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Adelaide Fringe Adelaide Fringe 2020

Dreamgun: Film Reads (Harry Potter and The Philosopher’s Stone) – Adelaide Fringe 2020

Three comedians rewrite a variety of your favourite film scripts with jokes and plot-holes, before getting an array of unwitting actors to read them live, for the first time. This haphazard, live read rushes through your favourite films leaving you lost for breath as both you and the performers discover the hilarity of the script together.

Dreamgun: Film Reads is presented by Hey Boss – a collaborative, award-winning production and management company working with cutting-edge, thoughtful and future-minded theatre, music, and comedy shows on the global festival circuit. In this production, performers with other Fringe shows skillfully read a script for the first time, and make the show well worth the ticket price.

In the small, close venue, it was easy to get swept up in the show and let yourself be taken along for a great ride.

Dreamgun reads a different film script every night, rewritten with jokes and performed by unprepared comedians, including crowd-favourites from ‘Harry Potter’ to ‘Silence of the Lambs’. There is some minor swearing, but it is a good show for ages 15+. This show runs every night remaining for Adelaide Fringe 2020, so get out and see it.

⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

Tickets: https://adelaidefringe.com.au/fringetix/dreamgun-film-reads-af2020

Content Warning: M

Performance Reviewed: Monday 9th March at 9.30pm in Factory 7, The Garden of Unearthly Delights

Presented by: Hey Boss

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Adelaide Fringe Adelaide Fringe 2020

Train Lord – Adelaide Fringe 2020

Oliver Mol’s story of a ten-month migraine is so deeply immersive that it is, at times, uncomfortable. For anyone who has every experienced enduring pain, Mol’s interpretation of a migraine via storytelling and stage production feels very true to reality.

This 60-minute one-man show one-man show is a true, funny and heartbreaking tale about Oliver Mol’s chronic migraine, his departure from his work as a writer, and subsequent job on the railway when he couldn’t do anything else. Performed to music and visuals, it is a story of hope, laughter, pain, relationships, drugs, failed orgies, mothers, fathers and love.

Oliver Mol is such a regular sort of guy at first impression, that the depth he went to took me by surprise. His daggy “costume” of running shoes, baggy pants and white singlet tucked into his belt was a stark contrast to his eloquent storytelling and engaging performance.

Clever visuals projected to a screen behind Mol, and he used the small stage to good effect – often blending himself into the projection. This was particularly effective during the scenes depicting migraines, which built tension, and the scenes that took the audience on a ride along train tracks, which released the tension.

Often when we experience theatre, we feel heightened emotions of joy and pathos, but rarely – for myself, anyway – do I feel physical discomfort. To me, this is the genius of the show: the build up of discomfort… the suspended tension… and the release of pain, the release of one’s identity into a new, changed world.

Mol’s 2020 Fringe season has ended, but look out for his book of the same name in the near future.

⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ 

Tickets: https://adelaidefringe.com.au/fringetix/train-lord-af2020

Content Warning: M

Official Website: https://www.instagram.com/train_lord/

Performance reviewed: 6pm Wednesday 26th February at The Bakehouse Theatre

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Adelaide Fringe Adelaide Fringe 2020

Frankenstein: How to Make a Monster – Adelaide Fringe 2020

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein has been re-imagined with songs, soundscapes and sonic trickery from the exceptional talent that is London’s BAC Beatbox Academy. Experience the power of the human voice breathing life into monsters all around us, and consider: who are the monsters we fear? Who created them? And how the hell did they just do that with their voices?!

The cast was made up of six vocalists aged 19-27, who each showcased exceptional and unique skills in beat-boxing, vocal gymnastics, singing, spoken word, acapella, and body percussion. At times I forgot that all of the sounds were coming only from the performers, as they created amazing soundscapes reminiscent of forests, synthesizers, and stage bands, bending the limits of what can be done with just the human body.

Body shaming, race politics, and social media addiction are just some of the themes covered into this modern interpretation of the classic sci-fi story, where our modern social and economic structures are responsible for creating monsters and then very quickly turning on them. Just like the source material, the true monster of the story is not the creation, but the creator.

The static set, stark stage, and smoke and lighting effects in the RCC’s The Attic (the former Rumours Cafe in Union House) created a dark and gritty atmosphere and allowed the performances and story to shine.

Highlights for me including the process of building the monster, which saw the performers perform acapella samples from well-known songs to represent different parts of the body – from The Prodigy’s Firestarter to Pachabels Canon in D. Another highlight was when the cast turned the spotlight on the crowd to sing a song of insecurity and mockery, making fun of audience members in a catchy song I just can’t get out of my head (Oh my god, she’s so hideous!)

The BAC Beatbox Academy is not just a group of incredibly talented and dedicated performers, it is also an enterprise with an important social mission. Since its inception in 2008, BAC’s Beatbox Academy has pro-actively engaged harder to reach groups in areas of significant deprivation in Wandsworth, including young carers and children at risk of engaging in crime. For the price of your ticket, you are not just enjoying an evening of world-class entertainment, you are supporting the incredible cause of helping people flourish through performing arts.

Beatbox Academy’s Frankenstein is joyful, dark, and mesmerising. Everyone should see this show.

⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

Tickets: https://adelaidefringe.com.au/fringetix/frankenstein-how-to-make-a-monster-af2020

Content Warning: PG

Official Website: https://www.facebook.com/BACBeatboxAcademy

Performance Reviewed: 6pm Sunday 23rd Feb, The Attic @ RCC

Categories
Adelaide Fringe Adelaide Fringe 2020

The Devil Made Me Do It – Adelaide Fringe 2020

Mackenzie has sold her soul to the devil and can’t remember her life before this moment. But now she wants to go back on her contact. The story explores the reasons why Mackenzie had signed her soul away to begin with. This show deals with issues of depression, drug addiction, rape, and memory loss – this show is definitely for 18+ with the dark themes present throughout the show.

The show for its cost was worth the money. It was very dark and left open ended so it’s up to the audience to determine Mackenzie’s fate. The Devil and Studio owner played by John Valdez and Tristan O’Neil respectively were standout performers and brought out feelings of love and hate audience members, with one such member saying she wanted to throw her phone at the studio owner.

One highlight was seeing one of Such Cliche’s own Erinn Flavel shining on stage in many roles through the ensemble cast.

The use of lighting and audio visions definitely brought a much needed edge to the performance to complete the show.

⭐ ⭐ ⭐

Tickets: https://adelaidefringe.com.au/fringetix/the-devil-made-me-do-it-af2020

Content Warning: M

Presented By: Write Me Originals

Performance Reviewed: Thursday 20th February at the Bakehouse Theatre