Imperial Panda presents Fright Night!

Overview

Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein after lounging around the shores of Lake Geneva with a bunch of creative types, telling stories. Naturally it was made into a scary B-movie. When Lanfranchi's Memorial Discotheque closed in 2007, artist favourite variety night Cab Sav moved on to run the Imperial Panda Festival — an experimental performance festival rattling around the back alleys, galleries and warehouses of inner Sydney.

Sydney doesn't feel at all short on festivals this year. But before the Sydney Fringe or the Oxford Art Festival, The Imperial Panda Festival helped to keep strange Sydney performance artists up and running. Fresh from a successful staging in Melbourne, Imperial Panda will be running a macabre Fright Night at the Red Rattler this Saturday to help get a third Festival going next year. Toby Schmitz, Nick Coyle, Rita Kalnejais and Claudia O'Doherty will each be reading spare, gloomy tales. Miles O'Neil will host the evening, with late-night dance to follow. With general ghoulishness promised on the night, who knows what stories will be born and which rough bodies will be sewn together into life.