Show reviewed: 05/03/26

Show rating: A raving mad mad world, 4 stars.

It’s a jungle out there and I’m not talking about the East End during the Adelaide Fringe. Dating in your middle age is fraught with peril and this year there seems to be a trend in shows devoted to women of all ages exploring what the undefined world of modern relationships are all about. Dating Disasters is a show about romance, self value and redemption among the stories of dating disasters.

It is also an hour of musical theatre about stalking…sort of. It wasn’t intentional… but entirely relatable to me as someone who falls hard and fast in romantic attachments, I understand how it *could* happen with someone who is trying too hard to connect with another person. Okay maybe this another lesson and art imitating my love life. Overwhelmingly, it seems to me that we are lonelier in a society that is more connected than ever by technology and the ease of finding someone to be with.

You will find yourself singing along to the greatest hits of kiss off anthems with the slightly unhinged (and very available) Bea and her long suffering best friend, Krystal, as they seek to rehabilitate her after a court mandated dating reeducation order. (Is this really a thing?) This show falls into the artistic category of shows created because everyone has a story to tell and is the sort of thing one should be encouraged as works in development at fringe festivals as venues of creative innovations and experimentation.

Karen Lee Roberts plays the hapless Bea, accompanied by Krystal (Tammy Sarah Lynde) on keyboards and they take us through Bea’s re-education from psychotic stalker to a place where she can have a truly loving relationship by looking in the right places. This show is an utterly delightful romp through anyone who doesn’t understand the rules and games of modern relationships, Bea’s redemption arc is definitely relatable to any one who has a toe dipped into radioactive cess pool of the world of contemporary dating culture. What is truly remarkable is that Karen manages to create a frenzied sort of energy buzzing around Bea and maintaining crazy eyes for an entire hour.