Seven Visually Stunning Shows You Need to See at Melbourne International Arts Festival 2019

Catch legendary Israeli choreographer Hofesh Shechter’s latest electrifying production, as he embraces the crazy times we live in by weaving a dark but comical apocalyptic tale about the end of time. Grand Finale combines elements of dance, theatre and live music gigs as a troupe of world-class performers elegantly move their way through an oncoming storm and a society in free-fall. Subtly optimistic about the downfall of the world, Grand Finale might leave you feeling slightly better about our state of affairs.

Shechter’s previous theatre productions — Uprising, Sun and In your rooms — have impressed Melbourne’s audiences over recent years and Grand Finale looks to be no different, having already been nominated for two Helpmann Awards, which celebrate Australia’s top performance artists. Across four special nights for Melbourne International Arts Festival, the show appears at Arts Centre Melbourne with tickets available from $39. Stick around after the show on Friday, October 11, for a Q&A with the creatives.

Tokyo-based art collective Teamlab — made up of mathematicians, architects, animators and engineers — will take over Tolarno Galleries with a mesmerising installation for this year’s Melbourne International Arts Festival.

If you’ve been lucky enough to visit Teamlab’s Digital Art Museum in Tokyo — or see countless Instagram Stories from your friends who have been — you’ll know what to expect. This new work, titled Reversible Rotation, will be a four-screen work featuring sculptures of light and “cascades of shimmering luminescence”, which will make you feel as though you’re standing on a floating wave of light.

Unlike Teamlab’s museum in Tokyo, entry to this exhibition will be free. However, like the Tokyo museum, we anticipate there will be lines. You can’t book, so rock up early and be prepared for a wait — the gallery will be open from 10am–5pm weekdays and 1–5pm on Saturdays.

Image: Borderless, Teamlab. 

When four playwrights and a composer came together in 1999 to create the distinctly Australian theatre production Who’s Afraid of the Working Class?, they produced a cutting critique of how the poor and marginalised are thought of in Australia. Now, two decades later, they’ve returned with Anthem, a follow-up show that questions whether Australians share the same dream and if we really sing with one voice.

Exploring the social and political struggles facing Australia in 2019, provocative vignettes depict various characters from across society, resulting in poignant and occasionally humorous stories that allude to an uncertain future. Reuniting Andrew Bovell, Irine Vela, Christos Tsiolkas, Patricia Cornelius and Melissa Reeves, director Susie Dee joins a stellar cast of local actors. Tickets are available from $49, with shows held daily from October 1–6.

Images: Pier Carthew.

More than 100 years ago, Russian composer Igor Stravinsky crafted The Rite of Spring. The ballet became famous not only for its tale of ritual and sacrifice during the eponymous season, but for its avant-garde music and choreography. Indeed, since first premiering in Paris in 1913, it has been held up as one of the 20th century’s masterworks.

Returning to Melbourne International Arts Festival after her 2017 hit Under Siege, Chinese choreographer and dancer Yang Liping has reimagined this iconic piece — filtering it through Chinese and Tibetan culture, and taking particular inspiration from the two nations’ symbols of nature. Hitting the stage between Thursday, October 3 and Sunday, October 6, the result is a fusion of old and new, east and west, and movement and music, complete with Yang’s expressive style, 15 dancers, plus designer Tim Yip, who won an Oscar for art direction for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

Twenty years after releasing their ninth and most celebrated record, The Soft Bulletin, Oklahoma rock legends The Flaming Lips are heading back Down Under. They’re coming to Melbourne to play the highly acclaimed album in full, as well as some of their greatest hits.

Taking over Hamer Hall as part of Melbourne International Arts Festival, The Flaming Lips will bring their signature technicolour shows to life two nights. Expect elaborate costumes, confetti cannons and even neon unicorns to fill the stages as the seven-piece band performs hits such as ‘Waitin’ for a Superman’, ‘Race for the Prize’ and ‘A Spoonful Weighs a Ton’.

Released in 1999, The Soft Bulletin is widely accepted as the band’s greatest album, named by NME as the Album of the Year and by Pitchfork as a ‘masterpiece’ and the third best album of the 90s. As well as playing this seminal album in full, The Flaming Lips will also perform some of their other greatest hits, including ‘Do You Realize??’ and ‘Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots Pt. 1’.

Some exhibitions showcase the joy in the world and offer us a sense of wonder, but as you might have guessed from the title, that’s not what’s going on at Hope Dies Last. Presented at Gertrude Contemporary alongside the Margaret Lawrence Gallery at the Victorian College of the Arts, this gloomy event called upon artists to consider how a world completely devoid of optimism might look. Exploring themes of mortality, fatalism, failure and ruin, some pieces demonstrate an enduring sense of compassion, while others are simply resigned to a disastrous fate. Either way, you won’t find much hope here. Proudly one of the most depressing exhibitions of the year, Hope Dies Last might just leave you more pessimistic than ever. However, the exhibition is free to attend — so that’s nice.

Image: ‘Dead: 4 August 2027’ by Mutlu Çerkez.

The Melbourne International Arts Festival will be putting the Famous Spiegeltent to good use for Mirror on Melbourne, a rich array of free daily events that run late into the night. Celebrating the best of Melbourne’s local musical and performance talent, the series presents everything from toe-tapping jazz bands to DJs serving up tunes that wouldn’t be out of place in the city’s underground clubs. Meanwhile, each Sunday session sees leading Indigenous and multicultural voices host a special series of events. The program is still yet to be announced, but you’ll be happy to know that Archie Rose Distilling Co. and Código 1530 will be on-hand to serve up some delightful springtime drinks. Running from October 3–20, Mirror on Melbourne has got your late-night fun covered.