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Published on April 5, 2008

It's not often that two large-scale artistic events arrive at the same time in the same town.

But that happened last month in the South Australian city of Adelaide, when the Adelaide Bank Festival of Arts 2008 was held concurrently with Adelaide Fringe 2008, the world's second largest - after the Edinburgh Fringe - annual showcase of cabaret, comedy, dance, music, theatre and visual arts.

At first glance, from thousands of miles away, it seemed as though they were competing with each other. But close up, the actual experience proved solidly that they were in fact complementing each other. While the Fringe was highlighted by cabaret and comedy acts, the spotlight at the Festival of Arts picked out theatre, dance, music and visual arts programmes. The fit was perfect, the former offering the audience a wide variety, the latter more selectively curated.

One of the Fringe's most popular acts was "La Clique", a vibrantly staged collection of cabaret acts featuring international artists with extraordinary skills - singing, roller-skating, body-contorting, balancing and hula-hooping, to name a few.

True, many of us have witnessed such acts before, but this show added characterisations and stage props to make them unique. For example, unicyclist and juggler Clarke McFarlane was named Mario, Queen of the Circus, affecting an accent and wearing a Freddie Mercury costume. David O'Mer performed his gymnastic moves bare-chested while dipping in and out of a bathtub. And although the acts were presented on a small circular platform in the middle of an auditorium seating more than 500, each performer knew how to involve and entertain every one of those spectators.

A dominant characteristic of any fringe festival is its ability to transform a variety of ordinary places, public or private, into performance venues. The "Garden of Unearthly Delights" converted a small park in the northeastern corner of Adelaide's central business district into a mini-fair filled with food, drink and performance tents as well as fun rides and games.

An air-conditioned tent known as Bosco Theatre provided an escape from the mid-afternoon heatwave to watch fast-talking British comedian Daniel Kitson recount a delightful love story called "The Ballad of Roger and Grace", accompanied by charming and poignant pop songs composed by guitarist Gavin Osborn.

Returning in the late evening - 11.30pm to be exact - the park was still filled with a young partying crowd of thousands. In another tent called Umbrella Revolution, an uninhibited London-based cabaret performer who goes by the name of Empress Stoh swung almost nude from a chandelier while one of her compatriot drag artists, Ryan Styles, managed to climb inside a giant balloon. Later, Le Gateau Chocolat, another cross-dressing cohort, crooned opera and musical theatre tunes.

Pawit Mahasarinand

Special to The Nation