Mama Does Roller Derby

Adelaide Entertainment Centre

Sat 28 Feb, 2026

As we settled into our seats a group of 10 roller derby contestants were doing what looked like their pre-game workout: sometimes quite elegant stretching exercises as they cruised around the track, and sometimes very physical push and shove exercises that are all part of a roller derby event.

Maxine and her daughter Billie have arrived in a small town to begin a new life. They know little or nothing about the town and are initially very dependent on each other. In something of a role reversal Mum’s a bit sassy and looking for some action, while Billie is the home body.

Billie is interested in art but her attempts to contribute to the artistic outlook of the town earn her (and mum) a session with a counsellor. It’s a witty and humorous meeting, and for the first time we witness a wonderfully innovative approach to stage direction as mum and daughter and counsellor face each other on opposite couches.

From this point on we are treated to a dazzling display of choreography on wheels. The roller derby women (from the Adelaide Roller Derby League) are now a team of stage hands moving sets around and delivering props to their rightful places with astonishing timing and accuracy. In a blur of glorious, precise movements the stage is frequently reconfigured to adjust to the changing narrative while a live band provides dynamic musical complement. It’s a stunning combination.

Meanwhile, alone back in her bedroom, Billie is dealing with her own demons – literally and figuratively. The demon character (superbly played by Benjamin Hancock) that comes to life is one of the most fetching stage creatures you will ever see. Without giving too much away the exotic movements of this demonic creature are worth the price of admission alone. An extraordinary creation.

Maxine eventually joins the local roller derby circuit and we then get to see what full-on roller derby is all about. What a spectacle!

Mama Does Derby is a brilliant idea. It brings theatre to the people with all embracing physicality, wit, laughter, music and perceptive theatre. It might well result in an explosion of interest in roller derby and theatre for younger people. Innovation plus!

Written by Virginia Gay.
Directed by Clare Watson.

Earnest?

Earnest?
The Peacock at Gluttony
Sat 21 Feb, 2026

The stage is set and looking interesting. Two gentlemen enter the stage dressed appropriately for the late nineteenth century and after some initial banter welcome Earnest Worthington to the stage with some flourish. Several times. Alas however, there appears to be no Earnest. The star of the show is AWOL. So, there’s only one thing to do in such circumstances – use whatever resources you have at your disposal. And what do you typically find at live plays? Audiences of course!

Directors are normally invisible, safely hidden in the wings, but in this case the director has no choice but to face the audience, offer apologies, and ask for assistance. And there the fun begins.

Earnest? does more or less follow the plot of the famous Oscar Wilde play that the show is based on, but takes a few liberties with the order of events and the behaviours of some of the characters. This leads to some further awkward outcomes and suffice to say it is not just Earnest that needs replacing.

Consequently, a great deal of improvisation is part of the spectacle, placing enormous stress on the original cast and the poor beleagured stage hand who’s run off his feet cleaning up accidents and making sure props are all in the right place at the right time. He ends up quite the star!

Several very funny devices are employed to assist those new to the stage play their roles – I particularly liked the advice window where we were privy to a conversation between the new Earnest and a cast member giving him tips on how to act.

Liberal doses of slapstick keep things entertainingly silly, and just for once the slapstick doesn’t feel contrived. It feels absolutely essential to save the show!

Things get merrier and merrier, funnier and funnier, and somehow manage to stumble their way to a successful conclusion where cast and audience can share a feeling of great accomplishment.

Earnest? is a great idea, a very brave undertaking, and a really good laugh for all involved. I loved it.

It has to be 5 stars. What? 5 stars for people who’ve never performed before? That doesn’t make sense. Exactly!

This review also published on The Clothesline.

William Yang ~ Milestone ~ OzAsia Review

William Yang with Elena Kats-Chernin
Adelaide Town Hall
Fri 31 Oct, 2025

William Yang has indeed lived a fascinating life. Born in country Queensland he had no concept of what ‘being Chinese’ was in his early years. He checked with his mother one day and she answered curtly, “Yes, you are Chinese.’  Wang suffered the usual taunts and insults that Australian school children dished out to migrants at the time, and Wang came to regard being Chinese as a curse.

In time he moved to Sydney and in the early seventies he came out as a gay man. It was here he became interested in photography. He eventually became known as a photographer of performers and celebrities. His slides were littered with images of the cultural and artistic literati of the times: Jim Sharman (director of Hair), Richard Neville (editor of Oz Magazine), Bob Geldof (Boomtown Rats), Ida Buttrose, Patrick White, Brett Whitely, etc.

He has been at the centre of the history of the gay movement in Australia. He was the first person to have naked images of gay men feature in a public exhibition; he was there at the first gay and lesbian Mardi Gras in Sydney in 1978;  he was very involved in the Same Sex marriage campaign in 2017. And sadly, he was at the heart of the AIDS epidemic of the 80s. His images of dying friends are perhaps the most confronting in this exhibition. Unashamedly graphic, they pull no punches in portraying the ravages AIDS wrought on its victims and their communities.

Another key aspect of Wang’s story was his return to China to try and understand his ethnic origins. As he said himself, he now needed to ‘come out’ as a Chinese man.

Milestone is essentially a collection of multiple lesser milestones in Yang’s life. Yang’s narration is supported by a vast number of slides, with frequent musical interludes of music composed by Elena Kats-Chernin. Though broken into two or three minute fragments it was interesting to contemplate the music as one whole piece. Despite the interruptions it did feel like that – there was a thematic consistency across the performance and a sameness of tonal quality that aided  reflection on the material just viewed. This was especially appreciated after some of the more confronting images.

On a much lighter note my favourite moment in the whole show was early on when we were viewing slides of the countryside around where Yang grew up with the music providing an aura of majesty. It was clear that though his ethnic origins were far removed from this land the Australian countryside of his youth meant a great deal to him.

In many ways William Yang typifies what might be considered the typical artist for the OzAsia festival. I personally would have enjoyed more analysis of how Australian and Chinese cultures worked together to create the man Willam Yang has become. He is in the ideal position to explore how Chinese and Australian cultural influences reconcile with each other. This performance however focuses more on his role in the gay community, his family, and his love of photography. And perhaps that’s what a photographer should do: let the pictures do the talking.

Music played by Ensemble Lumen.

This review also published on The Clothesline.

Classical Beatles ~ Candlelight Concert ~ Review

Capri Cinema
Thu 30 Oct, 2025 

Candlelight Concerts began in Madrid in 2019 with the aim of making classical music more accessible to younger audiences. They now feature in more than 100 cities across the globe. The bulk of their concerts focus on classical composers, but they have smartly branched out to capture new audiences who want to relive the pop/rock music of the 60s, 70s and 80s. Our hosts for this Beatles music event were The Collective String Quartet.

It’s not often you get to hear Beatles music played live by a group of musicians but when I do I’m always amazed at the enduring quality of the songs. For example, when you strip away the inane lyrics of songs like I Want to Hold Your Hand you find a gorgeous and quite complex melody.

The Collective String quartet (violins, viola and cello) did a great job of leading us through a selection of The Beatles’ greatest hits. They began with what has become yet another classic, Here Comes the Sun and let the cello lead the way. It was immediately obvious that adjusting to songs arranged with just bowed strings would be necessary as there would be no picked melodies or favourite guitar parts.

Although the songs were announced in advance it sometimes felt a little like that Spicks and Specks TV show segment where you had to guess the name of a well-known song while listening to a completely different arrangement. Help was one of those.

Some songs, like Michelle and Eleanor Rigby, seemed more suitable for string arrangements than others. I found the arrangements of some songs a little over complicated. Penny Lane lost some of its innocent joy in this reworking, and the beautifully wistful We Can Work It Out’s melody got a little lost.  Other songs flourished with the same treatment. Come Together was wonderful. The original is so ‘other’ that it almost demanded an alternative avant-garde approach. It was a shame not to hear those weird and wonderful references to ju-ju eyeballs and toe-jam footballs however!

While it was strange that there was not a weeping guitar in sight, the Collective’s arrangement of While My Guitar Gently Weeps was delightful. It sounded almost as if George Harrison had written it for four instruments it gelled so beautifully. Eleanor Rigby has already been done by so many other artists, including orchestras, that it held no surprises – but again a very effective four part arrangement was in evidence. Similarly with Yesterday – no surprises. It stayed very close to the original, and we were told it has been covered at least 3000 times!

I was surprised that Strawberry Fields was attempted. It’s one of The Beatles’ more complex songs – but it worked well with the main melody being pitched very high on violin. I loved their version of With a Little Help From My Friends. It sounded like a jaunty old-time singalong in an English country garden.

One of The Collective members occasionally read from a prepared script to tell us a little about the next few songs. It was good to get advance notice of the song list so you could identify the songs more quickly but his delivery was a little wooden. It might have been better to be more spontaneous with these introductions. It adds authenticity.

It’s normal for musicians to challenge themselves and come up with arrangements that are fresh and offer new interpretations of well-known material, but there’s always a risk that you might offend the ‘respect the melody’ school of thinking. Overall though the Collective String Quartet presented a really entertaining show that delivered some old favourites with few surprises, while pushing the boundaries with some other material. And that’s just as it should be.

This review also published on The Clothesline.

Badieh - Music from Central Asia

Rubab (Wikimedia Commons)

Nexus Art Venue
Wed 29 Oct, 2025

Badieh is a duo that play music from Central Asia – in particular the region of Khorasan. Khorasan reaches across several nations – Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, Turkmenistan, and Tajikistan – so their music is enriched by multiple cultural influences.

Iranian Mohammad Miraghazadeh plays the setar – a traditional thin long-necked stringed instrument from Persia. Ethnomusicologist Michel Gasco hails from Spain and plays the rubab:  an instrument with multiple strings, with several sympathetic strings like a sitar. It is considered to be the national instrument of Afghanistan.

These sympathetic strings are not played directly but resonate in tune with the plucked or picked strings causing something of a drone effect.

When the setar and rubab come together they deliver a very bright sound in both tone and rhythm. Most of Badieh’s material was instrumental and stems from the folk traditions of the border lands between Iran and Afghanistan. The few songs with vocals seemed especially ancient with plaintive, haunting melodies coming from distant worlds. At times they felt akin to chants.

Wonderful tabla from Pranav Ramji was the perfect complement providing some deeper bass notes against the strings, and adding catchy and complex rhythms. Ancient this music may be but there were plenty of foot – tapping songs. One or two almost rocked! I could quite easily imagine people dancing to these tunes when played in their homelands – if it were allowed.

Occasionally mournful and contemplative but this is mostly joyful, happy music with intricate melodies and stirring rhythms. A lovely concert that delivered old music to modern shores and where friendship, joy, and respect were very much evident in its execution.

This review also posted on The Clothesline.

Eric Bottomley

LISTEN

About a year ago an old friend passed away with a brain tumour – Eric Bottomley. Eric was well known in parts of the UK as an accomplished realist painter and folk singer. I had the pleasure of sharing a house with Eric in Dorset for several months in 1976. During that time I’d watch in awe as his canvases turned into lifelike trains or ships. But it was his singing and performing that had me more enthralled.

Eric was one of that breed of English folk performer who could make you laugh and cry in equal measure. A hauntingly beautiful folk ballad would be followed by a funny story that brought tears of laughter. Then back to the sentimental tears in response to another beautiful song. And so on. It was such a treat to watch him perform.

In the months I spent in Dorset I’d ask Eric to teach me some songs, and he’d patiently go through them with me, and write down all the words and chord charts. Watching Eric, and practicing these new songs I also learnt to finger pick.

On subsequent visits to the UK over the years I was never able to reconnect with him for various reasons. When I heard he’d died I felt surprisingly strong pangs of sadness. I thought it a bit strange to feel this much emotion for someone I had not seen for 49 years. Then I began to play some of the songs that Eric taught me and still knew how to play. I struggled to finish any of them as tears flowed. I tried another song, and then another, and then another. To my astonishment I realised I still knew 7 songs that Eric had taught me. That is a huge number of songs for one person to pass on to another musician.  Seven gorgeous songs.

As I played the songs Eric taught me down through the years I never really appreciated what a significant influence he was in my musical development; never appreciated just how much time he must have spent helping me learn those songs. Today again I began playing some of these songs and again found myself in tears. Eric was a wonderful singer: he had the ability to eke out every last nuance of beauty in a melody. There are songs that when you get them right they give you that thrill down the spine as you sing them and you know that people listening are feeling it too.

So, inadvertently Eric Bottomley has given me the endless gift of soul moving melodies. I think that’s why I felt so sad when I heard he’d gone. He’d given me a precious gift and I never got to thank him.

One of the songs he taught me was from Gerry Reffery: Patrick. Patrick as it happens is about a painter. So now Eric, whenever I sing this song you’ll be with me, trying to say thank you in song, and hopefully passing on the pleasure and beauty of the melody that do you and the song proud.

Thank you Eric. For the songs, your patience, the laughs, and the beauty of melody. Rest in peace. And I’m sorry about the porridge pots!

 

Photography: the Art of Composition

 

I have written elsewhere on my own approach to photography. I am flattered that someone has actually been inspired by my photographs and wants to know more about how I go about creating my images.

One aspect of photography that I feel confident talking about is composition.  I’m told I have a ‘good eye’ for composition and I think I have developed that aptitude further over time. Composition is the art of framing your images – what is in the image? is it close range? aligned with other elements? minimalist?  full of detail? There are many facets to composition and below is a list of the elements that I am mindful of – in no particular order.

1.      Perspective. Altering perspective can make a fairly mundane image into something much more interesting. Consider taking the photograph from different angles – up above, down under, over, beside; think about height and depth

2.      Context. Context in a very real sense is everything. A chair beside a table is not especially interesting. A fancy office chair beside a path in a public park is a much more interesting subject – it prompts so many questions. Why? Who? The chair in a park is in fact out of context – that’s what makes it interesting. A car in a café likewise - not something you normally see. Be on the look out for normal things in unusual places!

3.      Look everywhere. When you walk let your eyes roam up, down, left to right and back again. There are possible pictures everywhere. Walk with childlike vision – linger in places you wouldn’t normally; look at everything more closely. Look for patterns – on leaves, in the sky, on fences. There is magic in the mundane. Zero in on the normal.

4.      Don’t shy away from eyesores. There is beauty in chaos and mess. Mess is not always ugly. It can provide stunning unexpected abstract perspectives.

5.      Light.  Light is always changing – natural sunlight changes from morning to afternoon to dusk to night. The same scene can look quite different at different times of the day. Don’t just dismiss something or a place because “I have photographed that before.” Things look different under different lighting.

6.     Juxtaposition – look for unlikely companions. The minaret of a mosque looks great in the same frame as telegraph poles – likewise the telegraph poles! It makes both objects look more interesting.

7.     Boundaries and edges – keep an eye on the edges of things. Boundaries and edges always mean there’s a change of texture or mood. Eg shore/sand, grass/path, sky/horizon, fences/nature.  

8.      Light on water. This applies to all bodies of water – ponds, lakes, rivers, the sea. Light changes the colour of water and often bounces/reflects off it in interesting ways.

9.      Old and new. Similar to juxtaposition because there is inherent contrast between things that are old and things that are new.  Easy to spot in the architectural landscape. Similarly people – babies with the elderly for example.

10  Move your feet. I read once that the best photographers are those who use their feet! Don’t be afraid to change the angle just a couple of steps to the left, or a few steps further back. Or move to the side of the subject and take it in profile. Look for the best or most interesting angle.

11  People: unposed is nearly always better.

12  Architecture/Built Environment Many towns and cities display infinite variety in their buildings. Old/new; small/large; religious/ secular; residential/commercial. Isolate the details of what defines a building and take close-ups – gutters, gables, steps, windows, etc

13  Animals are always a great subject but are often hard to catch unless they’re asleep. It  requires a lot of patience.

14  Layers. You will be surprised how often the visual world presents itself in layers. Sand/sea/sky is an obvious one. Footpath/hedge/house might be another. Ground/trees/sky…..

I hope some might find this list useful. Please leave a comment or question below if you’d like me to elaborate more on any of these points.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Accidentally Like a Martyr ( a review from 2021)

 Henry Wagons Does Warren Zevon

Governor Hindmarsh Hotel, Wed 28 Apr, 2021

Many of Warren Zevon’s songs begin with an instantly recognisable and catchy hook. Such is the intro to Lawyers Guns And Money – power chords belted out with a pounding beat and a great melodic hook – and so the show began. Henry Wagons in handcuffs was a nice touch. It also provided a clue to his curious interpretation of the music and persona of Warren Zevon. The infamous Excitable Boy was next up (“He bit the usherette’s leg in the dark”) as Wagons hopped and strutted around the stage. Zevon himself typically exhibited little extravagant movement as a live performer – whether on keyboard or guitar – and it was a little disconcerting to watch these classics in new hands.

We learned that Zevon briefly studied classical music with Stravinsky and then heard a song that bore useabsolutely no clue of that tutoring – I Was In The House When The House Burned Down – but it offered evidence of his bizarre approach to lyric writing. He had a penchant for lyrics that were off centre and occasionally outrageous or shocking. The epic tale of a mercenary named Roland is a case in point. Wagons seemed to have settled into the Zevon stream by now and really nailed the vocal on Roland The Headless Thompson Gunner. He seemed more comfortable singing the lower registers in the slightly slower Zevon songs where the notes are longer and more sonorous and the melodies easier to land on. And despite these being rock songs melody was always paramount in Zevon’s material.

Two Hawaii based songs – the catchy Hula Hula Boys, and Desperadoes Under The Eaves – a song written during a period of extended isolation in a Hawaiian hotel – rounded out the first set and Wagons left the stage in handcuffs once more.

The second half began with Wagons appearing in bathrobe and towel saying he wasn’t ready but the band cajoled him into singing Johnny Strikes Up the Band anyway. I’ve always regarded this song as a brilliant example of how a band might start a gig. It was a shame that the power and appeal of this song was sacrificed to humour.

In general though, the insertion of humour made the show more enjoyable. Zevon after all was a quirky character and Wagons has every right to interpret the music and context in any way he sees fit but there were times when his lighthearted approach detracted from the gravitas of the material.

The band competently rolled out Poor Poor Pitiful Me and the aching Carmelita while Wagons finished his shower.

A quiz show involving members of the audience revealed little new info about Zevon and probably could have been omitted but some obviously enjoyed it. Using Accidentally Like A Martyr as a prop for some cheap audience engagement however just devalued the power of a truly great love song.

The show concluded with a song that Dylan recorded – The Mutineer – with Wagons on grand piano.

A really enjoyable night; Wagons and the band did a great job of reworking these classics. In terms of stage craft, it‘s so hard to get the balance right in these ‘tribute acts’. Henry Wagons is not Warren Zevon and he does a fair job of doing it his way even if a little disconcerting.

What definitely shone through however is how great these songs are; many rue the fact that so many tribute acts are hogging the play space in live music venues these days but this is another batch of material that deserves a second hearing, and the opportunity to be passed on to another generation. Warren Zevon was an extraordinary songwriter/singer who for whatever reason never got the musical headlines he warranted.

This review also published on The Clothesline.

Murray Whispers

Adelaide Ballet
ILA, Fri 15 Aug, 2025

Adelaide Ballet is a newly established dance company created to ‘fill a gap in the South Australian artistic landscape’. It has secured the Immersive Light and Art (ILA) venue as its home performance space on Hindmarsh Square. Murray Whispers is their first offering for season 2025, and it’s a stunner.

The interactive set cleverly recreates the feel of the Murray. Mist rises from the early morning river as we watch the natural world slowly waking up. Gradual stirrings in silhouette reveal creatures taking in the new day. Uncertain, careful, they gently expand into their day as the sun rises. They become the flowers, trees and animals of the riverbank. Sometimes they dance alone, sometimes joined together as one – a tree, an animal, a feeling. Guided by a gorgeous atmospheric musical score from Ashley Hribar it is at times breathtakingly beautiful. Yes mesmerising.

As the day grows longer projected scenes take us to another part of the Murray – cliffs, reeds, ancient tree trunks, rock pools – all carefully chosen to reflect the very essence of Australia’s greatest river. It was so easy to imagine yourself there sitting on the banks. The projected video images show trees and reeds swaying gently in the wind. Birds occasionally flit through the scene as dancers weave gracefully in and out of the landscape. And as the sun sets and dusk draws near we see birds returning to their homes in the trees, and our dancers slow down and once again become silhouettes in the fading light.

This reviewer lacks the credentials to assess the finer points of ballet technique but enjoyable as it was there were some minor imperfections: a few slight missteps when moving from one position to another, and an occasional lack of synchronicity with the soundtrack – but again very minor.

Tiered seating would improve the line of sight for those in the back rows – they would have missed much of the opening scene that took place at floor level. Nevertheless, a great debut offering from Adelaide Ballet that has whetted the appetite for what’s to come.

Choreography: Sarah Humeniuk and Rejane Garcia

This review also published on The Clothesline.

Adelaide's Algal Bloom

 

I have lived in Adelaide most of my life. Adelaide, like all Australian cities is on the coast - the sea is never far away. My first memory of the sea was travelling down Anzac Hwy as a kid in the family car. We used to have a competition to see who could see the sea first. ‘I can see the sea’.  ‘I can see the sea’ chants rang out from the back seat as the sea appeared as a thin sliver on the horizon.

 

The sea has always been synonymous with joy in my life: a place that meant fun, a celebration, coolness after a swim. My Adelaide beach has featured at every stage of my life: a place to make out with your teenage girlfriend,  to work on that suntan, do some exercise, lie in the shallows, collect sea creatures, watch the sunset, enjoy a leisurely stroll, and in later life simply a place to enjoy the natural beauty and a sense of peace.

 

Apart from early evenings on hot summer days Adelaide beaches are rarely crowded. They stretch from Port Noarlunga in the South to North Haven - some 30 to 40 kilometres. Fine, silky sand as good as you'll find anywhere in the world. Above all a place of respite and regeneration. You notice that people are rarely badly behaved at the beach. The sense of space and wind and the nature of the salt air seems to bring out the best in people. 

In January this year (2025) there were reports of people feeling sick after swimming in the waters of the southern Fleurieu. It was attributed to something called an algal bloom. This bloom slowly worked its way around to St Vincent's Gulf and by June had breached the entire Adelaide coastline. Dead marine life started appearing on our beaches: stingrays, sharks, seahorses, crabs, puffer fish... . the number of carcasses multiplied. Our beloved beaches had become places of death. Like an underwater bushfire the algal bloom wiped out most of the gulf's marine life. A place I had turned to all my life for peace and quiet became a constant horror show.

 

I can no longer walk along my beaches. I can walk near the sea as long as I can't see the dead creatures washed up on the sand. To walk along the sand now breaks my heart. Adelaide, the city between the hills and the sea, is now the city between the hills and a marine graveyard. People no longer go fishing or crabbing. My son can no longer go for his daily ‘sanity swim’. Thousands of Adelaideans now have to look elsewhere for that respite and regeneration.

 

Climate change has come home to roost on our doorstep with a vengeance. The warnings of environmental disaster have been clear and persistent for 50 years and we have done little to address the crisis.

 

For decades fruit growers and agriculturists have been using various chemicals and fertilisers to boost production in the fields and orchards alongside the Murray River.  In 2023 record floods along the Murray washed thousands of megalitres of river water into the sea at the Murray mouth. Occasionally in recent years our gulf waters have heated up sufficiently to prompt the onset of small algal blooms. A particularly long dry winter in 2024 didn't allow the gulf waters to cool and when that warmer water mixed with the tainted river water from the Murray the perfect conditions for the creation and spread of the algal bloom were present. So we now have this environmental disaster on our doorstep. The sea still sometimes looks gorgeous and blue and inviting from a distance but it is devoid of marine life. We have killed all our fish.

The Shock of the New

The Shock of the New takes a look back at pivotal moments in South Australian theatre from 1962 – 2014. Conceived and performed by graduating students from the Bachelor of Performance at Flinders University in conjunction with Director Chris Drummond, this was simply a great idea. What better way to present a broad sweep of our recent local theatre, enhance its credibility, and pay homage to the actors and directors involved.

In a pointer perhaps as to what was to follow, the standard welcome to country inserted an acknowledgement of indigenous storytellers.

The pivotal theatrical moments presented were taken from twelve different productions from various theatre groups – amateur and professional. This presents some challenges. Any such list is going to generate spirited discussion about why such and such a scene or play was included or why others were left out. And how could you possibly ignore the work of theatre group X or theatre group Y? (There were indeed some notable theatre groups that did not make the cut.)

As the show progressed it became clear that certain themes were chosen to guide the selection of content. There was a preponderance of scenes referencing sexuality, and distrust of authority and prevailing middle-class mores featured prominently. A Trumper might in fact characterize the whole show as ‘woke.’ But it begs the question, ‘what is the point of theatre?’ The cast and crew of The Shock of the New rightly see theatre as a crucial agent of change; a vehicle that should reflect minority perspectives, and question mainstream values.

Another inherent challenge here was the lack of opportunity for any in-depth character development.  Cast members occasionally had to launch themselves into parts laden with intense emotion out of the blue as it were, with no chance to become comfortable with the role and context over time as happens when a whole play is presented and an actor is able to inhabit the part before having to explode with emotion. That said, the cast did a remarkable job of conveying emotion and authenticity in the many and varied chosen scenes.

Visually this show was often quite stunning. Bold single colours projected on the back wall of the stage often contrasted with silhouetted characters to wonderful effect. Narrations of background events provided relevant context between each scene and reflected something of the world view of the collective cast as well as allowing scene changes to be virtually imperceptible. The flow from one scene to the next was impeccable.

Performances from the principal cast were uniformly even and convincing, but there were highlights that stood out. Isiah Macaspac’s portrayal of a female character in Troupe Theatre’s Cloud 9 was exceptional, and Ariel Dzino’s crazy bride and temptress from The Ecstatic Bible was deeply moving. As was indeed this entire scene of people in chains scared to death – epitomized eloquently in a powerful cameo from Alexander Karytinos.

In the penultimate scene a fish falls from the sky (from When the Rain Stops Falling), and as any Adelaide resident who’s aware of the environmental catastrophe unfolding in our coastal waters at the moment might be, I was stricken by grief. It was so bizarrely, profoundly, prophetic and unsettling.

Bravo to all involved with this ambitious and successful production. Fast-paced, never dull, moving, laced with variety – an excellent expose of the more significant social issues of the last 50 years through the lens of local theatre. And an optimistic indicator that there is a reservoir of young talent ready to steward local theatre through the challenges of the next 50!

This review also published on The Clothesline.

Five Days in Berlin

Green van in the shadows for quick pick-up

Hearty tasty soup offered warmly

Comfort in a matching bed

Coffee ready to go

For a warm morning welcome kitchen

Newspapers and easy chat

Own key for easy escape            

To verdant forests everywhere

Left-handed guitar sought and found

For entry to another world

Of a stranger’s special occasion

Dance and theatre in celebration

Soccer with the young and a solemn visitation

Dinner and airport drop-off

Green van recedes back to the forest.

Bernadette Robinson: Divas - Adelaide Cabaret Festival Review

Her Majesty’s Theatre
Fri 13 June, 2025

Diva: a celebrated, exceptional female singer. Diva is also the Latin word for goddess. It also comes with the connotation of being troublesome or difficult to deal with. Bernadette Robinson takes on the daunting task of singing the songs of ten of the more prominent divas of the last 100 years – from opera singer Maria Callas to contemporary pop star Miley Cyrus. She not only sings their songs, but she briefly inhabits the characters of each diva as she reveals key moments in their lives and their relationship to music. It’s an extraordinary achievement.

As Streisand she takes on her trademark Brooklyn accent and tells us how she taught her own mother to smoke at age 10, before launching into the classic The Way We Were. Her self-deprecating Amy Winehouse refers to herself as a dickhead in a working-class British accent before belting out the gut-wrenching Rehab. Her Piaf sounds perfectly German as she talks about men and love.

Robinson and director Simon Phillips have managed to isolate events in the lives of each diva that had significant emotional impact and bearing on their music. There is a clear pattern: each of these women struggled with aspects of life and music, and live performance and devotion from loving fans helped them cope. Even without the wonderful songs, Diva is a great piece of writing.

As Kate Bush, the first diva on the list, she ironically, provocatively, questions why a singer should sound like anybody else, and says that every singer should find their own voice! As Robinson effortlessly worked her way through the different genres of the ten divas I did find myself wondering what she might sound like singing herself. Opera, rock, musical, country – she can sing them all. I loved her Edith Piaf – in a trice it’s clear just how good Piaf was: a gorgeously plaintive and original voice laden with soul and emotion. Any doubts about why Dolly Parton is featured among this esteemed company go out the window with Robinson’s beautifully controlled vocal on I Will Always Love You. Not to mention the funny stories about being blond – again with an impeccable country twang!

Then came her portrayal of Maria Callas. Perhaps this is Robinson’s musical home. The passion, the tone, the control – heart-achingly beautiful.

Supported by a slick and unobtrusive band (keyboards, bass, drums) this was an evening of near musical perfection. In a show that covered so many musical styes it’s inevitable that there will be some songs that don’t appeal as much as others, but any shortcomings in that regard are offset by some of the best singing you will ever hear. Just superb.

This review also published in The Clothesline.

Adventures in Antique Music

St Theodore’s Anglican Church, Wed 19 Mar, 2025

A good-sized crowd gathered at St Theodore’s Anglican Church in Toorak Gardens for this Lyrebyrd Consort event. Clearly there is still wide interest in hearing music from Renaissance and Medieval times. A quick glance at the program tells me that despite the venue there is no liturgical music featured.

The show begins with a useful introduction to the unusual assortment of instruments we see in front of us, and the dedicated musicians who have learnt to play them. There are multiple kinds of wind instruments (recorders, crumhorns), strings (the vielle, oud) and the imposing looking and amusingly named sackbuts up the back. Musicians are decked out in costume appropriate for the period.

We are taken on a metaphorical journey across Europe by our narrator and entertained by music from the 13th to the 16th centuries. The program is arranged chronologically so you can get a sense of how Western music developed over time.

Many pieces are quite short and feature parts of the ensemble, while other extended pieces involved nine or more musicians. The earlier items on the program featuring fewer instruments were noticeably quiet (no amplification was used), but the ensemble pieces were quite loud enough and when the sackbuts joined in even a tad raucous.

Several pieces featured quite complex and long vocal parts from an accomplished soloist, and others featured delightful vocal harmonies from multiple singers. There were those jaunty recorder and percussion tunes that always have me imagining a happy crowd of musicians marching though town on the way to the fair. For later pieces from the 16th Century the ensemble was augmented with rich sounding viols and suddenly the music had a greater depth and warmth.

This was such an uplifting and instructive concert. Following the program chronologically was like following the progression of music over the years – the pieces became longer, more complex, suitable for larger ensembles, and more accessible to the modern listener. Early pieces have their appeal in what almost seem like naïve and innocent attempts to make musical sounds on whatever was available – and that was recorders and percussion. (Not to suggest they were easy to play – they weren’t!) But listening to this whole program you can spot the origins of modern forms of Western music – the brass band, opera, and orchestral. Kudos and huge thanks to the Lyrebyrd Consort for keeping this music alive for modern audiences. If the length of the ovation at the end of the show is any indication it is very much appreciated.

This review also published on The Clothesline.

Loren Kate and the Aurora Ensemble

 The Stables at the Queens Theatre, Sun 23 Mar, 2025

The Stables at Queens Theatre was packed for the final night of the Fringe featuring local singer Loren Kate with members of the Aurora Vocal Ensemble.

Loren delivered a solid show of mostly guitar based original numbers supported by Aurora, cello and keyboard. It’s a nice balance of sounds and ensures her folksy and occasionally country tinged melodies have maximum impact. Emotion is a key component of Loren’s music and the chosen arrangements ensure that it is given free reign.

Cello always adds warmth wherever it is added and the soothing, delicate sounds from the Aurora Ensemble create a lovely depth of feeling and timelessness. A song dedicated to keeping our rivers alive was quite lovely, and her own interpretation of Shane Howard’s Solid Rock also impressed. Another song featuring just Loren and back-up singers without guitar was another fine moment.

Despite the temperature rising to uncomfortable levels in the theatre the show got better and better as it went.

Loren Kate obviously trades on singing songs charged with emotion. I don’t particularly like hearing about cancer episodes or dying friends in song introductions – I’d rather the songs speak for themselves, but Loren Kate does have the ability to deliver poignant songs with great effect. Her songs are slow and relatively simple, but her voice and instrumental arrangements turn them into something special and create a shared experience that I imagine could become quite addictive.

This review also published on The Clothesline.