The Ten Best Things to See at the Melbourne Festival 2015

“An audio-visual maelstrom of light and sound.” That’s how the Melbourne Festival program describes this intriguing free installation at the Contemporary Centre for Photography in Fitzroy. Torrent is the latest in an ongoing series of multi-screen animations from moving image artist Martine Corompt concerning water. Using vivid black and white imagery accompanied by a harp score from composer Phillip Brophy, the artist depicts water flowing down the walls before collecting in a whirlpool on the floor. Just try not to get swept away by the current.

Arts House and Melbourne Festival in association with New York’s Performance Space 122 present Bronx Gothic, a one-woman show about adolescence, sexuality and race. Created by writer, performer and choreographer Okwui Okpokwasili along with director and designer Peter Born, the show is described as existing “at the intersection of theatre, dance and visual art installation,” and draws from influences as disparate as Victorian-era literature and the oral storytelling traditions of West Africa. Taking over the stage at Arts House for five nights only, the show is set in the eponymous New York borough during the 1980s, and explores the relationship between two pre-teen girls as they tip over into adolescence. Not to be missed.

English composer Clint Mansell has produced some of the most memorable film scores of the past fifteen years. Best known for his collaboration with director Darren Aronofsky, and in particular his work on Requiem for a Dream, Mansell’s distinctively eerie and grandiose sound helps elevate him above the competition, and has seen him team up with the likes of Trent Reznor, Patti Smith and the Kronos Quartet. As part of this year’s Melbourne Festival, Mansell will present a selection of his most iconic film compositions backed by a nine-piece band.

Fall down the rabbit hole with artists Hans Berg and Nathalie Djurberg, as they exhibit their work in Australia for the very first time. Installed at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, The Secret Garden is an original work presented by Melbourne Festival. Combining film, light, sculpture and sound, the piece promises to showcase the Swedes in all their surreal, hallucinogenic glory. ACCA will also host a marathon screening of the duo’s early claymation short films that helped catapult them to international acclaim.

Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison and director Peter Sellars offer a radical new take on Shakespeare’s Othello. Making its Australian premiere as part of the Melbourne Festival, Desdemona tells the story of the titular wife of Othello, and in particular her relationship with Barbary, the African maid who raised her (played by award winning Malawi singer-songwriter Rokia Traore). The result is a production that challenges the notoriously antiquated depictions of race and gender found in the original play, and promises to leave Shakespeare buffs – and audiences in general – with plenty of food for thought.

Israel’s Batsheva Dance Company returns to the Melbourne Festival with a pair of shows by acclaimed artistic director Ohad Naharin. Straight from its world premiere in Tel Aviv, Last Work is described as “an exploration of motion and emotion”, complete with a dancer running on the spot for the duration of the performance. The second piece is the most recent update of Naharin’s Decadance, wherein the choreographer reimagines pieces from Batsheva’s back catalogue – creating what is essentially a live highlights package from the company’s five plus decades on stage.

Following on from a killer season at Sydney Festival in 2014 and 2015 and sold-out shows in London, Edinburgh, Bogota, Auckland, Adelaide and Munich, LIMBO is making its Melbourne debut, taking up residence in the Spiegeltent during Melbourne Festival. With awe-inducing acrobatics, breathtaking manoeuvres and a serve of cheeky cabaret, LIMBO is circus with a grown-up and grungy twist. Presented by Strut & Fret (producers of La Soirée and Cantina), Underbelly Productions and Southbank Centre, LIMBO has all of the danger of — but much more sexiness than — your regular night at Cirque du Soleil. This is circus with grit, set against the funked-up, old-time jazz, oompah, rap and bossa nova of Sxip Shirey’s electric live score.

The marquee theatre production of this year’s Melbourne Festival arrives direct from London’s West End. Adapted from George Orwell’s iconic novel about a dystopian future governed by a totalitarian regime, the show generated rave reviews during its initial UK run, and earned a Best New Play nomination at the prestigious Olivier Awards. Festival organisers have also programmed a number of supplemental events around the production, including a film program at ACMI about surveillance in cinema, and a one-off live reading of Orwell’s book by a group of journalists, writers, actors and politicians in the chambers of State Parliament.

Since it first hit record stores in 1975, Patti Smith’s Horses has regularly been cited as one of the most influential rock albums of all time. Now, some four decades later, its creator’s spiritual descendants will show you exactly why that is. Presented by the Melbourne Festival, Australian musicians Courtney Barnett, Jan Cloher, Gareth Liddiard and Adalita will perform Barnett’s album in its entirety to a packed audience at Hamer Hall. Tickets to the first show sold out in a flash, prompting organisers to put together a second. Don’t miss out twice.

First it was the children’s book that stunned a generation into awareness. Australia’s colonial history was powerfully, simply laid bare by the allegory of The Rabbits — arriving, multiplying and eventually controlling the peaceful native marsupials. Now, it’s an Australian-grown opera, dreamed up by John Sheedy, the artistic director of Perth’s Barking Gecko Theatre Co. Two of our brightest female artists were enlisted to create the music and libretto: Kate Miller-Heidke (who also performs as the principal soprano) and Lally Katz, along with set and costume designer Gabriela Tylesova. From the looks of it, the expressively angular animals dwarfed by dusty landscapes look just as magical as Tan’s. Indeed, the Perth season saw The Rabbits applauded as an exceptionally brave, vital and moving work.