Sydney Festival Announces Huge Western Sydney Program for 2017
Including an interactive 'Circus City' and the first posthumous exhibition of works by Myuran Sukumaran.
Summer's coming to our fine city — Sydney Festival is back in 2017 with a characteristically eclectic program. One day ahead of the full program announcement, the Western Sydney program has been released, starting with a sprawling Circus City precinct. What's Circus City you ask? Four huge shows (running over ten days), 34 workshops, 55 free events (including talks, films and exhibitions) and a casual flying trapeze all happening in and around Prince Alfred Square.
Some of the world's best circus troupes are converging to perform epic feature shows in The Spaghetti Circus Big Top and Riverside Theatres. Canada's Cirque Elioze will perform (complemented by a video projection show) their urban dance show iD. The UK's Ockham's Razor will perform their acrobatic show (on five-metre long metal poles) Tipping Point high above the audience. Brisbane's Circa will perform their dance/theatre show HUMANS. And Company 2 will perform their fascinating show Kaleidoscope, which is about and starring a young performer, Ethan Hugh, who lives with Asperger's Syndrome.
But it's not all fun and games. At Campbelltown Arts Centre, you'll find the very first posthumous exhibition by Myuran Sukumaran, Another Day In Paradise, a collection of over 100 works painted while incarcerated in both Bali's Kerobokan jail and before his execution at Nusa Kambangan in 2015. The show has been curated by close friend and mentor Ben Quilty.
Not content with a regular theatre space this Sydney Festival? Head along to El-Phoenician restaurant in Parramatta for Hakawati to feast on ancient Middle-Eastern traditions of story-telling and breaking bread with the National Theatre of Parramatta. Or pop over to a multi-level carpark in Blacktown for Home Country, Urban Theatre Projects' world premiere show taking you on a journey through place and identity.
Want to learn another language? Sign up for a free Indigenous language class taught by Darug women Aunty Jaacinta Tobin and Gadigal man Joel Davidson.
That's just the tip of the iceberg for Sydney Festival in Western Sydney, not to mention the whole program, which drops Wednesday, October 25 at midday.
Sydney Festival runs from January 7 to 29, 2017. Check the website for more info.
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