AN END TO DREAMING Cabaret Fringe Festival La Bohème Until 18 Mar 2012 Review by Jamie Wright Rip Hansel and Gretel out of the pages of a book of fairy tales, give them angelic voices and instruments and sit them down in Adelaide’s cabaret hot-spot La Bohème and you’ve got “An End to Dreaming”. In five chapter-like ‘stages’, Emma Dean and Jake Diefenbach perform ten songs, each a short story in its own right. Both are excellent singers, and the songs are powerful numbers that manage to be both sweet and haunting. The two swap between upright piano and electronic keyboard – with Dean also playing violin on one song – and this combination allows for a great range of accompaniment, tailored for each number. It’s a very theatrical, in-character form of cabaret; the patter in between songs is more narration, part of the story rather than conversation. It’s a departure from the style of show performed by the majority of contemporary cabaret acts, and a challenging one in the sense that it dilutes a key feature of the genre: the capacity for the performers to break the fourth wall to connect personally with the audience. With that in mind, the dreamy narrative and the characters they portray could perhaps be given more prominence than in its current form. As it is, though, the sheer talent of the two as performers and songwriters makes for an hour of exceptional entertainment; beautiful songs and exquisite voices brought together to create wonderful, ethereal pop cabaret. Rating: 4.5 stars (out of 5)