What’s on: Cabaret, movies and a trip to Happy Town

Opening weekend at the Adelaide Cabaret Festival, family fun with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, world cinema masterpieces, State Opera’s Love, Sex & Death, gigs, exhibitions and more.

Jun 02, 2017, updated Jun 13, 2017

Musical satire duo Bourgeois & Maurice will present their Cabaret Festival show, How to Save the World Without Really Trying, at the Magic Mirrors Spiegeltent on June 14-15. Photo: Christa Holka

Adelaide Cabaret Festival

The Adelaide Cabaret Festival begins today, with the always-popular Variety Gala Performance at Her Majesty’s Theatre and other opening-weekend shows including Alan Cumming Sings Sappy Songs, New York singer and comedian Bridget Everett’s Pound It!, jazz guitarist Bill Frisell’s When You Wish Upon a Star, Carlotta: Queen of the Cross, and Briefs’ Close Encounters. This year’s festival will feature 147 performances over 16 days, with a Wintergarden hub on the Festival Centre deck featuring pop-up style eateries, bars and free live entertainment. Festival artistic directors Ali McGregor and Eddie Perfect share some festival highlights with InDaily here, and you can keep up-to-date with our latest stories and reviews here. The full program for the June 9-24 program is on the Cabaret Festival website.

Cabaret Fringe

Celebrating its 10^th anniversary this year, the Adelaide Cabaret Fringe is presenting more than 40 shows across 15 venues until June 25. It encompasses a broad range of genres, from torch songs, bossa nova and gypsy jazz, to improv, burlesque and physical theatre, with shows including Club Burlesk, Dolly Diamond: This Time It’s Personal, Joni Mitchell’s Daughter, the Changing Jennifers’ Le Improv, and Harry Baulderstone and Marcus Ryan’s Feelin’ Groovy: The Songs of Simon and Garfunkel. See the program here, and read InDaily‘s interview with festival director Paul Boylon here.

Matilda the Musical – Festival Theatre

A delicious tale full of magic and mischief, Matilda the Musical brilliantly brings to life author Roald Dahl’s story about a gifted little girl whose spirit can’t be extinguished by her horrid parents or dastardly headmistress Miss Trunchbull. Full of “revolting children” and powered by Tim Minchin’s wonderful score, the Royal Shakespeare Company production – which won a record 13 Helpmann Awards – is at the Festival Theatre, Adelaide Festival Centre, until July 16. Read our review here.

ASO’s Happy Town – Town Hall

Composer and music educator Paul Rissmann (pictured above) will present and narrate this family concert based on the Giles Andreae book The Chimpanzees of Happy Town. Images by illustrator Guy Parker Rees will be projected above the orchestra, with children are invited to participate through songs and actions. Suitable for ages three to seven, Happy Town begins at 10am on Saturday and is part of the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra’s Festival of Learning and Participation.

Laura Marling / Thundamentals / Bad//Dreems – The Gov

UK singer-songwriter Laura Marling, who recently released her sixth studio album Semper Femina, is playing a gig at the Governor Hindmarsh tomorrow night, with support by Tiny Little Houses. Next weekend you can catch NSW hip-hop act Thundamentals (Friday), on their Everyone We Know Tour, and Bad//Dreems (Saturday).

The Necks – Nexus Live

After 30 years and with 18 albums under their belts, Australian trio The Necks – Chris Abrahams (piano), Tony Buck (drums), and Lloyd Swanton (bass) – still like to keep each live performance unique with a strong element of their trademark improvisations. They’re touring the country this month, with a show at Nexus Arts, the Lions Arts Centre, tonight (June 9).

State Opera’s Love, Sex & Death – Opera Studio

State Opera SA promises audiences will be transported to an “unforgettable cabaret world” with Love, Sex & Death, a show spanning opera, music theatre and movement with a cast that includes soprano Joanna McWaters and tenor Adam Goodburn. Part of the intimate Opera Studio series, it will be performed at the Netley venue over three nights, from June 15 to 17.

Fateful Tchaikovsky – Town Hall

The Adelaide Symphony Orchestra’s fourth Master Series concert of the year will open with the Prelude to Act 3 of Die Meistersinger as a tribute to its late principal conductor Sir Jeffrey Tate, who passed away this month. The program also features Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No 4, Shostakovich’s First Cello Concerto (with cellist Li-Wei Qin), Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No 1 and Australian composer Brett Dean’s Amphitheatre. Performances will be at the Adelaide Town Hall on June 16 and 17.

World Cinema Festival – Event Cinemas Marion

Seven world cinema masterpieces from countries including Brazil, Germany, Sweden, Japan and Denmark  are being screened during this festival at Event Cinemas Marion. The screenings, occurring on Friday nights until July 7, include Good Bye Lenin!  (tonight), Force Majeure  (June 16), Kumiko The Treasure Hunter (June 23), A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night   and Night Watch (June 30) and The Hunt (July 7).

Ramsay Art Prize – Art Gallery of SA

The work of the 21 national finalists in the inaugural Ramsay Art Prize is on show until August 27. The $100,000 prize, which is supported by philanthropist organisation the James & Diana Ramsay Foundation, is open to Australian artists under 20 working in any material or process, with finalists’ work including paintings, installations, ceramics, video and mixed media. It was won by Sydney-based artist Sarah Contos with a “colossal 20th-century quilt” (read more here).

Busby Marou – Fat Controller

Queensland duo Busby Marou (aka Thomas Busby and Jeremy Marou) will play an 18+ gig at Fat Controller next Thursday (June 15) as part of a tour in support of their latest album, Postcards From The Shell House, which debuted at number one on the ARIA charts. Details here.

Versus Rodin: Bodies Through Time and Space – Art Gallery of SA

This exhibition brings together key pieces by Auguste Rodin, the pioneer of modern sculpture, with more than 200 works referencing the human body by other modern and contemporary artists. Read more about the works and the artists here. Versus Rodin is at the gallery until July 2, with guided tours daily at 11am and 2pm.

Yidaki – Didjeridu and The Sound of Australia – SA Museum

This landmark exhibition has been created in collaboration with the Yolngu people, cultural custodians of the yidaki (didjeridu). It explores the cultural and musical origins of the instrument, as well as its power and meaning in Yolngu life. Read more here. The exhibition continues at the SA Museum until July 16.