Circa &
Katie Noonan ‘Love-Song-Circus’
Adelaide Cabaret Festival, Dunstan
Playhouse
Wednesday 13 June 2012
Anyone who
had doubts about the change from bright-lights-and-brass Cabaret Festival that
was David Campbell’s wonderful contribution to Adelaide in the month of June,
to Kate Ceberano’s earthy and exposed styling need drop them immediately. This new vibe
of bongos over brass, volume over voltage has definitely pushed the
possibilities for a festival that seemed too perfect to be changed. The buzzing at Adelaide Festival Centre was a tad subdued (Wednesday evening after a
long weekend), but you could see the cogs of energy speeding up as the night
wore on and hyped artists began stumbling in.
Presented
with an opportunity to see a musician, vocalist and (ultimately) woman I have
been inspired and comforted by since I was pre-adolescent, you can expect a
small amount of bias in my review of this stunning and truly unique piece. If
the name Katie Noonan doesn’t sound familiar to you, I recommend making it
familiar. It is true that before Adele rocked up, we had been there and done it
with beautiful, bountiful and talented redheads. Singing with bands george,
Katie Noonan and the Captains, Elixir and her own solo efforts, Noonan is a
figurehead of Australian vocalists and pianists. Suffice to say, I love her.
Love-Song-Circus
is a tremendously different mode of expressing a rarely-touched-upon
perspective of Australia’s beginnings as a convict colony. Inspired by love
tokens in a museum exhibition, Noonan describes an incredible process of trying
to find stories of convict women who first populated and worked this land,
unaware of the invasion and obliteration of native culture that we modern
Australians are made so educated about. Noonan saw unheard voices, and sought
to express them with her own pure and angelic styling.
Audiences
are presented with the lyrics, though an opportunity to buy the CD afterward
would not go astray by any means! The curtain opened on a six-piece band
(brilliant!) and a see-through screen where throughout the show, three woman
appear to perform incredible and abstract shards of dance and circus. Katie
kindly asks that we enjoy the monologue as one entire performance and save our
applause until the end which proved incredibly difficult with the amazing
emotion in her songs and the spectacular feats of the Circa troupe behind her!
As could be
expected, the set went along with morose tones and dramatic piano coupled with
the teasing violin and country guitar that took us back to what we recognise
now as classic Australiana music. The music played like the ocean we imagine
carried these girls in the stories to a
future none of them could possible prepare for or escape from. For some there
is gratitude, others fear, and the odd occasion where the music changes
completely and we find ourselves in an Irish jig! This is what is truly amazing
about what Noonan has premiered here in Adelaide, is a set that is truly
thought through and historically well-intended.
The Circa
troupe brought an interesting element to the concert, at times it felt as
though where Noonan and her band gave voice to these women, Circa represented
the reality of what they felt underneath the silence of the time. At times,
Circa made it feel harsh, at others more tender. At times, it was just
distracting and confusing. However, it yielded something different for everyone
which is in essence the value of adding the visual element to a set that on its
own may indeed have been emotionally homogenous-but what could we ask of a
concert about women sent to a new land against their will, often leaving
children orphaned and lovers widowed. Doubtless though that the Circa
women-Kathryn O’Keeffe, Kimberley Rossi and Billie Wilson-Coffey brought a
strength and sense of the imaginary to the harsh truths contained within the
beautifully crafted music.
Perhaps not
the must-buy people are saying about overseas names Lea Salonga or Eden
Espinosa, but definitely worth a look for a night of going back to our own
roots and being proud of our own home-grown talent. A collection on stage of
truly beautiful women, descended in art and patriotism from those strong and courageous
first females who are now immortalised as a new source of inspiration.
Tickets: $49.90 Adult $44.90 Conc $54.90
Premium
Running time: approx 85mins
Running 13-15 June
Book at BASS
