This weekend, join the Million Paws Walk with your furry friends or meet some more exotic creatures at Adelaide Zoo's 140th birthday celebration. Plus, Cabaret Fringe Festival takes over Adelaide with plenty of live shows.

Words Elisabeth Marie

Come a little closer

The Cabaret Fringe Festival will take over the Adelaide CBD and surrounds until June 4 with 10 days of art, culture and entertainment in more than 20 intimate venues. Every night of the festival, guests are invited to CabLive!, a performer play space in The Lounge at The Piccadilly where cabaret diva Dolly Diamond hosts an unscripted line-up featuring some of South Australia’s greatest talent. With more than 30 performances showing across festival venues, there is something to sate every appetite with cheeky burlesque and mesmerising cabaret, tribute shows and sea shanties.

Paw-esome day

Adelaide Zoo will celebrate its 140th anniversary on Saturday, May 27 from 9.30am to 5pm with plenty of fun for the whole family. Learn something new at special keeper talks and watch as the animals frolic with celebratory enrichment toys. To commemorate the occasion, a time capsule will be unearthed and a new capsule buried in addition to the planting of a critically endangered Wollemi pine tree. With free entry for children under 14, the Adelaide Zoo’s birthday party is sure to be a wild time.

A stitch in time

Get your pick of the State Theatre Company of South Australia’s costume department on May 27 and 28 from 10am to 4pm for the wardrobe department’s sale. The rare event will see hundreds of costumes for sale at the State Theatre headquarters at Wigg & Son, Thebarton. Over the past couple of months, head of wardrobe, Kellie Jones has been carefully sifting through the racks and racks of garments, selecting the pieces that the company can bear to part with. The sale is being held with the aim of not only freeing up a bit more space across their large costume warehouse, but also hoping to raise more than $10,000 for the purchase of a new suite of dressmaking mannequins.

Soldiering on

Australian rock drama Rolling Thunder Vietnam returns to Adelaide with two shows at Her Majesty’s Theatre on May 26 and 27. Using rock classics from the ‘60s and ‘70s, along with historical video footage, the production explores the Vietnam War as the world’s first televised war. The 2023 production will support not-for-profit organisation Soldier On, which provides support services to Australia’s Defence Force personnel and their families. Producer, Rebecca Blake, said Vietnam Vets had embraced the show since the beginning. “Many of them are our biggest fans,” she says. “We look forward to partnering with Soldier On and also introducing the show to a younger audience.”

Paw to the floor

Paws will pound the pavement of Adelaide Botanic Garden on Sunday, May 28 as the Million Paws Walk returns to South Australia. Participants can choose to do a 1.8 or 3.1-kilometre walk any time between 9am and 12pm to raise funds to support the RSPCA in caring for more than 1300 animals currently housed in shelters around the state. A Million Paws Walk Village will pop up across the road from the garden at Botanic Park with beverages, food and festivities for participants and their pups to enjoy.

A humorous controversy 

Red Phoenix Theatre Company will perform the satirical Russian comedy The Suicide at Holden Street Theatres from May 25 to June 3. The play follows a tragic man who contemplates suicide and who – if he is going to die anyway – is asked by other characters to die for their causes. Although written in 1924, the play didn’t premiere until 1979 after being banned by Russian leader Joseph Stalin who also sentenced the writer, Nikolai Erdman, to 20 years in a Siberian work camp. After its translation by Peter Tegel, The Suicide went on to be regarded as one of the best plays to come out of Communist Russia with its humour and themes resonating with modern audiences.

Rachmaninov’s 150 years

The Adelaide Symphony Orchestra is performing Sergei Rachmaninov’s piano concertos across four special concerts at the Adelaide Town Hall. Conductor Andrew Litton will lead Stephen Hough on the piano as the concert series celebrates the 150th anniversary of the Russian composer’s birth. Rachmaninov’s complete works for piano and orchestra will be played alongside music from his compatriots including Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony and Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet. Read a review of the first concerto – which occurred on Wednesday, May 14 – at InReview.

For more of what’s on around South Australia this month, pick up the May issue of SALIFE, which is on sale now.