Presented by Adelaide Festival Centre
Reviewed 18 June 2015
Songs From the Middle is not your typical Eddie Perfect show. Not that there is necessarily anything typical about an Eddie Perfect show, but you won’t find any satire here, the genre Perfect is so well known for.
The performance is billed as a song cycle of heart-breaking and hilarious songs, but it more closely resembles a nostalgic and charming walk down memory lane as Perfect recalls his years growing up in Mentone, the aspiring Riviera of Melbourne.
Perfect describes Songs From the Middle as an Ode to Mentone. He sings about the people and places that shaped his life, comparing love to an Ikea shelf, telling a few tales of unrequited love and exposing his rather dark feelings toward Catholicism.
Stand out numbers include Susan Morgan, a dedication to a primary school crush, while The Frankston Line captures his wayward youth, and Nepean Highway is a song about the road that carried an angry young man away and brought him back to make peace some years later.
The real star of this show is Perfect’s music with emotive and beautiful orchestrations by Iain Grandage, expertly performed by Perfect and musicians from the Australian National Academy of Music.
Songs From The Middle is not Perfect’s usual comedic style but this beautiful piece is a more mature exploration of how we strive for change but don’t really want it when it comes.
There is a feeling that we are meeting a new side to Eddie Perfect as he takes the audience on a journey of open and honest story telling that really captures his complicated affection for Mentone, a place that at one time he couldn’t wait to leave.
Reviewed by Ceri Horner
Twitter: @CeriHorner
Rating (out of 5): 4.5
Venue: The Dunstan Playhouse, Adelaide Festival Theatre
Season: 18 – 20 June 2015
Duration: 1hr 20 mins
Tickets: $54.90 – $69.90
Bookings: Book online through www.adelaidecabaretfestival.com.au or phone BASS on 131 246
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