Author Archive: Guest Reviewer
Erato Teppanyaki
(21 King William Street, 30 June 2022) What better way to wind up the end of financial year than a blow out at this rather impressive teppanyaki place in Adelaide, in the 1936 AMP Building, built in the Beaux Arts style. There’s a set menu range, for meat lovers, seafood lovers, and mix and matchers: featuring such dishes as Coffin Bay Oysters with sour cream and chive, ponzu and salmon roe; Steamed Egg with Foie Gras, Oscietra caviar; Wagyu roll with Enoki and a Teriyaki glaze; Ora King Salmon with Nori, Kombu butter; Beef Tataki; Teriyaki Chicken, an Angus Beef…
Continue Reading →Davina and the Vagabonds
(Adelaide Cabaret Festival, 11 June, 2022) [Davina and the Vagabonds, late to town thanks to post-Covid chaos in international flights, appeared at the Cabaret Festival on Saturday night, drawing from the past 100 years of American music, from Fats Domino and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band to Aretha Franklin and Tom Waits. Reportedly, Davina has been compared to Etta James, Amy Winehouse, Janis Joplin, Billie Holiday and Betty Boop, but in order to verify, The Varnished Culture had 2 guest reviewers in attendance who know a thing or three about past and contemporary music in this Dawning Age of Aquarius….
Continue Reading →The Power of the Dog
Chaps and More Chaps, and a Little Anthrax on the Side How Jane Campion’s Dude Ranch Film Slides Away into the Montana Night By Janelle McCulloch “The Power of the Dog” directed by Jane Campion (2021) What can be said about The Power of the Dog? It’s a strange way to begin a film review of this Western drama, but I am well and truly mute. And much of this now-widely-talked-about film is, too. It’s a beautifully shot piece, low on dialogue but big on wide Montana skies (which are actually wide New Zealand skies), and there are some very…
Continue Reading →Chekhov Goes Feral at The Belvoir – The Cherry Orchard
(Reviewed by our learned NSW correspondent, Margo Jakobsen) The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov, Belvoir Theatre, June 2021 – directed / adapted by Eamon Flack The burning question is about the adaptation of The Cherry Orchard. The Larrikin tradition was evoked. Examples: the Zumba style dance, the MC calling the partygoers a bunch of c..ts, the f…k you conga line. Missing the subtle humour of the original, the 2 ladies next to me left at interval. [I’d probably have joined them – Ed.] The audience, a full house, was split between those of penshionable age and secondary students. In their…
Continue Reading →Hamilton – The Musical
(Directed by Amy Campbell, Lyric Theatre, Sydney, 2021) (Reviewed by Margo Jakobsen) Masked-up and entering the Sydney Lyric Theatre in an orderly fashion, I was eager to see if the musical justified the buzz. Some already knew, a couple of fans wearing period costumes of their own. Others were clearly familiar with the moments. For example, a cry went up at the ‘immigrants get the job done’ line and Brent Hill’s crassly, juvenile King George, made a popular and delicious contrast with the rawest emotions of Chloe Zuel as Hamilton’s wife, Eliza. The play ended with her enigmatic gasp. Amazing…
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