Review: HAPPY GO WRONG at Space Theatre, Adelaide Festival Centre

Reviewed by Ewart Shaw, Thursday 8th December 2022.

Andi Snelling has the bug, or rather the bug has her. There's just one small problem, it's Lyme disease, a tick-borne infection caused by the bacterium Borrelia Burgdorferi with a significant impact on the body and the soul. The problem for Australians is that the government does not accept that the disease, with symptoms of fever, headache, fatigue, and other features, can be carried by Australian ticks. So, you have all the symptoms, and what can you do? Andi Snelling has taken her experience of this impossible condition to create Happy Go Wrong, a dynamic and truly moving piece of theatre.

Papier-mâché clouds hang over the space. There are heaps of crumpled paper in the corners.

She appears on roller-skates, with a big smile, sexy eyes, and a faux French accent. She is the angel of mortality. She dumps the skates in a box and dances barefoot. Then there's a blackout and, as the lights come back, we meet the Andi suffering from the disease. Backwards and forwards we go. The sick Andi rolls out bolts of paper, and crushes them. The heaps of paper in the corners envelop her and she tries to free herself from the cocoon. It's a powerful and simple image.

Then she takes off her clothes. Nudity in theatre isn't new. There's the famous scene in Hair, and the moment early in Bent where a naked German crosses the stage. This is closer to the innocence of the musical. It's not confronting, it's a personal liberation. Then she puts on the roller skates and boldly naked goes speeding around the arena of her story, to the cheers of the audience. It's just the best thing.

It's a show she's been developing for a few seasons and, with producer Matthew Briggs, she has now brought it to a venue which, according to a mate in the know, was always a destination of her desire. When she skates back to Adelaide, just go and watch, and enjoy.