The Ten Best Things to See at Brisbane Festival 2017
From classic horror flicks to Chinese theatrical extravaganzas, we've assembled a list of the best this year's Brisbane Festival has to offer.
The Ten Best Things to See at Brisbane Festival 2017
From classic horror flicks to Chinese theatrical extravaganzas, we've assembled a list of the best this year's Brisbane Festival has to offer.
September in Brisbane means three things: ace weather, ample things to do and a sky full of fireworks. And, while Brisbane Festival can't claim credit for the climate, it gets all of the love for the latter two. Taking over every space it can – including the heavens – the annual celebration of arts, culture, music, performance, film and more turns the ninth month of a year into a party. Traipsing around the central hub that is Arcadia, getting immersed in an indie theatre wonderland, and looking up at Riverfire are just the beginning.
From September 9 to 30, this year's fest promises all of that and a whole lot more. If your calendar isn't full, you're not trying hard enough. But if you do need some help, let us pencil in these ten must-sees from the stacked Brisbane Festival 2017 lineup.
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When famed Chinese dancer and choreographer Yang Liping does her thing, audiences don’t just take note — they watch in awe. Collaborating with Oscar-winning designer Tim Yip (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) and Chinese-American installation artist Beili Liu, she’s certain to evoke that response with her latest effort: Under Siege.
In its Australian premiere run at Brisbane Festival, the production mounts the historic battle between Chu and Han armies, as well as a love story between a warlord and his mistress. If the story sound familiar, that’s because it has already been seen in Farewell My Concubine. Still, with performers from Peking Opera, hip-hop, ballet, contemporary dance, and classical and folk music on the bill, this performance promises something both different and special.
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Foodies, prepare for a night out at the theatre that’ll make your stomach rumble — it’s CHEF: Come Dine With Us! time. Gracing Brisbane Powerhouse’s stage as part of Brisbane Festival, the Korean production turns cooking and all things culinary into even more of a spectacle than they’ve already become.
We’re talking TV chefs competing complete with breakdancing and beatboxing, plus acrobatic displays that you really shouldn’t try in your own kitchen. Just remember to either eat first or have somewhere booked for afterwards — and make sure it’s a place serving bibimbap. That’s the dish at the centre of the show, and you’re going to be craving it afterwards.
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Forget about DeLoreans, hot tubs and phone booths — for five days in September, travelling to another time is as easy as stepping inside The Tivoli. In Orpheus, Fortitude Valley will become Paris, and the present day will become the 1930s, as Brisbane Festival takes audiences on an immersive theatre ride.
Here, musician Django Reinhardt has been cast as the lead in a musical reimagining of Orpheus — and you’re about to see the end results. Revisit the famous underworld romance, listen to a toe-tapping score of jazz, opera and French chanson, and eat and drink as if you really had ventured back nearly a century. There’ll be free music beforehand, dancing afterwards on Friday and Saturday nights, and fitting food aplenty. Think brioche, brie, baguettes and providore platters.
Image: RULER.
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On September 23, the September-long cultural feast that is Brisbane Festival sets up shop at the Riverstage for one of its musical highlights: an afternoon with London Grammar, James Vincent McMorrow and some special guests.
One heads to Australia for the first time since releasing their second album in June. The other drops by for the third time in just over a year. Both will put on quite the ethereal show.
They’ll be joined by this year’s Splendour hits The Kite String Tangle, plus Mansionair and Wafia. In fact, with everyone on the bill boasting a connection to the annual Byron event (even if London Grammar ultimately cancelled their 2014 appearance), consider this a taste of the fest to tide you over until next year.
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Definitely kill 164 people, or potentially see casualties of up to 70,000? It’s a choice no one wants to make, but what’s the better option? And if you were faced with passing judgement on a man who chose the former over the latter, what would you decide?
At Terror, you can find out, with the international smash coming to Australia for the first time. In its exclusive Brisbane Festival-only run, the debut play by German defence lawyer and author Ferdinand von Schirach runs through the trial of a fighter pilot who thought he was thinking about the greater good. Audiences will be asked to vote on his sentence, with the creative team adhering to their choice. The narrative changes accordingly, and has been performed in more than 70 theatres around the world since 2015.
Image: Stephen Long.
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It’s been more than two decades since Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet changed the game when it came to screen adaptations of Shakespeare — and delivered a stunning soundtrack along with it. There are many things that make the 1996 movie great, from its stellar casting to the filmmaker’s inimitable style. But tracks by everyone from The Cardigans to Radiohead to Everclear to Garbage rank right up there with its biggests strengths.
It’s no wonder, then, that Brisbane Festival is throwing quite the soiree to celebrate one of the best-ever collections of movie tunes. At Young Hearts Run Free, The Tivoli will become a rock masquerade, with patrons dressing up, dancing the night away, and listening to live performances of the entire soundtrack — with Tom Dickins, Greg Chiapello, Airling, Electric Fields and Miss Blanks on the lineup.
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Imagine going to the movies, but not actually watching the film. No, you won’t be joining the rude masses staring at their phones. Rather, you won’t be able to see anything at all. After entering the theatre, you’ll be blindfolded, before being sat in front of the screen. You’ll also hear the whisperings of a small child describing the film to you, which they’re viewing for the first time.
That’s Blind Cinema, which makes its first Australian outing at Brisbane Festival, and turns cinema-going into a collaborative performance and an imaginative experience. Watching without watching, you’ll contemplate the power of words, as well as their shortcomings, all while enjoying something far, far different to your usual trip to the pictures.
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After enlivening previous Brisbane Festivals with Blanc de Blanc and LIMBO, Strut & Fret are back with their latest theatrical fun. A world premiere production designed specifically for the South Bank Piazza, FUN HOUSE promises to live up to its name by throwing a huge house party — with acrobatics, circus stunts, physical theatre and more. And when we say more, we mean a jumping castle.
With YouTube sensation Pogo on DJing duties, this interactive show turns its venue into a playground, and turns attendees into willing participants. It’s also one of two S&F efforts in this year’s lineup, with Bris Fest also hosting the sizzling party sequel that is LIMBO UNHINGED.
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During Brisbane Festival, South Bank will be filled with people — but not just in the way you’d expect. Plenty of Brissie folks will flock to the riverside space for shows, gigs and more, and they’ll be joined by five giant humanoids eager to explore our fantastic planet.
Taking inspiration from the 1973 animated flick Fantastic Planet, this larger-than-life light installation takes over the Cultural Forecourt with a 40-foot-tall spectacle of out-of-this-world sights. With the movie set in a world where such gargantuans roam the earth, rendering humanity as we know it savages, consider this bright, bold piece the next best thing to stepping into that realm.
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When Dario Argento, Mario Bava and Lucio Fulci turned celluloid dreams into nightmares, they did so in vivid, visceral, blood-splattering fashion — and helped shape an entire genre, giallo, in the process. Whether taking on witches and zombies, depicting murders by literary fans and attacks at art galleries, or stepping into sinister and supernatural territory, the three influential Italian filmmakers transformed stylised horror cinema into art.
Their output sits at the centre of the Gallery of Modern Art’s Gothic, Giallo, Gore: Masters of Italian Horror program, Brisbane Festival‘s nod to the kind of frightening flicks that other horror movies want to be when they grow up. Come for ’60s, ’70s and ’80s masterworks such as Argento’s Deep Red and Tenebrae, Bava’s Blood and Black Lace and A Bay of Blood, and Fulci’s Zombi 2 and The House by the Cemetery. Stay for a masterclass in unnerving filmmaking.
If you’re eager for an extra special treat, here’s two: one for your tastebuds, and one for your eyes and ears. Firstly, Gelato Messina’s Smooth Criminal chocolate gelato bars will be on offer at GOMA for the duration of the season. Secondly, giallo classic Suspiria has its very own session at The Tivoli, with Claudio Simonetti’s Goblin coming over from Italy to play their iconic score live.
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