Have your tax-deductible donation doubled. Donate to InReview today.
THE BUSINESS OF ART | Singing lessons that were supposed to help Alex De Porteous pursue a career as a sound engineer quickly became the foundation for a life on stage after the young artist was adopted into Adelaide’s cabaret community.
Adelaide Fringe
THE BUSINESS OF ART: Theatre artist Andi Snelling set herself the goal of only engaging in creative work. After a move to Adelaide and the launch of an arts mentoring business, that vision has quickly been realised.
Adelaide Fringe
THE BUSINESS OF ART: It was a move to London that made Reuben Kaye an international cabaret star, but it was a trip to Adelaide Fringe that gave him the confidence to pursue a career as an original solo artist.
Adelaide Fringe
While playing Trivial Pursuit, a solitary clown leads us through a tumultuous personal story, from attending Clown Farm in Canada to living with a First Nations shaman in California. ★★★★
Adelaide Fringe
Whether the stuff of dreams or nightmares, Somnia 2.022 is a beautifully haunting display of acrobatics with some raunchy cabaret to set the mood. ★★★★
THE BUSINESS OF ART | As stage producer Richard Jordan wraps on a four-show digital season at Adelaide Fringe, the Tony, Emmy and Olivier-awarded industry heavyweight highlights how the festival drives arts innovation – in Australia and abroad.
Pairing ancient stories with new technology, the stunning drone-art show Sky Song leaves audiences mesmerised. ★★★★★
There’s no pretence to perfection in Ella at Zardi’s, a truly transportive tribute act that at its heart is what the Fringe is all about. ★★★★
It’s hard to know exactly what’s going to happen when you sit down to a Sam Simmons show, but the comedian is consistent with one thing – peculiarity. ★★★★
Adelaide Fringe
You can thank two years of Melbourne lockdowns for yielding the comedy gold Judith Lucy and Denise Scott deliver in their hilarious, Beckett-crossed-with-Flying-High-infused show. ★★★★★
Adelaide Fringe
In Their Footsteps is a vivid tribute to the unsung female heroes of the Vietnam War, interweaving recollections from five actual participants. ★★★★
Adelaide Fringe
Jimeoin LIVE is a muddled, aimless hour of comedy that finds its feet way too late in the piece. ★★
Adelaide Fringe
Ross Noble returns with his signature rapid-fire stream of consciousness, weaving together improvised narratives that vanish as unexpectedly as they appear like some kind of cheerful nightmare. ★★★½
Two press conferences held within hours of each other on the first day of the Adelaide Fringe have been widely commented on in the local media. However, beneath the sensationalist headlines lie two issues: how do we value arts and culture, and how do we make arts and cultural policy?
Bart Freebairn shows his comedic mettle on a challengingly quiet Tuesday night by keeping the laughs coming with his drily daft, free-associating batter. Sorry, banter. ★★★★
Through a post-Me Too lens, this play-within-a-play is a feat of provocative theatre that spotlights the harrowing power dynamics of the entertainment industry. ★★★★★
In theory, communication has never been more efficient than it is today; in reality, as Deus Ex Femina’s latest production so profoundly demonstrates, we may, in fact, be saying less than we ever have before. ★★★★★
Patrick Livesey’s finely-tuned embodiment of a cast of real-life characters slowly builds a subtle, complex and deeply affecting narrative of their mum’s life and death. ★★★★
Adelaide Fringe
This new local work is a touching and challenging exploration of life in aged care, and of the experience of living with dementia. ★★★★
Adelaide Fringe
Bust some moves and strut your stuff to beats around the streets of the East End with Oscar Reed, his portable mixing desk and an enthusiastic crew of fellow punters for the perfect antidote to the world’s downers. ★★★★★
THE BUSINESS OF ART | Equal parts nostalgic ’80s action film fever dream and hilarity-fuelled satire, Fringe show MANBO deconstructs the murky reality of toxic masculinity with laughter and empathy.
In a production about Adelaide, put on by Adelaide artists, for Adelaide audiences, we witness a confronting exploration of whether our city is a constraint or a sanctuary. ★★★★
The Umbilical Brothers are back with two green screens and a technological arsenal to perform a re-imagined encore of their madly entertaining “multiverse” show that took out Best Comedy at the 2021 Adelaide Fringe. ★★★★
In this revealing one-man epic, Garry Elizabeth Starr seeks your help saving his homeland from recession by performing each of the Ancient Greek myths in under 60 minutes to boost tourism to Greece. ★★★★½
Slingsby’s charming, handcrafted production uses personal stories from the lives of the performers to highlight the connection between humans and trees. ★★★½
This passion project by local documentarians showcases the extraordinary photography and film-making skills of South Australian explorer Sir Hubert Wilkins. ★★★½
Who is the perfumed ghost at the old Smokemart across from Porthole Records, and why is the spirit of a Russian sailor only ever spotted on Todd Street between 2am and 3am? Put on your walking shoes to find out. ★★★★
Gluttony’s Melba Spiegeltent becomes an interactive classroom as Dinosaur Time Machine transports young audiences into the past to explore the fascinating world of dinosaurs. ★★★½
Adelaide Fringe
This show is, as the title promises, all about bubbles – and it’s definitely for adults only. ★★½
Adelaide Fringe
Promising magic, mischief and mayhem, The Purple Rabbit combines comedy, sleights of hand and a whole lot of smut for an hour of debauchery. ★★★
John Waters and his band bring to life the essence of Belgian songwriter Jacques Brel with an animated performance that perfectly re-creates the theatricality of the original songs. ★★★★½
Bringing together four complex characters from the classic stage canon, this original theatre work is weighed down by the treatment of its source material. ★★★
Like a spider quietly weaving a delicate web, writer and performer Tracy Crisp deftly spins connections back and forth between three narratives using an exploration of memory as the anchoring thread. ★★★★★
The idea of a critique of gender set in a reality show is enticing, but this show ultimately falls short of its ambitions. ★★
Adelaide Fringe
An energetic cast and a ham-fisted translation algorithm make for a celebration of nostalgia for some of our favourite films. ★★★½
Sponsored Story
Each year, the Adelaide Fringe brings a taste of its world-class, imaginative performances to regional SA towns and outer suburbs.
Adelaide Fringe
In Nella, writer and performer Julia Mayer weaves a vivid and heartfelt tribute to her nonna, retracing her steps from a young woman leaving Italy, to growing old in Adelaide. ★★★★
Adelaide Fringe
Just as comfortable with operatic arias as he is with modern power ballads, Dr Lane switches confidently between song and spoken word, his love for the music evident in the emotion he brings to this performance. ★★★★
Surrender your senses and lose yourself among the gods of old as you embark on a breathtaking journey into the stars with the visually stunning Adelaide Fringe premiere of Oracle. ★★★★★
Imagine gasp-inducing acrobatics combined with contemporary dance combined with the warm, fuzzy feeling of a hug. There you have I Want to Touch You, the returning Fringe show from Adelaide-based circus giants Gravity & Other Myths. ★★★★
In elegiac, epic splendour, four talented Australian singers pay homage to Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain and Amy Winehouse – the five most distinguished members of the ill-fated 27 Club. ★★★★★
Beauty, An Encore peels back the velvety-red curtains on Lawrence Mooney’s hilarious insights into politicians, beauty and sex. ★★★½
Adelaide Fringe
With its glowing jumble of neon signs lighting up the Garden of Unearthly Delights, Maho Magic Bar delivers on its promise to provide a taste of Japan’s raucous magic venues. ★★★½
Adelaide Fringe
A group of local rock and classical musicians perform the 11 songs from The Beatles’ 1967 EP/film Magical Mystery Tour in this open-air show. The result is a mostly magical mystery tour de four. ★★★★
Where better to delve into tales of poverty, conflict and resilience than Bowden, once inner-west slum, now desirable city-fringe home to a diverse and growing population. ★★★★
Two-time Best Comedy Weekly Award winner and arachnophobe Ange Lavoipierre returns to Adelaide Fringe with an original work of comic storytelling that is equally silly, honest and profound. ★★★★
One Hour Photo is a snapshot of one man’s life – captured from 30 hours of interview and a lifetime of turbulent after-images. ★★★★½
Two women are cast on to a desolate beach. As they begin to get their bearings, the world will never be the same. Nor, perhaps, will yours. ★★★★★
This year’s Adelaide Fringe is using immersive experiences and interactive shows to push the boundaries of art and storytelling.
First Nations artists and drone art specialists unite at the intersection of tradition and technology for Sky Song – an Adelaide Fringe centrepiece that promises to captivate audiences with both its visual spectacle and its important cultural stories.
THE BUSINESS OF ART | As he was standing in a field in Afghanistan, watching men with machine guns joyride on military tanks, former comedian Henry Naylor turned into a playwright. Now he is telling the story of the trip that changed his life in a world premiere season at Adelaide Fringe.
Hartstone-Kitney Productions has drawn thousands of people to its pop-up Fringe venues in the Adelaide Botanic Garden in recent years, but it won’t be returning there next month after deciding to present a season of exclusively digital shows.
