Arts

Cabaret Festival Review: An Evening with Zoe Coombs Marr

An Evening with Zoe Coombs Marr is a hilarious new show from comedian Zoe Coombs Marr that playfully dissects and toys with traditional comedic styles.

5


Presented by Adelaide Festival Centre
Reviewed 20 June 2019

An Evening with Zoe Coombs Marr is a hilarious new show from comedian Zoe Coombs Marr that playfully dissects and toys with traditional comedic styles.

Coombs Marr is a comedian and theatre performer who has toured many fringe events developing her craft. The style of her work has the ability to push boundaries and create new paths within comedy. She is known for her television and theatre work, stand up which included a stint opening for Hannah Gadsby, and her comedic character Dave, a caricature of hyper-Australian-masculinity.

An Evening with Zoe Coombs Marr is set in the Space Theatre of the Adelaide Festival Centre with a standard cabaret style table set up. From there Coombs Marr draws on her small stage experience to draw us into her take on how comedy sets fit within the idea of cabaret.

Coombs Marr demonstrates a strong understanding of her of comedy and comedy in general. She is able to pick it apart, share that she’s doing it, and still perform a hilarious production. The comedy stems from her life and personal experiences with call backs to her queer knowledge.

The overarching story links to her music and theatre background to give it the strongest connection to the general understanding of cabaret. A stand-up set could feel out of place with a cabaret show but Coombs Marr works even that into her comedy style. She dissects, intersects and interprets the work even as she is performing. She shows that she understands the stage and how to perform even when potential difficulties (in this case sound) arise.

Coombs Marr is a strong evolving performer, who’s a pleasure to watch, that has a layered performance for multiple audience preferences. Her ability to shine and know when to let others stand out (for example, her well timed back up choir) meant the overall show was a unique, intelligent, and wonderful performance to experience.

Watching her work evolve over the years has been a pleasure. Her latest work with the Adelaide Cabaret Festival is slightly mellower and less intense than her previous experimental work but there is still the strong underlying comedic punch.

Reviewed by Alex Dunkin
Twitter: @AlexDunkin

Rating out of 5: 5

Venue:  Space Theatre, Adelaide Festival Centre
Season:  20-21 June 2019
Duration:  1 hour 10 mins
Tickets:  $46.90 – $51.90
Bookings:  https://www.adelaidecabaretfestival.com.au/events/an-evening-with-zoe-coombs-marr/

https://www.adelaidecabaretfestival.com.au/

http://www.zoecoombsmarr.com/

@AdelaideCabaret

@zoecoombsmarr

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