Take some mentally ill patients (stay with me here), throw in the political hustle and bustle of the early 70’s, mix thoroughly with Italian opera and bake with undertones of love and philosophy on fidelity.

And there you have Louis Nowra’s Australian comedy classic, Cosi.

For those of you who aren’t suffering through year twelve drama, Cosi is Nowra’s semi autobiographical tale of recent graduate Lewis (Benjamin Goodyear), who, out of the cash-poor desperation that only university students can understand, takes up a job directing a play in a mental hospital’s theatre with its patients as his actors.

The patients themselves are assorted, zany, at times tragic and completely disconnected from the world outside, which contrasts nicely with Lewis’ anti-Vietnam, politico friends who espouse all the radical movement of the time.

Before Lewis really knows what he’s gotten into, production starts on Mozart’s Cosi Fan Tutti except that his new cast can’t sing, or act, or dance, and certainly can’t speak Italian!

Naturally, worlds collide, hilarity abounds and everyone (well, most of them) grows and become better people, et cetera, et cetera.

The Heartspace Theatre Company originally formed from the eagerness of students and a teacher from Sacred Heart College to pursue their love of all things theatre post-classroom. Twelve years and fifteen productions later, the Company are no strangers to either the Adelaide Fringe nor to the all-year-round theatre scene.

Their offering in Cosi this year is well-worth a watch; firstly because the Nowra has given them great material to work with and the script in itself is brilliant and secondly, and more importantly, because the cast is seasoned and has attacked their performance with mad enthusiasm.

Director Greg Hay has excelled in putting together well-cast, fun ensemble and creating a world of magnificent music, triumph and one where you don’t always know where the asylum walls are drawn.

Goodyear maturely executes the lead role, granting us a delightful performance as the super sane Lewis working with an insane world.

Special gold stars to Laura Arjona for her endearing performance as the trippy social worker amd Justine and Matt Trainor for making possible neurotic personality disorder patient Roy both exasperating and likeable at the same time.

Together the troupe had many splutters of greatness and seriously good chemistry in the first act before truly coming into their own in a laugh-out-loud second act. Quiet, dreamy scenes between Lewis and recovering junkie Julie (Rochelle Burrows) are a sweet highlight against the chaos.

The dynamics of scenes with chaos are full of energy, and dialogue bounces from character to character with ease.

The simply but appropriately decorated main theatre of the Adelaide College of Arts is a nice fit for the Company and thrived on its sold-out opening night audience. Props should also be given for an incredibly, professionally smooth sound, lighting and general management job (well done sound lady Kathy Klement and stage manager Melissa Burke).

Cosi is warm, fun, satisfying and definitely will not disappoint fans of the play or its subsequent 1996 movie.

Get yourself along if theatre is your taste and enjoy a pool-room worthy Australian classic brilliantly reiterated by an experienced South Australian Company.

You’d be crazy not to!

(Yeah, sorry…).

I’ll say this upfront, in the spirit of openness and accountability: I don’t know much about contemporary dance.

I mean, I can barely dance myself (as my loved ones will attest). My best work, which is nowhere near acceptable, happens after a few ill-considered tequila shots and usually to Sir Mix-a-Lot’s classic piece ‘Baby Got Back’.

However, french-born, Australia-living choreographer Cloe Fournier can dance.

Fournier’s first major solo piece, Dining Uns-table, explores the agonising theme of failed family relationships; the abusers, the victims and those who simply let it happen.

Through a series of short, sometimes uncomfortably quiet, sometimes confronting, explosive scenes, Fournier tells a story of neglect with minimal words but instead though spurts of emotional and physical action.

Building her piece around the concept of the familial dining table as a cultural reference for sharing and affection, Fournier intelligently investigates the devastating, horrific truths that often linger under the surface, remaining undiscussed.

A graduate of the Conservatore a Rayonnement Regional de Saint-Etinenne and the Unversite Lumieres Lyon II in France, Fournier has been involved in a number of companies and productions since hitting Australian shores in 2007.

Under the mentorship of Australia Council fellow Dean Walsh, Fournier builds on her previous work Erase, which showed at the Melbourne Fringe last year, infusing her extensive background of dance, theatre and choreography into this show.

During Dining Uns-Table Fournier clearly demonstrates enormous control over her body. During scenes of violence she contorts her body and throws it across the stage with a graceful abandon that is both brave and bone-chilling. Quiet scenes, sometimes spoken in her mother tongue, are raw and unnerving.

This is a piece that is obviously very close to the artist’s heart, which in itself is heart-breaking. The use of Fournier’s maternal and paternal surnames during the performance tells the audience enough about its personal nature.

The Bakehouse Theatre is a perfect venue for this performance, with its pokey stages and relatively homely feel. You can imagine being witness to the action in someone’s home.

However, it would be unfair to omit that all her pre-arranged volunteer family members did not turn up to the performance, leaving her to improvise scenes and the audience to pretend there was people there.* This was an unfortunate drawback of the night.

Also at the times the action can become confusing and the storyline unclear, particularly if you don’t have a background in this art.

These aspects aside this piece has the potential to be incredibly effective and enjoyed by lovers of contemporary dance.

I do stress that you should have a penchant for contemporary dance to truly appreciate this show. You probably should also have a strong stomach for confrontational theatre and dance.

Dining Uns-table is sobering, erratic and challenging. Dance fans will be touched by this personal performance.

It will leave one cherishing the luck of a happy childhood or, at the very least, reflecting on the moral obligations to family and the devastating impact of a father’s destain for his little girl.

Dining Uns-table is showing until 11 March. Grab your tickets through Fringetix.

* The company is looking for volunteer audience members, please contact them via the Adelaide Fringe website should you want to help out (and actually rock up, please).

One of my creeds is to never, ever, ever turn down gin.

Not in a delicious moijto, nor in some tonic water (clearly to protect myself from malaria) or, it seems, when it comes to burlesque.

So when I took my little self down to the Nexus Cabaret at the Lion Arts Centre, I was once again prepared to indulge in my love of gin. And that I certainly did.

At The Movies with Peaches ’n’ Gin is a sweet cocktail of one part sultry burlesque one part hilarious vaudeville and a sugar crust of class.

Hosts with the most, the ever smooth Rowan Watts and the charming Cara Louise will take on you on a Margaret and David style tour of classic movies, both past and contemporary. But, you know, with burlesque and tassel scores as opposed to stars.

The company tackles movies of all sorts from the expected ilk of Marilyn Monroe films and the recent not-so-aptly-named Burlesque to the less expected likes of Harry Potter, Aladdin and Steven Shainberg’s Secretary.

Peaches ’n’ Gin is not new to the Adelaide Fringe scene, having built an impressive following since its establishment and playing a significant role in bring burlesque back to the Adelaide scene in recent years.

Showcasing acts throughout the year, Peaches ’n’ Gin are especially busy come Fringe time with new and curious audience members flocking to their performances.

And it’s no wonder!

Star and producer, Luna Eclipse, dazzles the audiences with her spicy, and sometimes silly, repertoire which leaves no one in doubt as to why she was Miss Tassle Twirl 2010.

Fellow burlesquer Sapphire Snow treats the audience to alluring and sensual performances while wielding a feathered fan like nobody’s business!

Together, their routines are cheeky, fun and sometimes downright hilarious!

One such case is the troupe’s take on the Harry Potter series, a personal highlight of Luna’s.

Being a Harry Potter fan herself (and who isn’t?), Luna says she wanted to “put three of the main characters together in an unexpected way, and to make sure the audience could never watch Harry Potter in the same way again!”.

Boy, do they succeed! (I should also add you’ll also never hear ‘Total Eclipse of the Heart’ the same way again but I’ll leave all that for you to figure out… ).

Another memorable moment is the luscious Strawberry Siren, a lady of many talents in the areas of aerial rings, contortion and hoop diving, who treats the audience to a jaw-dropping performance as Jessica Rabbit from Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (Complete with audience participation, gentleman).

Speaking of audience participation – expect it! Even sitting in the back won’t save you, as one lucky gentleman from Texas found out during Snow’s gorgeous ‘Tea for Two’ act (again, I’ll leave that for you to think about…).

And that’s the fun of it; everyone is watching burlesque. No matter if you’re a seasoned connoisseur of the ever-popular art form or a nervous first-timer, a man, a women, or other – you won’t feel alone in the audience.

You’ll laugh. You’ll clap profusely (or howl and carry on as encouraged by the charismatic comperes). You’ll have a massive craving for lingerie shopping, ladies.

At The Movies with Peaches ’n’ Gin is sassy, flirty with light-hearted silliness which culminates in a finale not to be missed!

So that’ll be five tassles from me, David.

If you don’t like high-energy, ingenious, magnetic jazz then you best just skip over to the next article (bet you hate puppies too…)

However, if you do then you should take a trip down Chinatown way and catch Marmalade Circus at the Prom (or The Promethean for those of you playing at home).

Comprising of Mark Simeon Ferguson (vocals, rocking pianist), Jonathan Hunt (reed), Thomas Pulford (reed), Warren Heading (trumpet), Shireen Khemlani (female bassist represent!) and recent addition Jarrad Payne (drums), Marmalade Circus is an eclectic hotbed of funk, jazz and world music. Originally forming in 1998 as the Mark Ferguson Quintet, the band as undergone several incarnations since, played numerous interstate jazz festivals, cabaret shows and children’s shows, eventually culminating in the hybrid 6-piece band you see before you.

Although Ferguson undoubtedly steals the show as the engaging ringleader of the troupe (complete with top hat and winged coat!), I can’t help but give a particular mention to Heading who boasts some big, crazy-good talent on the trumpet. Keep an eye out for him. The music is unashamedly out-there, sometimes silly funk-jazz and spiced with flavours of the Middle East, Africa and the Caribbean (including song titles referring to Brazilian cheese puffs?) Some, however, are fuelled by Ferguson’s experience as a dad. One particular sing-a-long drawing on apples and bananas, in a Ben Folds meets Peter Combe kind of way,  is creative, snazzy but does requires some audience participation to really fly – I’ll expand on that down yonder.

The quietly gorgeous Growing Apart (which, Ferguson stresses, isn’t about him and his wife) had couples leaning in close, singles looking wistful and was a definite highlight of the second set for all. Finishing with the title track of their 2009 album, Yup and other words of affirmation, Yup was a no-holds-bar, all out big tune that demonstrated, despite their new addition, the tightness of the band. A personal favorite of mine for the night.

Chatting to fellow audience members in the line to the ladies, it was obvious that Marmalade Circus has a solid following on the festival scene. Some who had come along for the first time, were definitely going to come back for more. They’re so clever, my new found friends cooed, with all those instruments, so talented!

And they’re not wrong.

Changing instruments several times each, including a cute solo on Ferguson’s thumb piano (new word alert: mbira!), these boys, and girl, show they’ve got some serious multi-instrument skills.

Unfortunately for the Circus, one thing that did detract from the evening was a reluctant, frosty even, opening night audience. While there wasn’t overwhelming requisite for audience participation, when it was called upon the band didn’t really get anything back, which was disappointing for them and me.

However, in fairness, audience grumpiness started at the beginning of the night with seating issues. The venue is set up cabaret style, which is very suited to the ‘vibe’ of the troupe, but when filled with what looked like a sold-out crowd, quickly become cramped. Many Marmaladites had no choice but to stand against the bar and a number were up the back, unable to see much, sitting on the steps behind the sound dude.

It’s also understandable, especially with the Circus playing only two gigs this Fringe season, that you want to fit as many as possible. Though perhaps theatre style seating might be a better option if that’s the road you want to venture.

So! If seating is important to you, you have to be super early to have your pick. If personal space is important to you, this might not be your scene. But all in all, Marmalade Circus at the Prom is a great gig. The band is tight, enchanting and ridiculously talented. It will be 110 minutes of your life very well spent, whether you’re an ultra-cool jazz music student or just another Fringe goer looking for something a little different and at times silly.

As my muso Dad said, when I told him I was going to see Mark Ferguson, “Chuck, he’s just fucking awesome”.

That pretty much sums it up.

As the great philosopher Mick Jones once sang; “Darling, you gotta let me know, should I stay or should I go?”

It’s a question that haunts all young Adelaideans who hate their job, find themselves eternally single and just a tad bored with life.

Cue Unified Production’s debut Adelaide Fringe show, All My Friends Are Leaving Adelaide.

Based on the play, and subsequent 2007 Aussie movie, All My Friends Are Leaving Brisbane, this local adaptation tackles the inevitable decision that every young, bored and frustrated Adelaidean must face; do the overseas thing or stay put?

The story centres on Anthea (Priscilla Bartletta) and Michael (Paul Stalenhoef) who are “good friends” – you know, in that please- hurry-up-and-get- together kind of way.

Problem: Anthea, influenced by her bleak love life and the actions of her ex and possible ‘love of her life’, Jake (Charlie Gibbings), is thinking of taking the plunge and moving to the sunny shores of London.

Conversely Michael is entirely happy where he is, despite his lacklustre relationship, and attempts to makes the case for staying in Radelaide to his ‘purely plutonic’ friend.

Through a series of break-ups, reunions, nights at the Havy, couch philosophy and sex on a fridge, Anthea finds herself wondering what she’ll stay behind for and what she’s willing risk to get out.

Director Scarlett Koehne rocks an energetic ensemble, including herself as Anthea’s move-endorsing flatmate Kath.

Having founded Unified Productions over the summer, Koehne says a lack of creative opportunities for young people spurred the forming of the company.

Casting a mix of the latest SA Castings’ crop and high school friends, the production serves as great reminder that, despite the allure of great international Fringe acts, we are not short of our own talent in Adelaide!

Stalenhoef grants the audience an honest, charming performance as the extremely likeable, if a little know-it-all, Michael while Bartletta brings some cute chemistry and heart as the relatable and entertaining Anthea.

A gold star also goes to Nadia Talotta who was a clear audience favourite as the frustrated girlfriend turned scary ex-girlfriend, Stephanie.

It’s no cop-out to say that each cast member has earned their stripes through a natural, light hearted and, in the case of some, last minute performance (Stalenhoef and Gibbings joining the troupe less than a month ago).

The real lure of AMFALA is the familiarity of the characters. Of course everyone knows a ‘will they, won’t they’ Michael and Anthea; everyone’s had a post-break up drink (or drinks…) with a Steph or has been dumped for a Simone. Every girl has known a Jake.

And everyone has a Tyson in their flat  just doing, well, whatever he does…

Along with great ‘only in Adelaide’ references (Koehne has excelled in contemporising the script and turning it into a South Australian play), All My Friends Are Leaving Adelaide is bright, charismatic and comfortably familiar!

Pembroke School’s Wright Hall also earns particular kudos as a great, intimate space, which perfectly captures the flat and bar hybrid stage set up, as well as congratulations on their brilliant student, 15 year old Gigi Koehne, who keeps the show running impeccably as stage manager.

So my fellow twenty-somethings, go along, let the barman pour you a glass of red and enjoy some quality, homebred talent.

After all, we definitely can’t let them leave Adelaide!

All My Friends are Leaving Adelaide presented by Unified Productions runs from Weds 29 Feb to Sun 4 March. Grab your tickets through Fringetix.

“The pretty-darn-good Gadsby”

Hannah Gadsby has beautiful painted nails but she also has a laser pointer on her belt. She also has both a sewing machine and is trying for her motorbike licence.

She’s conflicted like that.

But through a print of a 15^th Century oil painting, Jan van Eyck’s The Arnolfini Portrait, Hannah Gadsby not only showcases her mad art-analysis skills (she holds a degree in art history, as you do…) but takes the audience on a time-traversing history lesson on marriage, at each stop offering some insight on how she would fit in (or not) as a wife.

This is mixed in with recounts of modern-day, cringe-worthy tales of futile advances from blokes, futile lady advice from blokes and the artistic connotations of oranges, providing a perfect cocktail of deadpan hilarity.

Having landed a regular spot on Adam Hills In Gordon Street Tonight since her last Adelaide Fringe appearance, in addition to guest gigs on Good News Week and the late-great Spicks and Specks, Gadsby has been given her well-deserved recognition in the form of several sold out fringe shows already this season (hint, hint: to be sure to get your tickets now – no, right now – I’ll wait…).

As you would expect, with Gadsby often musing on her life as a lesbian in past shows, her art lesson provides an underlying commentary on gay marriage, its proponents (which is unsurprisingly a large portion of the audience according to her late-show straw poll) and, more specifically, it’s opposers. What you don’t expect is the clever, endearing and relevant way that Gadsby approaches this particularly topical, super-emotive subject.

The eclectic, yet comfortable Rhino Room, which has played host to a number of Fringe favourites including Rove McManus, Ross Noble, Arj Barker, Adam Hills and Stephen K Amos, is perfectly suited to Gadsby’s art-themed show and she is certain to join its list of luminaries.

Without doubt her obvious passion for art combined with her signature self-deprecating storytelling is what makes the show sing and her quick drollness manages to draw belly-laughs even on the back of punch lines gone wrong and a minor microphone malfunction.

Hannah Wants A Wife is refreshing, smart and filled to the brim with sharp observational humour.

It’s all the things that seasoned Hannah fans will want and it will get any first-timers hooked. Yes, it will even draw in those with a Y chromosome.

Bring along some extra mullah and you can purchase her recent DVD, which she might even sign for you after the show if you’re super nice (and, to avoid disappointment, she doesn’t sign delicate bits, ladies).

You’ll laugh. You’ll be hit with some knowledge, both historical and contemporary. And, if you’re like me, you’ll probably come away wanting Hannah as your wife.

Well played, Gadsby. Well played.

Hannah Gadsby - Hannah Wants A Wife is showing until 4 March. Grab your tickets through Fringetix! Get yourself along.