Cohen Noir: The Beauty, Mystery
and Romance of Leonard Cohen. Monsieur Camembert. Adelaide Cabaret Festival. Dunstan
Playhouse. Adelaide Festival Centre. June 20 and 21 2026.
Reviewed by Peter Wilkins
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Monsieur Camembert presents Cohen Noir: The Beauty,Mystery
and Romance of Leonard Cohen. Photo: Claudio Raschella |
Leonard Cohen’s spirit must have
been smiling down on Monsieur Camembert’s stunning homage to the iconic legend,
the profound “poet laureate of pessimism”. Anyone fortunate enough to have been
in the Dunstan Playhouse at Monsieur Camembert’s performance of Cohen Noir:
The Beauty, Mystery and Romance of Leonard Cohen at the Adelaide Festival Centre
were witness to a triple treat that they would remember for years to come. Cohen
Noir is a celebration of the man, his music and his songs, introduced by narrator
Yaron Hallis of the three time Aria Award winning group. The show is backed by
a remarkably talented ten-piece band, totally adept at gypsy, jazz, klezmer, Latin
American and classical.
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| Yaron Hallis. Photo Brook Mitchell |
The show opens with a Jewish prayer, haunting in its
solemnity and segues into Gypsy Wife. This is classic Cohen, reverberating with
longing. Hallis punctuates the songs with references to Cohen’s own words and
introduces the singers who bring their individual style to the songs. Lyn Bowtell,
Timothy James Bowen and Diana Rouvas show the range and depth of Cohen’s talent.
Their singing embodies the spirit and diversity of Cohen’s view of life. Cohen
is the poet of sombriety and his lyrics are cries from the heart. I had some
difficulty at times with Rouvas’s lack of clarity with the lyrics although her
voice embodied the very soul of Cohen’s music. Hallis invited violinist Susie
Bishop to emerge from the band to sing with the three guests. Her vocals soared
with crystal clarity towards the voice of Cohen, recorded as commentary on his
philosophy of life, a life without regret but still echoing with his pensive
reflections on love and humanity. This too was accompanied by the bluesy sound
of Matthew Ottignon’s tenor sax and Mark Harris’s ritualistic throat singing as
he played the Double Bass. Cohen’s gypsy existence, the Jewish spirit of the
fiddler on the roof, brushed along the violin strings of Ben Adler’s klezmer rhythms
while Susie Bishop provided a more classical accompaniment. Each member of the
group shone in their solo tribute to Cohen’s enticing art.
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| Yaron Hallis and Victor Valdes. Photo: Tony Egan |
Surprisingly, the concert took an
astounding turn when the 50 members of the local Born on Monday choir
entered at the rear of the stage to provide backing for Cohen’s classic Hallelujah.
Backed by the choir, played by the band and sung by the singers this rendition
was more than a showstopper that had the audience in raptures but was also a
glorious ode to a unique musician who for the people in the audience represented
the spirit of survival and the will to carry on through all life’s trials and
tribulations as long as there was love.
Monsieur Camembert’s show was a
phenomenal celebration of Cohen’s life, music and lyrics and his insightful
perception of life’s struggles but this concert at the Adelaide Cabaret
Festival was also a tribute to his power to bring people together, to sing in
unison the chorus of Everybody Knows, to join in impulsively with Hallelujah
and to become united as one community in the encore of Dance Me To The End of Love. Its
hypnotic incessant rhythm enveloped me still as I left the theatre, uplifted by
the magnificent performances by the band and the singers and moved by Hallis’s
narration and Leonard Cohen’s voice espousing the great poet’s philosophy and observance of life. This was a
highlight of my Adelaide Cabaret Festival experience and I left my final show uplifted
by Leonard Cohen’s artistry, Monsieur Camembert’s brilliance and Cohen’s
inspiration to embrace love, life and death.
