Review: CABARET FRINGE 2017: PUBLICLY PRIVATE at La Boheme

Reviewed by Fiona Talbot-Leigh, Thursday 8th June 2017.

Nicole O'Reilly presented her very first show, Publicly Private, performed in the intimate space upstairs at La Boheme. O'Reilly is a 21-year-old Adelaide Arts Student who last year won the Australian and New Zealand Cultural Arts Prize for Music Performance Excellence and, after seeing her show, you can easily tell why.

O'Reilly casually waltzed onstage, sat at her keyboard and introduced herself to the audience through song. Her vocals are gutsy, rich and raw. She is like a young Tori Amos, honest, a bit 'in your face' and 'telling it like it is', from her perspective of the world.

She exudes confidence and, right from the first song, complete with a slight wardrobe malfunction with which she dealt beautifully and, in fact, used to her advantage, she had the audience's attention, which she kept for the duration of the show.

O'Reilly is refreshingly honest and she bares her soul through song. Her beautifully expressive face hid nothing as she shared with her audience just a little of what is going on in that very talented mind of hers. She is the ultimate storyteller through song and has obviously been writing for years, even going back to her old dark poems and putting them to music, the result of which is both intriguing and entertaining, if at times a little self-indulgent, but this just added to the performance.

In between songs she shares with us her habit of babbling and just saying out loud whatever is on her mind, which was, thankfully, entertaining and to the point.

O'Reilly throws her songs out there like paint on a white canvas and she entertained with her eclectic array of music and lyrics derived from the most real part of herself. Publicly Private definitely delivers on its title. O'Reilly has really put herself out there with her first show. She took a gamble and won, so try to catch her last performance, and be sure to book because her first show sold out. Publicly Private plays on Saturday the 17th June 6pm upstairs at La Boheme, enter through the beer garden down the lane, not the main entrance.

(Ed. The 17th June performance has also sold out, but an extra one has been added for 23rd June at 7pm. Book quickly.)

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