The Photo Box | Adelaide Festival 2022 review
Emma Beech spills an entire generation of familial secrets in this beautifully crafted, intensely personal yet familiar world premiere.
Adelaide Festival
Don't miss out on the headlines from Adelaide Festival. Followed categories will be added to My News.
The Photo Box
Theatre | Australia
Rating:
Space Theatre, Adelaide Festival Centre
Until March 7
Intensely personal, and yet, oh so familiar for us all, Emma Beech spills an entire generation of familial secrets in this beautifully crafted world premiere.
The “accidental” ninth child of Betty and John from Barmera in South Australia’s Riverland delivers a thrilling dramatic journey, revealing how she came to take on the role of Beech family myth-buster.
Not that the founder of the Australian Bureau of Worthiness didn’t seek permissions from her siblings and parents to tell their hilarious tales of triumph and disaster – although several might be regretting that now.
Developed over three years, her show is inspired by a box of childhood photos taken at the family home and surrounds on Lake Bonney.
In adulthood, and especially as the mother of seven-year-old fraternal triplets, each picture means far more now than they did when first seen and lead Beech to new discoveries and revelations.
The photo of her as a tot in the arms of her mother, who at 40 is the same age then as the actor is now, is a poignant beginning.
Cleverly staged, including a brilliant re-enactment of a baffling event all people of Barmera will remember, the production benefits from a terrific soundtrack from composer Jason Sweeney and a video presentation of family members by film maker Shalom Almond.
Made half-famous as the “germ-spreading sneezing woman” in last year’s Covid-19 SA Health ad, Beech deserves greater acclaim as a generous, assured performer and artistic creator of a witty, relatable and memorable production.
Bars, stars and festival guitars
Wanderers frontman Dusty Lee Stephensen will premiere his upcoming solo material as part of Adelaide Guitar Festival.
Festivals in the firing line amid looming city rate rise
A raft of much-loved city festivals, activations and business programs may face devastating or program-ending funding cuts as Adelaide City Council looks to lower its rates.