The 2026 Adelaide Fringe on Kaurna Country features more than 1500 acts across every artform imaginable. Diving into the program can be an overwhelming experience, which is where reviews can theoretically assist keen Fringe-goers sort the wheat from the chaff – though the preponderance of blogs handing out five-star reviews like children’s party favours muddies the festival waters somewhat.
ArtsHub’s Performing Arts Editor Richard Watts attended the first few days of this year’s Adelaide Fringe; his collected impressions and insights into the shows he’s seen will roll out on the site in the coming days.
The Art of Storm-Whistling review – quick links
The Art of Storm-Whistling is stripped back storytelling
When 10-year-old John’s beloved Uncle Max is lost at sea, John knows he’s not really missing. Max – a born traveller – has sailed beyond the mythical Lighthouse, from which there is no return, in search of the shapeshifting dolphin-woman he loves. Trying to tell his family the truth about Max at his uncle’s funeral earns John a slap, and helps strengthen his resolve to undertake his uncle’s voyage and discover the Lighthouse for himself, as soon as he is old enough.
Written and performed by Tom Robins of local company Curious Roach Collective, which was founded by a group of friends who graduated from Adelaide College of the Arts in 2023, The Art of Storm-Whistling is stripped back theatre with the focus squarely on storytelling.
Read: Team Viking review: a hilarious, heartbreaking and healing masterpiece
Props are minimal: an upright wooden structure that becomes a ship’s mast; a lantern; and two items gifted by Max to John, a hagstone, which allows one to see that which is hidden by looking through the stone’s hole, and a book of maritime myths and legends that the peripatetic, now missing uncle has cryptically annotated.
Robins’ mythologically-inspired performance features striking lines and philosophies. Sailing at night, the now adult John is struck by the ‘glittering fullness of the moonlit sea’; later, a cryptic chorus explains that ‘reality is not fixed: it grows with understanding’.
It’s also rich with folkloric references to selkies, kelpies and other beasties, while the reference to the Lighthouse (‘an anchor-point for dreams made real’) evokes the equally fraught and fantastical voyage of HP Lovecraft’s 1919 short story The White Ship.
The Eurocentric references sometimes sit strangely in a tale unfolding off Australia’s eastern seaboard and the wide ocean beyond, but wisely, Robins avoids plundering Indigenous Australian and Oceanic myths that are not his to tell.
Knowing when to hold back
The minimal staging is reflected in the spartan sound and lighting design – the first sound effect, when 10-year-old John is slapped at his uncle’s funeral, is shocking in its suddenness and comes well after the production’s characters and themes have been established. Clearly, Robins is confident in his ability to hold the audience’s attention with his words and actions alone.
Such confidence is not always deserved. The story’s climax, when it comes, is overly verbose and lacks impact as a result. Robins might care to reflect on the adage that less is sometimes more, especially in storytelling, where dramatic simplicity can have more impact than a torrent of words. The law of diminishing returns is similarly evident when an aquatic equivalent of the Oracle of Delphi makes multiple appearances in the performance, each less powerful than the last.
Minor flaws aside, The Art of Storm-Whistling is an evocative and engaging hour of storytelling, and a refreshing antidote to the familiar stand-ups who sometimes dominate the Adelaide Fringe.
The Art of Storm-Whistling plays The Crawford Room at The Courtyard of Curiosities at the State Library until 22 March as part of Adelaide Fringe. See all reviews.
The writer visited Adelaide as a guest of Adelaide Fringe.
