The Wishing Tree

Overview

In Japan the stars Altair and Vega lean across the flowing Milky Way to kiss each other once a year. To celebrate the kiss there's a festival on earth called Tanabata. Wishes are written out on coloured papers and hung off a bamboo tree. Impro Melbourne's Rama Nicholas discovered the tradition in Osaka, and turned it into the core of an improv show she developed and toured around the world. Impro Australia are bringing her show to life here in Sydney for one night at the Bondi Pavilion, and you're invited to come and add your wishes to the night's bill.

In the lobby before the show, the audience will be invited to write their wishes anonymously on bits of paper and pin them to the wishing tree. When the show starts, the performers pluck random wishes from the tree and make a show out of it. Some wishes are funny, some are sincere.  Sometimes they're even heartbreaking: "I wish my husband would stop drinking and love me again" was a wish one night when creator Nicholas ran the show. If you have a wish inside, a need, desire or profound whim, bring it along and commit it to paper.

Original image by Chao Jikazu.