ILLURE - review by Absinthe. Feb 2013

By golly, Illure is a bit of a hard show to really pidgeon hole. It’s not really Burlesque – more Show Girl. But even that is not quite right – there is some strong vocal performances here that root it in fine Cabaret tradition. Maybe Cabaret is a misnomer – illusion & stage magic weave their way through every part of the performance, that you might be tempted to call it a musical magical show, but then that is not quite on the money. Vaudeville ? – and yet even that seems a limiting term.

So let me shoot the damn pidgeon.

Those of you who have followed previous reviews of Burlesque & Cabaret at the Adelaide Fringe would be aware I have often cast a level of disdain at (semi)professional dance companies and production outfits providing high rehearsed but emotionally sterile performances that are about as ‘fringe’ as a tonsure cut on a monk.

Today I have had to re-evaluate some of those preconceptions. I like it when a production causes me to do that.

Illure is clever.

Yes – it has high production values that certain other Fringe participants would envy, but it is not a show that hides behind light and sound to compensate an absence of narrative and innate ability. Yes – it is sharply rehearsed and slick, but glory be, the performers know how to connect and engage with an audience.

Additional bonus points are awarded for the use a real backing band –and their musical mastery allowed them to chop and change between jazz, Klezmer sensibilities, latin and classical in a beats notice, seamlessly.

Libby O’Donovan, all Elizabethan frills, blues growls and Ella Fitzgerald swagger was definitely the principal regal figure of the evening holding Court. I would say stage magic may be the domain of the court jester – yet Illusionist-Dancer Charli Ashby was no ones fool – sexy, sassy and swift of hand, beholder of the eye. Ranging from nifty card tricks to more technically difficult cage & box switcheroos – what is important here is not whether you have seen these tricks before but rather the originality in context to which they are presented.

Supported by a sensational troupe of dancers – that may I add made me rejoice in the fact that they all looked very different physically, in movement, in their forte dance styles, and yea verily, the projected personalities. I should not really have to make such an observation, but some acts I have seen in the past seem to be characterised by carbon copy chorus lines devoid of genuine expression.

This is one worth getting out for, Fringe Dwellers – it may not have the same ‘edge’ I often look for in Fringe, but it is highly entertaining and manifests enough variety to put it well outside the box in many ways.

Jonathon Carfax, Absinthe
4 stars out of 5

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