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| Amanda Palmer |
Canberra
Theatre – 7th February 2020
Reviewed by
Bill Stephens
Perhaps best
known for her punk cabaret duo, “The Dresden Dolls”, for her crowd-funding
expertise, her mesmerising videos, or even her recent world-first public
performance at the Mona Foma festival in Launceston, where for several days she
sat in a small cubicle listening to members of the public confide their
deepest, darkest secrets, Amanda Palmer is a one-of-a-kind performer who defies
categorization. Described as a singer, songwriter, musician, author and
performance artist, her powerful songs tackle head-on, the big questions like
abortion and rape. To watch her perform
them in person, sitting alone at a grand piano is an unsettling, and certainly
memorable, experience.
Her concert
was entitled “There will be no Interval”. Thankfully there was one. It lasted
20 minutes, in a marathon concert that ran for four hours. Much of that time
was taken up with Palmer assaulting the Steinway with enough ferocity to spark
doubts as to whether it would survive the concert, while belting out lyrics so
over-amplified that most were unintelligible. This was a shame, because when
they could be understood, her lyrics sounded tantalisingly perceptive.
For the most
part though, after opening her show, surprisingly with mischievous version of
“My favourite Things” from “The Sound of Music”, she
stood at the front of the stage, bathed in the inevitable haze necessary for the
impressive rock-star lighting, and talked to her audience.
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| Amanda Palmer |
A
charismatic story teller, Palmer’s eyes brim with tears as she confides details
of her sexual awakening, at fourteen, at the hands of the Corrupter. Her
stories are powerful and deeply confessional. You could have heard a pin drop
as she described, in harrowing detail, her three abortions, her miscarriages
and the death of her best friend and therapist, Anthony, before expertly
releasing the tension, with a flourish of sardonic humour, earning relieved
laughter from her audience.
Occasionally
she would punctuate the stories by returning to the piano to belt out one of
her songs to underline a point. Among them “It Runs in the Family” with its
unsettling repetitive “Me Up” refrain, “Straight (with Strings)” and the disturbing
“A Mother’s Confession” which ends with the lyric “But at least the baby didn’t
die”.
After
commencing the second half of the program with her ear-worm, “Coin Operated
Boy”, she ignored audience calls for more of her songs, preferring to continue
with her stories, which felt a bit risky, and smacked of self-indulgence.
However, she did perform, (again surprisingly), a sardonic, screeching version
of “Let If Go” from “Frozen” before ending the concert gently with an encore, which
neatly summed up the evening. It was called “The Ride”.
This review also published in AUSTRALIAN ARTS REVIEW. www.artsreview.com.au