Adelaide Fringe 2022: Every five-star review from the festival so far
Finding a great Fringe show can be the luck of the draw ... unless you do your research! Here’s our guide to every five-star show for a guaranteed great night out.
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With over 1000 shows at this year’s Adelaide Fringe, figuring out where to direct your hard-earned cash can be more than a little overwhelming.
Of course, whether a show is ultimately worth your time and money is largely in the eye of the beholder. One showgoer’s “masterpiece!” is another one’s “lemon!”
But one way to make sure you don’t miss the breakout hits of the Festival is to see what the experts are saying.
As always, aur reviewers are heading out and about again this year to deliver their verdict on a wide selection of shows across the genres; theatre, cabaret, comedy, dance, music, magic, visual arts and more.
Below is a taste of the shows that have already earned themselves a five star review from The Advertiser and we’ll keep this list updated as the festival rolls on.
If you’ve seen any of the shows listed here, we’d love to know how you rated them and how our reviews compare to your own experience. Just comment in the box below.
And don’t forget The ‘Tiser Fringe Adviser is up and running again, with a handy search tool, and search filters, to help you find the right show for you and your family.
HANS: A NIGHT AT THE SYMPH-HONEY!
Hans: A Night At The SYMPH-honey!
Cabaret
Rating: *****
Thebarton Theatre
Until March 19
A raucous night of delightfully camp fun, A Night at the Symph-honey will leave you buzzing with joy.
“This feels like the antithesis to the pandemic,” uttered my date for the evening as Hans’ dazzling symphony extravaganza came to a close.
SHAD & PETE SAVE THE WORLD!
Comedy
Rating: *****
The Howling Owl
Until March 19
Come one, come all, but come with caution. All your scandalous secrets and outrageous concerns are revealed in this mic dropping, incredibly intimate and luxuriously loose-lipped performance.
NO HAT, NO PLAY! THE CABARET
No Hat, No Play! The Cabaret
Rating: *****
The Bally at Gluttony
Until March 14
Grade 6 at Rockdale Primary is the sandpit from hell, ruled over by Mel and Sam. Your heart bleeds for the kids targeted for their attention, but the audience is left helpless with laughter.
DANIEL MUGGLETON: WHITE AND WRONG (BUT MOSTLY WHITE)
Daniel Muggleton: White and Wrong (But Mostly White)
Rating: *****
The Piglet (open-air) at Gluttony
Until March 14
Not for the faint hearted, and especially not for the prudes, Daniel Muggleton sets about offending Adelaide one joke at a time.
Muggleton is a loose-lipped wonder, poking light at the difficult topics faced by the young ones of our not-so-politically-correct generation.
Dazzling his outdoor crowd from a shipping container (much to his distaste), Muggleton is interactive and straight to the point.
BABY ET LULU
Music
Rating *****
Church of the Trinity
March 4
It’s perfectly apt that this personification of French joie de vivre was held in a church because it was just so heavenly.
The “faux-thentic French” duo of Baby (Abby Dobson, formerly of Leonardo’s Bride fame) and Lulu (Lara Goodridge) – with their delicious, affected accents, heartfelt connection and laugh-out-loud wit – were as sparkling and scrumptious as champagne.
Together with a slickly talented band, the Sydney-based twosome – who have been together for 12 years – played a joyful, enriching set that proved an uplifting antidote in a time of heavy headlines.
SAFETY NETS
Theatre and Physical Theatre
Rating: *****
Studio at Bakehouse Theatre
Until March 12
Haunting, stirring and unmissable, this powerful new production will leave you truly comprehending there is no place like home.
Creators and performers Sarah Butler and Jillian O’Dowd present a highly theatrical and thoughtful expression of what it means to be homeless.
Both are billed as Ruby Tuesday, a woman in her 50s living in a derelict theatre squat in Sydney.
Ruby’s mum was Mick Jagger’s muse and inspiration for the Stones’ song – or maybe she was really an addled drug addict trapped in a cycle of poverty and abuse.
THE UMBILICAL BROTHERS
Comedy
Babylon at The Garden of Unearthly Delights
Until March 6
The Umbilical Brothers are constantly multiplying their fun and games through polished technical magic and stage mayhem.
Where once radio plays were performed in real time with microphones and foleys, we now have a whole suite of video cameras, green screens, digital film effects, and a veejay, Doug Bayne, to open new vistas.
Live onstage and projecting action on a big screen above, their antics and slapstick have become a really impressive coup of comedy and theatre. - Tim Lloyd
NAOMI
Theatre
The Studio at Holden Street Theatres
Until March 20
You won’t see anything as raw this festival season as Patrick Livesey’s astonishing tribute to his mother and the gut-wrenching exploration of how she came to die by suicide. The writing and performance are not flawless… but the sum of these parts is brilliant, brave and important.
PERIOD.
Cabaret/Comedy
The Breakout at The Mill
Until March 6
Do you need any Modess? That is all Mum had to ask for teenage me to have a major meltdown in aisle five.
Back when we called it PMT – “premenstrual tension”, rather than today’s “premenstrual syndrome” – for a reason.
In the mid ‘80s, period was a dirty word and the mere mention of it was like waving a red rag …
If only there had been Carla Anita Mattiazzo’s PERIOD. to enlighten us.
It is everything you ever wanted to know about periods (but were afraid to ask) and more. -
Anna Vlach
AUSTRALIAN VOCAL ENSEMBLE
Music
Spiegeltent at GOUD
February 26
Rising stars AVÉ, the Australian Vocal Ensemble, ascended to dizzy heights with their Adelaide premiere.
AVÉ is the brainchild of star singer-songwriter Katie Noonan, who has enlisted tenor Andrew Goodwin, mezzosoprano Fiona Campbell and bass-baritone Andrew O’Connor to form a quartet that’s a force to be reckoned with.
Tracks from their debut EP Stars featured in the program, very impressively Afterword from Adelaide composer Anne Cawrse, a distinctive voice among a long list of Australian composers they’ve commissioned to set texts from their muse, David Malouf.
-Peter Burdon
SIMON TAYLOR - EPIC
Comedy
The Vault at GOUD
Until March 6
Sharp, charismatic and full of energy – Simon Taylor may joke that he’s a loser hipster, but he’s far, far from it.
He’s a natural storyteller with a knack for imagery and a dazzling onstage presence that has you hanging on every word.
The multi-talented Melbourne comedian makes his 12th Adelaide Fringe appearance, providing insight into his post-lockdown personal life and US misadventures, dotted with some deliciously dark punchlines and surprise twists and turns.
- Bella Fowler
NURSE GEORGIE CARROLL - SISTER FLO 2.0
Comedy
Umbrella Revolution at The Garden of Unearthly Delights
Until March 20
If laughter is the best medicine, hilarious Nurse Georgie Carroll is good for your health.
Despite sell out tours and a viral video series, I’d not heard of the menopausal, middle-aged emergency nurse with two teenage lads — formerly from Yorkshire.
But I’m not likely to forget the proud South Aussie now, after an hour of rollicking, riotous comedy, drawn from our crisis ridden hospital wards and every-day travails of life.
-Craig Cook
SAM CAMPBELL - COMPANION
Sam Campbell – Companion
Comedy
The Vault at GOUD
Until March 6
If you like your comedy on the downright insane end of the spectrum, Sam Campbell will satisfy your every need and have you wiping tears of laughter from your eyes.
Campbell is a weird unit. To give you an idea, if the love child of Courtney Barnett and Jerry Seinfeld took a bong hit then wandered into the Garden of Unearthly Delights, it might account for about 15 minutes of his wildly offbeat silliness.
An absurdist mastermind, he delivers an hour of ridiculous musings and bizarre multimedia content. Read our review in full
- Bella Fowler
THE WILKINS TRILOGY - PART 1
Theatre and Physical Theatre
Main Theatre at Goodwood Theatre and Studios
Until March 6
In a one man tour de force, Stephen Schofield is superb as a young Bert Wilkins in the first dramatisation of the early extraordinary life of a remarkable South Australian.
Seen last year in Bumming With Jane, Schofield is compelling as the pioneering polar explorer, photographer and cinematographer, born into poverty on the desolate badlands north of Burra.
Using his own photos and footage this brilliant production reproduces Sir Hubert’s astonishing death-defying exploits in the Balkan Wars (1912), Polar expeditions (1913) and on the Western Front (1917-18), under direction from legendary war correspondent Charles Bean.
In his seventh consecutive Fringe offering, writer and director Peter Maddern (Kokoda & The Loneliest Woman) has crafted a poetic, thrilling gem of a play.
FIONA O’LOUGHLIN LIVE
Comedy
FRINGELAND Prospect at Vine Street Plaza and Main Stage, ARTHUR ARTBAR at West Village
Until March 18
Will it be a tough crowd or an audience with a soft spot for SA-born Fiona O’Loughlin?
For the self-proclaimed Queen Fi, it’s a case of ‘who cares!’ as she motors onto the stage to Earth, Wind & Fire’s Let’s Groove; she’s staying swerving in her own lane and taking us along for the ride.
Now grandmother “Goose” to three under three, O’Loughlin has been diagnosed with ADHD, which she explains has an awful lot to do with the road she’s travelled.
But O’Loughlin is more than happy to laugh at herself and make it a fun rollercoaster for us.
ORACLE
Theatre and Physical Theatre
The Octagon at Gluttony
Until March 20
You won’t need a crystal ball – or a horoscope, for that matter – to see that Oracle sets a new benchmark in the firmament for Fringe production values and sheer spectacle.
Sure, it comes perilously close to being high-end erotica, but the level of circus skills, exquisite (if barely there) costumes, dazzling lights, choreographed dance routines and temple ruin set design surpasses that of many mainstage theatre shows.
Bass Fam Creative, the team behind returning hit Matador, takes us on a journey to the stars and through the zodiac signs that make up many of its constellations. Like any good rocket ship, the show is airtight - Patrick McDonald
Read our review in full.
NELLA
Theatre and Physical Theatre
Studio 166 at Goodwood Theatre and Studios
Until February 22
Like a giant hug from your Nonna, this award-winning, returning show is emotionally nourishing.
Performer and writer Julia Mayer condenses the migrant experience, of trepidation, hope and wonderment, into an hour of joyous, heartfelt entertainment.
Based on the experiences of her Italian born grandmother, Nella Ortolan, who left her village as a teenager to perfect her bocce playing with her childhood sweetheart in Adelaide, Mayer has woven a touching, engaging and interactive performance.- Craig Cook
Read our review in full
MATADOR – SABOR DE AMOR
Dance
Magic Mirrors Spiegeltent at Gluttony
Until March 20
The standout hit of the 2021 Fringe, Matador – Sabor de Amor returns with a stupendous show that extends last year’s short version to a full 100 minutes of sultry, sweaty and supremely stylish entertainment.
Sabor de Amor – “a taste of love” – is a stunning blend of physical theatre, dance and burlesque with a distinctly European flavour, and an unmistakeable Aussie twist, not least a whole lot of Kylie backing up the brilliant moves. - Peter Burdon
Read our review in full
JOSH GLANC - VROOOM VROOOM
Comedy
Fringeland Prospect at Vine Street Plaza and The Bally at Gluttony
Until March 11
A glittering display of downright absurdity – Josh Glanc is a Fringe artist not to be missed.
Impeccably well-crafted silliness is the crux if Josh Glanc’s humour – and it’s that which makes him one of the smartest comedians on the scene.
Glanc is a master of the bizarre, and stepping into his world for an hour will make you wish you could live inside his head for a day. - Isabella Fowler
Read our review in full
REUBEN KAYE THE BUTCH IS BACK
Cabaret
Babylon at GOUD
Until March 20
“Inspiration, aberration, and the real reason Peter Dutton’s buying all those tanks,” Rueben Kaye declares as he fairly explodes onto the stage in his latest outrage, The Butch is Back.
By the reaction of the audience, whooping and hollering and hands in the air, Kaye now has a firm and fanatical fan-club in Radelaide.
Kaye begins with a 20 minute tour de force (I’m sure he’d accept tour de farce) in which his phenomenal singing voice is interwoven with a tightly-written, supremely intelligent patter that eviscerates every social quandary you can imagine, be it moral, behavioural, religious, environmental or, of course, sexual.
THE KAYE HOLE HOSTED BY REUBEN KAYE
Cabaret
Babylon, GOUD
Until March 19
“I wanna take you to a gay bar” sings – well, shrieks – Fringe ambassador and self-styled new people’s princess Reuben Kaye, cranking up the gasp-o-meter up a few notches with his outrageous late-night variety show The Kaye Hole.
Miss Betty Bombshell’s pasties are still whirling in opposite directions, while the rhinestone cowboy Dale Woodbridge-Brown demonstrated his prowess with the bullwhip, snipping off a rose-head whose stem was deftly inserted, well, out of sight. That was quite something to see. - Peter Burdon
Read our review in full
SAME PENIS FOREVER
Cabaret
The Lark at Gluttony
Until March 6
Remember The Kenny Everett Video Show - where its host would appear as Captain Kremmen, Sid Snot etc?
Well, Queensland’s Rebel Lyons could give Everett a run for his money with her must-see Same Penis Forever.
Lyons, who “started her drama degree with a boyfriend and graduated with an ex-husband”, plays a multitude of characters – both live and in prerecorded clips, featuring a bridal bootcamp bitch and nauseating TV cook, among others.
With a magic gag that will make you gulp, an audience participation game of “Who is the biggest slut?” and a sensational singalong finale, this riotous romp is side-splittingly funny. - Anna Vlach
AIDAN JONES - PASSING TIME
Comedy
Upstairs at Producers Hotel / The Nairobi Affair Lounge
Until March 6
Observational, topical and politically-tinged humour that isn’t problematic can be hard to come by, but Aidan Jones has found the sweet spot. And it works.
With razor-sharp wit and original material to rival some of the biggest comedians of the Fringe, it’s hard to believe Jones is still somewhat undiscovered.
Endearingly self-deprecating, a tiny bit bitter, but overall impressively self-aware, Aidan weaves through the story of being fired from his last job with the audience hooked to every word.
Signposted with emails from his grandfather and littered with punchlines that will leave you laughing for days on end, this is what an extremely well-crafted comedy set looks like.
POLES: THE SCIENCE OF MAGNETIC ATTRACTION
Theatre and Physical Theatre
Mainstage at Bakehouse Theatre
Until February 26
Stripper Cora is a mess of contradictions.
She’s independent yet needy, party girl yet homebody, self-promoter yet self-saboteur.
She loves the attention of the men who come to the strip club, but is equally disgusted by them.
She’s desperate to be loved, but pushes away anyone who gets close to her.
Amelia Pitcher’s superb one-woman show Poles: The Science of Magnetic Attraction is just as much about repulsion – of others and herself – as 23-year-old Cora struggles to find her place in the world and unsuccessfully tries to stop herself from getting hurt. - Tim Williams
ABBAsolutely FABULOUS
Cabaret
Regal Theatre
Until February 20
This is a show strictly for ABBA fans – and that’s everyone judging by the sold out, Covid-safe crowd on opening night.
It was literally on for young and old, with an audience spanning four generations.
Rhonda Burchmore has previously performed her ode to her own – and Australia’s – obsession over the Swedish supergroup with Lara Mulcahy.
But the 2022 ABBAsolutely Fabulous show is, as she says, a world premiere.
Drag artist Trevor Ashley being, as he says, “both the boys and the girls” in ABBA has never been done before.And without giving too much away, Ashley’s addition also allowed for a guest appearance from a famous alter ego. It was one of the show’s highlights, of which there were many. - Anna Vlach
2022 HELPMANN ACADEMY GRADUATE EXHIBITION
Visual Arts
ACE Open at West Village
Until March 19
Top graduates of visual arts training institutions in South Australia have the unique privilege of being brought together in an exhibition at SA’s overarching Helpmann Academy, the academy generously funded by Adelaide arts patrons.
This year 27 artists are in the exhibition and the professionalism evident in the works shows how seriously it is taken as a launch pad to public recognition by artists.
It features a preponderance of three-dimensional works, some playfully capturing memories, like Camilla Fitzgerald’s fast-selling ceramic gelati with their glossy fruity scoops that you can nearly taste, or Catrina Leske’s little village of balsa houses decorated in poker work, a miniature world to show off her silverware including tiny chairs made to scale. - Tim Lloyd
1 HOUR PHOTO
Theatre/On Screen
Ruby’s at Holden Street Theatres
Until March 20
In this filmed multimedia performance Tetsura Shigamatsu plays a slick moustachioed emcee exploring the Canadian Japanese experience of internment and persecution after Pearl Harbor.
Unlike Snow Falling on Cedars, the film and novel on similar themes, 1 Hour Photo depicts the ensuing 80 years, unveiling a long trail of impacts in one family, the Yamamotos.
Shigamatsu’s staging is built upon an intense and clever collection of theatrical devices, some projected on a screen.
He films miniature sets, documentary clips, and silhouette re-enactments. He uses a DJ’s turntable to repeat recordings of old man Mas Yamamoto’s recollections. - Tim Lloyd
AFGHANISTATION IS NOT FUNNY BY HENRY NAYLOR
Theatre
The Studio at Holden St Theatres
Until March 13
Henry Naylor has clearly struggled with his original, flippant take on the Afghan War, 20 years ago. You can’t fault his research though, spending a hair-raising time there with photographer Sam Maynard in 2002. As he once lamely tried to explain to an unimpressed Afghan war lord after the duo were captured in a field of burned out tanks, he was researching material for a comedy for the Edinburgh Fringe. He was sure it would earn five stars.
They survived through a remarkable coincidence. And Naylor’s “dark comedy” was a five-star hit in Edinburgh in 2003, and segued into a film pitch with Hugh Grant on board as the lead actor.
But the project was out of whack, the disasters of Afghanistan too great, and it lapsed.
In 2022, with the help of Adelaide’s Martha Lott as his director, Naylor is actively seeking a suitable protagonist for this more considered version. It may be the young Afghan woman, bearing a terrifying bundle, and walking slowly, defiantly towards him, her accusatory stare caught by Maynard’s photograph. - Tim Lloyd
MILLICENT SARRE IS OPINIONATED
Cabaret
The Lark at Gluttony
Until March 6
Millicent Sarre’s hot feminist takes should be mandatory viewing. She’s opinionated but also powerful, simply captivating, armed with a voice like syrup and a pen like a sword.
For the better part of a decade, I’ve never openly wept at a Fringe show – until now.
The way Sarre holds a mirror up to society while simultaneously baring her soul via her own lived experience battling the injustices of modern womanhood is an art not nearly valued enough.
And while she’s as much a woman shouting (singing) her own self-love from the rooftops, Sarre is a beacon of positive reinforcement – the embodiment of a motivational bumper sticker. - Isabella Fowler
SHAKE IT
Cabaret
The Peacock at Gluttony
Until March 19
A celebration of sex, silliness and the incredible capability of the human body, Shake It is a sensational hour of laughs and gasps.
Watch in awe as some of the most captivating performers you’ll ever set eyes on bend and twist their ripped bodies in ways you never imagined possible.
… All while naked, thrusting and flirting shamelessly with the crowd.
Shake It is as impressive as it is downright filthy. - Isabella Fowler
GODZ
Circus
The Vault at The Garden of Unearthly Delights
Until March 20
Zeus has instructed his family to spend time among the common man and they take to it like fish to water.
They do tricks with ropes, chairs, ladders, big acrobatics, great diabolos and with a stuffy, stagy godlike mien.
But this is really the prelude for four men to create a storm that uses circus to show what would really happen if Apollo, Dionysus, Cupid and Hercules, all rather more playful than recorded in the myths, came to town.
It is a wild party not to be missed. - Tim Lloyd
DEMAGOGUE
Theatre and Physical Theatre
The Studio at Holden Street Theatres
Until February 27
Twist upon twist and turn upon turn keep the surprises, tension and laughter coming in this rapid-fire new play which is ostensibly about one thing, but eventually reveals an entirely different elephant in the room.
Written and performed by Spencer Scholz alongside his Safari Street Creative co-founder Samantha Riley, it maintains the relatively new company’s reputation for producing outstanding original work.
The more things change, the more they stay the same – and this savvy and sassy two-hander asserts that nowhere is this more true than in politics. - Patrick McDonald
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