Oracle | Adelaide Fringe 2022 review

You won’t need a crystal ball – or a horoscope, for that matter – to see that Oracle sets a new benchmark for sheer spectacle.

Oracle by Bass Fam Creative.

Oracle

Theatre and Physical Theatre

Rating: *****

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.

As the titular Oracle, The Voice star Jazmin Varlet soars on wires and with live vocals over the prerecorded narration and superb soundtrack, which flows from thundering Techno to unique interpretations of hits like Cyndi Lauper’s True Colours.

It might mix its mythologies, rather than its metaphors, but we learn the often shared Egyptian, Greek and Roman origins of the gods and goddesses behind our star signs.

Mummies are unwrapped from their bandages to perform belly dances, Gemini twins intertwine in aerial displays, Zeus adopts many guises including the bull Taurus, and Persephone’s ballet striptease is joined by flame-like dancers in Hades.

A gender-switched Hercules battles Leo while twirling firesticks and whips, a goat-horned Capricorn performs acrobatics inside a spinning hourglass, Sagittarius is suspended on a swinging pole, Cancer the crab contorts with disconcerting cracking noises and sun god Amun Ra spins golden hoops in a showstopper display.

Oracle is sheer exhilaration – just thank the heavens for nipple patches and gaffer tape.