Dave Bradley Archives - FIFTY+SA

Book Review: Once We Were Wildlife

Dave Bradley — Thu, 09 Jul 2026 04:30:41 +0000

NSW-based author Simpson’s latest isn’t as frightening or apocalyptic as her recent The Last Woman In The World or The Thinning, although these eleven mysteriously interconnecting short stories can definitely be difficult and troubling. Seemingly presenting a series of ends (a relationship, motherhood, innocence, complacency, life itself), this kicks off with the simple but stinging ‘The Wash’, before the unsettling ‘Poached’, and the deeply moving ‘The Great Walk’, which strays into surprising territory in more ways than one. The epic and almost tragic ‘Once, We Were Wildlife’ (note the comma) is a near-novella and very much the longest tale here,

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Adelaide Cabaret Festival Review: Po Po Mo Co Best Bits Spectacular

Dave Bradley — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 01:53:40 +0000

The ‘femme queer clown’ quartet Po Po Mo Co (as in ‘Post Post Modern Comedy’) began their show with no introductions and no explanations, just an amusingly awkward warning that there was going to be nudity. And yes, there was too. And quite a lot of it. Running through an hour-long collection of their best bits (hence that title) from the last 10 years, this featured many musical numbers, all of which were, shall we say, a little weird. After a sort-of-mime set to Baby Bash’s Suga Suga, they then leapt into a bizarro take on 4 Non Blondes’ beloved

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Adelaide Cabaret Festival review: Haus Of Dy-lan

Dave Bradley — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 01:49:56 +0000

The San Francisco-born Dylan Adler’s hour-or-so-long show fearlessly touched upon a host of painfully personal themes, all of which hit pretty hard despite his wild, wonderfully raunchy rudeness. Frequently taking to a piano for self-penned and coolly Broadway-infused musical numbers (“That one’s from Hamilton!!!”), Dylan began with some amusingly crude jokes about Adelaide, Grindr, and more, before noting that he recently drunk-Facebook-messaged Seth, his old high school bully. This led into a slew of autobiographical avenues, with memories of coming out (with his also-fabulous twin) to his parents, the intricacies of being “half-Japanese and half-Jewish”, and how therapy has helped

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Film Review: The Richest Woman In The World (M)

Dave Bradley — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 03:01:10 +0000

Now playing at cinemas. Sponsored by Palace Nova Eastend and Prospect. The indefatigable (and yes, recently in Adelaide) Isabelle Huppert is the key reason to catch this altogether rather strange, semi-truth-based drama. And, as usual, she’s so subtle and understated that everyone swirling around her seems to be overacting. Co-writer/director Thierry Klifa’s film (a.k.a. La Femme La Plus Riche Du Monde) is very vaguely drawn from a 2010 court case involving the heiress to the L’Oréal empire, which accounts for a very legally cautious subtitle shown right at the start. We’re then, somewhere in the ’80s or ’90s, introduced to

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Film Review: Somebody to Love

Dave Bradley — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 01:58:14 +0000

This relationship/first-date comedic drama from Rome-born director Paolo Genovese (also one of many co-scripters) is a slightly strange experience, even though stars Pilar Fogliati and Edoardo Leo are subtle, likeable and pleasingly funny. But they’re not exactly the main characters herein. Using a plot that seems surprisingly indebted to Inside Out (or maybe the short-lived American TV show Herman’s Head), this has Piero (Leo) and Lara (Fogliati) having what’s revealed as a first date at her handsome apartment. Questions quickly arise (if she doesn’t know him all that well then why invite him to her home for dinner?), but we’re

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Book Review: Room 706 by Ellie Levenson

Dave Bradley — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 05:48:29 +0000

Journalist/author Ellie Levenson’s first novel has a plot that could have gone in an action-thriller, even somehow Die Hard-esque way, and yet this is actually a story of choices, of chance, of the decisions we make that push us along, and the love that should save us, if we’re lucky. Kate is a married mother of two not-quite-teen kids living in London with her husband of 16 years, the very-nearly-too-good-to-be-true Vic. However, she’s long had an arrangement with the also-married James where they meet in hotel rooms, always a different one, and a few times a year, for an afternoon

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Adelaide Fringe Review: PleaseDon’tCatchMeWhenIFall

Dave Bradley — Fri, 13 Mar 2026 08:18:53 +0000

As presented by Coexist Collective and choreographer/producer Aimee Raitman, this ambitious dance performance aims high, and although there’s a little awkwardness it just about works anyway. And this is intended as a very human study of social and oh-so-human awkwardness anyway. Two dancers are introduced after blackness, and while they never speak (or are named) they’re Patrick O’Luanaigh and Cinzia Schincariol, and they begin by walking in separate circles. This is the beginning of a kind of dance or movement Raitman and others call ‘Contact Improvisation’, and while it goes on a little too long, this opening section is nevertheless

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Adelaide Fringe Review: Murder, She Didn’t Write

Dave Bradley — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 08:10:23 +0000

This Bristol-based comedy experience is wholly improvisational, which rather makes reviewing it here a little pointless because, well, the show I saw on this, the opening night, will be completely different from the one you’ll see if you race off to The Gosling at Gluttony ASAP. But, nevertheless, here goes. Our detective is sitting reading on the stage as the audience take their seats, and she hops up to reveal that she’s not Jessica Fletcher (as that title might suggest) but, in fact, Agatha Crusty, a renowned crime-solver who recounts a tale of murder, mayhem and much goofiness back in

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Adelaide Fringe Review | Bob Marley: How Reggae changed the world

Dave Bradley — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 05:51:58 +0000

Duane Forrest’s show (another one-man performance) is certainly a highlight of this year’s Holden Street Theatre offerings, and a deeply personal, wonderfully moving hour-or-so. The Jamaican-Canadian Forrest emerges from the aisle and takes the stage to ease us into a celebration of the life and music of the late lamented Bob Marley (1945 – 1981), and after a few songs (and jokes), he starts to talk about our beloved subject. And he introduces memories of his own life back home in Toronto, and how Bob became his idol not just because of the beautiful tunes, but due to the politics.

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Adelaide Fringe Review | Cyclops: A Satyr Play review

Dave Bradley — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 04:25:48 +0000

Canadian writer/star Griffin Hewitt’s one-man show was performed at Judy’s, an intimate space at Holden Street Theatres, and when we were allowed in to take our seats some of the audience very nearly stepped on Griffin himself, who was sprawled face-down on the floor. Clad in a velvety half-costume, Griffin then leapt up and gave a veritable masterclass in being hungover after an awfully big night. It transpires that his satyr is stranded (a little Greek mythology would help here), Dionysus is scarily disappointed, there’s a cyclops somewhere nearby, and our protagonist can’t help being flawed because, as a satyr,

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