Presented by: Century Entertainment
The definition of a Fringe Gem, Elf Lyons is prepared to gallop away with perhaps the most surprising and playful show of the Adelaide Fringe
Reviewed by Justin Clarke
Hetzel Room (at State Library) at The Courtyard of Curiosities at the Migration Museum:
Thu 06 Mar – Sun 09 Mar: 7:30pm
Drama Llama at Rhino Room:
Tue 11 Mar – Sat 15 Mar: 9:00pm
Tickets: https://adelaidefringe.com.au/fringetix/elf-lyons-horses-af2025
Type: Clowning, Theatre, Mime, Hidden Gem
If you liked: Garry Starr, All The Fraudulent Horse Girls
5 STARS
Audience members take note, when Reuben Kaye suggests a show on his Fringe picks, pay attention. After reading the description for Elf Lyons’ new fringe production Horses, “the first ever comedy show performed entirely by a horse”, I knew that it had to be on my list. I was not disappointed.
Elf Lyons held a welcoming entrance for each member into the space of the Hertzel Room at Adelaide Fringe. Her beaming smile and demeanour immediately made us feel welcome to the space and put us in a position ready to play.
After an introduction that harnessed a few biting zingers at reviewers who commented on the length of her arms (because that’s the important thing to note about a fringe show), she took us through the rules of being around a horse. Wait for them to bow their heads so you aren’t bit by them – their bite is poisonous. Don’t approach them from behind because they may kick – which is also poisonous. It’s an immediate tongue in cheek situation before Lyons informs us that she will in fact not be appearing again until the end of the show, but will instead be bringing out a live horse to take over the show. Something not yet done in any fringe production. And thus, she leaves us instead with Treacle the horse.
Treacle has long black ears, and indeed has hooves and a flowing mane, but looks oddly like Lyons, apart from the fact that Treacle is an actual horse. Audience members who laugh out of turn – which seems to be a common occurrence in Adelaide – be ready to be given a new name, because your human names are silly!
Interspersed throughout each sketch are audio clips from Lyons’ family members talking about the games they used to play as children: soldiers, armies, animal farms and of course, horses. We’re taken through stories of famed horses in differing scenarios. Pegasus is dragged to go shoe shopping with his mother Medusa, the Trojan Horse is wheeled on stage complete with audience members as the hidden armies, a War Horse is told by his farmer that he must be in pain given how old he is and should be put out of his misery, a children’s farm is narrated by a narrator with a penchant for the masochistic, and a race horse aspires for greatness. Treacle swiftly and nimbly takes on each role with sharp clowning and voicework, unafraid to lean into the darkness surrounding animal cruelty, much to the audience’s hilarious discomfort.
What we’re left with at the end of it all, when Lyons eventually returns to the stage, is a piece that is magnificently poignant and utterly charming. This is one for those who have forgotten what it means to play, to be silly and be a child again. Please don’t leave Treacle standing on stage alone.
Want more from the Adelaide Fringe Festival? Explore all the shows on offer this year here.
