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/.

 

 

The Deep Blue Sea

 

The Deep Blue Sea by Terence Rattigan.  Chaika Theatre at ACT Hub, Kingston, Canberra

June 12 - 27 2026
Reviewed by Frank McKone
June 12

Creatives

Creatives
Director: Tony Knight
Asst Director & Costume: Ylaria Rogers
Design: Michael Sparks
Artworks: Leigh Penton & Kerry Wode/Lillian Vickery & John Vickery
Light & Stage Management: Disa Swifte
Sound: Neville Pye; Composition: Paris Scharkie
Properties & Medical Consultant: Yanina Clifton
Intimacy Consultant: Jill Young

Cast
Hester – Jenna Roberts; Mrs Elton – Kate Blackhurst; Miller - Karen Vickery
Philip – Jack Shanahan; Ann – Meaghan Stewart
Sir William Collyer – Michael Sparks; Freddie Page – Sol Mason
Jackie Jackson – Blue Hyslop



Terence Rattigan’s 1950s’ play is about what it means to love someone, what it means to be loved by someone, and what it means when love fades, and life seems to no longer have any purpose.

These are the experiences of the central character: a woman, Hester, a demanding role played  with sensitivity and fine detail by Jenna Roberts, through all the vicissitudes from self-loathing to hope.

As the two men in her life, the staid successful Judge Sir William Collyer and the one-time military test pilot, adventurous Freddie Page – Michael Sparks and Sol Mason respectively – match Roberts’ acting skill, providing strength and balance in the drama’s through-line to Hester’s achievement of true independence.

And, all the other characters in her milieu – other tenants in the block of flats where Hester lives, the unit cleaning-woman, a down-graded medic, and Freddie’s air force friend – establish their status and position as they relate to her, influencing how she progresses from near suicide to taking up her artistic work in a positive frame of mind.

This Chaika production of The Deep Blue Sea is very successful first because of the quality of the directing.  Tony Knight has clearly understood the need for the style appropriate for the period and situation that Rattigan has written into the script – almost as if it were a Noel Coward witty comedy as the play begins, which then mutates into serious reality.

In addition, playing at The ACT Hub, with the audience grouped at each end, and the sitting room setting across the space between them, allows us to feel as if we are almost in the room with the characters – reminding me of that other famous intimate theatre, Ensemble Theatre in Sydney.

The careful mimimal use of external sound – the quiet piano – and lighting underdone – but just right – reinforced the sense of quality theatre on the principle of less is more.

Finally, the choice of a play about love and marriage difficulties from a time before today’s social media disaster is an important contribution to recognising the value of real-time person to person life – in a time now when youth suicide is on the increase.

A production not to be missed.

At https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Deep_Blue_Sea_(play), for further thinking about the significance of Rattigan’s theme, his personal history suggests he intended the implications of Hester’s story should apply to any love experience, not only male-female.  The important issue, it seems to me, is that we all should do our bit to support others through their natural emotional turmoils when their hopes are unfulfilled.  That’s another kind of love.

 

 

 

 

HARMONIC CURVES - RESONANCE

 

Alice Giles, harp, Timothy Kain, guitar

Wesley Music Centre June 7

 

Reviewed by Len Power

 

Resonance was the focus of the latest Harmonic Curves concert. The harp and guitar proved to be the perfect match, showcasing a range of music from the 16^th century to the present day in the hands of two excellent players, Alice Giles (harp) and Timothy Kain (guitar).

Initially inspired by popular music and flamenco to start playing the guitar, Kain’s first classical guitar lessons were with Sadie Bishop at the Canberra School of Music.

After graduating, he studied in Spain and England, winning prizes in Europe for his playing. His performing and teaching activities have taken him all over the world, building an international reputation both as a soloist and chamber musician.

Giles has had a wide-ranging career and has appeared as guest artist at international chamber music festivals.

For the first half of the program, Alice Giles played two solo works composed between 1916 and 1918 by French harpist, Carlos Salzedo – Five Preludes for Harp Alone and Five Studies For Harp Alone. Giles explained that she would be using gestures developed by the composer as part of his Salzedo Method for the harp.

With subtitles such as Iridescence, Introspection, Whirlwind, Mirage and Communion, each part presented a different mood or colour and demonstrated the versatility of the harp as well as the skill of the player. The gestures added an extra stylistic layer to the music and Giles performed both all parts of the two works superbly.

Timothy Kain (guitar) and Alice Giles (harp)

Guitarist, Timothy Kain, joined Alice Giles to present the second half of the program. First, they played Three pieces by Irish composer, Turlough O’Carolan, born 1670, arranged for duo by G. Garcia. These melodic works were delightfully played, and both performers clearly enjoyed playing them.

The duo next played A View From The Eagle’s Nest by Canberra composer Marián Budoš. This Canberra premiere of a 2023 work created a grand atmosphere both melodic and introspective. It proved to be a highlight of the program and the composer, who was in the audience, signalled his appreciation of the duo’s performance.

The final work on the program was the Suite Magica from 2015 by Argentinian composer, Maximo Diego Pujol. This popular work in 4 parts was given a fine performance by Giles and Kain, bringing this excellent concert to a close.

 

Photo by Len Power

 

This review was first published by Canberra CityNews digital edition on 8 June 2026.

 

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/.

Len Power also presents the weekly Concert Hall program on Artsound FM, playing recordings of some of the best concerts from in and around Canberra. Concert Hall can be heard on Sundays at 8pm and is repeated on Wednesdays at 2pm.