No buts about it, Standing Room Only is pretty damn weird.  I had a divine time.

Kitsch Events has dreamed up an incredibly immersive new age holistic group wellness retreat of a show. Upon entry, each individual audience member is asked if they’d like to be scrubbed with sage before entering the venue. Upon entry, and again, individually, the audience is asked if they’d like to be bathed in sound by a singing bowl before being ushered into a space reminiscent of a hazy yurt.

Jem, Amber, and Kosta hold space for the audience to receive “lessons” from three different “gurus” throughout the night. Jem is the sage scrubbing, sound bathing leader. Amber is her silent but eager assistant. Kosta is the guitarist and Jem’s ex-husband. The characters are inspired by the types of people who embrace the kind of non-traditional lifestyles that got popular during the era when people started to blame vaccines for autism, and then peaked during Covid with the emergence and mainstream acceptance of anti-science and anti-pharmaceutical ideologies.

They’re cut from the same cloth as people who might offer treat your headache with crystals and good vibes rather than offering you a Neurofin. The writing and the acting come together in a way that makes it easy to forget you’re not at a Goop Retreat somewhere in Aspen. It’s done very well, “Jem” does an excellent job of leaning into the caricature of an I-subsist-on-sun-rays yoga instructor. She’s a character that’s so comfortable in her own skin that she’s uncomfortable to be around.

Even though it’s fictional, Jem’s displays of unabashed vulnerability tempt the audience to share in that vulnerability. It presents a jarring inner conflict that starts uncomfortable and doesn’t resolve into beautiful until you, as the viewer, accept and lean into it. Having been to a few flow arts festivals in my life, I’ve spent time around people who evoke the same beautiful discomfort, and I think it was captured perfectly in this show. With that all said, this set up is merely the vehicle that drives the show forward. 

Nestled inside the hazy tantric love nest of the Speigel Zelt are 3 wildly different variety acts introduced as spiritual guides. Each guide is enlisted to provide a lesson that aimed at enhancing the spiritual one-ness of everyone in the audience. 

The variety of the variety shows is expansive, beginning with noir and jazz singing, followed by jelly wrestling, and finishing up with a goat sacrifice. I can’t be sure, but I think it’s safe to assume that the acts will be different from night to night.  If there is a single show that I could use to answer the question “what is the Adelaide Fringe?” It’s this one. I don’t know if the variety acts change on a nightly basis but I feel like I’d safe to assume that no two nights will be the same.

The show has nothing to say about global conflict or activism of any kind. It’s great for anyone who wants a break from the doom-scrolly melancholia of the 24-hour news cycle we’re all trapped in. The more energy you give to this show, the more you’ll get out of it. And, as the title states, there is no seating provided at this show. Wear comfortable shoes.

Recommended Drink: Echinacea tea with lemon and 0.3 micrograms of psilocybin.

Open your yoni for Standing Room Only in the Spiegel Zelt at The Garden of Unearthly Delights from Fri, 28 Feb to Sun, 09 Mar. Tickets are available through the Adelaide Fringe Online Box Office.