Adelaide is putting on the glitz this weekend, with the opening of the 2014 Cabaret Festival heralding a sparkling line-up of more than 170 performances. Other picks include McLaren Vale’s Sea & Vines Festival, the Cabaret Fringe, and an artist hothouse in Port Adelaide.
Rhonda Burchmore
Adelaide Cabaret Festival
An opening-night Variety Gala Performance hosted by Adelaide artistic director Kate Ceberano, a one-man show by Paul Capsis described as “Brothers Grimm meet Ziggy Stardust”, and screen star Robert Davi’s “love letter to Sinatra” … these are just a few of our favourite things on the opening weekend of the 2014 Adelaide Cabaret Festival. Other program picks include Rhonda Burchmore’s Vinyl Viagra tribute to delicious divas, a showcase of swing, and former Moulin Rouge and Lido dancer Shay Stafford’s Memoirs of a Showgirl. Check out InDaily’s Cabaret Festival hub for a taste of what else is in store.
Sea & Vines
Thousands of people are expected to head to McLaren Vale for this weekend’s four-day Sea & Vines Festival, with dozens of events including degustation dinners, wine-tasting experiences, master-classes, barbecues and bus tours. There will also be live music from acts such as The Yearlings, Darryl Braithwaite, Brian Cadd and The Jay Hoad Band. A new addition to the program this year is the Sea & Vines Garden Party on Sunday and Monday, which will feature eight wineries, food stalls, music by DJ Musical Sherpa and kids’ entertainment. Check out the full festival program here.
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Cabaret Fringe Festival
Media Arts students at UniSA are retelling the Dracula story through a “promenade production” integrating music, song, video, soundscape and puppetry as part of the Cabaret Fringe program. Titled Nosferatu: The Undead, the 15+ show is on Friday and Saturday night at the Hartley Playhouse at the university’s Magill campus. Other Fringe shows over the long weekend include Club Burlesk and the Pacific Belles’ 1940s-style swing show at La Boheme, Flamenco Cabaret at The Soul Box and Box Set Blues at The Whitmore. The full program for the festival, which runs until the end of June, is online and you can read InDaily’s review of the opening night gala here.
Jeff Lang
Jeff Lang at Nexus Live
Singer-songwriter and guitarist Jeff Lang will be launching his new album at the Nexus Multicultural Arts Centre tonight (Friday). I Live a Lot in My Head These Days follows 14 other albums by Lang, whose sound blends rock, roots, folk, blues and ballads. Also playing at the Nexus Live gig will be folk/country/roots artist Glenn Skuthorpe. Doors open at 8pm.
Funk Soul Brothers vs Disco Divas
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Dig out your flares and platform shoes, folks, 12-piece outfit Motown Connection are bringing the boogie to the Governor Hindmarsh on Saturday night. You can expect a catalogue of soul hits from the ’60s, plus disco, funk and R&B dance-floor anthems from the ’70s and ’80s. (And because too much disco is never enough, the Boney M Greatest Hits Tour will also be bringing the Daddy Cool to The Gov on June 12.)
Adhocracy – National Artist Hothouse
This annual event hosted by Vitalstatistix will feature open studios, artist talks and work-in-progress showings at Port Adelaide’s Waterside (11 Nile Street) over three days from June 7-9. Adhocracy offers artists from throughout Australia the chance to come together to develop new projects spanning all genres, while audiences also get to participate in the creative process. “Adhocracy is a festival of ideas meets intense art camp meets magic house party,” says Vitalstatistix creative producer Emma Webb. “There are a huge amount of audience experiences over the three days, alongside a bar, food, music and great conversations.” See the full program here.
Roy Ananda, Slow crawl into infinity, 2014, installation detail, Samstag Museum of Art, UniSA. Photo: Sam Noonan
Slow crawl into infinity
Given its intriguing title, who wouldn’t want to explore Adelaide artist Roy Ananda’s sculpture exhibition at the Samstag Museum of Art? Ananda draws on influences such as science fiction, slapstick cartoons and “the bizarre geometry of imagined alien cities” in works that are said to celebrate fandom and blur the boundaries between “high” and “low” art. The art was developed and installed in the gallery over the past three weeks, with the exhibition officially opening yesterday (Thursday) and continuing until July 18.
Ngintaka exhibition
This touring songline at the South Australian Museum is described as a multi-layered exhibition featuring paintings by leading APY Lands artists, as well as song, story, dance, painting, carving, basketry sculpture, audio and a 360-degree film installation. Ngintaka is showing on the ground floor of the SA Museum until June 22.
On screen
See InDaily’s reviews of the latest films screening in Adelaide:
A Million Ways to Die in the West
Grace of Monaco
Godzilla
Aim High in Creation
X-Men: Days of Future Past
The Babadook
The Zero Theorem
Healing
Bad Neighbours