Music, literature and arts journal
Welcome to a blog of warped arts reviews, potpourri poetry, quirky and weird thoughts from the gentle mind of a versatile Gemini.
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Paul McDermott presents his art exhibition The Dark Garden in The Tuxedo Cat at the 2013 Adelaide Fringe Festival. Image: Rip It Up.
Bizarre Bewilderment by Linh
Before you even enter Paul McDermott’s new art exhibition called The Dark Garden, you are tempted and lured with words on the steps leading into his cavern of creativity. The words are welcoming and witty, cleverly arranged in rhyming couplets and lead the guests from the bright light of day into the dimly lit interior of The Tuxedo Cat. It may take a few seconds for the eyes to adjust but the ears are immediately sensing the atmospheric and soothing sounds courtesy of musician Stu Hunter. Hunter’s soundscape provides the ideal aural accompaniment to McDermott’s visual wonder that consists of paintings, drawings, prints and banners in The Dark Garden.
A Hippy Monster in the Emile Kirst story by Paul McDermott for his art exhibition The Dark Garden in The Tuxedo Cat at the 2013 Adelaide Fringe Festival. Image: Paul McDermott.
The Dark Garden begins with an interactive story about the first day at a new school for a young boy named Emile Kirst. He notices something different about the other students and how he is different from them. Emile soon realises he is at a Monster School and at first feels frightened of the other students who all look scary, strange and spooky. However, he soon becomes friends with them. The story is told visually through paintings and drawings along the walls and on the ground. The guests must read the story, which is written in stanzas of rhyming couplets, according to the numbered “pages” found in and around The Dark Garden. Some of the monsters are reminiscent of the ones from Maurice Sendak’s book Where The Wild Things Are and that made the paintings and the story more enjoyable for me.
The little polar bear with its mother in The Ghost Bear story by Paul McDermott for his art exhibition The Dark Garden in The Tuxedo Cat at the 2013 Adelaide Fringe Festival. Image: Paul McDermott.
After reading about Emile Kirst, guests can wander into the next part of The Dark Garden, about a young polar bear’s journey of self-discovery and finding his place in the big wide world. The artwork titled The Ghost Bear was inspired by the increased rate of polar ice caps melting in the Arctic and Knut the polar bear, born in captivity at the Berlin Zoological Garden. As a baby, Knut was rejected by his mother so the zookeepers raised him, and he soon became a media sensation. The Ghost Bear is a visual story with no words and all the images are printed onto large black, vertical panels that weave around in an S-shaped path. The images look ghostly and beautiful, especially on the smooth and silky surface of the black panels lit up by bright overhead lights.
The suicidal girl (Pia Miranda) in the short film The Girl Who Swallowed Bees written and directed by Paul McDermott for his art exhibition The Dark Garden in The Tuxedo Cat at the 2013 Adelaide Fringe Festival. Image: Paul McDermott.
The final destination in The Dark Garden is the screening room where guests can sit and watch McDermott’s two short films that he wrote and directed. The theatre is small and intimate with the two short films The Scree and The Girl Who Swallowed Bees screening continuously, one after the other. The Scree, narrated by the late Ruth Cracknell, tells of how five friends set out together on a boating trip and they land on a mysterious island with fierce and savage flora and fauna. The terrifying beast called the Scree soon attacks them, and only one is brave and fast enough to escape. The second film, narrated by Hugo Weaving, is about a suicidal girl who has only felt pain and misery in her life so she imagines various ways to die. She decides to swallow bees so they can sting her to death from the inside. However, things do not go as planned. Both these films reflect the nature of life and death and the ways humans interact with nature. These themes are present in all of the artwork found in The Dark Garden and can be simultaneously sublime, ugly, fearsome and beautiful.
The Dark Garden art exhibition season has ended at the Adelaide Fringe Festival.
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Promotional poster for Judith Lucy’s and Denise Scott’s latest comedy show The Spiral. Image: Token Artists
Literary Laughs by Linh
Comedians Judith Lucy and Denise Scott have joined comic forces to not only share their own stories about themselves, but they share the stage in faux-nude dancing, singing and readings from their journals. Don’t assume *Judith Lucy and Denise Scott in The Spiral is a regular stand-up comedy routine show. Lucy and Scott unashamedly call it their literary event to sell their books about life’s spirals. Hence, the name of their show is all about life’s downwards spiral into shame, humiliation and self-loathing, yet all those disastrous experiences sound very funny in hindsight.
Lucy’s book called Drink, Smoke, Pass Out is where she bares her soul by embarking on a spiritual journey to seek happiness and meaning in life. Her stories of addiction to drugs and alcohol, and rejecting her Catholic upbringing carries all the trademarks of her savage and satiric humour, which all form part of her life’s spiral. Lucy refers to some of these aspects in this show with warts-and-all, droll honesty. Scott’s book, The Tour: A Memoir, is also about spiritual enlightenment, and is hilariously insightful as she discovers motherhood, intimacy, ageing and the joys of touring in a bus with young male comedians. Scott refers to some parts of her book in this show and delivers her comedy with pathos and self-deprecating humour.
Denise Scott and Judith Lucy in their interview with Jason Steger about their books for the latest comedy show The Spiral. Image: Token Artists
Lucy and Scott have done their homework by making references to Adelaide’s posh side of town, and amused themselves by asking about the ages of their audience, which ranged from 19 to over 60. Age shall not weary these two funny females nor will their comedy get old.
Highlights include a fully frank and outrageous conversation with literary critic Jason Steger on video; slow-stripping to ‘The Flower Duet’ from Delibes’ opera Lakmé; readings from their books in the faux-nude and audience interactions.
Lucy and Scott are two of Australia’s funniest and much-loved comedians whose humour appeals to all ages and both sexes. Their ability to easily make people laugh, more than proves their comedy credentials so Lucy and Scott can continue bringing the laughs for years to come if they wish.
*All of the remaining shows for Judith Lucy and Denise Scott in The Spiral have SOLD OUT for the Adelaide Fringe Festival.
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Promotional poster for Kitty Flanagan's latest comedy show Hello Kitty Flanagan. Image: A-list Entertainment
Charismatic Kitty by Linh
Following her successful standup comedy show Charming and Alarming last year, Kitty Flanagan and her sister, Penny, return to the Adelaide Fringe Festival with her new comedy show called Hello Kitty Flanagan. This show is much funnier, topical, has fully-clothed burlesque dancing and Kitty duet-singing with Penny (who only appears in the final ten minutes). It also has nothing to do with the popular female white Japanese bobtail cat with the bow in its hair. However, Kitty does mention her own cat named Sarge and her dog named Henry.
Kitty shares some of the funniest and embarrassing moments about herself and her interactions with others. Some of the hilarious highlights include her bald and flaky-scalped ex-boyfriend’s unpleasant toilet habit, her generosity of apple-giving to a “mungry” homeless person, and her interview with a journalist on being a role model. These are only some of the humourous moments that have made Kitty realise her authenticity is being challenged, particularly her status as a single woman living alone with furry-children.
Kitty summed herself up as a “pain in the arse with too many rules”, which is why she reckons she’s still single. Kitty shares her thoughts and observations in an analytical and intellectual manner but it is all for laughs. She reckons having pets are better than having children, women in toilets should not be talking, and how lyrics in rap songs may be anti-women. Kitty has two songs that may not be rap or have prejudice lyrics, but they are very funny and Penny sings along while playing guitar. The songs, ‘Teach The World To Shut Up’ and ‘I Wish I Had Religion’, are the finale of a fantastic stand-up, dance-around, comedy show, and generally summarises Kitty’s clever and comical perspective on people, pets and human nature.
Kitty confidently espouses her wisdom on practically any subject and no topic is too hot for her to poke fun at or laugh about. She has made audiences guffaw with delight and attracted a fan base from her appearances on television shows The Project and Good News Week. However, she is at her best and most animated when performing live on stage. Kitty is the thinking person’s comedian who also likes to laugh at the absurdities in life, and she happily shares these thoughts if you like rapid-fire wit delivered with side-splitting humour.
Kitty Flanagan and Penny Flanagan sing in their latest comedy show Hello Kitty Flanagan. Image: Edible Garbage TV
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Who: Kitty Flanagan and Penny Flanagan
What: Hello Kitty Flanagan – stand-up comedy, some dancing and singing
Where: The Royalty Theatre
When:
7, 8, 9 March at 7pm
10 March at 6pm
Price: $37 on 7 March; $42 on 8, 9, 10 March
Running Time: 1 hour
Left to right: Alex Wignall, Chris Neale, Max García-Underwood, Milush Piochaud and Michelle Pearson. Image: Ali & Rocky Feo of Photografeo.
Dynamic Debut by Linh
Adelaide singer/songwriter Michelle Pearson has been entertaining audiences for the last fifteen years, but has always been a support act or team player in stage musicals, revues, concerts and cabaret performances. In 2013 at the Adelaide Fringe Festival, Pearson made her debut as a solo singer and she was fantastic. Backed up by an orchestra and a rock band, plus a trio of backing vocalists, Pearson rocked the Governor Hindmarsh Hotel with her powerful vocals.
The venue was packed to capacity with some audience members having to stand throughout the show. Pearson was apologetic for the inconvenience in the lack of seating but showed her appreciation that so many people turned up to support her debut show. The show was divided into two parts, the first being classic rock, jazz and soul ballads and the second was musicals, cabaret and contemporary songs. Pearson shared some hilarious moments in her life that included how music shaped her personal tastes and how some songs have helped her overcome personal crises. Pearson never disappoints when it comes to belting out her favourite Cold Chisel songs like her rendition of the song ‘Flame Trees’ or grooving with her backup singers in a soulful rendition of Dusty Springfield’s ‘Son Of A Preacher Man’.
In the second part of the show, Pearson enthralled the audience with her musical theatre talents for the song ‘On My Own’ from the musical Les Miserables. She will also be performing in the upcoming musical The Little Shop Of Horrors in April 2013 at the Shedley Theatre with her backup singers, so she sang a rollicking number from the musical with them. Musical theatre songs continued as Pearson beautifully sang a gentle and stirring duet with Mark Oates called ‘With You’ from Ghost: The Musical that was adapted from the film.
Pearson has shown she has the confidence and talent to be a solo singer and performer in her own right, and she has more shows during the Adelaide Fringe Festival for those who enjoyed her performance and wishes to see her in a variety of shows. Check out the 2013 Adelaide Fringe Programme Guide or visit the website for more details.
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Promotional poster for the 2013 Adelaide Fringe Festival. Image: www.adelaidefringe.com.au
With two more weeks to go for the 2013 Adelaide Fringe Festival, there are still plenty of performances from all around the world to enjoy. I like to be surprised by the unexpected, so the unusual and bizarre acts at the Adelaide Fringe Festival are a fun alternative. Although I love comedy and theatre the most, I am also inclined to attend some music shows, burlesque performances or visual art exhibitions. There is so much to choose from that it may be a bit overwhelming. However, sometimes attending a show without any prior knowledge about it or without reading any reviews on it, may turn out to be one of your Fringe highlights.
Besides being extended for another week, this year's Adelaide Fringe Festival has embraced the "pop up venue" concept, which are makeshift temporary performance spaces made available especially for Fringe acts and artists. This is a wonderful idea that not only allows more artists to perform their show, but also helps attract more visitors to Adelaide, hence brings in more money to boost the state economy.
Hope everyone has fun this year at the Adelaide Fringe Festival and return again next time, which may be even bigger and better than the last.
Cheers!
