Freshbait is a Fringe program giving young artists the chance to test their work on a live audience.
Free Freshbait theatre, music, dance, film and mixed media performances are dotted around the Fringe Hub. If past festivals are anything to go by, they are worth a look although my opening-day Freshbait experience was hit and miss.
After arriving late for the start of the theatre program – curiously, a film called Evolution – I joined a queue of similarly ill-fated people asked to wait outside. When the film ended, we waited some more while the set was installed for the second piece, a new play called Fred’s Dead. This work-in-progress by Fat Wombat Productions has a long way to go.
Anthony Jucha’s foyer yarn about losing his virginity must be among the worst things I have seen. Jucha redeemed himself with an honest and engaging story about his real-life experience sleeping out in the streets of Adelaide with a group of homeless people.
The last item on the bill, Un-Australian Mums, was cancelled and the Freshbait roving performance failed to appear.
By Louise Nunn
(The Adelaide Advertiser – Freshbait Theatre Review – 26 February 2004)