A safe program is a dull program. You get exceptional shows by pushing at boundaries – the price of that, however, is that occasionally one will fall flat.
Two of the worst shows I have ever seen have been at the Adelaide Festival – and honestly, that’s part of why I keep going back.
No two shows I saw were in the same venue, and the program, while concentrated in the CBD, also extends into the suburbs and further out, bringing the festival – and the arts – to more people. Over the next hour and a bit we learn that we’re here for a funeral. Or are we? Commanding the room’s attention and moving through three different roles that seamlessly melt into one another, Pill conjures up the complexity and confusion of grief and loss – of what it’s like to lose your other half, of the messiness that is left behind when someone who should be there no longer is, and of what we owe to dead and to one another. And, somehow, it’s both funny and cutting.