January 26th

General

We are now fast approaching the 2010 festival season, with the first Opening Night (the ever wonderful Garden of Unearthly Delights) just over two weeks away. It seems to always be something which sneaks up on us - you wait for months for the fringe guide, then when you finally get your hands on one it's almost time for the event to begin! I'm writing this after spending most of the afternoon entering in every session for every production I want to see into my calendar - some shows will be carefully planned and have tickets bought well in advance, others will be bought on word of mouth, and others will be bought spur of the moment. One of the great things about the fringe is that one show which blows you away in a way you never thought was possible: for the record, in 2009 that show for me was 'I Love You, Bro' and in 2008 it was 'The Ballard of Rodger and Grace' - two small, undeniably low-budget fringe shows which were just stunning.

My timetable is rather full this year, as, for the first time, I'll be taking my place on stage in the fringe with the Adelaide University Fringe Club presenting The Servant of Two Masters, a commedia dell'arte from the mid 18th century, which we are presenting with big hair and big stares - straight from the soap operas of today. The show is now (almost completely) blocked, we had our first full run through this week, and scripts are on their way down - which, of course, explains why I am choosing to plan my month and blog instead of learning my lines for the crazy farce scenes which need to be down - two characters passing eleven plates back and forth between three "rooms" gets very, very confusing! It's a very silly show, not populated with the brightest of characters or the most sophisticated writing, but sometimes that's exactly what the Fringe should be about - a night of ridiculous silly fun. And we are having a lot of fun making it, however much my bruised knees may disagree.

For a parting paragraph on my first blog here, my number one pick for the Fringe this year (of course, after [i]The Servant of Two Masters[/i]!) is True West, written by Sam Shepard and presented by Flying Penguin Productions. This production had its debut in Adelaide last year at the Holden Street Theatres, and it was the best show I saw in Adelaide the whole year. Brilliantly cleaver, brilliantly funny, I would (and do) recommend it to anyone. It's playing at AC Arts from the 3rd to the 13th of March. Don't miss it, you'll be talking about it for months!