LIA LOVES... THEATRE. DANCE. CULTURE. EVENTS.
Follow her adventures as Adelaide's premier theatre buff, arts contributor, educator and ambassador!
February 16, 2019
On a balmy Saturday night, we packed ourselves into Le Cascadeur at the Garden of Unearthly Delights to see cabaret darling Amelia Ryan’s new show, Simply the Breast. Accompanied by Michael Griffiths, she takes you on a journey – an emotional, captivating, hilarious and honest one at that- through her life and the ‘breast’ of her previous shows, Storm in a D Cup, Lady Liberty and The Breast is Yet to Come. To set the scene, she waltzed onstage with a breast pump (my poor husband was mortified when tasked with holding it for her), and immediately broke the fourth wall with candid satire and jest. Taking us from her unique childhood in small town Bombo, to her stripper university days, meeting the love of her life and bringing her son into the world, Amelia lays all her cards on the table and leaves no stone unturned. And what a show this makes. I cry laughed (yes, there was bladder leakage) and got teary, I gasped at her honesty, I was gobsmacked at her life […]
February 16, 2019
The buzz and excitement of opening night at the Adelaide Fringe was palpable tonight. The Garden of Unearthly Delights was its usual vibrant, eclectic self, host to some of the best Fringe acts the world has to offer. With a full house at the Corona, Circus Oz’s Neon delivered on all the promised trashy, glitzy, gaudy and tragic celebration of the 80’s. Starting with John Farnham’s You’re the Voice blaring out of the sound system (which inspired an audience sing a long while taking our seats), followed by some Spandau Ballet Gold , we were taken on a glorious ride through a decade of music, bad dancing and some incredible feats of fancy. From the opening number, we knew we were in for a treat of serious proportions.These guys and gals have talent. And of course they do. Circus Oz have been creating extraordinary shows for 40 years – touring successfully nationally and internationally. Circus Oz celebrate breathtaking stunts, Aussie humour, and an all human ensemble. I especially adore their motto of promoting the best […]
January 27, 2019
Walking into the Bakehouse Theatre this evening was a burst of fresh air. No, literally. It was 45 degrees outside. And fittingly, I was going in to see Neil Simon’s Last of the Red Hot Lovers. This offering is the fourth for Starc Productions, Adelaide’s newest full-time professional theatre company, a collaboration between Marc Clement, Stefanie Rossi and theatre gem Tony Knight. Starc’s sentiment is to produce plays with minimal set design, thus allowing the actors to take, for lack of a better phrase, centre stage. This was evident upon entering the theatre – a clean, classic set in white and red. Stylised as such that the key timekeepers – the clock and telephone – were in bold red, while the couch and table were white. I liked the addition of the apples on the table; a suggestion of sexual seduction perhaps? Set in 1969, to the tunes of Bacharach, Barney Cashman, a middle aged, married, fish restaurateur, wishes to join the sexual revolution. Unbeknownst to him, it’s not that easy. In three acts we […]
January 18, 2019
Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, written in 1879, is a significant play in the way it deals with the awakening of a middle class wife and mother in a male-dominated world, one not too dissimilar to what we are experiencing in current day society. As you can imagine, the play caused great controversy at the time, and continues to speak powerfully more than 100 years after it first hit the stage. Ipskip Productions brings a new adaptation to life under the cultivating eye of director Nathan Quadrio and dramaturge Miriam Fietz, set in London in 1959. Nora Helmer, the innocent (or not so innocent) self serving wife, was played beautifully by Allison Scharber. She portrayed the complexities of Nora’s character with charm, at times submissive and manic. She struggles with juggling kids, her house, husband, a secret debt, a terminally ill best friend and the arrival of an old school friend who brings much chaos through the door with her. Georgia Stockham’s Christine Linde, the chaotic old friend, has the perfect blend of forcefulness and amiability […]