Festivals

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This collection include previews and reviews of Festivals such as The Adelaide Festival, The Fringe Festival, The Adelaide Cabaret Festival, Womadelaide and The Big Day Out.

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Affirmation For Tradition. Womadelaide 2004 [review]
(The Adelaide Review, 2004-04) Bramwell, Murray Ross
This year was going to be a testing one for Womadelaide. It was the beginning of annual stagings of the event and the first time, since inception in 1992, that it had been re-incorporated into the Adelaide Festival. Some of us predicted that this might be a bumpy change and we were quite wrong. Attendance figures show that Womad this year has been the best ever with figures of 70,077, up by several thousand on 2003 and around six thousand from 2001.
Big World. Womadelaide 2001 [review]
(The Adelaide Review, 2001-03) Bramwell, Murray Ross
Womadelaide Mark Six has come and gone and its remarkable continuity is again assured. The key to its success is clear. It is well-funded, well managed and has a modus operandi that not only works but is shared by the up-to-25,000 crowd that fills Botanic Park at its peak attendance. Few outdoor festivals enjoy the support that Womad has - from Government departments, quangos, NGOs, arts organisations, Botanic gardeners, St John, the police, caterers and stall holders, all the many contributors to its organisation.
Cabaret Funnies - Fond and Furious. "iBob" by Bob Downe, "We Don't Have Husbands" by the Kransky Sisters, and "The Big Con" by Max Gilles and Eddie Perfect. Adelaide Cabaret Festival [review]
(The Adelaide Review, 2005-07-08) Bramwell, Murray Ross
The Adelaide Cabaret Festival, in part, arose from the need to separate from the avalanche of stand-up comedy that dominates the Fringe. However, there has been no shortage of funny business in the Festival Centre recently in a program that has included the CNNNN jokers, Sandman and Flacco, Wil Anderson - and Bob Downe. Even after twenty one years, it seems, you can’t keep an irrepressible man down. Bob Downe, the acrylic and polyester alter ego of Mark Trevorrow, has - you might say - come of age. But he hasn’t quite arrived either because he belongs in a long and hilarious line of repressed entertainers, those, like Norman Gunston, whose vaulting ambitious outweigh their talents, and whose geek-detectors are permanently switched off.
Cabaret in May. "Adelaide Cabaret Festival". [review]
(Adelaide Review, 2001-06) Bramwell, Murray Ross
The recent "Adelaide Cabaret Festival" has been a curious event. The result has been a mixed menu of middle of the road favourites, jazzy morning melodies, an outing for the ASO, a few choice items from here and there and a fair amount of the sort of popular comedy which we saw at the last "Adelaide Fringe". Some shows went wild - the "Sing-Along-Sound-of-Music" for starters- and, with modest box office targets and a built-in subsidy , performers such as Ross Skiffington, James Morrison, Julie Anthony and Judi Connelli were going to do well also.
Cinematic Focus Richly Rewarded. Adelaide Film Festival - Shedding Light and Casting Shadows [review]
(The Australian, 2002-03-08) Bramwell, Murray Ross
The Adelaide Festival films have always been one of Peter Sellars’ pet ideas, and they have turned out to be among his best. With various funding, including $1.5m from the Festival, Shedding Light Director and SBS Independent executive, Bridget Ikin produced four features which premiered this week. Three of the four have Indigenous perspectives focusing on Truth and Reconciliation.
Comedy Preview. "Adelaide Fringe Festival". [preview]
(Adelaide Review', 2004-02) Bramwell, Murray Ross
Before television re-discovered Australian humour and FM breakfast executives began strip-mining the stand-up industry, comedy at the Adelaide Fringe was all one big lucky dip where Funny Stories, LosTrios Ringbarkus, the Doug Anthony Allstars, Flacco, the Jet Black Cowboy and the Castanet Club could all be found. Now we know our comics through Rove and ABC vehicles like The Glass House so many comedians already have a profile and a pedigree. Some legends are listed here. With "Gud", Paul McDermott presents his patented line in vehement wit, mixed with music from his own fine pipes and the talents of Cameron Bruce and Mick Moriarty. Dave Hughes comes out of the glass house and back to his true calling in the colosseum of stand-up and Rod Quantock, the most reasonable, funny and politically corrosive commentator in the country will provide therapeutic counsel back at the Nova. Also, Lano and Woodley, are back with the "The Island" a new show undoubtedly garnished with all the pratfalls, regressed physicality and social incompetence which has made them hilarious and irresistible in the past.
Festival Fractured By Chaos. Adelaide Festival 2002 [review]
(The Australian, 2002-03-15) Bramwell, Murray Ross
The 2002 Adelaide Festival has been full of earnest innovations, sparkling surprises and reflective moments. It has also, for audiences at least, been an organisational shambles.
The Festival That Was. "Adelaide Festival". [review]
(Adelaide Review, 2002-04) Bramwell, Murray Ross
It has been said that the 2002 "Adelaide Festival" has been misunderstood, that it was too innovative and far-sighted to be fully comprehended. That its impact will not be realised for years, say some. For a decade, says the former Director. It has been reported that many valuable cultural interchanges took place - in the "Intertwine" project and during other cultural residencies. Among the scheduled performances, "Black Swan’s" "The Career Highlights of Mamu" presented a complex and sometimes rickety mix of oral history, theatre and traditional dance. In "Skin" "Bangarra Dance Company" contrasted an aestheticised tableau of traditional women’s culture with the contemporary trauma of deaths in custody, alcohol addiction and alienation among Aboriginal men. In "Bone Flute", "MAU Dance" directed by Lemi Ponifasio, brought together, ponderously and unsuccessfully, elements of Japanese butoh with Polynesian rituals and traditions. It was obvious that attendances everywhere were thin. The excellent "Shedding Light" program of commissioned films had nearly full houses for "The Tracker" and the controversial "Australian Rules" - although there were only three screenings in each case - but the premiere for Ivan Sen’s superbly understated "Beneath Clouds" was scandalously under-attended, as was the first night of Tony Ayres’ "Walking on Water". Similarly the expanse of empty seats at the latter performances of "El Nino" was an eerie sight. The additional program added by Sue Nattrass at the behest of the Festival board seems never to have grafted on to the original framework of Peter Sellars’ plan. The Barbara Cook ticket prices were steep and the other solo shows - BJ Ward, Patrick Dickson’s Via Dolorosa, Max Gillies and the dance works by Ros Warby and Helen Herbertson, while individually creditable, seemed forlorn and disconnected.
Festival Update. 2002 "Adelaide Festival". [preview]
(Adelaide Review, 2002-02) Bramwell, Murray Ross
No sooner has Artistic Director, Sue Nattrass got things moving and she is handballing the presentation to Karl Telfer, one of five Associate Directors present - of the ten listed in the Program’s staff list. It is his task, with his sister Waiata, to take us through the Kaurna Palti Meyunna, the Opening Ceremony featuring Indigenous people from around Australia and South Australia, as well as representatives from Aotearoa New Zealand, the Zulu Nation of South Africa, Gyuto Monks from Tibet and the Zuni people from New Mexico. It sounds like it will be a majestic event, proceeding from the four outlying squares into Tandanyungga (Victoria Square) for a Spirit Fire ceremony and a dreaming named for an esteemed Kaurna ancestor, Tjilbruke. Other events collectively entitled "Home/Lands" follow over eight more nights, each with a theme such as "Holding Your Ground", "Carrying Country", "Inheritance", "Cross Connections" and "Resilience". "Reminiscence", it turns out, is a free outdoor screening of "Storm Boy", "Heaven is Here" is the ASO under the stars with the "Adelaide Chamber Singers" and the "Philharmonia Chorus" performing, under the baton of Richard Mills, a new work, "Star Chant" by Ross Edwards. "Take Me Home" is a closing concert of country music which is scarily short on line-up details - so far listed are "Seaman Dan" from the Torres Strait, the "Drowners" from Mt Barker and Todd Williams from outback NSW. Country fans may need more blandishments than this.
Festival's Defining Moment. [review]
(The Adelaide Review, 2004-04) Bramwell, Murray Ross
Let’s start with "Gulpilil". A project initiated by Festival director Stephen Page and Belvoir Company B director Neil Armfield, this theatre monologue featuring one of Australia’s most distinguished screen actors was the subject of much speculation. There was talk that the rehearsals weren’t going well, that they were taking place in a cave in the Blue Mountains, that David Gulpilil was finding it all too much and had gone back to his home in Ramingining in Arnhem Land. Even Page conceded, with his trademark candour, that he was worried that this Festival commission might not happen.
Fringe Benefits. "Adelaide Fringe Festival" Fringe Theatre. [review]
(Adelaide Review, 2004-04) Bramwell, Murray Ross
Those long lines down Angas Street, out of the Nova on Rundle Street and the big mobs around the Scott Theatre were all for comedy acts. Some were worth the wait - the eccentric Daniel Kitson, Lano and Woodley’s hypermanic slapstick on "The Island" and the slowburn Dave Hughes. Others such as Brit Com-edy and the usually staunch Rod Quantock were not. The first week is clearly the time to strike and the excellent "Horse Country" and "Cincinnati" were in and out before the Festival and Womad could start distracting the punters. Also in early was one of my favourites, UK act Peepolykus’s show, "Mindbender". With Sidekick Bernard and not-very-subtle audience plant, Raymond, Michael Santos (aka David Sant) is the Mindbender, reaching into the audience to tell us - Raymond’s radio mike permitting - our names, addresses and our deepest thoughts. It was hilariously cheesy with mime gags, palm readings, lounge music, big jewellery and no-one will forget Bonko, the gypsy bear. At the FringeHUB venue in the Adelaide Uni Union we saw a number of excellent shows over three weeks. Theatre Simple from Seattle served us well, particularly with "Notes From Underground" as did Fresh Track with "Morph" and "Songs For the Deaf".
Fringe Events. "Adelaide Fringe Festival". [review]
(Adelaide Review, 2002-03) Bramwell, Murray Ross
The Fringe is in full swing for 2002. Even before the Friday night Opening Parade, which attracts a crowd upwards of fifty thousand, plenty of venues are well under way. At The Garden of Unearthly Delights in Rundle Park East, the Amazing Lunar Tent has already opened for circus biz while the Spiegeltent, which made its first appearance in Australia in Adelaide several Fringes ago, has again opened its elegant Edwardian doors for a full tilt menu which continues until the last knock on March 17. Under Katrina Sedgwick’s direction, this year’s Fringe has a more than usual zest to it.
Fringe Favourites. "Adelaide Fringe Festival" Fringe Theatre. [preview]
(Adelaide Review', 2004-02) Bramwell, Murray Ross
There are the classics - beginning with David Malikoff’s performance of the Anglo-Saxon monster epic "Beowulf and Midsummer Night’s Dream Reloaded" from Scrambled Prince at the Mercury Cinema. Local company, Rough Magic is staging Ibsen’s "Ghosts at the Holden Street Theatres", directed by Alice Teasdale and featuring Michael Baldwin and Carl Nilsson-Polias. Twentieth century Absurdist works are well represented - "Waiting for Godot" from Fourdoors theatre, "The Caretaker" by Harold Pinter from Brink Productions - excellent contributors in past Fringe line-ups also - and Ionesco’s "The Lesson" will be conducted on the Museum Lawns. The international contingent again includes Seattle’s Theatre Simple with "Notes From Underground" based on the text by Dostoesvky, other works from this company include "The Big Time" and "Parrot Fever". "The Blue Orphan" from Canada’s Catalyst Theatre looks intriguing, and for quality children’s theatre, "Smashed Eggs" written by Phil Porter and presented by Sulis Productions is of interest.
Fringe Notes. "Adelaide Fringe Festival". [preview]
(Adelaide Review, 2002-04) Bramwell, Murray Ross
The press kit reminds us that there are 381 registered events, including 76 in comedy and 102 in theatre. There is also a huge visual arts and film and video program, the schools tour YEP event, regional programs, the ATSI indigenous arts project, special schedules for families and the Fresh Bait initiative for young artists.
A Fringe Wrap. "Adelaide Fringe Festival". [review]
(Adelaide Review, 2002-04) Bramwell, Murray Ross
Things were always going to go well for the Fringe this year. Everything, from the logo launch of that underdog-looking little bambi to the setting up of its ambitious on-line ticketing, had an assurance and energy about it. This not only came from director Katrina Sedgwick, CEO Jodie Glass and an army of workers and volunteers but was evident in the vibrant response from an Adelaide crowd looking for something more edifying, and certainly more entertaining, than the previous six months of divisive politics, and national and international trauma. People were ready to have fun and grab the last of the summer we almost didn’t have. And the venues worked better this year. The use of the Adelaide Uni Union and Cloisters area created a central and coherent group of performance spaces which included Union Hall and the Scott Theatre, and existing catering facilities were handy as well. Then, the carnival atmosphere at Rundle Park, with the circus adrenaline of the Lunar Tent and the Edwardian charm of the Spiegeltent, made the whole of the East End again the buzzy place to be.
The Funny Business of Sex in the City. Adelaide Cabaret Festival 2003 [review]
(The Australian, 2003-06-16) Bramwell, Murray Ross
The Adelaide Cabaret Festival still has a week to go and the newly refitted Festival Centre is jumping - as well it might, hosting 400 artists and 152 performances over just seventeen nights. With a program including crooners, comics, smooth jazz exponents, a mind reader, even a techno-haka group, the Festival Centre hasn’t been such a hub of activity since... the last Cabaret Festival.
Gathering of the Tribes. "Big Day Out". Wayville Showgrounds. [review]
(Adelaide Review, 2004-03) Bramwell, Murray Ross
This year’s is the twelfth "Big Day Out". "Big Day Out" gives us the past, the modish present and always a glimpse of the ineffable future. "The Prodigy", "bridesmaids" in 1996, were the lords of all they surveyed the following year. Last year the virtually unknown "White Stripes" played a small side stage, now they are the New Carpenters. But it is the chance to see zany little bands like Osaka’s "Shonen Knife" or those Mormons in alfoil, "Rocket From the Crypt", or bands of the calibre of "Dirty Three", "Wilco" and yes, "Coldplay", that makes the event so engaging. Rocking hard seems to be the thing this year. Everyone is thrashing - as if they think "The Darkness" and "The Strokes" and oh yes, headliners "Metallica", will make everyone else look cissy. "The Datsuns" and "Sleepy Jackson" were at it, as was "Muse", who trashed the subtler sound of their albums into disappointing sludge. "Blood Duster", "Lost Prophets" and "Poison" the Well were born to sound like angle grinders of course, so I preferred the "Persian Rugs", aka the "Hoodoo Gurus", who played some goodtime rock and roll, and hiphop stars "Black-Eyed Peas" who showed their considerable flair with a set including What is "Love and Shut Up". "The Mars Volta" played their Floyd-like "Drunkship of Lanterns" but when they began to go murky I wandered off to the Boiler Room and the esoteric ambience of "Aphex Twin".
Gems At Risk of Being Swamped. Adelaide Fringe Festival 2004 [review]
(The Australian, 2004-03-11) Bramwell, Murray Ross
With an estimated crowd of one hundred thousand cheering the opening night parade, a lively buzz at Rundle Park’s Garden of Earthly Delights, and, by yesterday, a gross of $2.9m and 163,000 in ticket sales, the Adelaide Fringe is a conspicuous success. Boisterous doppelganger to the Festival, the Fringe is second only to Edinburgh, and like its counterpart, not only continues to thrive, but is presumed by many to be the Festival itself.
Global Appeal. Womadelaide [preview]
(The Adelaide Review, 2004-01) Bramwell, Murray Ross
Womadelaide will soon be upon us: from 5 -7 March, to be exact. And, yes, it does seem like only a year ago. Now an annual fixture, Womad, this year, is tucked under the wing of the Adelaide Festival- as it was for its inaugural presentation back in 1992.
Gotta Get Out of Displace. Adelaide Fringe Festival 2004 [review]
(The Australian, 2004-02-24) Bramwell, Murray Ross
The first weekend of theatre in the Adelaide Fringe has opened strongly with a number of works interestingly clustered around the theme of imprisonment within the self.

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