Still Alive (and kicking)
Things we loved
- A beautifully told story
- Well placed life lessons
- Songs pitched beautifully in the key of earnest insight
There’s something significant about the theatre-going experience that is easy to overlook.
In the darkness, as fellow audience members, our hearts all get into sync and beat as one, just as our breathing falls into lockstep as well.
And so it is, when a bomb has gone off in the confined spaces of the London Underground, it seems that in the darkness that follows, hands and hearts reach out, in search of life, love, and hope.
Thus, Dr Gill Hicks begins her Adelaide Fringe show, Still Alive (and kicking), with a poignant recounting of her experience at the epicentre of a terrorist blast in London. You can hear an interview with Gill, here: Are we there yet? Fringe in a time of Covid.
“I felt someone’s hand in the darkness”, she recalls, and thus, we have a show that guides us to reflect on how we are all connected and all reliant upon Leonard Cohen’s “fine silver thread” of life, whether we like it or not.
Still Alive (and kicking), is a heartfelt reflection on what’s important in life (hint to fellow workaholics, it is rarely ever “work” but more to do with textures and fabrics and tastes) and a calling to all of us to relish the mundane as much as the magnificent, as we trundle through our day-to-day occupations.
Dotted with some classic songs (accompanied by Dylan Paul on double bass and Julian Ferraretto on violin and hand saw), this show is like a TED talk done in cabaret style.
While her in-person performances are sold out, there is still the opportunity of watching this show online, and it translates well to a quiet moment of viewing and engaging in the dark.
Still Alive (and kicking) is an important show to watch, not so much for how to celebrate life, but rather for the rally cry of remembering that no matter how bad things are, it’s important to get back up again.