin Bramwell. The show is a surrealistic slice of tragicomedy with a raw throbbing heart, which tells the story of a grieving man who makes sandwiches for a living. The man also happens to be a defiant flat Earther. Such a one-of-a-kind show deserves an equally unique tipple. Try the 2017 Jim Barry Assyrtiko. Clare Valley winery Jim Barry Wines are at present the only Australian purveyors of wine made from the Greek Assyrtiko grape, which just adores a harsh Mediterranean climate like ours.

Crown & Anchor Hotel

Gluttony

Gluttony - Masonic Lodge

Grace Emily Hotel

Holden Street Theatres

Karrawirra Parri - River Torrens

La Boheme

139

Live From Tandanya

122

National Wine Centre

Nexus Arts

Rhino Room

103

The Austral Hotel

The Belgian Beer Cafe Oostende

112

The Garden of Unearthly Delights

113

The GC - Grand Central

115

The Griffins Hotel

118

The Howling Owl

120

The Jade

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Bakehouse Theatre

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A Club Adelaide

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GOUGER STREET WRIGHT STREET

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SOUTH TERRACE

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ACE Open

Adelaide Festival Centre

Adelaide Town Hall

Art Gallery of South Australia

Elder Park

Pioneer Women’s Memorial Garden

The Palais

Queen’s Theatre

Scott Theatre - used by RCC Fringe and

HACK N

Adelaide Festival 5

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139

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118

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PIRIE STREET 78 120 T REE ST RS DE FLIN

103

115

112

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122

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T HE PARADE

If you don’t live in the Adelaide CBD – don’t fear! Adelaide Fringe take some of the biggest acts around the state on Fringe Road Trips.

Fringe Mount Gambier [22-31 Mar, FREE]

Just after Adelaide’s season wraps up, the Fringe heads south to the cooler climate of Mount Gambier. Over the last week in March, the city is taken over by Fringe artists and venues performing a stunning showcase, including local and international talent. Opening with the Lift-off Street Party on Friday 22 March 2019, followed by a Fringe showcase on Saturday, the following week sees a range of performances in comedy, music, and theatre, and a range of interactive workshops for all ages.

[23 Feb, FREE]

uneARTh Festival [18-21 Apr, FREE]

Credit: Tanya Ewen

City Guide

Murray Bridge Fringe For the first time, the Fringe hits Murray Bridge for one huge night on Saturday 23 February 2019. Sixth Street will be turned into a fairground wonderland with artists and performances from the Adelaide Fringe, in addition to some of the most gifted regional talent. Local produce will also be on display in a series of food and wine pop-ups throughout the street. The Murray Bridge Fringe is set to be a glorious showcase of local offerings.

Desert Fringe, Port Augusta [1-3 Mar, FREE] At the most northern point of the gulf, you’ll find Port Augusta. Well and truly desert country, Port Augusta has been coming to life with the Fringe for the last 12 years. With an ever-changing line-up from year to year, the Port Augusta Cultural Centre has seen The Gospo Collective, Dusty Feet Mob, Clara Cupcakes and Joshua Warrior take to the stage. This season’s line-up includes Adam Page, Jamie MacDowell and Our Corka Bubs, in addition to various arts and performance workshops over the weekend.

Credit: Trentino Priori

Fringe Road Trips

[22 Feb - 3 Mar, not 25 Feb, FREE]

Set in the beautiful Adelaide Hills, the Stirling Fringe presents a curated line-up of the best comedy, circus, cabaret and theatre the Adelaide Fringe has to offer. With a free live music stage surrounded by trees and tents, the Stirling Fringe is a brilliant spot to enjoy the atmosphere with some of the finest brews and delicacies of the area. This year’s line-up sees Cal Wilson and Boo Dywer as standup comedy queens, and Garry Starr and Demi Lardner representing the ridiculously absurd. For the kids, Mr Snot Bottom will be stinky and silly as usual, and the Balloonatics will provide aerated chaos.

Although there are a plethora of Fringe events at various venues around Port Adelaide during the festival season, on Saturday 2 March 2019 Commercial Road turns into one big street party. Featuring activation spaces indoors and outdoors, this year’s theme of 'Dancing in the Street' is well and truly covered. Performances, food, markets and live music ensure there is something for everyone. If you can’t find your boogie at this party, it may not exist.

Credit: DebTucker

Port Fringe [2 Mar, FREE]

Fringe at Westfield [various dates between 21 Feb - 17 Mar, FREE]

The Fringe Caravan is set to once again visit the three Westfield shopping centres at Marion, Tea Tree Plaza and West Lakes. Immerse yourself in live performance for a shopping break, or check out shows which are often in steamy tents in air conditioned comfort. With a changing line-up for each centre, the whole family are sure to be entertained. Last year’s performances included hypnotist Isaac Lomman, circus winners Head First Acrobats, and crazy clown duo The Kagools.

fest-mag.com

Stirling Fringe

City Guide

A Day in the Vines at Seppeltsfield Just an hour’s drive from the city is the stunning Barossa Valley and the sweeping Seppeltsfield Estate. Fest's commissioning editor discovers one of the oldest vineyards in the state

City Guide

he Seppelt family were not one to do things in halves. Migrating to South Australia from Prussia in 1849, Joseph and his wife Johanna began their journey attempting to grow tobacco in Klemzig. After consistent failure, they moved with their three children and their land workers to what is now Seppeltsfield, and created their own self-sufficient society with crops and livestock. Joseph Seppelt died of pneumonia in his mid-fifties and was succeeded by his son Benno. The buildings on the Seppeltsfield Estate, built in the late 1800s from imported goods from Adelaide and Europe, still stand and are still used today for winemaking, wine tasting and storage. FINO is Seppeltsfield’s fine dining restaurant, set in the original bottling hall of the winery. The outdoor seating is reminiscent of the French riviera with umbrellas, vines and water features. FINO is proud to showcase local produce and keep dishes clean and simple, but never boring. Their barramundi is farmed in Robe, using water from underground aquifers resulting in a clean, delicate taste. The chicken terrine is made using chickens from the nearby Fleurieu Peninsula and decorated with local greens. A braised piece of lamb with yoghurt and freekeh salad is a highlight, as is the burnt goat’s sausage with beetroot and walnuts.

Fresh gin and tonics with Adelaide-made Never Never gin set the afternoon off right. Segway Sensation SA offer tours through the Seppeltsfield Estate – the only winery in the world offering this experience. Paul and Christian are the perfect teachers; patient, supportive and friendly. During the tour, Paul regales us with stories of the oldest vines on the Estate, a section of 120 year old Grenache vines. The change in seasons provides a drastic change in scenery over the year. In winter, the vines turn to dormant knobbled trunks, but the lawns around them spring to life. In summer, the vines are lush with leaves and the soil turns red. The tour peaks with a photo opportunity at the highest point on the Estate amongst the vines, where Paul very graciously offers to play photographer. After an approximate eight kilometre journey, wine expert Bill leads the Taste Your Birth Year tour, including an exclusive look into the original Seppelt homestead. The second building erected on the property, the homestead is now kept in immaculate condition and is filled with original furniture donated by Joseph’s still living relatives. The dining room houses the original books brought over by Joseph and Johanna, and their intricate family bible. A 19th century piano sits unassuming in the corner,

along with original silverware and egg cups. Bill leads us from the homestead to the Barrel Room – an upstairs storage room for a very unique product. Every year since its inception in the late 19th century, Seppeltsfield wines have kept a single barrel of port from each year. Nowhere else in the world is there a historical collection of single-year ports. It is here we are asked to ‘find our year’ so we can taste the port. Straight out of the barrel, this port is smooth and sweet, and would go rather well with a cheese platter. To replenish, it’s back to FINO for a delicate dessert of lemon sorbet, berries and pistachio nuts with another gin and tonic in the sunshine. The photo opportunities around the Estate are plentiful, and the 50 metre wander to Vasse Virgin takes nearly 10 minutes. Once inside, the smell of lavender and citrus take over, and the architecture of the old vinegar factory takes shape. Bluestone walls once covered with thick paint to prevent deterioration are now proudly on display, filled with Vasse Virgin chemical-free soaps, washes and creams. Kirsty leads us through the lower level workshop, where make-your-own-perfume and lip balm masterclasses are held. Toward the back, vinegars, olive oils, salts and dukkahs from local areas are available for tasting, and

it is here that Kirsty tells ghost stories from working in the building and on the Estate, the culmination of which is the story of blood running down the walls in the Seppelt Family Mausoleum, thereby ending further ghost tours. The Jam Factory house an exhibition space and number of workshops on the Estate, including a millinery, a jewellery workshop and Gardner Knives. On the way out, Barry Gardner spoke to us of the processes involved in knife making and the time and skill necessary to create a truly remarkable knife piece. Without noticing, over five hours had passed and Seppeltsfield were closing for the night. Not missing the opportunity to experience our own ghost encounter, we trek to the Seppelt Family Mausoleum nestled in the side of a hill and witness some of the most breathtaking views of the valley. Seppeltsfield Estate have some of the greatest history and food any SA winery has to offer. / Laura Desmond

Thank you to Nicole, Cindy, Lauren and Bill of Seppeltsfield Estate, Paul and Christian of Segway Sensation SA, Kirty of Vasse Virgin, Barry of Gardner Knives and all of the staff at Seppeltsfield and FINO for a wonderful day.

fest-mag.com

City Guide

The Best Food and Drink in Adelaide If you want to relax on leather sofas with freshly made gin and tonic, peruse a 25-page-strong wine list or play pool to a Black Sabbath soundtrack, there’s a bar in Adelaide for you

Dive Bars West Oak Hotel

The Crown and Anchor Hotel

Cry Baby

The Exeter Hotel

11 Solomon St, Adelaide @crybabybar

246 Rundle St, Adelaide

The new kids on the block didn’t forget to bring their attitude. Expect Black Sabbath, Judas Priest and Led Zepplin on the speakers, and local craft brews on tap. Feeling game? Challenge a friend to a game of pool. Make things interesting by putting the next round on the line.

One of the most iconic pubs in Adelaide. Still housing its original wooden trimmed fridges and bars, The Exeter looks frozen in time. A spacious covered sunroom-style beer garden out the back is a good way to escape the heat. Sitting out the front, however, is a great way to score some clout.

196 Grenfell St, Adelaide

Affectionately known as the ‘Cranker’, this pub is low key, with no airs or graces. The Cranker is only a block south of Rundle Street, and is close enough to use as a getaway from the outdoor Fringe hubs. This year the Cranker plays host to the Fringe Club.

West Oak Hotel 208 Hindley St, Adelaide @westoakhotel

Looking like a doctor’s surgery from the 1960s, the West Oak Hotel has been under transformed to its former glory. Pooch friendly, the beer garden is the perfect spot for a quiet jug, or arrive late and bring your dancing shoes for an outdoor disco.

The Wheatsheaf Hotel

City Guide

39 George St, Thebarton @thewheaty

Cry Baby

One free tram ride towards the Entertainment Centre and a 500m walk is all it takes to feel out of the hustle and bustle of the CBD. This relaxed pub has an eclectic mix of grandma’s old furniture and an ever-changing series of beer taps.

Proof Bar 9 Anster St, Adelaide @proofwinebar

East End Cellars

In the business end of town, Proof Bar is the place to be. Leading the way in the small venue movement, this dual level nook is intimate, but boasts an impressive menu. ‘Bottles by the glass’ are available, but who can stop at just a glass?

25 Vardon Ave, Adelaide @eastendcellars

East End Cellars are the only wine bar in the East End that will supply your take away bottle-o needs. Wines by the glass or the bottle, with a featured winery each week, are delightfully paired with cheese and meat platters featuring local smallgoods. Pop in on the right night of the week and you could also score some free wine tasting.

Hellbound 201 Rundle St, Adelaide @hellbound.winebar

Raw bricks paired with leather couches... What could be cosier? Lavish underground surrounds coupled with an extensive wine list put Hellbound on the map for wine bars. Wine is available by the glass, half bottle or bottle to suit any time of the day or night.

Proof Bar

La Buvette 27 Gresham St, Adelaide @labuvettedrinkery

This French drinkery has some of the most stunning decor west of King William Street. Wines by the bottle are the norm, and the comprehensive French wine list is enough to keep any connoisseur happy. The bar menu is available until midnight, with a full a la carte menu till 10pm on weeknights, and 11pm on weekends.

Udaberri 11-13 Leigh St, Adelaide @udaberri_adl

Over in the West End, Udaberri’s polished exterior and accompanying umbrellas are the focal point of Leigh Street. Sit at the bar and watch the trained bartenders as they burn rosemary and grapefruit for fresh gin and tonics. Or you can retire upstairs to the leather lounges for a more relaxed vibe.

Wined Bar Hackney Rd, Adelaide @natwinecentre

La Vigne Wine Bar 246-248 The Parade, Norwood

Imported cheese, wine and beer make this dog-friendly spot a go-to on the east side. Happy hour specials for wine and cheese platters make this a perfect place to grab an early drink before heading into the CBD for a night of shows.

South Australia has the best wines in the country, and some of the oldest vines in the world. The National Wine Centre’s Wined Bar offers the largest wine tasting experience, hosting 120 wines from across the country in a self-serve enomatic tasting room. The menu showcases local produce in everything from nibbles to meals.

Mother Vine 22-26 Vardon Ave, Adelaide @mothervinewinebar

East End Cellars

Mother Vine has one of the most impressive wine lists in the East End, coming in at 25 pages long. Wines from Spain, Italy, France, Australia, Portugal and Germany are available, with accompanying maps and information about the regions. An impressive menu featuring French and Asian influences rounds off a great wine bar.

Udaberri

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Wine Bars

City Guide

The Best Food and Drink in Adelaide A Parisian brunch or some freshly baked bagels in a renovated garage are just two of a world of choices you have to snack on during festival season

Brunch

Hey Jupiter

Coffee Institute

Hey Jupiter

The Loose Caboose

96 Walkerville Terrace, Walkerville

11 Ebenezer Pl, Adelaide @heyjupiterbrasserie

21 First St, Hindmarsh @theloosecaboose

Hands down the best Parisian food in the city. For brunch, grab something light, such as a ham and cheese croissant, or go for a French style fry up with their pork and duck cassoulet. Had a late lie in? Petit dejeuner is served until 3:30pm, and the dejeuner menu overlaps from 11am.

Easily accessible via the free tram, The Loose Caboose is situated in an old train station in Hindmarsh. Their menu caters extensively for vegans, vegetarians, gluten free and dairy free. If you aren’t lactose intolerant, why not attempt to devour one of their Shocker Shakes?

Jarmer’s Kitchen

Mister Sunshine’s

18 Park Terrace, Bowden @jarmerskitchen

32 George St, Thebarton @mistersunshines

This family-friendly eatery has a third generation chef at the helm with a serious passion for food. If you had a rough night, the perfect kickstarter awaits – a serve of Southern fried chicken on waffles with maple syrup, paired with a Bloody Mary.

Within walking distance of the Holden Street Theatres hub is Mister Sunshine’s, a vibrant, eclectic cafe with indoor and outdoor seating. The menu has Middle Eastern and Korean influences, as well as the usual suspects. A solid kids’ menu makes this the perfect place for a lazy family feed.

@coffee_institute

The Coffee Institute in Walkerville has a light Persian influence which shines in their Sucuk sausage, and their house-made zahtar and labna. A popular destination; be prepared to wait for an available table.

Exchange 1-3/12-18 Vardon Ave, Adelaide @exchange.adl

City Guide

Exchange offer a neat menu, with sweet and savoury breakfasts well covered. The location is hard to beat, and it is a favourite among dog walkers so if you’re keen to spy on some furry friends, this is a good place to do it. Fantastic coffee and flexibility to boot, this is the perfect spot for a Fringe-goer.

Exchange

City Guide

Cafes FIX. Specialty Coffee 27 Torrens St, College Park @fix.specialtycoffee

Great coffee and a luxurious offering of freshly baked cakes, muffins, breakfast pizzas and baguettes make FIX. one of the easiest places for a group brunch. Their full menu is clean and basic, including the staple smashed avo.

Sibling

Tell Henry

96 Gilles St, Adelaide @sibling.adl

20 The Parade W, Kent Town @tell_henry

Known for their bagels, Sibling aren’t messing around when it comes to breakfast. Vegan and vegetarians are well catered for, and keep an eye out for interesting delicacies such as the kimchi toastie. If there’s nothing to your liking, build your own bagel just the way you like it.

Who knew a renovated garage could be so cool. If you’re there early enough you’ll see the bagels, croissants and muffins being delivered, so you know their bakery items are fresh daily. Some of the friendliest staff will chat, sing and laugh through every morning.

Penny University 1 Union St, Adelaide @pennyuniversitysa

Fresh is best, and Penny University know it. Their pick-your-own lunch offerings include salads, roasted meat and fish, yoghurt and fresh baguettes. The coffee is second to none, and their efficiency even more so. Grab a seat and take time out while getting some much-needed nutrition.

Pickle in the Middle 134 Unley Rd, Unley @pickleinthemiddle_

South of the city on Unley Road is a treasure trove of cafes and brunch spots, and Pickle in the Middle is a stand out. Focusing on plants as the main element to any dish, enjoy a guilt-free feed with great coffee any time of day.

Pickle in the Middle

fest-mag.com

Sibling

South Australia’s History, But Not as You Know It With the launch of Robert Foster and Paul Sendziuk’s provocative History of South Australia, we look at Adelaide’s past

isitors to South Australia will frequently encounter some of the loud boasts that locals like to lay claim to: the first state to grant women the right to vote, to have the secret ballot, to legalise unions and to decriminalise homosexuality These claims play into a cultural mythos of a historically progressive state which justifies Adelaide’s status as the festival city: a natural home to cultural enlightenment. A recently published History of South Australia by Robert Foster and Paul Sendziuk gives us a chance to revisit some of these claims, unearth a few new ones, and explore some under-examined aspects of South Australia’s past.

Censoring and Dismembering

The inaugural Adelaide Festival of Arts was marked by controversy when performer Lyell McEwin was prevented from performing five of his songs, including ‘I Hold Your Hand in Mine’, about a man who cuts off his girlfriend’s hand and carries it around. Morbid humour might be a mainstay of the festivals these days, but back in 1960 police officers had to be stationed about the venue to ensure McEwin didn’t corrupt public morals with his darkly humorous ditty.

City Guide

Torrens Title

Conveyancing may not be the sexiest topic, but this legal reform of land distribution, which was one of the earliest pieces of legislation ratified by the South Australian parliament, has adherents all over the world. The simple system of keeping a register of all land title claims revolutionised the exploitable common law system which existed before it, and went on to be widely adopted throughout the Com-

North Terrace, 1938

monwealth (and, to a lesser extent, the world, including several US states).

Women’s Work in World War II

South Australia had its fair share of Rosie the Riveters during World War II. Sydney and Fremantle were deemed to be unsuitable locations for munitions production, being vulnerable to attack, and so SA became host to three munitions factories which readily employed all capable women (although for as little as 60% pay). However, when the Womens Employment Board granted South Australian women the right to serve drinks in bars, a yearlong morality debate was waged over whether it was appropriate for women to work in an environment where they might be exposed to drunkenness, men and sex. The matter was only resolved when male bar-workers were forced to find new work, bringing women into the occupation out of necessity.

South Australia’s Founders Ignored Multiple Opportunities for Treaty

When the colony of South Australia was still in its planning stages, and in the wake of the near annihilation of Aboriginal peoples in Tasmania, Governor Arthur offered the following advice to the colony’s planners: ‘every effort … ought to be made, to come to an understanding with the natives and compensate them for any loss of land.’ The British Colonial Office, heeding these words, pressured the members of the South Australian Colonisation Commission to guarantee the sovereign rights of Aboriginal peoples already living in the territory. In response, Robert Torrens, the chair of the commission,

Woman arc welding part of an anti-tank gun in a munitions factory in South Australia, 1943

threatened to scuttle the entire endeavour if it was insisted that Aboriginal land rights were to be upheld. The Colonial Office ultimately backed down, and when the matter of Aboriginal land rights came up again in disputes over land surveys in 1840, and under prodding from the British Government in the 1860s, South Australian governors continued to neglect the opportunity to enter into Treaty with Aboriginal peoples, insisting that they were ‘too little advanced’ to enter into any agreement.

Women’s Suffrage

South Australia can lay claim to being the first state in Australia to grant women, including Aboriginal women, the right to vote and stand in parliament in 1894. However, this isolated fact does not capture how much resistance there was to the concept. A similar, more modest attempt to introduce women’s suffrage had failed in 1886, and the amendment to allow women to stand in parliament was only added because its opponents hoped that by including it they would sink the entire Bill. And so, though the provision got up, South Australia ended up being the last state in the country to actually elect a woman to parliament.

Public Holidays

When Mark Twain visited South Australia in 1895, his view was that the state had an ‘un-English mania for holidays… mainly workingmen’s holidays.’ This is a reflection of the fact that, two decades earlier, a coalition of trade unions had successfully campaigned for the right to strike in South Australia – another first for the country – and how the eight-hour day, and the Saturday half-holiday, had been secured by industrial action. Along with a decidedly strong aversion for working or playing sport on Sunday, this gives South Australians a reasonably strong claim for the invention of the weekend. / Justin Boden