2014 Adelaide Cabaret Fringe Festival

Cabaret Companion by Linh

The Adelaide Cabaret Festival has a younger sister festival called the Cabaret Fringe, where anything goes anywhere! This independent arts festival is a creative brainchild of brothers Paul and Adam Boylon with Jay Robinson in 2008, and has expanded to become a companion cabaret alternative to the Adelaide Cabaret Festival.

The cabaret culture and music is celebrated in the same way with a diverse array of artists performing in Adelaide during June but there are points of difference. Firstly, most of the venues for Cabaret Fringe are smaller and informal, therefore enhancing the intimacy and participation experience for the performers and audiences. Secondly, the Cabaret Fringe is more risqué and more than cliché with their performances that push the boundaries of musical conventions, also using music and song to comment on social/political issues in a tongue-in-cheek manner.

The Adelaide Cabaret Fringe has more than thirty cabaret acts throughout June with local and national artists providing more than burlesque in bow ties and black hats. This year’s programme has some unexpected surprises that do not fit the usual mould of cabaret as it is the eclectic nature of cabaret that encourages variety and something different.

The local artists at Cabaret Fringe include Megan Doherty in Dirty Thirty, Zephyr Quartet, Jamie Jewell as Candy Chambers in 50 Forever and Hew Parham in Giovanni’s Buono Voyago Fiesta. Interstate artists include Joanne Sutton in Fill Her Up, Selina Jenkins as Beau Heartbreaker and Amy Bodossian in Salvation Amy.

There is something different to tempt everyone at the 2014 Adelaide Cabaret Fringe Festival and is certain to put a smile on your face and keep it there after the show ends.

2014 Adelaide Cabaret Fringe Festival details:

Where:

La Boheme, Adelaide Town Hall, Ayers House, Hartley Playhouse, Nexus Cabaret, The Star Theatres, The Blue Bee Room, The Popeye, The Promethean, The Soul Box, The Whitmore Hotel, The Marion Bowling Club and The Alliance Francaise

When:

1 - 29 June 2014.

Tickets:

Price varies for each performance.

There is no physical Box Office for the Adelaide Cabaret Fringe Festival to buy or collect tickets.

Book online for individual shows via the ‘Shows and Tickets’ tab http://www.cabaretfringefestival.com/shows-2/

Contact the Cabaret Fringe team if experiencing problems ordering tickets online

Email: info@cabaretfringefestival.com

Telephone: 08 82430001

Mobile Phone: 0406 980 962

Please Note: There may be problems when ordering tickets on mobile devices such as iPads or other tablets so the Cabaret Fringe team recommends using a laptop or desktop computer.

This is due to the possible incompatibility of some browsers with the online ticketing system for the Cabaret Fringe.

*All details are correct at the time of publishing.

2014 Adelaide Cabaret Festival

2014 Adelaide Cabaret Festival artistic director Kate Ceberano and some of her partners-in-crime. Image: Facebook.

Creative Criminals by Linh

The Adelaide Cabaret Festival is the largest cabaret festival in the southern hemisphere and has evolved to become bigger, bolder and more brilliant than before. It is also the most eclectic cabaret festival, especially with a vast array of performers this year which include familiar faces, new talent and international artists. In 2014, it will be the 14^th Adelaide Cabaret Festival and the third and final one with Kate Ceberano as Artistic Director. Kate has been a fabulous ambassador for the performing arts in Australia and overseas, so it has been a delight for Adelaideans and South Australia to have her in an integral role of bringing diverse cabaret culture and music to curious audiences. 

This year’s Cabaret Festival theme is ‘Not Your Usual Suspects’, which is a play on words and adds some mystery to the types of performances audiences may expect. According to an interview with Kate, the theme is inspired by Mark Nadler (an audience favourite from previous Adelaide Cabaret Festivals) who was heckled by an audience member and Mark replied, “Hey buddy, I’m a cabaret artist not a f***ing role model!”. It is about a mix of familiarity and the unknown, where artists who performed many times in Adelaide’s cabaret and other festivals, return with very different or more daring performances. The artists become the masters of musical disguises, so that it may take a mental shift to recognise a musical theatre artist as a country singer or a rock singer performing opera. Their talent to effortlessly move from one musical style/genre to another is so good that it’s a crime. There are the repeat offenders such as Ali McGregor, Paul Capsis, Catherine Alcorn and Libby O’Donovan. International partners-in-crime include Mark Nadler, Brian d’Arcy James, Darlene Love and Kathy Najimy. 

The Cabaret Festival is a shining example of Adelaide’s innovativeness and artistic vision as a festival city and contributes to showcasing South Australia as the Festival State. This helps to secure the talents of different artistic directors who offer their own style of fun and artistic touch to keep the Cabaret Festival vibrant and fresh. Adelaide farewells Kate Ceberano this year and welcomes Barry Humphries as Artistic Director for the 2015 Adelaide Cabaret Festival. Humphries is loved for his alter egos Dame Edna Everage and Sir Les Patterson and enjoyed for his satirical wit. His appointment is exciting for audiences and his choice of cabaret artists is highly anticipated.

2014 Adelaide Cabaret Festival details:

Where:

Festival Theatre, Dunstan Playhouse, Space Theatre, Banquet Room, Artspace Gallery, Piano Bar, Lyrics Room, Her Majesty’s Theatre

When:

6-21 June 2014.

Tickets:

Price varies for each performance.

Book in person from the Adelaide Festival Centre Box Office and all BASS outlets. BASS at the Adelaide Festival Centre is open Mon-Fri 9:00am-6:00pm.

Book by telephone through BASS on 131 246
International bookings +61 8 8205 2300
Monday to Saturday 9:00am-6:00pm (CST)

Book online for individual shows via the ‘listed events pages’ button on any event page at http://www.adelaidefestivalcentre.com.au/adelaide-cabaret-festival/whats-on/

Please Note: A payment processing fee of 2.5% of the transaction value applies to all credit card transactions.

*All details are correct at the time of publishing.

Source:

Ceberano, K. (2014). Not Your Usual Suspects. Adelaide Festival Centre website.

http://www.adelaidefestivalcentre.com.au/adelaide-cabaret-festival/news/listing/not-your-usual-suspects/ Accessed 5 June 2014.

The Magic Chicken; puppetry and physical comedy family theatre review

 Barnie Duncan and Trygve Wakenshaw star in the stage production The Magic Chicken. Image: Theatre Beating.

Comic Chefs by Linh

Award-winning New Zealand theatre company Theatre Beating has re-worked, re-designed and revived their original stage production The Magic Chicken for their Australian tour. The Magic Chicken was created in 2004 and toured New Zealand for a few years, receiving rave reviews. In 2014 during the school holidays, The Magic Chicken is in Australia to delight, surprise and entertain audiences from ages seven to a hundred and seven.

Barnie Duncan with Ethel the magic chicken (Oliver Smart) and her golden egg in the stage production The Magic Chicken. Image: Theatre Beating.

The Magic Chicken combines diverse styles of comedy from theatre and silent cinema; including slapstick, pantomime, puppetry and magic, with musical accompaniment by John Bell and Jeff Henderson which accentuates and compliments the actors’ gestures and emotions. This family theatre production has only a few words spoken during the entire play and is reminiscent of the physical comedy and humour of silent films featuring Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton.

Barnie Duncan and Trygve Wakenshaw as the two chefs Toot and Collins with Ethel the chicken (Oliver Smart) in the stage production The Magic Chicken. Image: Theatre Beating.

In the play, two hapless and bungling chefs named Toot (Trygve Wakenshaw) and Collins (Barnie Duncan) are failing to attract customers, until a magic chicken who lays golden eggs, enters their cafe. Her name is Ethel (puppeteer Oliver Smart) and she is escaping the Evil Eric (Kai Smythe) who follows her into the café. Evil Eric fails to find Ethel and he leaves, but Ethel makes her way into the kitchen while Toot and Collins are busy preparing meals. The pair decide to adopt Ethel after growing fond of her, but a short time later, Evil Eric returns to have a meal. Hilarity ensues when the chefs attempt to save Ethel from Evil Eric as they fumble around in the kitchen, juggling pots and pans, tossing pizza dough and flour, sliding on and leaping under tables or diving in and out the oven.

Puppeteer extraordinaire Oliver Smart gives Ethel a hand backstage for the stage production The Magic Chicken. Image: Instagram.

Under the direction of Geoff Pinfield, this fifty-minute stage production is packed with visual gags, slow-motion action scenes, Drew McMillan’s magnificent score is wonderfully performed by John Bell and Jeff Henderson and the cast also give excellent performances. Trygve (pronounced Trig-vee) Wakenshaw and Barnie Duncan deftly handle all the physical comedy and their characters’ calamitous situations with aplomb; Kai Smythe is superb as the gruff and Neanderthal-like chicken-catcher Evil Eric; Ethel the chicken is endearing and plucky courtesy of the skilled hands and imagination of puppeteer Oliver Smart.

 

Kai Smythe backstage as Evil Eric for Adelaide's stage production The Magic Chicken. Image: Facebook.

The Magic Chicken is a gastro-nomic rib-tickling and laughter-inducing treat for everyone who enjoys comedy served up with brilliant comic timing and a dash of audience participation.

*Tour Details:

Where:

Adelaide season at the Dunstan Playhouse

When:

Tuesday 22 to Sunday 27 April 2014.

Two performances each day at 10am and 1pm.

Tickets:

Adults $25, Concession $22, Children $20.

Where:

Sydney season at the Sydney Opera House

When:

Wednesday 9 July to Sunday 13 July 2014.

Two performances each day at 11am and 1:30pm.

Tickets: 

Standard $30, Insiders (Sydney Opera House membership) $24.

*All tour dates and ticket prices are correct at the time of publishing.

Patricia Piccinini's Skywhale in Adelaide's Botanic Gardens; family event

Skywhale peeking through the trees in the Adelaide Botanic Gardens.

©Patricia Piccinini

Image: Linh Chameleon.

Air-filled Art by Linh

From 8:30am in the morning at the Adelaide Botanic Gardens, Adelaideans and other visitors arrived to witness the inflation of artist Patricia Piccinini’s hot air balloon creation named Skywhale. It was a free event and included an artist talk session with Q and A for the audience. It was only a three-hour one-off event to celebrate the opening of the 2014 Adelaide Biennial as part of the 2014 Adelaide Festival. Piccinini created the Skywhale for Canberra’s Centenary celebrations in 2013 at the request of Festival Director Robyn Archer, so it was exciting to have Skywhale make a special, albeit brief, appearance in Adelaide.

Skywhale nearly fully inflated in the Adelaide Botanic Gardens.

©Patricia Piccinini

Image: Linh Chameleon.

A gentle breeze rocks Skywhale side to side in the Adelaide Botanic Gardens.

©Patricia Piccinini

Image: Linh Chameleon.

Skywhale's five large breasts on her left hand side strangely dangle like male genitalia as she stays airborne in the Adelaide Botanic Gardens. ©Patricia Piccinini
Image: Linh Chameleon.

Around 10 o’clock, the crowd of onlookers grew as Skywhale began to swell and puff into her full glory; and many cameras and smartphones were used to capture her ballooning beauty to share with friends and family on social media. Although Skywhale remained tethered to the lawn, she still hovered over the trees and surrounding buildings, as the day’s gentle breeze rocked her from side to side.

Patricia Piccinini was present at the event and gave a twenty-minute artist talk session about her art practice, her interests in biotechnology, evolution and the ideas of beauty relating to art. The most interesting aspect of her talk session was about maternity and nurturing as a shared element and experience for humans and animals, so she incorporated these aspects into most of her artwork. I also find it interesting that many of her work feature children or child-like creatures looking like human-animal hybrids. Skywhale seems to incorporate most of Piccinini’s ideas and imagination into how human intervention with nature, through the use of technology that is driven by consumerism, can affect the natural environment and the creatures that inhabit it.

Skywhale's five large breasts on her right hand side seem to look like five human fingers as she hovers in the Adelaide Botanic Gardens.

©Patricia Piccinini

Image: Linh Chameleon.

Skywhale's smile on her face looks strangely human as she hovers in the Adelaide Botanic Gardens.

©Patricia Piccinini

Image: Linh Chameleon.

Skywhale's ten-clawed tail looks like animal paws as she gradually becomes fully inflated in the Adelaide Botanic Gardens.

©Patricia Piccinini

Image: Linh Chameleon.

I see Skywhale as a hybrid of a whale and a cow, which can live in the water and on the land. Despite her name, I doubt such a creature can fly, especially with ten large breasts, five on each side of her body, and a clawed tail. The whale idea comes from Skywhale’s body shape and face, and the large breasts remind me of a cow whose breasts swell up large with milk and need to be emptied daily. Piccinini said she was fascinated with whales and their evolutionary path from a land animal to a sea creature, and cited scientific discoveries that whales such as the beluga, have flippers with five-digit bone structures that are very similar to human hands. Piccinini said the claws on Skywhale’s tail represent her re-imagining of an evolutionary throwback where the whale does a U-turn and leaves the sea to live on land. Perhaps due to the sea becoming so toxic and unliveable for marine animals as a result of big corporations dumping toxic sludge and other waste into the ocean?

Skywhale's creator and artist Patricia Piccinini speaking at an artist talk session about her art practice and Skywhale in the Adelaide Botanic Gardens. Image: Linh Chameleon.

Skywhale's creator and artist Patricia Piccinini speaking at an artist talk session about her ideas and themes for creating Skywhale in the Adelaide Botanic Gardens. Image: Linh Chameleon.

Skywhale's creator and artist Patricia Piccinini speaking at an artist talk session, responding to questions from the audience about Skywhale in the Adelaide Botanic Gardens. Image: Linh Chameleon.

I really like Piccinini’s artwork, even though some of it looks horrific or ugly. I like to think that some of the ugliest creatures have beautiful minds and souls that are kind, caring and more humane than most humans. I particularly like how Piccinini explores many themes, as part of her art practice, that are significant in society and issues that resonate with people after viewing her artwork.

Patricia Piccinini's Skywhale in Adelaide - One day only

Skywhale, 2013, hot air balloon, commissioned for The Centenary of Canberra, © Patricia Piccinini. Courtesy of the artist and the Australian Capital Territory Government. Photograph: Ian Mckenzie.

Skywhale Spectacle by Linh

Artist Patricia Piccinini has created a gigantic hot air balloon titled Skywhale to celebrate Canberra’s Centenary in 2013. For one day only, Adelaideans can marvel at Piccinini’s Skywhale, which will be hovering over Adelaide’s Botanic Gardens for the opening of the 2014 Adelaide Biennial.  It is a free event for everyone and includes an artist public talk session featuring Patricia Piccinini and a free  sketching workshop where all the materials are supplied free of charge.

Skywhale, 2013, hot air balloon, commissioned for The Centenary of Canberra, © Patricia Piccinini. Courtesy of the artist and the Australian Capital Territory Government. Photograph: Ian Mckenzie.

EVENT DETAILS:

WHAT: Patricia Piccinini’s Hot Air Balloon Skywhale

WHERE: Adelaide Botanic Gardens, Santos Museum of Economic Botany Lawn

WHEN: 9am – 12pm on Saturday 1 March 2014

PRICE:  Free

Other activities at the event:

9am: Free sketching workshop with free materials supplied

11am: Patricia Piccinini artist talk session

This link is an interview with Patricia Piccinini about her art practice and Skywhale:

http://theskywhale.com/QandA.html