We must admit, what drew us to want to see SLUMBER in the first place was the poster image with a girl holding a knife, looking sexy and dangerous at the same time (both of which are attributes we try to achieve on a daily basis).
Showing at Royal Croquet Club‘s Menagerie, SLUMBER is performed by a mostly female dance group hailing from America (plus one very attractive, Ryan-Gosling-looking male dancer). The group open their show with a somewhat sensual scene featuring the female cast members dancing in unison on a king-size bed, resulting in one of the dancers violently killing the rest towards the end of the scene. Although it is to perceived to be a dream at first, the dream then becomes a reality as the manic friend descends into a grotesque killing spree of all the unsuspecting group members.
There’s blood. There’s lots of it. While it’s pretty gruesome, the stabbing scenes are definitely our favourite part of the show (as grim as that sounds) and are what sets SLUMBER apart from other dance shows. It’s not often you see a mix of cheerful, girly fun and frenzied, blood-stained attacks with a funky pop soundtrack blaring in the background!
And while the pop music had us wanting to dance, smile and sing along with the cast, the storyline of the show did have us a little confused. One minute we’d be witnessing a fabulous circus act, next minute we’d be witnessing the crazy leading lady killing someone for some silly reason (or for no reason at all). It was a tad one-dimensional in that sense, but the ridiculousness was also clearly on purpose.
SLUMBER is one to go to for some light-hearted yet still exciting entertainment with friends, and is also a great one to be drunk for. The EDM beats and bar that features as part of the show make you feel as though you’re just in one huge party, where things are just getting that little bit too weird for your liking.
You can see SLUMBER every night at 9:30PM until the 19th of March (end of Fringe); to book tickets, click here.
We rate: ★★★ 3.5/5 stars
Image: Adelaide Fringe
