The Latest Art and About Festival Venue Is Your Living Room

Art & About may be all about art in public spaces, but when the festival returns in September, it will include one usually off-limits venue that's very private: your house. In an event dubbed Armchair Apocalypse, the Rock Surfers Theatre Company is letting you 'order in' a performance work, which you can then watch in your living room in a leisurely manner, not unlike your old friend television.

“This year, Art & About Sydney explores the endangered — the ‘at risk’, the threatened, the exposed and the risky from all perspectives,” said Art & About creative director Gill Minervini. Three Sydney writers will work the theme into their domestically destined Armchair Apocalypses, which you can secure for your place by jumping a few hoops here (you need to be happy to have 20 or 30 people over, and you need to own the place even though there's a housing crisis so you most likely don't). It'll be a great chance to see theatre that is intimate, unconventional and quite literally close to home.

Other highlights from the first festival program announcement include adorable kid-guided tours of Redfern and Kings Cross (The Walking Neighbourhood), a group of people squishing themselves into the CBD's nooks and crannies (Willi Dorner's Bodies in Urban Spaces), a dance/ballet with shopping trolleys (from Spillers Shaun Parker and Company), James Dive and The Glue Society's nostalgic photo studio (Us) and popular Hyde Park photography exhibition Australian Life (expanded this year from 'Sydney Life').

Kicking off Art & About on September 19, their Friday Night Live event will see Martin Place transformed from business corridor to Quarter Acre Block Party, marrying your precious remnants of the Australian Dream with the fleeting hope you still have of getting along with your neighbours. Expect an Aussie backyard vibe channelled through barbecues, Hills Hoists, back fences, lawn cricket, garage bands, garden furniture, vinyl records, beer and sausage sangas.

Art & About runs from September 19 to October 12, and the full program will be announced closer to the date. Keep an eye on the festival website for more info.

Image: Art & About 2013.