Amongst the ever growing backdrop of Adelaide Fringetime East End, the Migration Museum sought to put on smaller, more personal works. The Heart May Or May Not Go On, an autobiographical piece by Adelaide artist Taylor Nobes, is one of them – a unique look into a young woman’s psyche, shaped by friendship, music, and trauma. 

Nobes, a graduate of Adelaide’s College of the Arts, is a more than capable story teller, dancer, performer – she seeks to grab the audience from the start by performing an incredibly high energy routine, with shades of Abby Lee Miller choreography, and more than a dash of third wall breaking. The audience lap this up, as they do when she does multiple other dances, but towards the end the joke started to wear; the moves are still good, but the shock is gone. 

This is a very funny show, and the strength of the piece and the performer. Nobes bounces from piano ballads about her burgeoning narcissism, to monologues on her bogan upbringing, winding down Wistow Road (I’d be interested to see the localisation if this work toured); and if you saw the trigger warnings that accompany the piece, you would probably be shocked at just how funny this show actually is. 

Where I felt some incongruity was towards the back half; this show, up until that point, had been really focused in on finding humour in the childhood and university experience of Nobes, but the show takes a left hand turn into some incredibly serious conversations about bodily autonomy and mental health – and it felt less like a side step and more a jump away from where the show had been previously grounded. I applaud Nobes for tackling the subjects she did, but a slower transition into this affecting finale might’ve had less of a jarring juxtaposition. 

I would be really interested to see what Nobes does next. She’s electric to watch, and clearly has a story to tell. Her heart is going on, in my head at least, I haven’t managed to get her break up ballad out of my brain, and hopefully neither will you.