Adelaide Fringe 2018
Peter Goers is Hard Rubbish
Peter Goers and Holden Street Theatres
Venue: Holden Street Theatres
Festival: Adelaide Fringe
Low Down
“Hard Rubbish” is the third show in a trilogy of crap following Goers’ Holden Street Fringe; his “Actors, Drunks And Babies Never Hurt Themselves” and “Smoked Ham”. They are nice shows particularly for old people. The previous two shows have, incredibly, sold out with five star reviews. Goers talks about Adelaide, SA and show business in his sardonic style and promises not to wear lycra.
Review
Peter Goers has decades of experience as a theatre director and producer, a reviewer, a presenter, a host, a traveler and a radio personality. With such a resume, Goers has some pretty amazing stories to tell. Three shows worth, in fact. In this final installment, we travel around Coober Pedy, Oodnadatta, Broken Hill and Snowtown. We also find ourselves in South America and Turkey. In each location, Goers has a story to tell, a joke (or three) and some genuinely interesting anecdotes. We hear about his retirement – he stopped work when it became illegal to smoke in the office – and his love of an old country town with a community hall. Double cut rolls, drive-in movies and IKEA furniture also provide fodder for Goers, as he jumps from story to story with much enthusiasm and nostalgia.
Only a desk and chair serve as the set for this performance. Other than a couple of cameos by the much loved Australian LOGIE winner Anne Wills (who still charms audiences), this is a solo show. While the beginning may have given way to some slapstick style comedy, the remainder of the show was an audience with Goers. He spoke directly to the capacity crowd, and managed to give the feel of being at a BBQ with friends.
There was no real order to the stories that came from Goers, as he referencing a running sheet set at the desk, looking for key words or phrases that sparked the next tail. One minute we’d be in Australia, the next we were across continents. This didn’t seem to trouble the (mostly elderly) audience, who he played too with the flair of a seasoned and engaging performer.
This show clearly wasn’t directed towards me, as a thirty-something I was outnumbered 100 to 1 by the over 50’s crowd that the show was designed for. This was evident by the greeting I received when exiting the Arch – as Goers shook my hand and exclaimed “my, you’re young!” However this didn’t mean I wasn’t enthralled by the stories. While some of the references weren’t initially clear, Goers descriptions and pictures that he painted were more than enough to give the stories depth and clarity.
An enjoyable afternoon of tales and nostalgia.
