The first act is paced slowly but picks up when she starts her tricks. Marina tests her body’s limit with fox traps, mouse traps, a staple gun, and even inserting a drill into her nose, making the crowd wriggle and squirm (yet come back asking for more). Betwixt is less of a display of neat tricks and circus acts and more a piece of performance theatre, as she goes from dancing to popular songs to feeding a doll spaghetti. A word is barely said by the character on stage and on the surface will leave the audience wondering why the character does these things. A lot is left unsaid and the show must be read between the lines and behind the circus acts.

The usual circus acts are present, including bottle-walking and juggling an impressive six balls at once. The lighting of the stage is cleverly used, with spots of different colours for the different acts. It’s especially clever when she uses only a small head-mounted torch to juggle a meat cleaver in otherwise total darkness. Marina’s acts range from the beautiful and delicate to the impressive and dangerous. In one scene, she performs a song on guitar whilst standing barefoot on broken glass – symbolic of how difficult a gesture it is to express one’s love.

The music during scenes is chopped, constant and changing, with voiceovers hinting to the next act. These voiceovers could be interpreted as fragments of her distorted, crazy mind. The voice over about requiring safety goggles when operating a drill is hilarious. Synchronising with the music could have been more finely tuned but it is nothing show-breaking – overall, she is in time and moves with the beat cleanly.

While her award winning performance in 3 Steps Ahead is more entertaining and engaging with the audience, Betwixt is daring to be different. It’s because of Marina’s constant drive to try something new every year that her circus gets better and remains fresh. For local Adelaide talent, Betwixt is a must see.

For the preview show, Dave kept saying “It’ll be a little shit” but the show was funny from start to finish. Despite Dave’s monotonous voice, his show remains humorous by including external sources to make fun of, such as music and videos. He also incorporates the return of segments from old shows such as ‘misheard lyrics’ and new segments like ‘doing what song lyrics tell you to’ with many sexual innuendos throughout. There are many references to the 80s (mainly to videos and songs), which might go over the heads of younger members. The audience for the preview show was cackling and howling, joining in with the jokes and calling out to Dave.

Even though it was a preview show and Dave kept a laid back attitude, the show could occasionally be accused of being “a little shit”. His knee slowed his dancing, sometimes missing moves, being out of time or colliding with the other dancers, but this just added to the comedic effect overall. Dave and his team are always laughing through it all and never take a screw-up seriously. He also plays with fight choreography and sound effects so out of sync and so bad that it’s funny.

As a finale, Dave takes two male audience members for a ‘twerkshoppe’ and sets them to music. I saw the show on International Women’s Day, which was also the subject of many punch lines, all of which were in good taste. It’s “lit AF”, it’s “woke as, fam”, and he’ll leave you in stitches.

The Barbaroi merges circus with other forms of physical theatre, with the introductory act featuring blends of contemporary dance. The coloured lighting throughout the show is superb and placed very creatively, sometimes casting the dark shadows of the entertainers onto the roof, creating a very neat effect. The Barbaroi also features a wide variety of contrasting music during the acts; everything from upbeat songs during the intense balance acts to calmer electronic James Blake during the aerial straps. The performers sometimes interact with the music, such as during the hoops scene, where the trouper moves in time to sound effects. Costume selection is intriguing and varied, with some wearing gritty, underground leather and others in hoodies or jackets.

The group interact with each other on stage very humorously, with a range of facial expressions and body movements. Sarcasm, dominance, and seduction is used cleverly as they try and impress each other through the established hierarchy of the performers. The show is constant and scene changes are unnoticeable. Routines are carried out elegantly and feel practiced, which washes over with no real sense of jeopardy or ‘edge of your seat’ feeling as the show progressed. Acts lightly progress with difficulty but a ‘grand finale’ act was missing. Some tricks such as juggling felt flat with one too many failures, but on the rare occasion that a trick did fail, improvisation and character acting redeemed it.

The performers want to be storytellers and narrate their tale through physical theatre, which is a hard thing to do. The base of a story arc exists as the show begins and ends with rope acts and a single lighter, so they don’t have far to go. Playing with the character hierarchy would be a great place to start. That said, this show is highly entertaining and comes recommended for all who enjoy the circus.

Andi’s pacing throughout different portions of her life is questionable. She glosses over parts of the story and, in some cases, leaves it all to the imagination. This is especially prevalent in the final scenes when the audience is taken down a spiral of hurried emotions, then abruptly told goodnight and thanks for coming. With all the diary material she claims to have, I was left wanting more. Her family members are mentioned once or twice with no real background or justification and while the audience is told what is happening, they’re rarely shown why. Whether this was an intentional artistic choice remains unclear.

The stage is set-up with Andi surrounded by old dusty suitcases and boxes, implying that her story carries a lot of weight and baggage. Andi enters wearing a dress of multiple bright colours, which is a contrast to the dark browns of the suitcases, and eventually the dark gloominess of her acting and stories. Time and location of the story is shown to progress through little cues in her suitcases and on a model globe, which was a clever use of the props. Andi also uses sound effects and voice-overs to progress the story, as well as the occasional original musical number. These interactions are clever, comical, and sometimes M-rated.

Mid-way through the show Andi brings out her ‘Ask Diary’ segment, whereby she reads out a question an audience member has asked before the show and answers it through interpreting a random sentence from her diary. While this segment is a funny bit of improvised comedy and a great exercise of audience interaction, it served little purpose in forwarding the narrative, and this time could have been better spent on the parts of the story that were rushed or glossed over.

#DearDiary deserves most of it’s positive reviews but elements of the story, mainly the pacing, held me back from enjoying it fully. Nonetheless, Andi’s performance is funny and engaging, making this a solo-show worth seeing.

Scattered throughout the fast pace of the show are segments about panic attacks at Disneyland, Apocalypse-fearing Americans, corn on the cob freezer bags, and her dog, Doug; the latter being adorable and humorous at the same time. There’s also a large rant tearing down Taylor Swift entirely, which runs well with fans as well as those who don’t know of Swift. If you can’t stand her music though, you will want to bring earplugs as that’s what you’ll hear whilst finding your seat in the venue.

Gadsby’s performance is engaging and well-written as she presents a new set of experiences and stories from her life, leaving out any of the gloomy elements or at least putting a vibrant spin on them. The style of this show is modern yet feels familiar to her old comedy performances. There is nothing about the self-deprecating Hannah that has been changed, except this time there’s no Beyond Blue phone numbers on a warning label on the promotional poster, which she admitted allowed her to spice things up previously.

The depressed lesbian from ABC2′s Please Like Me is nowhere to be seen, but the loss doesn’t remove from the show. I thought her character in Dogmatic was brilliant and nailed her type of sharp comedy. If you’re new to Gadsby’s style or are a repeat customer, there’s plenty here for your enjoyment, and you won’t regret seeing it.

Sam is the only star of the show and she tells the stories in an attempt to answer a pressing question by her friend Delia Taylor: “Have I wasted my life?” Her tales range from funny to serious; dealing with clients who think she stole their jewellery and waxing pornographers after a ‘busy day’. All throughout, Sam shares her feelings about her past experiences; how being a beauty therapist can leave her feeling insecure and unwanted.

Before the show begins, Delia performs a set of jazz songs on the theme of love – classics such as ‘Cry Me A River’, ‘Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps’, and ‘Trouble’. As a preamble to each song, Delia explains how that particular musical number relates to a moment in her love life. Delia’s voice reminded me of Julie London, with a bit of awkward deadpan humour thrown in, reminding me of Australian comic Kate McLennan. It’s worth showing up half an hour before the show to hear her perform.

Even though I was outside of the target audience, with the majority of viewers being middle aged and female, I enjoyed the show. Sam’s stories, while funny, left me wishing she had upped the humour by a fraction. If you’re in the mood for an autobiographical work of theatre, then this is the show for you. These are short stories you don’t hear every day.

In the first play, Small Government, an unnamed woman finds a troubled man sitting in a crumbling building as he waits for ‘the inevitable’. He is all that remains of the pre-existing government. The dialogue is scattered with black humour and the ambient, deep hum of the building in the background triggers the mind to wander outside the walls. Tristan Louth-Robin’s surreal compositions during the scene changes fill the mood with unease and complement the themes of the plays.

During Point/Click, the second play, Brooker explores the relationship between a dying man and his wife, and how people and families interact in a world addicted to technology. These people are more alone than ever, waiting for an unknown delivery. People don’t leave their houses; children don’t leave their computers.

The series finishes with Dead Birds. Michael Allen plays John, delivering a monologue of him losing his son to military forces unknown, surrounded at the boy’s funeral with few people in attendance. John’s life is turned upside down in no time at all by forces out of his control. Allen’s performance is remarkable; the recount he conveys sparks detailed visions of the days leading up to the funeral.

Less is more as the actors work with little props and no backdrop in a small, hot and confined room, forcing all attention to the dialogue and their performances. Little cues in the dialogue hint as to what kind of a future the characters live in; tune out for a second and you’ll miss the big picture. This is a well-written, well-performed production that demands your full, unwavering attention.

This Storm features an abundance of concepts crammed into 60 minutes, and the plays serve as an ultimate warning to “not turn your back on the future”.