Home » Reviews » Alternative » THE GODS, THE GODS, THE GODS, Black Box Theatre, Adelaide Botanic Garden (Adelaide Fringe) – Review

THE GODS, THE GODS, THE GODS, Black Box Theatre, Adelaide Botanic Garden (Adelaide Fringe) – Review

Entering Black Box Theatre, we’re invited to gather in the middle of the auditorium and encouraged to sway, dance or whatever the music inspires us to do. The smoke-filled, strobe-lit room is reminiscent of an illegal underground club, where darkness prevails, and we get cosy with strangers. This is not the conventional atmosphere you’d expect at a mid-week matinee, but surely achieves what theatre is all about, transporting us into a different world. This isn’t an illegal club either, but one of Adelaide Fringe’s main hubs, located within the gorgeous botanic gardens. Mixing spoken word with live beats, fourteen…

Summary

Rating

Excellent

A piece of gig-theatre exploring the concept of deity in a sweaty storm of mesmerising poetry.

Entering Black Box Theatre, we’re invited to gather in the middle of the auditorium and encouraged to sway, dance or whatever the music inspires us to do. The smoke-filled, strobe-lit room is reminiscent of an illegal underground club, where darkness prevails, and we get cosy with strangers. This is not the conventional atmosphere you’d expect at a mid-week matinee, but surely achieves what theatre is all about, transporting us into a different world. This isn’t an illegal club either, but one of Adelaide Fringe’s main hubs, located within the gorgeous botanic gardens.

Mixing spoken word with live beats, fourteen tracks are interspersed with storytelling. Alexander Wright, Yoshika Colwell and Phil Grainger take turns at the mic, strolling amongst us, switching roles to play guitar or man the electronic consoles. As they do, four stories involving Gods and humans intertwine, heading to the same conclusion.

The Gods that we imagine up in the skies don’t exist but live amongst us. We should look for them in those who help us get by; the stranger that stop us on the street when we don’t realise we’ve dropped our wallet, those who give us directions when we’re lost. The Gods are all the kind people we meet along the way.

Everything happens around us very quickly. We were warned from the beginning to focus entirely on the story, as things would evolve at great speed. Perhaps because it’s still relatively early in the day, or perhaps because English is not my first language, a fair quarter of the script is lost on me, but I don’t feel left out. A high-octane, tight-knitted thread of words and music, THE GODS, THE GODS, THE GODS has a unique lyrical beauty that goes beyond words.

For those who are passionate about Greek mythology, the same Flanagan Collective and Gobbledigook Theatre are presenting two more shows at the festival, Eurydice and Morpheus.

Presented by: The Flanagan Collective, Gobbledigook Theatre, and Hartstone-Kitney Productions
Booking Link: https://adelaidefringe.com.au/fringetix/the-gods-the-gods-the-gods-af2020
Booking Until: 14 March 2020

About Marianna Meloni

Marianna, being Italian, has an opinion on just about everything and believes that anything deserves an honest review. Her dream has always been to become an arts critic and, after collecting a few degrees, she realised that it was easier to start writing in a foreign language than finding a job in her home country. In the UK, she tried the route of grown-up employment but soon understood that the arts and live events are highly addictive.

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