Review: GRAND THEFT THEATRE – ADELAIDE FESTIVAL 2024 at Tālava (Latvian Hall)

Reviewed by Barry Lenny, Sunday 10th March 2024.

Experimental theatre collective, Pony Cam, and collaborator, David Williams, are presenting Grand Theft Theatre in this year’s Festival but not, as one might expect, in an Adelaide Festival Centre venue, but at Tālava (Latvian Hall) just out of the city in Wayville. Tālava, it transpires, means ‘old mountain castle’ which is, ironically, the name given to a conventional community building that is not quite 60 years old, and built on the Adelaide Plains. It boasts two wooden-floored halls of different sizes with the larger hall, being used for this performance, having a small proscenium arch stage, as well as a well-equipped bar/kitchen, and rehearsal rooms. The stage was not used, but the company ran the bar in the intermissions, serving gin and tonic, and warm, large pretzels.

The five members of Pony Cam, which was founded in 2019 by a group of graduates from the Victorian College of the Arts, are Claire Bird, Ava Campbell, William Strom, Dominic Weintraub, and Hugo Williams who, with David Williams, created and perform this work, a gloriously chaotic couple of hours.

Many shows were referenced, some very briefly, others encompassing detailed descriptions of the relevant parts of a performance, and explanations for the significance of it to one of the cast. It mattered nothing whether you were intimately acquainted with a production, such as Chicago, or had never heard of it because it was only performed in Melbourne, or overseas, or at a Fringe.

We were asked to write our all-time favourite show on a sticky label, to be worn during the performance as a talking point. Mine? It was The Royal Shakespeare Company production of Richard III, with Anthony Sher in the titular role. His book, The Year of the King, about the time between being offered the role and performing was fascinating. If you haven’t read it, you should.

Chairs were collected in the centre of the hall, each with a sticky label on the back. We were to find one that we liked and set up wherever we wanted to watch the performance. I chose to be David Icke. I found it somewhat amusing to see people, initially, setting up their chairs in neat, straight lines across the hall, facing the stage. Others of us, being less conditioned and conventional, set ourselves up randomly, giving ourselves space around us, and establishing good sightlines. The stage, as it happened, wasn’t used to begin with, the first part of the performance taking place on the floor in front of it, followed by a series of short, comical glimpses onstage of a scene from a Greek tragedy.

It all began, though, with a detailed description of the context of the work, interrupted and overridden by another member of the cast, then more voices, a raucous cacophony, all drowned by the ever louder music, suddenly developing into a dance routine. Any thoughts that this was going to be an ordinary stage production were immediately dispelled, and I noticed a few confused looks on some of the faces around me. I was already loving it.

There followed several acts, each with a theme, of sorts, the performers taking turns to deliver their selections, with some hilarious, risqué, and irreverent sections, through to some extremely poignant ones, and all points in between. At the first intermission, the cast rearranged the chairs, and the rest of the performance made use of almost the entirety of the floor space.

To write a step-by-step explanation of everything in the performance would probably take longer than the performance itself. It should be experienced, not described. It is also evolving. They included the briefest of glances at other productions in the Adelaide Festival. It was all simply wonderful.

The performance ended as it began, with voices, music, and that quirky dance routine. We handed up our sticky labels as we left which, we were told, would be laminated and added to the already existing display.

Sadly, there is only one more performance, on Monday 11th March at 7pm. If you can still get tickets, do so, right now!