BETTIE BOMBSHELL - A NIGHT OF BURLESQUE ADELAIDE CABARET FESTIVAL 2026

 

 

Bettie Bombshell – A Night of Burlesque. 

Space Theatre Adelaide Festival Centre. Adelaide Cabaret Festival. June 18-19 2026.

Reviewed by Peter Wilkins

Hoots and hollers, screams and shrieks as each item of costume slips and slides away. Bettie Bombshell is your mischievous Emcee of the Burlesque. With a smirk and a smile and a beckoning palm to raise the roof, the Glam Reaper  promises a night of burlesque like no other and she and her company of burlesque artistes deliver with all the panache and sexy sassiness of the sensuous art of the striptease. That’s what it's all about Bettie tells us – tease and glamour, timing and fun and on opening night of A Night OF Burlesque in the Space at the Adelaide Festival Centre, Bettie Bombshell will set off a blast of entertainment with all that slap on the bum cheekiness that makes burlesque a panacea to banish the blues. What one can expect from the Number 1 burlesque artist in Australia and Number 2 in the world is a top-class night of whip-cracking wicked desire, a sumptuous banquet of star-studded burlesque.

 

Lyla Labelle

Bombshell has handpicked four of Australia’s classiest, sexiest and best burlesque artists to give her show that special zing. Blonde siren Lyla Labelle does it with a boa, luring the victim to her seductive charm. There is an air of defiance and dominatrix control to her steady art of authority. Like a spider luring its prey to the web, Labelle has you in her lair. Winchester Angel is a devilishly daring vixen with her fire-eating  to set her act aflame. This is burlesque with flair. As the strippers of the vaudeville era told Gipsy Rose Lee, “Ya gotta have a gimmick”, Karlee Tiana Misipeka takes them at their word with a Barbie number in a remote controlled car all pink and sugary to titillate and delight.

Rhys Lightning

For a change of mood, Bombshell introduces a new work to the accompaniment of girlfriend Rain on guitar, providing a snake charmer’s seduction to the prowling artiste. Bombshell traverses the boundaries of burlesque to show that it is more than feathers, boas and fans. Her show teases; it entertains and it educates. It is liberating, empowering and political. And finally for something entirely different Rhys Lightning moves with serpentine swiftness, the Satan of male strippers strutting with peacock bombast and muscular athleticism.

The night ends with a celebration of the artistry and sheer fun of burlesque and a night to fill the room with joy and laughter. To bare all before a room packed with strangers is more than an act of teasing and impish fun. For an hour audiences are entranced, enticed and edified. It is an ultimate act of self determination and self-expression. From devilish playfulness to the artful languor of the striptease, Bettie Bombshell and her guest seduce and surprise in a fun night of desire and delight.

Photo of Bettie Bombshell by Georgia Maloney

The Good Boy Game

 

The Good Boy Game by Patrick Vermillion USA).  Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre – Drama, Q the locals. June 18-20  2026

Reviewed by Frank McKone
June 20

Creatives & Production Team
Writer: Patrick Vermillion    Director: Caitlin Baker

Cast & Characters
Alastair McKenzie as James; Giuliana Baggoley as Mary-Beth
Bruce Hardie as Sam; Elaine Noon as Judith

Running time: 100 minutes without interval

Audience advice:
Contains coarse language, references to sex, misogyny, violence, murder and other mature themes.
Also contains simulated physical and gun violence, explores mature/taboo themes and contains loud noises and flashing lights.

Recommended for ages 16+ 



The Good Boy Game is Sigmund Freud’s Oedipus Complex theory made explicit.  

In Sophocles’ original play, Oedipus Rex, Oedipus kills his father and marries his mother without knowing they were his parents.  In Vermillion’s play, taking Freud’s misinterpretation of the ancient Greek myth literally, 16-year-old James knowingly kills his father, and “marries” his mother (though not finally including incestuous sexual intercourse).

Set in modern America, the actors need to express highly complex emotional details, rapidly changing as the characters each rationalise their attitudes.  The intention behind every character’s words creates a change in direction in the other’s response.  All done at rapid pace in quite short scenes on each of the three settings, with the quick changes headlined on the upstage projection screen – the family dining room, the attic and the counsellor’s rooms.

This set design is simple, but very effective in keeping the drama moving.

All four actors, in action and in argument, drew our attention tightly to follow a highly complex examination of this young man’s avowed intention to kill as many people as he could, because of his hatred – of society, where he saw himself as being on the outer.

“How do good boys become dangerous men?”, is the central question, and asks, can an approach using reward points offered for good behaviour, with losses for bad, and ‘priced’ – just as we do with money – change the boys’ behaviour for the better?

The play’s answer is ‘No’, despite Giuliana Baggoley’s remarkable efforts as James’ mother.  Her role in the story is crucial to our understanding of toxic masculinity, online radicalization, and the manosphere, in light of the far too common ‘mass shootings’ in America; and Giuliana as an actor is crucial to the success of the drama.

Elaine Noon as the psychological counsellor Judith, who offers the points system, was precise in her professionalism in that role – absolutely believable to us.

Bruce Hardie as husband and father Sam, clear in his mind as a ‘progressive’ but conflicted in practice, and finally attacking his son, played the role very well to the point where his issues and responses could not fail to bring our own experiences to mind.

And then the awfulness of Alastair McKenzie’s James, especially in the final scene with his mother, was terrifying to watch.

But this is the point of presenting this drama – that we have to accept the truth of the motivations for killing, so basic to so many men.

Freud’s invention of the idea that ‘hysterical’ women who claimed to have been sexually attacked by their fathers had really brought that upon themselves – the Oedipus Complex – was a convenient lie which Vermillion exposes in Mary-Beth’s relationship with her son James.

It’s an important play – even though the conclusion is not promising.  I can only hope that this production of The Good Boy Game can have an extended run and travel further afield as it deserves.

 

 

 

 

 

 

STEEL MAGNOLIAS - Canberra Theatre

 

STEEL MAGNOLIAS – Canberra Theatre

Jessica Redmayne (Shelby) - Belinda Giblin (Ouiser) - Lisa McCune (M'Lynn) -
Mandy Bishop (Truvy) - Lotte Beckett (Annelle) - Debra Lawrance (Clairee)

Written by Robert Harling – Directed by Lee Lewis

Set and Costume design by Simone Romaniuk – Lighting Design by Paul Jackson

Composition and Sound Design by Brady Watkins

Produced by Neil Gooding Productions and Woodward Productions.

Canberra Theatre Centre – July 17^th – 21, 2026.

Opening night performance – July 18^th reviewed by BILL STEPHENS

Debra Lawrance (Clairee) - Belinda Giblin (Ouiser) - Lisa McCune (M'Lynn)

Written by Robert Harling in 1987, originally as a coping mechanism to deal with the death of his sister, “Steel Magnolias” is far from the gloomy narrative one might expect. Instead, the play, offers a laugh-a-minute glimpse into the lives of six Southern women living in a small fictional community in Louisiana.

These women have formed a strong bond and regularly gather in Truvy’s hairdressing salon where they challenge and comfort each other while sharing the minutiae of their daily lives, which when the play opens, is focussed on the upcoming wedding of Shelby, who’s engaged in a combative relationship with her mental health counsellor mother, M’Lynn about details of her wedding.

Mandy Bishop (Truvy) - Lotte Beckett (Annelle) - Jessica Redmayne (Shelby)

Harling’s play became an audience favourite majorly due to the 1989 film which starred Julia Roberts, Sally Field, Shirley McLaine, Olympia Dukakis, Dolly Parton and Daryl Hannah.

Many of us treasure memories of the original 1988 Australian stage production in which Nicole Kidman made her stage debut as Shelby in a cast that included Nancye Hayes, Maggie Dence, Melissa Jaffer, Genevieve Lemon and Pat McDonald.

Many others have become familiar with the play through the numerous community theatre productions around the country over the years. 

For this national tour, Producers Neil Gooding and Alex Woodward have mounted a visually beautiful production of this play for which they gifted director, Lee Lewis, known for her meticulous eye for detail and nuance, with the challenge of captivating a new generation of audiences.

Lewis’ response has been to devise a visually beautiful production with set and costumes by Simone Romaniuk, and cast it with some of the country’s best known and accomplished actresses in Lisa McCune, Belinda Giblin, Debra Lawrance, Mandy Bishop, Jessica Redmayne and Lotte Beckett, all of whom have grasped the opportunity to create fresh, memorable characterisations destined to remain in the memories of all who experience them.

 

Debra Lawrance (Clairee) - Mandy Bishop (Truvy) - Lotte Beckett (Annelle)

Mandy Bishop, well-known for her many years delighting audiences with her chameleon-like ability to inhabit multiple characterisations in the Wharf Revues, plays the warm-hearted, Truvy, owner of the salon, confidant and keeper of the secrets.

Sporting an outrageous blonde wig and deep Southern accent, Bishop resists the temptation to offer a cheap caricature of Dolly Parton. Instead, she invests her role with a myriad of detail to create a delightfully funny and compelling character around whom much of the action revolves.

Lotte Beckett plays the mysterious young hair stylist, Annelle, who Truvy has just employed. Annelle’s emergence from shy introvert to confident born-again Christian is charmingly and believably portrayed by Beckett.

Portraying Shelby, the young bride struggling with the effects of Type 1 diabetes, Jessica Redmayne charms with her optimistic enthusiasm. As the effects of her condition become more noticeable, Shelby’s enthusiasm frustrates her stylish, uptight mother, M’Lynn, in a superbly modulated and moving performance by Lisa McCune, which reaches its zenith in a fierce outburst by M’Lynn, prefacing the funniest scene in the play.

Jessica Redmayne (Shelby) - Lisa McCune (M'Lynne)

Rounding out a superb cast, Debra Lawrance and Belinda Giblin portray two frenemies, Clairee and Ouiser, who disguise their deep affection for each other under a constant barrage of hilarious barbs.

Part of the joy of this production is watching these prodigiously talented actors exercise their own and each other’s skills to create powerful, engaging moments capable of reducing their audience to a favourite place revealed by Truvy at one point -laughter through tears.

 

                                                          Photos by Brett Boardman

 

                         This review also published in AUSTRALIAN ARTS REVIEW.

                                 STEEL MAGNOLIAS - Australian Arts Review

THE GOOD BOY GAME

Written by Patrick Vermillion

Directed by Caitlin Baker

Q The Locals production

The Q, Queanbeyan to 20 June

 

Reviewed by Len Power 18 June 2026

 

A New Jersey, USA teenage boy plans to conduct a mass school shooting, followed by killing his parents. His plan unravels when his parents find out and hold him captive in the attic, trying to de-radicalise him with a therapist’s points-based reward system. That bit is kind of sane, but what follows is a furious and very black comedy that shows that his parents’ definition of good behaviour is just as crazy as the act planned by him.

The four actors deal with the over-the-top script more than competently, using a heightened style of acting, rather than trying to perform this for real. Particularly impressive is Giuliana Baggoley in the marathon role of the mother, who moves deftly from mother to monster to cartoon and back again. Bruce Hardie makes his mark early as the father even though he comes to a sticky end halfway through and Elaine Noon excels as the addled therapist.  Alastair McKenzie is truly frightening with the level of hate he achieves. The director keeps it all surging along at a breath-taking pace on a substantial and well-designed set.

Alastair McKenzie and Giuliana Baggoley

 

It took a while for the audience to get on the right wavelength and they responded with mostly nervous laughter throughout, almost as if they thought they shouldn’t find this funny. What’s not to like about school shootings, misogyny, sex, abuse, murder, suicide, incest, pornography, physical violence, gun violence and graphic and explicit language?

If any of those things turn you on, then this is the play for you!

 

Photo by Caitlin Baker

Len Power's reviews are also broadcast on Artsound FM 92.7 in the ‘Arts Cafe’ and ‘Arts About’ programs and published in his blog 'Just Power Writing' at https://justpowerwriting.blogspot.com/.

  

VIEW2026

XinShuo Zhuo, Among the Interstices, installation view, 2026.

Image: Gabrielle Hall-Lomax

 

As always when walking into this gallery, the works to the left are the first that visitors see. In this exhibition they are those of XinShuo Zhuo. The large cascading calligraphy scroll is the very successful feature piece amongst numerous small, distressed and toned prints decorating the surrounding wall spaces. The artist is seeking to explore the relationship between images, memory and environment. It draws on Zhuo’s personal life journey so far and encourages us to wonder about the future. Essayist Kung suggests this body of work awakens a tenderness, a fragility, creating an inward expanse that makes room for feeling.

Moving into the space to the right of the entrance, there are works by three more of the artists. On the left Dylan Marriott shows us two pieces from a forthcoming solo show he is to have in Melbourne. One shows youths we are barely able to see lounging along a river’s edge. It is an impressive and powerful work. This artist has said he is jealous of painting’s freedom of expression, yet here he has shown today’s photographers can also be similarly free.

Dylan Marriott, Wake, installation view, 2026.

Image courtesy the artist.

On the long opposite wall and the small end wall of this space there are fourteen pieces by Cass Li. The sole artwork on the end wall is vibrantly coloured capturing attention immediately, so much so that I examined it first before turning back to the other images by Li. Each piece looks at a different aspect of the last days of her grandfather’s life and the mourning period that followed. This documentary series is, for me, the highlight of the exhibition. Initially concluding that Together, There’s No Need to Cry, Li has most successfully pulled together how different generations of her family have dealt with their grief, whilst also tracing the family’s migration journey. Taoist rites, Chinese Timorese ancestry, belongings left behind, and much more are all part of this wonderfully creative and moving, yet documentary, project.

Cass Li, Fung Bao 2013-2024, installation view, 2026.

Image: Gabrielle Hall-Lomax

Cass Li, Popo in Kung Kung’s room, searching, 2024.

Image courtesy the artist.

Finally, in the back room, Elesa Stellios is exhibiting a three-screen video installation, employing an interactive program. And Toni Tait has two works, also involving video. One is described as “remediated video” - remediation being the process of adapting content from one medium to another. Tait’s other work has archival audio, field recording and a section of PVC pipe also contributing.

 

Elesa Stellios, this is how i must look, video still, 2026

Toni Tait, This is Fair Dinkum, video still detail, 2025

Once again, the annual VIEW project has delivered interesting and diverse artworks by another group of early-career artists. The accompanying publication refers to the project being “resolutely focused on the broadest definition” of photographic practice. That certainly is true of this exhibition. The question that cannot be answered at this time in 2026 is whether or not these, or other, artists will continue to explore the same types of work or will move into other areas. We will have to wait and see where each participant goes in their future practices. Given what Alex Robinson has referred to as limitless possibilities, each of these artists might take their practices anywhere!


This review is also available on the author's blog.

MAHALIA BARNES SINGS THE ROSE ADELAIDE CABARET FESTIVAL 2026

 

Mahalia Barnes Sings The Rose.

Mahalia Barnes and The Soulmates. Dunstan Playhouse. Adelaide Festival Centre. June 14 2026

Reviewed by Peter Wilkins

 

Blues, Soul, Rock and Roll. Mahalia Barnes conquers all. In a concert that rocked old rockers out of their seats at the Dunstan Playhouse, Barnes stood tall, proud and loud ( and at times I mean very loud) on the shoulders of legendary singers who had struggled, suffered, striven and risen victorious as a voice for strong women in a male dominated industry. Their names are synonymous with a talent so supreme that music is glorified with their names: Middler, Joplin, Geyer, Turner and Simone. These are the singers whose legacy Barnes celebrates in Mahalia Barnes Sings The Rose. The first half of the show is the soundtrack of the film The Rose that encapsulates the story of the singers who have come from adversity, faced adversity and struggled through to triumph as an example to aspiring artists the world over.

Backed by her band The Soulmates, Barnes lifts the roof with her Rock and Roll opening number Whose Side Are You On from The Rose . With a voice that rasps from the depths of the soul to the tender ache of the Blues, Barnes pours out her heart with classics like When A Man Loves a Woman, Love Me With A Feeling and The Rose. From the age of 13 Barnes has been obsessed with Stay With Me. Raw and tearing apart the heart, the song is engraved in Barnes’s DNA. In a show that demands one’s all, Barnes gives it and more in her tribute to all female singers who have had to scratch a crawl their way through the quagmire of prejudice and exploitation to let their soul soar in the lyrics and music of their song.

What is so extraordinary as one watches Barnes take control of the stage is the relationship with the members of The Soulmates. She welcomes Adelaide ring-ins, Josh Chenoweth on Trumpet and Jack Degenhart on Saxophone as though they were part of the family. Each member is given their moment in the spotlight with obvious affection from Barnes. The show shines with the rapport and respect for amazing talent. Clayton Doley on keys gives a display of virtuosic musicianship on the organ. Guitarists Ollie Thorpe and Barnes’s husband Ben Rogers share moments with Barnes as does her bass guitarist Angus Radley and guitarist Franco Ragatt while drummer Mick Skelton beats up a storm on percussion. In a show as unforgettable as the names of the singers that Barnes pays homage to singer and musicians seduce an audience with love, passion and the adoration of the women who have forged the way.

The second half of the programme is dedicated to those women, their tragedy and their triumph, their struggle and their survival and the gift they gave to music and the world. Renee Geyer’s Mercedes Benz and Janis Joplin’s A Man’s World, Tina Turner’s I Love You Baby, and Nina Simone’s I Put A Spell On You all recall the addiction, the loss, the longing, the betrayal and through it all the resilience that keeps Rolling On The River.

In a repertoire that is gutsy, gentle and echoing with love, Mahalia Sings The Rose is a rich and uplifting cabaret experience. The man nearby, a baby-boomer like so many reliving their memories of their younger years cried out “I love you Mahalia!” It was obvious that he was not alone when voices called out for more. A show advertised at 75 minutes including an interval ran for ninety through two encores and no interval. With a flourishing finale Barnes had her audience dancing in the aisles to Tina Turner’s Rolling on the River. And the spirit of Barnes’s show kept rolling on.

Photographer: Claudio Raschella

 

 

JOE CHINDAMO & ZOE BLACK - TAC Jazz

Joe Chindamo and Zoe Black at Tuggeranong Arts Centre.

                                        Tuggeranong Arts Centre. June 13^th, 2026.

                                                Reviewed by BILL STEPHENS 

The leap from Carnegie Hall and Melbourne Recital Centre to the intimate theatre at Tuggeranong Arts Centre might seem considerable, yet TAC proved the ideal setting to savour the virtuosity of two of Australia’s most accomplished musicians on a cold Canberra evening.

Joe Chindamo and Zoe Black

Pianist Joe Chindamo, currently the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra’s composer in residence, and violinist Zoe Black, who led the Australian Chamber Orchestra at 23, have graced all three venues and many more.

Even so, the strong impression was that the duo relished the occasion as much as the audience, moving through a program spanning Bach, Handel, Piazzolla, Gershwin and Chindamo himself.

Chindamo and Black do more than perform these works faithfully; they reinvent them with virtuosity and imagination. Their interpretations honour each composer’s original impulse while exploring its possibilities with dazzling technical command.

Joe Chindamo introduces an item

Each piece was introduced informally, Chindamo at greater length, Black with more brevity, before both players seemed to disappear into the music, teasing fresh ideas from familiar melodies.

They set the tone with a tantalising arrangement of an aria from Bach’s Goldberg Variations, then raised the stakes with a dazzling account of Astor Piazzolla’s La Muerte del Angel. Chindamo’s own Three Spaces preceded a blissful rendition of Ennio Morricone’s theme from “Cinema Paradiso”.

Every piece was a highlight, but especially memorable were their inventive arrangements of Earle Hagen’s Harlem Nocturne, George Gershwin’s It Ain’t Necessarily So from “Porgy and Bess”, and Giacomo Puccini’s aria Nessun Dorma from “Turandot”.

Joe Chindamo in action

Other standouts included the glorious Lascia ch’io piango from Handel’s “Rinaldo”, a stunning take on the Habanera from Bizet’s “Carmen”, a dazzling piece inspired by tarantism whose title escaped me, and Carter Burwell’s theme from “Raising Arizona”. Chindamo’s own works, especially Toccata, Into the Light and Reverie, likewise showcased the duo’s formidable technical brilliance.

Chris Deacon recorded the concert for Artsound FM, offering another chance to hear these highlights, and others not mentioned here, when the broadcast airs.

                                                    Images by Kathleen Laidlaw

         This review first published in the digital edition of CITY NEWS on 14.09.26

                           Joe Chindamo and Chloe Black - City News

                         Joe Chindamo and Zoe Black - Australian Arts Review.

  

HOUSE OF ROT: GREY GARDENS ADELAIDE CABARET FESTIVAL

 

House of Rot: Grey Gardens.  

Directed by Dino Dimitriadis. Musical direction by Victoria Falconer. Costume design Nicol & Ford. LiGhting Benjamin Brockman. Dramaturg Leila Enright. Performed by Paul Capsis and Adam Noviello. Produced by Dino Demitriadis and Victoria Falconer. Green Door Theatre Company. Adelaide Cabaret Festival. Adelaide Festival Centre. Space Theatre. June 13 – 14 2026

Reviewed by Peter Wilkins

A grey mist envelops the four black chairs at the front of the stage of the intimate Space Theatre. Shafts of light stream through the mist upon musical director Victoria falconer at the piano in the shadows. Slowly she begins to sing the haunting melody of Windmills of Your Mind, images whirling and turning, spinning and circling in the confusions of the mind. House of Rot: Grey Gardens is loosely based on the controversial cult documentary about a mother and daughter living in poverty within the grey walls of Grey Gardens, the home of Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale and her daughter Edith Bouvier Beale, known as “Big Edie” and “Little Edie”. What is extraordinary is that they were the aunt and cousin of Jacqueline Kennedy and members of the socialite Bouvier family. Green Door Theatre Company has woven the story of the two eccentrics, living in a racoon and flea infested house, surrounded by detritus and infected with the scourge of poverty and dehumanization. This is the scene that Green Door Theatre Company have turned into a compelling, discomforting and bizarre cabaret.

Paul Capsis

House of Rot : Grey Gardens is not a play about a house in disrepair with no running water and piled high with decaying rubbish. It is about the identity and relationship of two eccentric women, “Big Edie” played by Paul Capsis and Adam Noviello as “Little Edie”. In long black slips they conjure an image of deprivation. Capsis is the mother, wiry and wild, screaming against the terrors of her isolation. Noviello, willowy and hooded in monastic mystery with a voice that echoes through the caverns of the heart and soars on the wings of angels fears the tragic fate of daughters who become their mothers in a world of decay that is their destiny.  

Adam Noviello

Becket meets Artaud in a scenario shrouded in fear.  Like Vladimir and Estragon they search for meaning, with snippets of songs of affirmation (I Am What I Am) from La Cage A Folle, songs of dependence (Tea For Two), songs of independence (You Can’t Take That Away From Me.) Noviello’s rendition of In Your Head  (Zombie) is an agonizing wail against the forces one can’t control, a protest that storms on unrequited. Capsis’s Beautiful Dreamer offers a world beyond the reality. I’ll Be Your Mirror Big Edie sings, reassuring in her voice, ominous in her control, driven by fear, resolved by pain and determined no to let go. The rubbish of their life becomes the refuse of their entrapment.

Victoria Falconer

Capsis and Noviello are superb, each one another’s foil and yet utterly entwined. Capsis is electrifying in his passion. Noviello galvanises with stillness and entices with song that erupts from some unfathomable depth of feeling. Together, they joust at the windmills of our mind, provocative and compelling, inviting us to look beyond the surface and deep into the heart and mind of the human condition.

Green Theatre Company has advised that House of Rot:Grey Gardens, premiered at the Adelaide Cabaret Festival is still a work in progress. With performers like Capsis and Noviello and with musical accompaniment by Falconer House of Rot : Grey Gardens is cabaret with clout that will haunt you long after you have left the theatre.

FRANKIE MCNAIR AND ISAAC HAIGH - The Booth Variety Spectacular & Formal Apology Hour. ADELAIDE CABARET FESTIVAL 2026

 

 

Frankie McNair and Isaac Haigh The Booth Variety Spectacular & Formal Apology Hour

The Banquet Room. Adelaide Festival Centre. Adelaide Cabaret Festival. June 12-13 2026

Reviewed by Peter Wilkins

Having posed the question in my review of David Mills’s glamour & despair, I continue my search for a definition of cabaret with the riotously funny and absurdly ridiculous Booth Variety Spectacular & Formal Apology Hour. This silly spoof actually ran for an hour and a half of variety show send-up, commedia lazzi, guest spots and a fork that gets its prongs in a manic slather. Is it cabaret?  Maybe its satirical swipe at the 1969 Variety show tradition might amuse with a dollop of subversion where everything goes wrong – the type of comedy that sends an audience into paroxysms of laughter at the blooper, the disaster and the mishaps in the tradition of Australia's Funniest Home Videos and shows like The Play That Goes Wrong. The audience at Frankie McNair and Isaac Haigh’s alt-comedy spectacular lapped it up. Most of them would remember with nostalgic fondness shows like Adelaide Tonight, the Ernie Sigley Show or Graham Kennedy’s Melbourne Tonight with that failsafe comedy duo the straight man and the fall guy or the Barrel Girl. 

Reuben Kaye and FrankieMcNair

They were shows ripe for the send up and Frankie McNair and Isaac Haigh carry Don Scrimpy’s Scrimpy Television Production off with perfect abandonment. They are assisted by a manic floor manager, a Baby Lloyd-Webber with her one man composition of CAT, accompanied by a painfully woeful and far too long cat dance routine, a truculent contestant and a fork from a long running, lamented series. There is also an unexpected guest appearance by Adelaide Cabaret Festival Artistic Director Reuben Kaye, there to announce the next AD of the festival. And it is….Me Me Me he cries in adulation. It’s not the only thing we learn about Kaye. In the Formal Apology Question time we learn the shattering fact that he would rather be bitten by a dog than scratched by a cat. It is a segment in the show of momentous confessions.

Frankie McNair and Isaac Haigh

But the glue that holds this show together is the calibre of the two leads. Isaac Haigh in a black wig that makes him look like a young Bob Downes and with a voice that bathes the room in droll seduction is Mr. Smooth of the TV Studio. A lovelorn interloper, Haigh has the role of co- host down to a tee and I am catapulted back to the years when the mellifluous tones of the announer would transport me along the airwaves to the radio years and then into the black and white world of the early TV era.

As the neurotic, dangerously unpredictable co-host Tabitha Booth, Frankie McNair has fashioned a character that is part caricature and part perfect copy of the immortal Lucille Ball or Carol Burnett, the brilliant comediennes of the Golden Age of American comedy shows. In a carrot red wig and pink gown, McNair exudes the air of faded glory, desperately hanging on to the memory of the wonder years. McNair and Haigh play out their reincarnation of a bygone age of variety with a touch of pathos beneath the laughter and the burlesque. It is the final performance and like the Variety shows of the Sixties, we are unlikely to see the like again. We are sure to see McNair and Haigh again. They are a newly found gift to the Australian comedy scene

And is it cabaret? It’s a part of a broad church, played out in an intimate room with audience at tables and drinking wine. It is interactive with Kaye clambering through the audience and one of the company talking to people before an audience warm up. It’s not my cabaret, however much I enjoyed the performances of McNair and Haigh. For the packed audience on Saturday night, it was their taste of comedy in a cabaret setting  and risqué and ribald enough to qualify for their kind of thoroughly entertaining cabaret.  

     

DAVID MILLS. ADELAIDE CABARET FESTIVAL 2026

 

David Mills  glamour+despair. 

The Banquet Room. Adelaide Cabaret Festival 2026. Adelaide Festival Centre. June 12 and 13. 2026

Reviewed by Peter Wilkins

David McEvoy at piano and David Mills

Each year the perennial question arises. What is Cabaret? Is it entertainment in a small venue where people are seated at tables and eating and drinking during a performance. If so, then the intimate Banquet Room at the Adelaide Festival Theatre is the ideal venue. And how can you tell a cabaret performer? Is it a man in a suit, looking every bit the part of a public servant. Then New York cabaret comedy performer David Mills is every bit the cabaret performer. Is his show glamour +despair cabaret or stand up comedy. It’s both. It is the forked tongue of satire, the sting in the tail, rattling with snappy jibes at the American Dream, spitting out the gay man’s wit and scorching his one hour act with the flames of dire prophesy and a burning contempt  for the coke addicts, the fentanyl dealers, gay conversion and political correctness. “I am an empath. I feel” Mills says as he turns his slick act on the audience, probing the sex lives, and the Well Woman medication for tiredness or the Wellman drug to boost vitality. The lady beside me is in hysterics. The master raconteur has his audience in his grasp. His humour lets loose the left field oddity of his city, the cataclysmic collapse of the greatest city in the world. 

His comedy is laced with the bitter taste of premonition of an era of decay and a collapsing madhouse world. The middle aged comedian in a conventional suit rails against conformity and indifference. “Don’t be sensible “ he exhorts. This is the consummate stand up comedian, the oracle of his tribe, the satirist with the sting. But it is the cabaret artist who twists the tone with song. The ominous hiss of the snake between the verses of Tender Woman Let Me In is songwriter Oscar Brown’s warning to the world of the dangers that await those who allowed Trump in and threaten to let in Pauline Hanson. Mills is a storyteller, weaving a cautionary tale. Tom Waits’s Hooker in Minneapolis is sung to a hushed room and the violence and degradation of Odyssey’s version of Native New Yorker reminds us of an underbelly , scarred raw by the despairing and despondent. Mills delivers his message with chilling effect only to relieve the tension with a joke and a friendly farewell to his ideal Adelaide audience.

So, is this cabaret, a cabaret iconoclast in a plain suit on stage with his accomplished accompanist Dave McEvoy, spicing the laughter with tales of sexual behaviour and gay pride excess, cajoling audiences with cheeky interaction and turning laughter to contemplative silence? The choice of songs is purposeful and powerful and we are left to consider our place in a changing and challenging world. This is Mills the cabaret artist, part anarchist, part prophet leaving us to leave the Banquet Room with the impact of his show resting solidly on our conscience.

The show is going to the Hayes Theatre in Sydney. It is funny, witty, shocking and a perfect example of stand up comedy meets cabaret. Don’t miss it if you are able to catch a brief Sydney season.   

Photos by Claudio Raschella  

Travelling North

 

Travelling North by David Williamson.  Canberra REP at Canberra REP Theatre, June 11 – 27 2026

Reviewed by Frank McKone
June 13

Creatives
Directed by Cate Clelland
Set Design: Cate Clelland
Costume Design: Clare Middleton, Darcy Abrahams, Cate Clelland
Lighting Design: Craig Muller; Sound Design: Nev Pye
Properties: Brenton Warren

Cast
Frances – Danielle Spiller; Frank – Pat Gallagher
Sophie – Margeaux Arundel-Williams; Helen – Matilda Millar-Carton
Joan – Stephanie van Lieshout; Freddy Wicks – Steven Kennedy
Saul Morgenstein – Adrian Breen
Wedding Celebrant – Kumar Kartikey Gupta
Gallery Attendant – Grace Cassidy

Though, from my past experience in companies similar to REP, I fully appreciate the effort that has gone into this presentation of Travelling North, with its thirty-three very short scenes.

Because Cate Clelland has chosen to darken the stage and move often large pieces of furniture on and off between almost all scenes, nearly half of our time in the audience is taken up in scene changes.  

Though this may seem a cheap joke, half-way through Act I the word “pedestrian” came to mind – referring to all the walking on and off; and meaning the effect as a theatrical experience, as opposed to, say, “engaging”.

I therefore cannot recommend REP’s production of Travelling North.

On the other hand, I did review the touring production done by Christine Harris and HIT Productions, presented in Canberra at the Tuggeranong Arts Centre in 2008.

I wrote then that Bruce Myles’ “direction suits this small-scale venue, bringing out qualities of character and personal relationships more successfully than I remember from early productions on larger stages where Williamson's one-liners were funny but less engaging.”

How did he do it?   Canberra REP’s stage is not exactly large, and could have used a design like this:

An AI search is informative: 
For the 2008 national touring production of David Williamson’s Travelling North—produced by HIT Productions and directed by Bruce Myles—the creative team faced a unique challenge. The play’s "filmic" structure demands rapid movement across dozens of short scenes. Furthermore, as a 14-week national tour, the set had to be physically adaptable enough to pack down and fit into 33 different metropolitan, regional, and remote venues across Australia.

To solve this, set designer Shaun Gurton and lighting designer Glenn Hughes devised a highly functional, smart, and minimalist staging environment, The Set Design Minimalist Framework: 

Shaun Gurton opted for an elegant, understated, and functional design. Rather than trying to construct multiple realistic rooms, the stage relied on clean lines and abstract spacing.

Portable Architecture: Because it was built for rigorous regional touring, the physical structures were lightweight and easily transportable. The design used simple multi-purpose spatial markers (like steps, platforms, or sparse furniture) that could easily adjust to fit varying stage sizes across Australia.

Thematic Focus: By stripping away heavy clutter, the design purposefully shifted the entire audience focus onto the spiky dialogue and personal interactions [and] avoided heavy, traditional physical set tracking or long curtain pauses. Scenes dissolved into one another with actors carrying small props or altering their positioning smoothly.(My emphasis).

The action of the play is mostly limited to three locations [with] Frank and Frances' holiday getaway positioned at stage right.

The result for HIT in 2008 was, in my review: “The audience's sustained applause on opening night expressed our appreciation not only for the skills of the director and actors but, I think, for a production which brought the best out of Williamson.  Very satisfying.”

I honestly could not write the same conclusion about the performance I saw on Saturday.

TRAVELLING NORTH

 

Written by David Williamson

Directed by Cate Clelland

Canberra REP production

Canberra REP Theatre, Acton to 27 June

 

Reviewed by Len Power 13 June 2026

 

David Williamson’s Travelling North tackles questions around ageing and its impact on relationships, families and love. Although it was written in 1979, and the world has changed a lot since then, those same questions are still valid today.

When newly retired engineer, Frank, and his somewhat younger girlfriend, Frances, decide to move to and live together in the tropical north, their adult children from previous marriages express concerns. Frank has always been a bit of a bully and Frances needs to learn to take charge of her own life. They have to find new ways to deal with issues that arise between them in their new relationship and when ageing and ill-health overtake Frank, difficult decisions must be made by both of them.

The director, Cate Clelland, has achieved fine results with the actors’ characters. Pat Gallagher gives a colourful performance as Frank, a man with a bluff exterior who is quite vulnerable underneath. Gallagher creates a complex man who is immediately recognizable and his love for Frances, underneath all the bluster, is touching and nicely played.

Danielle Spiller (Frances) and Pat Gallagher (Frank)

As Frances, Danielle Spiller portrays a woman with many self-doubts and guilt feelings from the past. Her luminous performance captures all aspects of this quiet, good woman who, through her relationship with Frank, becomes a person able to be true to herself and her needs.

Margeaux Arundel Williams (Sophie), Danielle Spiller (Frances) and Matilda Millar-Carton (Helen)

Matilda Millar-Carton gives a strong performance as Helen, the forthright and bitter daughter of Frances. Margeaux Arundel Williams, as the more conciliatory and balanced of Frances’s daughters, Sophie, gives an equally fine performance.

Adrian Breen (Saul), Pat Gallagher (Frank), Danielle Spiller (Frances) and Steven Kennedy (Freddy)

Steven Kennedy deftly makes Freddy, the lonely and over-helpful next door neighbour of Frank and Frances up north, funny and a little sad. Adrian Breen is very funny as Frank’s long-suffering doctor, Saul Morgenstein, and Stephanie van Lieshout gives a fine knowing and accepting performance as Frank’s daughter, Joan. In addition, there are nice, quirky cameo performances by Kumar Kartikey Gupta as the wedding celebrant and Grace Cassidy as the gallery attendant.

The play presents a difficulty in its staging with 33 small scenes. While the set design clearly delineated scenes taking place in the north and south, it created problems with the frequent changes necessary for props and furniture. While it was done as efficiently as possible, it became annoying especially towards the end of the play, breaking involvement in the story.

 

Photos by Ross Gould

Len Power's reviews are also broadcast on Artsound FM 92.7 in the ‘Arts Cafe’ and ‘Arts About’ programs and published in his blog 'Just Power Writing' at https://justpowerwriting.blogspot.com/.

 

 

THE DEEP BLUE SEA

 

Written by Terence Rattigan

Directed by Tony Knight

Chaika Theatre

At ACT HUB Theatre, Kingston to 27 June

 

Reviewed by Len Power 12 June 2026

 

When you’re caught between the Devil and the deep blue sea, finding the strength to keep on living may prove to be impossible.

In Terence Rattigan’s play, set in the post-war austerity of 1950s London, Hester Collyer is found barely alive after a suicide attempt in her cheap apartment. What prompted her action, and her continuing struggle with emotional isolation, is at the heart of this play about human relationships.

There are outstanding, highly believable performances by the whole cast of eight in this production.

Jenna Roberts gives a terrifying vulnerability to the central role of Hester Collyer. The pain this woman is feeling is profound. Her playing of this woman’s emotional crisis and her reactions to the other characters shines with clarity and honesty. She has achieved a very real, raw and courageous performance.

Sol Mason plays Hester’s lover, Freddie Page, a man who is unable to move on from the 1940s in his views on life, work and relationships. There is pain, an outdated sense of bravado and a lack of understanding portrayed in Mason’s nicely tuned performance.

As Miller, the ex-doctor with a possibly shady past, Karen Vickery gives a no-nonsense performance with a hint of warmth and vulnerability under the surface. Her multi-layered characterization is very well-played.

Michael Sparks plays Hester’s ex-husband, Sir William Collyer, as a man who clearly wants her back but lacks the understanding of her emotional needs. His performance is finely nuanced, and especially impressive in his non-verbal reactions.

There is fine work, too, from Kate Blackhurst as the brisk landlady, Mrs Elton, Blue Hyslop as Freddie’s war-time friend who hasn’t changed either and Meaghan Stewart and Jack Shanahan as the nosy but kind-hearted neighbours, Ann and Philip.

Tony Knight’s expert direction of this production has ensured that the interaction of these colourful characters stays very real throughout. Presented on a set with the audience on two sides, he has achieved a notable intimacy between cast and audience. Rattigan’s play, written in 1952, is literate and emotionally involving in this excellent production.

 

Len Power's reviews are also broadcast on Artsound FM 92.7 in the ‘Arts Cafe’ and ‘Arts About’ programs and published in his blog 'Just Power Writing' at https://justpowerwriting.blogspot.com/.