Museum time in Adelaide!

While attending performances in the evening, I took the opportunity to visit 2 museums while in Adelaide.  The first destination was South Australian Museum, where the Adealaide Festival had a Dig it@ The Museum at its entrance.  More for children.  My main interest was the comprehensive display of  aboriginal culture and art at the museum

It was great to see this exhibition as I had visited Uluru.  The exhibition supplemented a lot of information gathered from the trip.









The aboriginal art was beautiful to look at...

Girl Asleep and Fugitives: Fairy tales updated for modern times

I had the pleasure of catching 2 performances of Windmill Theatre at the Adelaide Festival.   Titled Windmill Trilogy, it consisted of 2 previously written plays Fugitives and School Dance, and a premiere Girl Asleep at the Festival.  Windmill Theatre is an Australian company focusing on teens and children's audience.

Girl Asleep was a coming of age story for teens and children.  Greta was trying to fit into her new environment, her new school, her not-so-friendly schoolmates.  She found comfort in Elliot, an awkward but kind boy. On the eve of her 15th birthday, her parents threw her a surprise party and strange events unfolded.   Probably inspired by Alice in Wonderland, we saw Greta entering a world where she met characters that somehow resembled those in reality. Artistic Director Rosemary Myers and the production team succeeded in creating a world of fantasy, employing puppetry, 50s design, lights and music in the small Space Theatre at the Festival Theatre. During the preview, certain scenes were slightly long but it should be taken care of at the opening night.    The cast was tight, with most actors playing multiple roles.  Ellen Steele played Greta with innocent charm while Eamon Farren was convincing as Greta’s awkward friend Elliot.   It is good to see a theatre company pumping resources in creating works for the youth.

Fugitives was a retelling of Robin Hood, set in the near future.  The young Robin returned to his hometown after a few years' absence, leaving his love interest Marion waiting in vain.  At the same time, the town was run by the evil forces, where the guards looked like Star Wars troopers. Among all these chaos, he had to deal with a love triangle.

Fugitives started well, where the characters were well introduced in the early scenes.  Things got muddled when it tried on one hand, dealing with the baddies and on the other hand, the love triangle. Having said that, the creative team did make the production tight and the ensemble cast held the performance together.  The young audience obviously were engaged.

While I found both plays a bit weak on the plot, I could be seeing from the point f view of an adult.  Based on the reception given to the cast on both nights, Windmill Theatre obviously had hit the right notes with the target audience.

River of Fundament: A well shot but challenging film

It was a strange feeling sitting through Matthew Barney’s River of Fundament, a six-hour film loosely based on Norman Mailer’s novel Ancient Evenings.  The screening was part of the Adelaide Festival 2014 programme, held at the old Capri Theatre in the Goodwood area.

Ancient Evenings was about an ancient Egyptian Pharoh seeking reincarnation three times in the hope of achieving immortality.  In Barney’s film, it was Norman Mailer who had to reincarnate 3 times, in the form of cars.  And he had to cross the river of feces to attain his reincarnation. 

Mathew Barney’s film had a grandness in it, and he managed to get well-known actors like Ellen Burstyn, Paul Giamatti and Maggie Gyllenhaal to appear in it.  It also included 3 live performances that was related to the story.  Visually, it was stunning to watch and artistically shot.  The length of the movie did get to me, and at times I felt it was rather self-indulgent. This would be a film that would divide the audience.  Adelaide Festival must be praised to have the courage to put this in its programme.

A memorable thing of going to Capri Theatre was to dine at this little bistro / restaurant called L'Atelier Gourmand.   Had a wonderful chicken entree.  Cappuccino was great too!

Prices were reasonable.

Review: Roman Tragedies @ Adelaide Festival - Shakespeare plays, CNN style

There was huge anticipation from the audience waiting to enter the Festival Theatre of the Adelaide Festival Centre.   We were keen to see how Dutch director Ivo Van Hove was going to condense and combine 3 of the Shakespeare political plays, Coriolanus, Julius Caesar and Antony and Cleopatra,  into a 6-hour production.  On top of that, the production would be set in a world of live media and reporting.   The performance Roman Tragedies was staged by Toneelgroep Amsterdam as one of the key productions of the Adelaide Festival 2014. Audience were free to choose which sections of the auditorium to watch the show, even the performing area. I decided to start with the circle seats.  The screen on top of the stage would either provide commentary on historical events, quotes from famous people and do a live feed of the incidents.

Adelaide Festival opened with free open air concert

An outdoor concert at Elder Park was held to officially open the Adelaide Festival 2014.  After watching Girl Asleep at the Festival Theatre, it was logical for me to attend the outdoor concert.   First up was Charles Bradley, who had a hard life and only found fame recently.  He had a soulful and sad voice, reminded me of James Brown.

Next up was Kid Creole and the Coconuts,

Am I: Shaun Parker's philosophy of "Self" a great start to Adelaide Festival 2014

While the Adelaide Festival would not officially open on the 28th Feb, some productions had already started its run.  

At the Dunstan Theatre of the Adelaide Festival Centre, Shaun Parker & Company's Am I explored "what it means to identify ourselves as 'I'".  Using texts from various literature, choreographer Shaun Parker shared a narrator with 6 dancers.