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Adelaide Fringe Review 2017: An Evening With Amanda Palmer

STRADDLING the balcony of Her Majesty’s Theatre strumming a ukulele while singing about life not going according to plan, Amanda Palmer sets the scene for an intensely honest and intimate evening.

Cabaret performer, poet, philosopher and activist Amanda Palmer. Picture: Tony Gough
Cabaret performer, poet, philosopher and activist Amanda Palmer. Picture: Tony Gough

An Evening With Amanda Palmer

Cabaret *****

Her Majesty’s Theatre, until February 25

STRADDLING the balcony of Her Majesty’s Theatre strumming a ukulele while singing about life not going according to plan, Amanda Palmer sets the scene for an intensely honest and intimate evening.

And it’s a breathtaking performance, with Palmer tenderly caressing the keys of her grand piano one minute and then committing what could best be described as assault on them the next.

Love, loss, the guilt of motherhood, Vegemite, vaginas — it’s a diverse set of topics covered in a broad range of musical styles that beautifully showcases the depth of her talent.

Palmer commented she felt nauseous throughout the performance after struggling for days to shake an illness, but we wouldn’t have known.

As far as we were concerned we got a no-holds-barred performance from an artist at the very top of her game — her duet with support act Brendan Maclean on the haunting Laura one of the show’s highlights.

Painfully raw, wickedly naughty, deeply moving and disconcertingly honest, An Evening With Amanda Palmer is a solid two and a half hours of enchantment that only scratches the surface of what this astonishing talent has to offer.

Tom Bowden

Original URL: https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/entertainment/adelaide-fringe/adelaide-fringe-review-2017-an-evening-with-amanda-palmer/news-story/acc6e87f5dae91d53e59649e73dfe980