A pity there is only 1 performance.
Presented by: Butterfly Theatre
Reviewed: 26 February, 2023
This was the third time I have enjoyed Marvellous Music at Mary Mags as part of the Adelaide Fringe. The small church is a lovely venue at 137 years old and it’s good to know that part of the proceeds from the Fringe concerts directly assist the church’s ongoing task of providing service to the community.
The three players Leah Lowe, Bronwyn Ruciak and Russell Slater from Butterfly Theatre presented a programme of songs and prose from Shakespeare’s plays and sonnets. Melodious accompaniment, in music and singing, was enthusiastically provided by Matthew Lykos, on guitar, bouzouki and mandolin, Emlyn O’Regan and Jodie O’Regan, playing a bodhran drum, guitar and recorder. I especially enjoyed the singing of Greensleeves and The Wind and the Rain.
The selection from the sonnets and multiple plays was cleverly structured so that disparate texts flowed naturally into the next piece. We saw this in Viola’s ‘I left no ring with her’ speech from Twelfth Night which was followed by Benedict’s monologue ‘This can be no trick’, from Much Ado About Nothing with players Lowe and Slater, respectively.
The only sour note came near the end of the concert when Lowe-Horatio and Slatter-Hamlet strolled up the nave, complete with an esky, and sat on the altar rail and open a couple of beers while giving the audience an unusual rendition of the famous ‘Alas, poor Yorick‘ speech from Hamlet. This interpretation seemed to be at odds with the over-riding themes in the speech of death, decay and the knowledge that one day we will all be like Yorick, merely bones.
My favourite piece was ‘All the World’s a Stage‘, delivered by the melancholy Jacques in As You Like It and performed by Ruciak. The speech on the seven ages of man was well done, as she pointed to audience members as representing the different ages. And what more appropriate piece to finish with than Prospero’s ‘Our revels now are ended‘ from The Tempest.
Reviewed by Jan Kershaw
Venue: St. Mary Magdalen Anglican Church
Season: Sun 5 Mar: 2:30pm, Voices in the Wilderness; Sun 12 Mar: 2:30pm, Psalms from the Song of Ascents
Duration: 60 minutes
Tickets: Full Price: $23.00, Concession: $18.00
Bookings: https://adelaidefringe.com.au/fringetix/marvellous-music-at-mary-mags-af2023#buy-tickets-section
More News
